Tindie

This touch button project has a very simple premise, take a button, make it show up as a keyboard or mouse, and add some sweet lights to it. It’s not going to make your jaw hit the floor in awe but there are a ton of novel uses for a device such as this. The lights on the front of the button allow the computer to provide feedback to the user so some combinations of button presses and light flashes can be used to do more complex things then just pressing the button once and having the computer do one thing in response.

A capacitive touch sensor is used to detect a button press. This sensor has a maximum sensing range of 2cm / 0.79″ meaning you can mount this button behind glass, plastic or wood. The button is configurable using any text editor on any computer, it can be configured as a keyboard or as a mouse click. This is the perfect gizmo for interactive art installations!

Configuration takes place using the two tactile buttons on the back as inputs, and connected to a computer as a keyboard for the output. Menu items are printed in a text editor. It’s a rather novel method shown well in the video below.

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If you’re a light-skinned individual, you may have noticed that if you stay outside too long you get a sunburn. Though painful and inconvenient in the short-term, it can lead to more serious problems later, namely skin cancer. To help combat this, Xlabs is designed a UV monitor that tells you exactly how much sunlight is falling on your body. After all, you do need some sun exposure to remain healthy, but it can add up fast!

In addition to measuring UV rays, this badge also monitors temperature, barometric pressure (which can be set up to tell your relative altitude), and humidity. It charts all of these values in 30-minute increments over the last 12 hours, allowing you to observe trends. This could help you decide when to go to the beach on your next outing according to how much sun you’ll get, or even if there’s a change in pressure foreshadowing poor weather.

In addition to all of this, it can be reprogrammed if you want to change something, and you can play a Pacman-like game with it if you’re bored. You can see it in action in the video below, or check out its development as a Hackaday Prize “Best Product” finalist.

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Hackers have been attaching an IR emitter to various flavors of microcontroller to make universal remotes for years. Though I’m sure a few are nicely polished, I’d have to guess that most aren’t something you want to show off to (non-technical) guests.

Though non-technies still might not appreciate it the way you’d like them to, the zmote remote control device still looks like a great product. It does away with messy wiring and puts everything in a package resembling a light bulb. This “IR bulb” takes signals from your WiFi network, and translates them into the form of IR light that traditional appliances can understand.

Though it works with several apps, you can also control this little guy with a standard webpage, meaning that while your iPhone can control it, so can your laptop, Android tablet, or even Blackberry–perhaps even your Palm Pilot! Given this simple interface, you can use it in combination with other web applications to automate your house in ways you might not have thought of before!

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There are many interesting DIY projects that you can undertake, but, as seen on Tindie’s “Sound” section, DIY musical devices are, in my opinion, some of the most interesting. The PCLONE2 percussion synthesizer, as seen in the video below, is no exception and imitates the 80s-era PC-2 synthesizer using modern components. It has a selection of knobs and switches to control the sound generated, and an area toward the bottom that you can tap to trigger the sound. It can also be triggered from an external signal.

In other words, it’s like an extremely advanced version of tapping on your desk or seat to occupy yourself. Perhaps you could bring one of these to the next lecture you have to attend to let the speaker know how well he or she is engaging the audience.

The device comes unassembled, and is described as an “intermediate complexity kit for experienced solderers.” If you don’t feel up to the task, perhaps one of the other interesting musical offerings on the “Hotchk155” store would be a better challenge!

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Inexpensive microcontrollers, such as the different flavors of Arduino, have obviously had a huge impact on the maker/hacker/tinkerer world. One thing these embedded projects generally lack, however, is a built-in display. LEDs usually suffice for expressing information in experimental projects, but if you want a numerical or even text-based output, a screen is much more versatile.

To this end “Microwavemont” came up with the ULTRA ZERO Color board, an Arduino Zero experimentation platform with a small OLED display built-in. As seen in the video below, you can use it to display text, a clock, or whatever else you desire. The display is left loose, attached only by its cable, so if you need to modify its position, you can simply attach it where it’s convenient.

If this idea intrigues you, there are several other prototyping board/small display combinations available on Microwavemont’s store. The ULTRA board (seen below), with a display about the size of the plastic part of a mini USB plug, looks especially intriguing for displaying short bits of information.

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Although disco is certainly before many Tindie readers’ time, one enduring symbol and decoration is the disco ball. With many small mirrors around it, the reflecting light has been a staple at parties for many years.

