Watching your robotic creation take flight is an incredible feeling, but watching it collide with something or crash can make your stomach turn. One common sensor you may reach for in a case like this is the VL53L0. But it only provides ranging to a distance of 2 meters. For many of us, this is just shy of a range we would be comfortable with.
Thankfully, a new sensor has appeared which doubles the range. The VL53L1 extends the accurate distance detection to 4 meters. It also uses a patented ranging technology that harnesses time-of-flight from a 940 nm laser.
This results in estimation independent of surface reflectivity and high accuracy in a variety of weather and environmental conditions. This breakout board sold by Pesky Products is designed to bring out all the best capabilities of the VL53L1 from ST Microelectronics.
This sensor includes the option to define multiple detection zones, which improve the obstacle detection. This feature alone makes it a useful sensor to have on both rolling and flying robot designs. And it’s quite small at 18 x 8 mm which makes it easy to integrate into any of your robotic projects. Check out the video below to see how this sensor can be used in other applications.
Arcade machines and emulators are a match made in heaven. Your typical arcade cabinet bulky and hard to move particle board monstrosity, but not this one. Thanos designed a compact and modern bartop arcade with a great look and a nice big screen.
The machine is based on Raspberry Pi 3 and features at a vibrant 10.1-inch screen with classic arcade controls. The Zero delay controller electronics also breathes new life into these retro titles with superb responsiveness.
The sleek enclosure is 3D printed with thick walls and a back power entry for computer-style plugs. The power supplies for the LCD and raspberry are both inside the cabinet. A large speaker on the side uses HiFi I2S DAC from the raspberry with adjustable volume.
The cover of the cabinet is magnetic for quick accessibility. Extra mounting holes are provided if you prefer to permanently close it. Additional games can be added using an external USB. The internal SD card is 32GB, but USB sticks up to 128GB are supported as well.
A USB hub is located inside of the cabinet to easily add and modify the game selection stored on thumb drives. The emulation software is RetroPie, which plays games from NES, SNES, Atari, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, GameBoy, and plenty others.
With a classic arcade stick and button layout, combined with a gorgeous HDMI display, this miniature arcade cabinet is a retro gamer’s paradise. Check out the video below for a closer look:
If you experiment with electronics whatsoever, a multimeter is pretty much the minimum you’ll need instrument-wise. This, however, only tells you some of the story. Sure, you’re reading 5 volts, but how steady is that reading? To really tell what’s going on, you’ll need an oscilloscope.
Fortunately, with advances in microelectronics, basic oscilloscopes no longer have to be large instruments that cost in the high hundreds or thousands of dollars, but can now be made small enough to slip into your pocket for around $100. While they may not replace professional equipment, for quick reference they can be quite useful.
If you’d rather spend even less money—but more time—then there are DIY kits that cost even less. One example is the DSO Shell Oscilloscope kit, listed for around $35. The device features a 12-bit sampling resolution, and a maximum bandwidth of 200KHz. It also has a rotary encoder for adjustments, and as the name implies, a nice housing to protect the instrument’s insides.
If you’ve never had an oscilloscope, the big question is whether a cheap unit like this is worth it, or should you pay a lot more for something more capable? If that sounds like you, then this review on Hackaday would be a great resource. On a related note, this article from Adafruit goes over why the frequency of a scope matters, which can be a major limitation in cheaper options like this.
One of the most significant hurdles that custom hardware creators face is the prototyping stage. Prototypes are complicated, they’re messy, and they can be costly. Hexabits takes a unique approach to change that. It combines modularity and a touch of biomimicry.
As the name suggests, Hexabits are six-sided modules. They can be soldered together along the PCB edge to create larger assemblies that feel like a single board without the kind of time and effort associated with spinning your own boards during the prototyping process. Since PCBs are inherently horizontal in their design, Hexabits modules mimic this while still allowing for complex three-dimensional assemblies.
Five alpha modules are currently available on the Hexabits Tindie store, with plenty more options on the way. The coin cell and buck converter modules provide two different power options. The other three modules each includes their own low-power microcontroller. This allows creators to use the board on its own without any external hardware or connect them for module-to-module communications. Hexabits have a built-in Command Line Interface (CLI) that negates the need to write even a single line of code before getting started.
The modular design lends itself to massive scalability. The wired-mesh concept and inter-module communication mean that you have no limit on how many modules you want to link together. Arrays of 30+ modules are a possibility with the biological-inspired form factor and the Bitz Operating System (BOS). Even large arrays like these can still retain an organized and sleek design, thanks to the streamlined nature of the modules.
One of the alpha modules currently for sale on Tindie is the H09R00 Module. This is a solid state relay that drives AC loads up to 600V and 1.2A. It can be used as a stand-alone AC relay using the CLI, or it can be connected with other modules to form flat or curved PCBs.
For more on this innovative approach to hardware prototyping, check out Asaad Kaadan’s presentation from Hardware Developers Didactic Galactic (HDDG) meetup below and check out the Hackaday.io page for a few demo builds.
If you’ve been following my writing, you may have noticed my general disdain for soldering. I much prefer screw terminals or spring connectors. I must admit though that after “discovering” better tools like a TS-100 soldering iron (featured here on Hackaday) and constructing a good helping hands assembly from coolant hoses (also featured on Hackaday) that I don’t find it nearly as bad. If the room is there, I still prefer screw terminals, but for smaller devices, sometimes this is a necessary, and not really that bad, evil.
