Tindie

While still, and perhaps forever, something of a niche item, ePaper displays are an intriguing concept. Generally black-and-white, or perhaps also red if you’re lucky, they’re great for reading, and only use power when updating what is shown. A very slow refresh rate makes this type of display a poor choice for dynamic content, but they’re very useful with e-book readers and sometimes smartwatches.

If you’d like an easy way to use one of these devices as a sort of e-Post-it note, look no further than the Papyr Nordic nRF52840 display from Electronut Labs. This device comes ready to connect to Android smartphones via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), and allows you to send images or handwritten notes to its screen. It the device can also receive data via MQTT if you so prefer.

One notable stat on the listing is that when advertising and not connected, the device draws a mere 22 micro amps of current. This means that the device should theoretically run for several years between battery changes, making it a great passive information display. Alternatively, the device can be programmed to your liking, and a dev kit is available with debugging and programming accessories, a battery, and laser-cut enclosure if you want to go further.

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When you look back on retro gaming handhelds, the Game Boy is probably the first one that comes to mind. While it’s indeed a classic, it’s not without flaws. In the case of the Super Game Boy, the clock speed is about 4% faster than the original, which affects not only the audio playback, but also disqualifies it in speed-running.

To further compound the issue, it’s also the reason why this release didn’t include a link port for multiplayer. The difference in speed would have caused the devices to desync. While Japan received a Super Game Boy 2 that fixed the problem using a crystal oscillator at the proper speed, the U.S. version never received a fix.

It is possible to install a crystal oscillator of your own, and this GameBoy Clock Mod solves the problem without breaking other interesting features of the system, like the ability to change the gameplay speed using the Commander controller from Hori.

The mod avoids common issues by applying the correct clock onto the I/O chip, which is how the second iteration in Japan fixed the problem. You won’t need to lift any pins to install it either, plus the solder points are simple to attach to the board.

If you decide to install this fix, this seller also offers a mod to add that sweet, sweet link port to the Super Game Boy as well, but keep in mind you need the clock mod for it to work properly.

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If we had to nail down a specific goal for makers as a community, I’d like to think it would be the pursuit of “creating something for everything.” In the spirit of that, we’re going to need some hardware for St. Patrick’s Day, and what better than some shamrock-shaped creations?

Here are our picks for three standout selections that channel the luck of the Irish for awesome results:

#1 – LED40 Shamrock V1

This soldering kit uses 40 LEDs to create a Shamrock shape. It’s powered by 5 volts via your choice of a USB connector or a screw terminal block. The display is static and includes a power switch, along with two holes for mounting.

#2 – Tiny Shamrock

This SMD soldering kit includes a PCB shaped like a Celtic knot, along with 20 LEDs. The lights are controlled using an ATTINY 13 via charlieplexing. It comes pre-programmed but you can upload your own code using any AVR-compatible programming method.

For those who are feeling adventurous, it’s also possible to embed plastic into the holes of the PCB using a method detailed in this video.

#3 – Shamrock LED Earrings

Maker accessories are always a delight, and these Shamrock earrings do not disappoint. They retain a perfect shamrock shape, and include LEDs powered by an ATtiny84a microcontroller.

If you have an SPI programmer and access to the Arduino IDE, you can also program the LEDs yourself. The code takes power saving seriously and keeps the ATtiny84a asleep, waking it up to determine which LED should be triggered before going back to sleep mode again.

However you decide to celebrate, we wish all our fellow Tindarians a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day this year!

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Drone synths are definitely flavour of the month in the synth world, with all manner of devices to create madcap noise combinations,  unearthly sweeps and lofi effects. The Headmelter from the appropriately named Mindburner is one such device, which is equally affordable and portable – with phasing and shape-shifting sounds from another dimension.

This compact yet potent noise machine will bring you a great source of chaos and fun, with an expressive list of parameters to change! You’ll be intrigued to tweak the Confusion, Relapse and Hyper Boost settings, as much as the more conventional oscillator frequencies and filter control. The Headmelter has two sound generators for metallic syncing and detuned phatness – ran through some insane circuitry, all emitted through a mono output jack.

It’s ideal for making more experimental sounds, wreaking havoc with the sonic landscape and generally tearing up the fabric of time. It uses high-quality Alpha potentiometers to ensure it’ll survive both an apocalypse and the inevitable abuse you’ll be inclined to give it!

Mindburner create and ship their music devices to you from Ireland – see exactly what their Headmelter will do in the proceeding video!

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If you’d like to make your own custom arcade controller, you’ll need some way to get the on/off signals from your buttons and joystick into a format your computer can understand, i.e USB. This adapter system from Tynemouth Software presents an interesting option for this need, and is recognized , and Linux computers as a standard USB game controller by Windows, Mac.

Where it really shines is in the wide range of input options it has available. The board provides connections for a four way joystick, along with eight fire/action buttons to keep your character properly participating in whatever is happening onscreen, but can grow far beyond that button count.

The device also features an optional A-Z keyboard extension, giving it another 64 input points. This would of course be useful for other options like adding coins, game menu selections, etc., though one could see this used for other creative endeavors—perhaps an entire keyboard make out of arcade buttons?

The device was designed when its creator wasn’t happy with the interface that came with an arcade kit, and is now available for others that would like this functionality. Providing a market for this kind of specialized innovation is, in my humble opinion, what makes Tindie such a unique platform!

