Remember The Clapper, a device ahead of its time known as much for its memorable jingle as it’s ability to switch power on or off by hearing you clap your hands. Home automation is now coming into its own, and that means more options for how we interact with technology.
The IoTMATE V2b-CL switches power like the Clapper, but uses your voice thanks to Amazon’s Alexa. This support is available regardless of whether you own an Echo or not. Simulators like Reverb for voice control allow the module to support Alexa on its own.
Once configured, you can turn appliances on or off by asking Alexa or using the Alex app. To ensure security, you will need to log in with Amazon-based account linking. The module integrates with current wiring and will retrofit with existing switches.
The IoTMATE module does not connect to anything but Amazon Web Services so no sensitive data or reporting will be sent to third-parties. The package comes with the module, attached cables, a free sub-domain, and documentation on installation.
Raspberry Pi single-board computers are great, but one thing they don’t come with is an enclosure. Sure, you could fasten one to the back of a TV or computer monitor by itself, but in order for it to live on it’s own in plain sight, you’ll need some sort of box to put it in. Naturally there are a ton of cases available, including quite a few on Tindie.
Acrylic Raspberry Pi 3 Enclosure
This Raspbery Pi 3 case surrounds your Pi in acrylic, and provides easy access to ports and the SD card reader. It also includes vents to keep things cool, and is available in several colors, including clear as shown here.
Classic Wooden Raspberry Pi Case
If you’d like a classic look for your Pi setup that evokes the feeling of an early-1900s radio, this wooden enclosure for the Pi 2/3 will do the trick! It’s cut out of a block of oak, and features a generous cooing grate, along with cutouts for access to connection ports.
DIN Rail Kit
While you wouldn’t call this an “enclosure,” if you need to use a Raspberry Pi in an industrial setting, being able to mount it to DIN rail is extremely helpful. This kit works on the Pi 2/3, along with the Pi Zero, allowing you to integrate the Pi into a controls cabinet without having to drill holes.
Anodized Aluminum Pi Enclosure
If you (correctly) think that anodized aluminum looks pretty awesome, then this case is worth a look. Granted, it costs more than your Pi computer itself, but it’s got all of the access slots you would expect, along with an aluminum reset button. Not only that, but the enclosure itself acts as a passive heat sync, helping your Pi run cool and silent!
NES-Inspired Case
Building a Pi-based retro computing system? Why not make it look the part with this 3D-printed enclosure made in the form of a small version of your favorite childhood gaming system. Cleverly, the “cartridge” door opens to reveal not a copy of Super Mario Bros, but the Ethernet and USB ports of the Pi inside. You can order it with a cooling fan included, or even a small LED to simulate the NES’ power indicator.
Press Fit Wooden Enclosure
This intersting Raspberry Pi case is made out of birch plywood, and is laser-cut in such a way that you can push it together without using any type of screws of fasteners.
Minimal Pi Zero Enclosure
This neat Pi Zero case features a pair of acrylic panels supported by standoffs. This allows .625″ above the Pi if you need space for connectors or other electronics. It’s shown in orange here, but can be ordered in a variety of colors, including clear.F
As hackers, technologist, and engineers, we tend to be very good at building systems to automate our lives, or perhaps entertain us before being converted to “shelfware.” Plants—specifically flowers—require a different mindset in that they must be planted, tended until “working,” then maintained with water, sunlight, and nutrients week after week after week.
Nikodem Bartnik is no exception to this rule, and his mentions his “flowers are not in good condition because [he] always forgot to water them.” To help with this problem, he came up with Flotcher. This device measures changes in electrical flow between two pads on his PCB plugged into the earth surrounding a plant, and sounds a buzzer when it’s too dry. Discreet components like resistors and transistors as used here, which are not only cheaper, but helped Bartnik learn something new for this project.
He’s selling these units as PCBs only, so you’ll need to purchase your own transistors, beeper, etc. separately. You might also note that the transistors and resistors used are surface-mount. While this will likely require tweezers to get things attached, Bartnik notes that this isn’t as hard as you might think, so it could be a good intro into this world of tiny space-saving components!
Quick question for you. Are you free Sunday, April 15th? Hackaday and Tindie are going to be in London this weekend, coming back from the Dublin Unconference. We’re hosting a free Bring-a-Hack event for the London community at the Artillery Arms, Bunhill Row, in Islington!
