As technology becomes smaller and more efficient, the functionality of wearable tech continues to increase. While we all know about Fitbit, it’s the work of makers that’s really pushing these concepts forward. From health related gadgets, to piece of electronic fashion, there’s something for everyone.
Aidlab is a wearable and hackable piece of tech that allows you to make use of motion, mood, stress, heart rate, respiration, and even body temperature data to create your own health hub on your person.
The Aidlab SDK allows you to embed it into most devices that run iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, or Linux. You can even publish your app on mobile, web, or desktop. With bindings for Python, Unity, iOs, and Android, you’ll be able to develop your own health research or integrate it into an IoT device with relative ease.
The device includes a variety of sensors and algorithms for accuracy in measuring bio-signals, along with a great battery life and the latest Bluetooth support. They say your health is the most important thing, and Aidlab can easily keep track of it for you as part of your research, or as your own personal wearable doctor.
This September I had the pleasure of attending the World Maker Faire in New York. Along with a variety of other wonders and interesting people, I was able to talk with Eduardo Contreras, Chief Design Officer of Electronic Cats.
Electronic Cats Members (left to right): Eduardo Contreras, Ignacio Acosta, Felipe Valero, Rocio Rodriguez, and Andres Sabas. Eduardo claims he is not laughing at the other guys’ puny high-altitude balloons!
Electronics Cats, in addition to selling on Tindie, are heavily involved in sending balloons high into the atmosphere for experimental readings and imaging as part of the CatSat 1 program. As such, they have been involved in over 50 high-altitude missions in Latin America, and offer a kit to help get started with this pursuit.
CatSat 1 module includes most everything you’ll need for high-altitude balloon launches.
Their other offerings on Tindie involve LoRaWAN communication, an integral part of the CatSat. This technology, which is able to transmit data at a range of around 50km, is perfect for small balloon-satellites, where relaying simple GPS coordinates and other data at long ranges is more important than bandwidth. This tech is useful well beyond near-earth satellites, as explained in Eduardo’s introductory talk on this subject at WMFNY this year.
Eduardo talks LoRaWAN at Maker Faire
Electronic Cats is based in Mexico, and their goal is to demonstrate the possibility of creating cool and fun open hardware in Latin America with good support and documentation. In fact, they feature the largest collection of Spanish language documentation for picosatellite missions. Eventually they hope to expand to making maker products on a larger scale, similar to companies like Sparkfun and Adafruit.
Currently, 3 engineers work for Electronic Cats full-time, while another 6 are involved on a part-time basis. One of their latest endeavors is called the Meow Meow board, which allows you to hook up everyday objects as inputs, uses capacitive sensing and a powerful SAMD21 microcontroller. Right now they’re pre-selling units on their own site. When the kinks are worked out and they enter production, we hope they’ll decide to list them on Tindie!
Meow Meow: Not on Tindie, but perhaps soon?
Eduardo sees some of the great aspects of Tindie as being able to promote projects through our social networks in conjunction with Hackaday. He also enjoys our nice interface, and the fraud protection offered as part of the Tindie guarantee. On their wishlist for Tindie store features, pre-selling products (as they’re currently doing on their own site with Meow Meow) would be useful to Electronic Cats, as would the option for multiple users and collaborators to work as an organization. It’s an interesting idea, as Tindie tends to be geared towards single-person operations. There are, however, several small multi-person organizations selling here that could likely benefit from a multi-user interface.
All that being said, the real question that you probably have about “Electronic Cats” is why the nombre del gato? When I asked him about this at WMFNY, Eduardo noted that the Internet was invented by cats and for cats, thus the reason for so many cat videos. Given this revelation, it only makes sense to name the company Electronic Cats, and it would follow that the Internet’s cat overlords would push such a company forward toward success. Tindie, our canine mascot, would likely disagree, however we welcome all species to sell on this platform, electronic or carbon-based!
Perhaps the greatest aspect of being a maker is taking something that would otherwise be labeled as garbage, and turning it into a brand new device or work of art. Take a car compressor for example. When it’s no longer needed, it typically goes straight to the junkyard, along with the rest of the car.
Not so with this Industrial Steampunk desk clock! Where most people would see a piece of used junk, one Tindarian saw an opportunity to bring it back to life in another form. Using the inside chamber of a car compressor, this clock comes with two AA batteries and some easy usage instructions.
The turning knob on the back of the device adjusts the time, while the lock module itself is accessibled by removing the clock face from the compressor chamber (which is attached via magnets).