Of course, with today’s technology, it’s only fitting that “society,” or at least one Tindie store owner, has come up with something similar (albeit, in a half-sphere format) that emits its own light instead of simply reflecting it. The “Ducenti” uses 200 programmable RGB LEDs to create animations along its 11 inch stainless steel hemisphere. As seen in the video below, it’s quite incredible, though I’d have to assume it’s even better in real life.

According to the product page, the hemisphere is open-source and Arduino compatible, so if one of the 51 different animations doesn’t suit your purposes, you’re free to change it. In theory, you could build your own, but considering what it must take to wire everything up, perhaps it’s $360 price tag is well worth it!

Besides, do you really think you’ll have time to build one by your next disco/techno/jam band party?

On the other hand, if you’re interested in exotic lighting, but this isn’t quite what you had in mind, the “Evil Genius Labs” store has a few other options that might fit the bill!

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If you’ve ever played about with a WS2812B LED strip, you’ll know the wiring tends to get a bit messy when you add in a microcontroller with the data and power cables hooked up. For things like art installations, a bulky microcontroller board can really get in the way and is difficult to hide. The ChromaTab solves this problem by integrating a microcontroller onto a PCB that is the same width as the LED strip itself. The board is also designed to be soldered straight on to the edge of the strip so you’ll hardly even notice it’s there. The board fits on to the end of a strip like so:

Once you have the ChromaTab soldered in place, all that is needed is to apply power to the other end of the strip! This was started by Hackaday.io user danjhamer last year, and all the details are up on the project page.

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Generating a truly random number is surprisingly difficult. Creating enough apparent randomness for something like video game behavior, or other generally inconsequential behavior isn’t too hard, but for encryption and other important applications, this can be a challenge. Z1FFER addresses this as a true random number generator (TRNG) shield for the Arduino. It uses a technique known as Modular Entropy Multiplication to generate these numbers.

According to the product description, the motivation for this device came from the fact that (according to the Snowden documents) the NSA works to insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems. This could include a random number generator, so the Z1FFER aims to combat this as an open source generator that works using thermal noise.

Besides the product page linked above, you can also check out the OpenRandom.org website to see how to build one and get more information on the technique they are using. As stated there, even the output of this board isn’t entirely random, but no random number generator is. Likely it is very good, however, as an open source product, you’re free to examine and modify it for yourself!

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The Muffsy MC Head Amp is a dual mono active step-up preamp for LOMC cartridges. Still don’t know what it is? Join the club. Thankfully the board’s creator has a webpage explaining what this Amplifier is used for and why you might want one.

The basic gist of it is that turntables use one of two transducer types. A transducer being the thing that converts the grooves on the vinyl to electrical signals. The first type is called a moving magnet transducer and the other is a moving coil transducer. Muffsy is built “to use a low impedance output moving coil cartridge with your existing moving magnet phono stage”.

So why would you want to do this in the first place?

• Your favorite phono stage, or amplifier, only has MM input
• The quality of the MC input on your phono stage or amplifier isn’t good enough
• A step-up transformer is too expensive
• Your current MC phono stage lacks the settings you need
• You want to see what MC cartridges are all about, without having to buy a new and expensive phono stage

This is a board any audiophile will love, and there are detailed build logs of the project available over on the Muffsy hackaday.io page so if you are interested in the PCB design that goes into a board like this, give it a look.

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It’s interesting how technology evolves. Simple calculators were once extremely expensive, then became cheap enough to give out as promotional items. Now everyone reading this has one programmed into their phones, making even free calculators likely too “expensive” to keep around other than as a distraction to fiddle with. On the other hand, if you really like to fiddle with electronic calculators, I can’t imagine a better model to play with than this retro talking calculator.

As seen and heard in the video below, the calculator makes a nice “clicking” sound when each button is pressed, and repeats the number to you in a robotic voice. It can also be silenced and speak with either a male or female voice depending on what you prefer.

As to why creator Bobricius made it, he says that, “It is only unpractical calculator, every phone have calculator, it is absolute useless machine …. but maybe nice :).” It does have a nice red 7-segment bubble display with 8-digits. These displays were used in some of those vintage calculators.

Want to know how it talks, dig through the code, and explore the origin of the board design? Bobricius shares all on his Hackaday.io project page.

You can check out more of Bobricius’ work at his Permi Technology Store.

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