London Meetup (Sunday, April 15th)
Grab a drink and hang out with members of the community Sunday at London’s Artillery Arms. Tindie’s Jasmine Brackett and Hackaday’s Jenny List will also be in attendance. Please register for a free ticket to tell us you’re coming (that page has all of the details).
Don’t worry, this isn’t a formal get-together, so you won’t need to prepare a presentation or anything. Just bring a small and portable project that you want to show off to the community. Electrical, mechanical, 3D-printed, textiles, or anything else you’re working on is welcome! If you have any Hackaday prize projects from this year or a past year, we want to see those too.
If you can’t make it this weekend, don’t sweat it. We have two more events coming up in Nottingham and Cambridge as well.
Nottingham Meetup (Wednesday, April 18th)
Tindie seller ZxSpectROM is organizing another meetup in the Midlands on April 18th at the Canalhouse. Just like the London meetup, this is an informal gathering where makers can bring their latest portable creations to share with the community.
A third meetup is happening in Cambridge on Thursday, April 19th at The Cambridge Blue. Sign up for free and bring along any projects you’re working on for this Bring-a-Hack meetup. All projects are welcome. We especially love a change to see projects from Hackaday.io and Tindie.com in person!
Pi Wars (April 21-22nd)
Later this month, Tindie is proud to be sponsoring the Pi Wars robotics competition. Jasmine Brackett from Tindie will be in attendance. If you haven’t heard of this two-day challenge, it is a competition in which Raspberry Pi-controller robots are created by teams and tested in non-destructive gauntlets.
Points, prizes, and medals are awarded at the end of the day in a ceremony. The event can support up to 76 teams at the competition in Cambridge, UK. Teams are welcome from all around the world to test their mettle in this robotic crucible.
Tindie will be there with Tindie Badges as well. Winners can also expect Tindie credit as a reward for their efforts.
Stay tuned for more events towards the end of April! Makerfaire and a meetup in Newcastle will be held at the end of the month.
Having lived in Florida for many years, I am no stranger to intense and powerful thunderstorms. Tracking lightning strikes can keep you and your family safe, especially if you need to go outside during a storm or prepare for one before it arrives.
The Thunder Board Grove I2C Lightning Detector for Raspberry Pi and Arduino is a sensor board that can detect and track lightning activity in the vicinity. It even provides an estimated distance to the center of the storm.
This sensors looks for a radio frequency fingerprint to identify a strike. Lightning is commonly difficult to detect since there are countless devices in our homes and on our person that create the same type of electrical noise. The secret sauce is an embedded lightning algorithm that scans the incoming signal patterns and rules out man-made disturbances and noise sources.
The Grove I2C Lightning Detector can warn of incoming storm activity within a radius of 40km and tracks both cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud strikes. Grove connectors also ensure that no soldering is required.
It’s spring here in Tindie-land, at least for those sellers north of the equator! While some are unloading hardware in spring cleaning mode, if you’re in the mood to acquire more parts for your bin, there’s a wide variety of under-the-radar equipment in the Tindie Flea Market. Let’s see what’s on tap this month:
170,000 Resistors
Do you need a resistor for your latest simple robotics project? If that’s the case, then this is not what you’re looking for. On the other hand, if you need thousands upon thousands of resistors for your latest massive project, then this lot should keep you going for some time!
B-Grade PCBs
Some PCBs just aren’t up to the necessary standards to make it into product form. These might be prototypes, damaged during fab or delivery, or just don’t work as expected. While normally thrown in the trash, one hacker’s trash is another hacker’s treasure, so seller Semachthemonkey has made rejected RC2014 PCBs available in lots of 6.
Mini Laser Engraver
Do you like lasers? Do you like your stuff marked so that no matter how hard someone tries to erase your mark on something it stays “Property of Hacker XYZ?” If so, then this PiBot Desktop Mini Laser Engraver is worth a look.
Apple Macbook Laptop
If you’re curious about the Mac world, but have never wanted to plunk down the cash to give it a try, here’s an interesting option: a mid-2017 notebook with 8 GB of ram, selling for under $300. And it actually works—though not guaranteed by Tindie per Flea Market rules. The seller is going back to PC again for unspecified reasons.