Simple, elegant, but most of all, pretty damn cool.
Conference badges are no longer simplistic and useless trinkets. They have evolved and grown into artistic, capable, and truly impressive devices. Dubbed badgelife by those involved in the practice, the display above, crafted by Majenta Strongheart, was a powerful monument to the concept at Supercon 2018.
The conference badge provided to all attendees became a canvas for the art of hacking as well, culminating in an awards ceremony that offered cash prizes and Tindie gift cards for the winners.
Embracing Badgelife at Supercon 2018
The badgelife exhibit in the hall between LACM and the Supplyframe DesignLab did not go unnoticed by attendees. Jason Huggins offered up a unique tweet that got us all thinking about the future of art museums:
Sometimes I wonder what art museums in 100 years will curate when they look back at this moment in time. I highly suspect they will have #badgelife collections. #superconpic.twitter.com/VAt8RNrwiE
In addition to the main section, there was also a place for SAOs on the left. Thanks to some clever designs, these add-ons were bright and vibrant throughout the weekend. Some of the badges and SAOs featured are from badge creators that sell on Tindie.
There was an entire line of tables in the alley behind the DesignLab and LACM dedicated to badge hacking. With a wealth of tools and components from our sponsors, people went to work making some truly incredible modifications to their badges.
Those who completed their hacks were invited to show them off on stage Sunday evening. There were several categories, cash prizes, and Tindie gift cards for the winners.
The sheer creativity and ingenuity on display here was stunning. We also saw some epic music, software, and BASIC hacks too. Badgelife was alive and well at Supercon 2018!
Let’s be honest: most keychains are pretty useless. Yes, they are often witty, perhaps even somewhat fascinating, but ultimately they’re about as purposeful as bumper stickers on your car.
Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of keychains myself, but if I had the option, I’d choose something that has real value if it’s going to be gracing my keyring and stabbing me in the leg while it’s in my pocket. Say hello to this PCB keychain that has the potential to become a basic ATmega328P dev board or a handy reminder of PCB design practices.
One side of the key ring has a routing design based on real components and schematics, while the other side has PCB design rules like “width vs current,” and “clearance vs voltage.” While it doesn’t come with a metal ring for attaching it to your keys, there’s a convenient hole in the corner for it to dangle from.
On the other side, you’ll find everything you need to solder components to the board to use it as a minimal ATmega328 development board. Soldering components like the LEDs, the ATmega328, LDO, and crystal are all fairly simple as well.
If you decide to go this route, use AVRStudio IDE to write and compile the code, along with a programmer like — you could use an Arduino, a µISP, an AVRDragon, etc. — to program the microcontroller with an ICSP header. At the very least, you’ll have a handy little keychain.
This year in Pasadena, California, I had the immense pleasure of attending my first Hackaday Superconference. It was equal parts inspiring, exciting, energizing, and utterly fantastic. If you haven’t been, then you must make it in 2019, because there is nothing else quite like it.
From the amazing speakers, to the melding of magnificent minds, there was no shortage of things to see and do during the event, which ran from November 2nd to the 4th. While I could easily fill a novel with all the things I saw and did, we’re going to distill this into a concentrated post. Join me as we take a journey through Supercon 2018!
Superconference 2018 Highlights
This year’s conference spanned across three different venues. We began in the Supplyframe HQ on Friday for talks, badge hacking, and the SMD soldering challenge. For Saturday and Sunday, Supercon took over the Supplyframe DesignLab and the Los Angeles College of Music (LACM) next door.
If you weren’t able to make it, I highly recommend you check out the talks, all of which are available in this handy playlist. Of course, all of this wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing work from the Supplyframe team and the 500+ hours our volunteers put in to help it all run as smoothly as it did.
Now, without further adieu, here are some highlights from the event!
As it turns out, this process is used to print text on all manner of things, including branded pens. After taking a pen from the Vatican, Brian recounted a series of unfortunate events, which led to this amazing quote:
“I learned three things: God exists, he’s catholic, and he uses comic sans.”
As the talks continued, the alley behind the DesignLab was filled with people hacking their badges and participating in the SMD challenge:
Let’s not forget the amazing Tindie meetup on Saturday either:
The Tindie Meetup is in full swing at #Supercon! Stop by in the alley behind the DesignLab and show off your own hacks for a free SMD challenge kit! pic.twitter.com/50UJdmE0GM
People wasted no time when it came to badge hacking. After all, there were cash prizes and Tindie gift certificates at stake for the winners of the contest.