Now I’m on the lookout for more creative tool ideas that help improve my electronics bench skills. Here’s an interesting one. Often you need to hold voltmeter or oscilloscope probes on leads while doing something else. You might be tempted to shove them directly into your helping hands’ alligator clips, but for a better solution, consider a pair of these probe holder that work with helping hands. They tighten directly into the type of hands that you’ve probably seen with a magnifying glass in the middle—keeping two leads on the part as needed.
While you may have moved on from that type of fixture, perhaps you could use it as your dedicated probe hands, leaving your more capable helpers free for more strenuous tasks like handling boards and wires.
Picture a lovely spring afternoon where you leave your house with 6 fully charged LiPo batteries, ready to fly your tiny quadcopter through the neighborhood… Or better yet, in an unpopulated open field. After you have your fun, you then get home and plug a battery into the charger, change it and charge, change it and charge, over and over and over. More than likely you will forget about it before all your cells are charged, crippling your next flying opportunity.
If that sounds familiar, then something like this E2650 LiPo Battery Gang Charger would work quite well. It includes six separate charge cables that can simultaneously pump 100 or 500mA into your batteries as needed. You just plug everything in, and it does the work for you, with a trickle charge preconditioning, followed by a 4.2V charging cycle. So even without the 6 at a time ability, this is certainly an upgrade over the straight to USB connector that likely came with your little quadcopter and its battery.
For this seller interview, I got to catch up to Jasper Sikken, who sells his programmable electronic load via his aptly-named Jasper Sikken Store.
Like many Tindarians, Jasper has a bachelors degree in Electronic Engineering, as well as a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. Things got interesting after his education, however, when he followed his wife’s work and moved from the Netherlands to the USA, specifically Silicon Valley, for two years.
Jasper moved without immediate employment, which meant he was free to explore the area and design electronics for the first 6 months of their stay. After this time, he started work at an IoT startup called Petasense, which uses tiny sensors to collect vibration data on industrial equipment for predictive maintenance. He now works full-time at a company called SODAQ, which is involved in solar powered data acquisition.
His job at Petasense meant that he needed a way to test power supplies with a dummy load, and found changing out large resistors for tests was cumbersome. While programmable dummy loads are available, they can cost over $500, so he instead found a simple circuit that would do this job, and realized that he could make a programmable Arduino version on the cheap. After revising the design, he wanted to make it available to others.
Sikken currently has no immediate plans to design other devices for his Tindie store, but given his creativity, who knows when inspiration for another niche product will strike?
While he and his wife (along with a daughter that they recently added) are now back in the Netherlands, he notes that most of his customers are from the USA, specifically Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. Sikken also notes that Tindie’s close integration with Hackaday is a really excellent arrangement, as it gives the site exposure to a vast community of like-minded electronic hackers.
While he’s quite happy selling on Tindie, and even purchased a fire engine learn to solder kit for his daughter, he does have one suggestion for sellers:
To avoid damage claims I suggest that sellers add the intended use of the product to the manual or product page and add warning how not to use the product.
An excellent idea that helps to align custom expectations with your product’s features.
It was a pleasure to find out more about Sikken, and if you’d be interested in being featured yourself, ping us on Twitter @Tindie or me personally @JeremySCook. Finally, if you’d like to hear him describe his programmable load, check out Jasper’s demo video below:
Ambilight is a system developed by Philips that attempts to create a more immersive experience by supplementing colors on TV with an ambient glow. While this technology hasn’t taken off in the mainstream, with the advent of cheap microcontrollers and single-board computers, hackers have devised ways to emulate this type of system to add a similar effect to TVs and even computer monitors.
One such method is Ambipi.tv. You can find code for the setup on GitHub, and the hardware that you’ll need is available here. You’ll need to provide your own Raspberry Pi, but the kit includes everything else that you’ll need to get started. Several options are available, so you can customize it to your needs.
Notably, the kit includes a remote and IR receiver for XBMC control. While gamepads and remote keyboards may work well to control Pis, sometimes it’s hard to beat the convenience of an invisible light beam.
While the LAMEBOY may look similar to a handheld emulator, seller Davedarko makes no bones about the fact that it is, in fact, not an emulator. There are no games, and it has no sound. On the other hand, if you’d like to create your own games, log data from sensors, or display and interact with Internet-based information, this just might be the “console” for you.
It features 6 buttons arranged in a D-pad, A/B button setup, along with a Nokia LCD panel for user feedback. It also features an RGB backlight, which could work as an in-game display, or could work well as some sort of notification device. For example, you might set up a red light for when someone tweets at you, or a green light to show when your connected toaster and coffee maker have produced breakfast.
The device comes as a DIY kit shown above, and features a 3D-printed case that can be had in several colors. You’ll need to provide tools, patience, and your own battery for assembly but it’s worth it!
It’s Pi Day! That’s 3.14 for those of you counting. It has become a tradition to geek out about Raspberry Pi each year on this date. Let’s take a look at some of the unique Raspberry Pi hardware that Tindarians have designed.
Untethered Pi Power
Working out portable power for the Pi usually means a portable cellphone battery and a USB cable. It’s easy, but not very tidy. Here’s a hardware add-on that uses an LiFePO4 cell and includes all of charging and tending circuit necessary. Tindie seller Silicongnition designed this hardware and has a few other offerings like the version meant for applications other than Pi.
That’s a Lot of Blinky!
Driving LED strips and multi-color matrices gets a lot easier with a little hardware help. The PiPixel hat takes care of level shifting for the logic, and has both a screw terminal and barrel jack for feeding power to all of those pixels.
Tracking Ships with Your Pi
If you live near a major waterway, this hardware will be a delight to have on hand. The dAISy Hat listens for and decodes Automatic Identification System (AIS) messages carried by all large vessels. From the same seller we’ve seen standalone modules but this one is specifically for Raspberry Pi.
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