Negative Ion Generator
As your PC takes in and discharges air, why not embed negative ion to neutralize harmful substances? This device mounts in a 5.25 inch bay to do just that, and includes a blue on/off switch!
Nostalgia is a powerful thing that drives makers to bridge the gap between the past and the present. Using vintage joysticks from the Commodore or Atari era on modern hardware is difficult, given the difference in connectors and technology.
These older controllers utilized 9 way D connectors, while modern emulators on PC/Pi devices utilize USB. What is needed is an adapter has the correct 9 way D inputs, with a separate USB output. Luckily, there’s an adapter on Tindie that allows any USB host to recognize vintage joysticks as USB controllers.
This adapter also supports arcade-style 4-way or 8-way joysticks and up to three arcade buttons. Modern game controllers are beautiful and easy to use, but this adapter lets you play the games the way you would have when they originally released.
The adapters come packaged as plug-and-play solutions so you won’t need to implement any drivers or perform any configurations. There is a single option or a dual option that registers two separate controllers for multiplayer.
The adapters allow vintage controllers to be used on a computer or a Raspberry Pi board, but they do not work in reverse so they won’t make your modern controllers work on vintage computer systems.
Have you ever wished that your toaster could talk? Maybe your 3D Printer has a personality but lacks the ability to express it. Thanks to anthropomorph-EYES, our lifeless appliances can finally express themselves. This is a kit that includes two 12-segment boards that give your appliances eyes capable of various expressions.
The boards are pre-loaded with the “judgmental” emotion and several other static expressions that can be cycled using a momentary button. They can be applied to the surface of appliances, devices, or anything else that could benefit from the ability to express itself.
The product page also includes free instructions for installation and programming custom expressions as well. Check out the video below for an example of these eyes being used on a typical toaster.
Measuring exact power output can be a costly endeavor. Even something as simple as an RF power meter for measuring the levels of something like a WiFi card can break the bank. But this Wideband RF Power Meter is easy on the pocketbook and versatile too. It can be used to identify the exact output of your QRP rig, but it can also works on other devices.
Programmable oscillators, HamShields, and even Bluetooth Modules work with this meter. It functions like any other serial device. Once you plug it in, simply load your terminal program of choice. The meter will output the power levels in dBm every second and measure power from any frequency between 10MHz and 2700MHz. While the silkscreen does mention 45MHz and above, the seller has done testing to ensure it works below this range.
The simple USB serial functionality makes it easy to take quick measurements. Power levels beyond the +20dBm input can also be measured by using an external attenuator. The chip is primarily flat across the 39-2700MHz range, but each power meter also includes a calibration table for making corrections on specific frequency ranges down to 10MHz.
The Wideband RF Power meter is also open hardware and open software. The seller includes documentation and source code links on the product page.
A WiFi connection in today’s modern age is right beneath things like food, water, and air in terms of necessity. Many of our devices are constantly seeking out wireless connections. Besides a password protection, we have very little control over what devices connect to our home networks.
Enter The WiFi Deauther Monster. This unique wireless hacking tool from Travis Lin allows you to perform a WiFi deauth attack or even beacon and probe request flooding. The result? You can select a client you want to be disconnected from the network and poof! They’re gone.
This device was originally designed for spacehuhn’s project ESP8266_deauther, but it is now for sale on Tindie as well. The device works by leveraging a de-authentication frame in the 802.11 Wi-Fi protocol. It’s normally used to safely disconnect clients from a wireless network.
The management packets themselves are unencrypted, so all you need is the mac address of the Wi-Fi router and of the client device you wish to disconnect. There’s no need to be connected to the network yourself, nor do you need to know the password.
Of course, a device like this is meant only for testing purposes on your own network. The device ships ready to use, but it does not include a battery. You could use two 3500 mAh 18650 batteries to power the board for 70 hours, for example.
It can also be a great way to familiarize and protect yourself from these types of attacks in the future. At the very least, it could be fun to rule over your network with an iron fist.
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Points, prizes, and medals are awarded at the end of the day in a ceremony. The event can support up to 76 teams at the competition in Cambridge, UK. Teams are welcome from all around the world to test their mettle in this robotic crucible.