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You may recognize Brian Lough from his hardware hacking YouTube channel, where he delves into a variety of projects, many involving the excellent ESP8266 module. He also sells a few items related to his hacking pursuits on his Tindie store, including the popular Power BLough-R, which allows 3D printers under Octoprint control to shut off their display screens. This item is so popular in fact, that he’s even created a device to quality check these assemblies to save him time when doing this needed task.

While he already makes much of his work public, here’s a chance to dig deeper. He’s doing a Hack Chat on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at noon PST—8:00 PM in Ireland where he’ll presumably be chatting from. Subjects covered will include:

• How software hacking—Brian is a software developer by trade—leads to hardware hacking
• Does live streaming hacks help or hinder creativity?
• Implications of going from project to product
• What new project does Mr. Lough have in the works?

More on how Hack Chats work is found on this Hackaday announcement about February 27th’s conversation, if you’d like to know what you’re getting into. For another take on Brian’s hacking pursuits—or if you’ll be in the car or otherwise occupied during the chat—he also made a recent appearance on The Creativity Podcast. I host the show along with Max Maker, and in that episode we talk Brian’s hacking/Tindie pursuits, fulfilling orders with the help of family, life in Ireland, and a variety of other very tangentially related subjects.

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Tracking temperature or humidity is a crucial element of certain projects. Whether you’re monitoring the status of a server room, or you want to make sure your food doesn’t spoil, the ICE CUBE is a capable and portable device that could easily fit your needs.

The small form factor, combined with a 3D-printed enclosure and options for their Celsius or Fahrenheit readouts makes it extremely versatile. The cube can set off an alarm when the temperature goes over a set value.

By request, the seller also offers the option to output the alarm signal via wire, thereby allowing you to connect it to a relay and switch. This would be useful in a situation where you need to turn on a cooling device if the temperature goes over a certain threshold.

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Some drum sounds are ingrained in our music, its heritage, and our minds! More often than not the name Roland is synonymous with them,  their iconic 909, 808, 707 and 606 (let’s put the 505 and 626 aside for the moment!) still resound and exist in modern electronic music. Now there’s a new module which kicks out the bass drum of the TR-606, in a simple, affordable and compact Eurorack unit.

The 606BD comes fully built and tested, for immediate plug and play drumming – with a circuit composed of two damped oscillators. It’s an exact clone of the Roland TR-606 Kick, with two control pots for Tone and Accent, with two inputs to trigger the signal and externally control accent and an audio output for obvious reasons!

This 4HP unit has a laser-etched Wooden front panel and a depth of 36mm, making it compact enough to fit almost anywhere.  If you’re looking for a vintage electronic kick to spice up and underpin your mix, this could be the one. Find out more about the 606BD Clone at their Tindie Store and see what else they have on offer.

Whet your appetite with a demo of the original 606…

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A Mexican long-tongued bat drinks from a cactus.

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.

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If you’ve ever been to a Tindie meetup or attended the Hackaday Superconference, odds are you’ve met our Product Manager, Jasmine Brackett. Jasmine sat down with Andrew Gregory from HackSpace magazine to talk about what it means to be a Tindarian, and how this marketplace is changing the way we think about selling and scaling maker products.

The full interview is featured in the March 2019 print edition of the magazine, but you can download a digital copy here. The interview reveals some excellent products, and offers advice for makers on how they can utilize this marketplace to test and grow their ideas. Let’s dive in and check it out.

Getting to Know Tindie

Our fellow Tindarians know the power of this marketplace for makers. Jasmine explains in the interview: “It’s for people who know what they’ve got, know how much it cost them to make, and how much they’d like to get for it.”

Some sellers want others to enjoy the extra hardware they end up with when completing a project and sell the remainder as kits on Tindie. Others start small businesses that appeal to makers. One question that came up in the interview was how Tindie fits into Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns.

In some cases, people use their store to test the market before they commit to a crowdfunding campaign. In other cases, their store becomes a hub for the product they successfully funded on these other platforms.

Ultimately, the success of Tindie boils down to our incredible community across the marketplace and Hackaday.io. As Product Manager, Jasmine makes sure everything is running smoothly on a daily basis and that Tindie grows through outreach and marketing. She also assists with customer service as needed and addresses any issues as they arise.

Fellow Tindarians featured in Hackspace Magazine

Tindie products crop up in most editions of Hackspace Magazine. You can learn more about the creators in the ‘Meet the Maker’ interviews. Click the images below to read the articles.

Jason Hotchkiss (Sixty Four Pixels) synth and MIDI kit maker, and longtime Tindarian.

Spencer Owen (RFC2795 Ltd) whose RC2014 Z80 Kits have spawned numerous RC2014 compatible boards from other sellers.

March’s edition of Hackspace Magazine also has an in-depth review of the highly popular Digirule2 – The 8-bit Programmable Binary Ruler (P126), and a round-up of environmental sensors for the backyard scientist that includes the MightyOhm Geiger Counter Kit (P114).

A massive thank you to both our community and our fellow Tindarians for making Tindie such an incredible place to buy and sell products directly from makers. Make sure you check out the March 2019 issue of HackSpace magazine to read the full Tindie interview and all the other exciting projects and tutorials!

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