Humankind’s imagination has often been captured by the idea of being able to talk with animals. Being able to understand a cat when it’s meowing or a bird when it’s singing simply has a certain appeal for many people.
The Bat Listener takes this idea in an interesting direction. While it won’t make its users fluent in bat-speak, it does let them eavesdrop on the normally inaudible realm of bat echolocation.
The Bat Listener kit allows its user to hear the ultrasonic sounds of bats.
Echolocation — biological sonar — is one of the hallmarks of bats. As they navigate the night sky, bats make chirping sounds and listen for the echoes that tell them the location of edible insects and objects that should be avoided. We can’t hear any of this because the chirps are too high-pitched for human ears to register.
The Bat Listener takes those bat sounds and converts them into a lower frequency that humans can hear with ease. But it’s not limited to listening to just bats. According to the kit’s creator, it can be used to listen to many sounds normally too high-pitched to hear, from those emitted by compact fluorescent lights, gasses leaking from pipes or rats.
The Bat Listener is available in kit form, and comes with all the components needed for assembly, plus a laser-etched enclosure. Below is a build video for the kit. A demonstration of the Bat Listener translating ultrasonic sounds starts at 5:29.
It may be made of wire and lights, but this tulip blooms like a real flower and glows with life.
Last month, Jiří Praus made a big splash on the freeform-circuitry scene with his Arduinoflake — a snowflake ornament he built from LEDs, brass wire, and an Arduino Nano. Now he’s back with another stunner. This time it’s a freeform circuit tulip sculpture for his wife. Its construction borrows many of the techniques and materials he used in the Arduinoflake, but it’s clear he’s upped his game since then.
While the Arduinoflake was basically flat (as snowflakes are), the tulip comes to vibrant life in three dimensions. The stem stretches upward from a simple wooden base, and a single leaf curls gracefully off to one side, but further up the stem is where the real magic happens. Each of the flower’s six petals is attached to the stem through a tiny hinge constructed from brass tubing and wire. The petals are also each connected to a pushrod running down the center of the stem. A hobby servo hidden in the base provides the motive force for opening and closing the petals.
The brain of this flower is again an Arduino Nano, and its capacitive-touch-sensing abilities allow the flower’s owner to send it blooming with a soft caress. Once awoken from its slumber, the petals gently open, and the flower’s RGB LEDs put on a moody light show.
Praus has said he’s not sure if he’ll be making tulips available for purchase, whipping one of these up for your special someone in time for Valentine’s Day would be a stretch to finish, but the design is gorgeous enough that it would make a wonderful gift any time of the year. He’s said he’ll be releasing documentation on the project, so be sure to follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in making your own.
If you’re not quite that handy with bending wire, but you like his aesthetic, stop by his Tindie store, where you can pick up an Arduinoflake, now in PCB form.
Southern California is not known for its harsh winters. In fact, it’s probably safe to head out in flip flops and a hoodie on any given day all winter long. With that assumption in mind, that’s exactly what I was wearing when I headed south to Orange County for my very first Sparklecon. The weather would soon show my folly, but it wouldn’t dampen the fun awaiting me.
If you’re not familiar with Sparklecon, it’s an annual gathering of hackers, artists, tech aficionados, and everyone in between, for a weekend of talks, demonstrations, workshops, games, and socializing. It’s organized by 23b Shop, a makerspace in Fullerton, and its neighbors, the National Upcycled Computing Collective (NUCC), and the Plasmatorium. With doors wide open at all three shops, musicians and deejays performing, and tents, couches, and a fire pit occupying the road between them, Sparklecon felt like the best nerding-out block-party I’ve ever been to.
Day One: Rain, Wind, and Fire
We don’t get much rain here in Southern California, but the week leading up to Sparklecon was decidedly wet. The weekend, and Sparklecon itself, were no exception.
It didn’t take long for attendees to re-dub the event “Sprinklecon.” Nonetheless, many of the outdoor activities, like car hacking with Will Caruana, went full steam ahead.
Saturday also included tips on how to get unruly 3D printers to behave, a discussion on different ways to publish research, and a workshop on social engineering from an information security perspective.
Meanwhile, an open table that the NUCC folks had named Kevin spontaneously emerged as a hub of hardware hacking. Roger Cheng brought out his KISS Tindie band and supplies for others who wanted to try their hand at freeform wire sculpture. Beau Ambur busied himself building a pair of synth kits he brought back from Germany. And Jaren Havell tinkered on a tiny Tesla coil kit he had picked up after arriving in town.
By the time the evening rolled around, the worst of the rain had passed, and the outdoor party came to life. A game of hammer Jenga was as much fun for the players as it was for the spectators.
For those who were brave enough to climb out of bed in the early morning cold, Day 2 kicked off with breakfast at the Mexican joint down the block. After a relatively late night of partying to finish of day 1, I was not enough of an early riser to get there by 7:45. But I did arrive in time for a fireside chat with Barb on how she’s managed to be one of the most amazingly productive makers around. Her ongoing project, the Dodecahedrum, was a hit with the audience.
The hardware hackers from the day before (myself included) reunited at the table they had claimed inside NUCC. This time, I was prepared, and brought my own stuff to hack on. Jaren took a quick interest in my CRT projects, and it wasn’t long until we had The Matrix running on my little green screen.
Sparklecon was an absolute blast. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet a diverse set of people with an even more diverse set of interests and skills, and it was flat-out fun from beginning to end. I didn’t make it out to last year’s event and now I know I wish I had . Rest assured I’ll be there for Sparklecon next year, rain or shine.
For other perspectives on the weekend, be sure to check out the recap video by Barb:
You can also get a deeper look from Roger Cheng’s blog posts for day one and day two of this excellent conference.
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