On Sunday night, the audience decided who would win the badge hacking awards. The badge hacks did not disappoint! We had everything from a 3D-printed enclosure, to amazing musical renditions, and even a rubber band gun powered by the badge!
HUGE thank you to all the incredible volunteers of #Supercon. It's you who bring us together and make this community amazing. Special thank you to @asiwatch for organizing the group and leading them fearlessly through the weekend! pic.twitter.com/s1Tr8WFrgv
Accelerometers have applications in a wide variety of projects. Whether you’re making a motion detector, a gaming peripheral, or even a home security system, this type of tech is incredibly useful.
This USB accelerometer, based on the ADXL345 IC, offers a compact and accessible solution for your motion detecting needs. Simply plug the device into your USB port on a PC, Mac, or Raspberry Pi and the data begins streaming. An onboard STM32 takes care of the connectivity and the polling of the accelerometer values.
By using a program like SerialPlot, you can also plot everything in real time or send commands as well. If your goal is to acquire data and save it to a file, you can also use a port reader like Cutecom, or any other preferred solution.
With three different commands to choose from, the accelerometer allows you to stop or start data streaming, change the frequency of data sampling, and adjust the range. Any project, large or small, that requires the ability to detect movement, could easily benefit from this USB accelerometer.
Depending on who you ask, the Internet of Things is either a technological renaissance, or the next inevitable step towards Skynet. In either case, it’s a technology that you would do well to learn, as it’s making its way into all kinds of industries and devices.
With this IoT Learning Kit, you’ll find everything you need to start developing IoT applications. It includes a TTGO ESP32 LoRa which is programmable via Arduino IDE. It also includes a 3D-printed enclosure so you can quickly start using LoRa, WiFi, or Bluetooth for your IoT projects.
With this kit, you’ll have a fully featured and cost-effective solution to start practicing with tech like wireless sensors, robotics, computer vision, and plenty of other applications. With simple and straightforward code samples, along with learning materials, this is also a great kit for any skill level.
Raise your hand if you remember the Commodore PC-1. It was the smallest IBM PC clone, with an 8088 processor and a whopping 512 KB of RAM. If you have a vintage Commodore PC-1 lying around, it’s probably not working as well as it used to, thanks to the passage of time. Materials science strives to make parts age gracefully, but every chain has a weak link.
This Commodore PC-1 restoration kit offers your vintage computer a new lease on life by providing Panasonic capacitors, a PC speaker/beeper, a System Reset Switch, and even replacements for the rubber feet that have no doubt worn down over the years. By far the capacitors are the most important part of the kit as the electrolyte of the originals has degraded over time and their role as defenders of regulated voltage is at risk.
The speaker was not originally included with the computer, but there’s a connector on the main board for it. The reset switch is also optional, but it’s a feature that many people miss in the original design.
Basic soldering skills are required for replacing the capacitors, but it’s always smart to at least replace these on vintage computers, even if they are seemingly still functional. Doing this will ensure your Commodore continues functioning for several years into the future.
The Raspberry Pi is a pretty capable device that has been the foundation of countless projects. However, it’s not without flaws. Namely, the power management capabilities. There’s also scenarios where the device isn’t easily reached, and when RPIs crash, it’s a headache to reset the device.
While the included hardware can reset a Pi, it doesn’t possess the ability to turn it off and on again. There’s no way to completely power down a Raspberry Pi, it’s always pulling power in some form. The owner of South Berkeley Electronics had this problem when they were setting up Raspberry Pi-based cameras around a campus.
The solar-powered solutions worked great, but they soon ran into issues with low light conditions and outages throughout the network. This required manually resetting the Pis, which was neither fun nor efficient.
That’s when they got the idea for the PiDog2. This handy hat for Raspberry PI has the ability to cut power from the Pi after a set period of time. It also has the ability to power up the device as well. Finally, it can provide the Pi with a measurement of the 5V and 3.3V supplies, along with two other voltages of your choosing.
The result? Your software can make choices about when to shut down and save battery or avoid flash corruption. The PiDog2 will wake up or boot the Pi again periodically and decide if it’s best to power back down or operate normally.
The PiDog2 is powered by an ATtiny84 microcontroller connected to the Pi via the GPIO header and the SPI interface. You can still use other SPI devices that work off other chip selects. A Python library allows you to interact with the registers, and a good portion of the soldering is already done when you receive the kit.
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more.
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
