Vintage aircraft instrument becomes an USB peripheral

Glen Akins converted a WW2-era engine cowl flaps indicator into a USB peripheral using a microcontroller and four digital potentiometers:

This project is reminiscent of my USB analog panel meters project but the drive circuitry is significantly less complex. This post starts with a look at the engine cowl indicator, it’s theory of operation, and some ideas to control it using modern electronics. The post then covers the design of the board, the software for the microcontroller, and a Visual Studio C# .NET Windows Forms app for controlling the indicators from a PC.”

“The completed and assembled board. The board features a USB 2.0 Type C connector, a PIC16F1459, four MCP41HV31 digital potentiometers, and a screw terminal strip to connect to power and the indicator.”

The video above is a quick demonstration of the indicator in use. The indicator is connected to the USB controller board and the USB controller board is connected to my Surface. The .NET Forms app is running and superimposed over the video. As I slide the sliders in the app, the corresponding dial moves on the indicator.”

Vintage aircraft instrument becomes an USB peripheral

The Pocket Integrator, explained

The Pocket Integrator is add-on board for Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operators that lets you play your drum machine like a drum:

Synchronizing your electronic instruments with live music can be hard. Pocket Integrator makes it easy! It’s an add-on board for Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operator series of hand-held drum machines, that lets you play them like a drum.

Just tap or shake to set the tempo and downbeat of your drum pattern. Keep tapping as long as you like. When you stop, it’ll hold the beat wherever you set it. It’s as easy as clapping your hands!

In the latest Crowd Supply campaign update, Mykle Hansen shares this video which demonstrates who the device works:

The Pocket Integrator, explained

Banana Split macropad

Cameron Coward writes on Hackster about a creative macropad project:

Banana Split Is the Potassium-Rich Macropad You’ve Been Craving

We see a lot of macropads around here and so we only feature those that stand out — usually those that incorporate interesting features or that contain unusual hardware. Aesthetics alone aren’t enough to warrant a full write-up unless the device is particularly polished. But the Banana Split, a banana-themed wireless split macropad, is just too delicious to pass up.

Banana Split macropad

2022 Hackaday Supercon: Call For Proposals Extended

The Call for Proposals is extended to September 1st for Hackaday Supercon!

After a two-year hiatus, the Hackaday Superconference is returning live for another three days of technical talks, badge hacking, and hands-on workshops.

Interested in giving a talk or workshop? Fill out the following form and we will review your proposal. Proposals deadline has been extended to September 1st, 2022.

Wondering what to submit? Check out our Youtube playlist of 2019’s talks for what we accepted last Superconference. You can view talk titles in the right sidebar so you don’t need to watch every video, although they’re all fantastic! But don’t limit yourself to the beaten path! We love to get proposals for hacks that we haven’t even dreamt of.

We have two presentation tracks, one for shorter talks and another for longer ones. If you’re a first-time presenter or simply have a shorter hack, the 20-minute track is for you. Or spread out a little bit and go into detail with a 45-minute talk.

Workshops are usually one to two hours. Let us know how much time you need.

Best of luck to you, we hope to see you in person to hear about your project this year!

2022 Hackaday Supercon: Call For Proposals Extended

Hackaday Supercon returns for 2022

After two years in remote mode, we’re very excited to announce that this year’s Hackaday Supercon will be coming back, live! Join us Nov. 4th, 5th, and 6th in sunny Pasadena, CA for three days of hacks, talks, and socializing with the Hackaday community. And we’d love to see and hear in person what you’ve been up to for the last two years – so start brainstorming what you’re going to talk about now and fill out the call for proposals.

Read more …

Hackaday Supercon returns for 2022

Pocket Integrator

Mykle Hansen designed this open hardware add-on board that lets you play your Pocket Operator drum machine like a maraca:

Pocket Integrator is a magical, musical add-on board for Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operator drum machines. Using a MEMS accelerometer, it lets you play drum patterns and synthesizers by tapping and shaking, just like a handheld percussion instrument. Play your Pocket Operator like a drum!

Tap to set the tempo and downbeat. Keep tapping as long as you like. When you stop, it’ll hold the beat wherever you set it. It’s as easy as clapping your hands! (In fact, it’s like using your hands to clap another pair of hands that magically keep clapping after you stop clapping your hands.)

Read more on Crowd Supply

Pocket Integrator

OSHWA announces Open Hardware Trailblazers

From the Open Source Hardware Association:

OSHWA recently announced a call for Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows. Thanks to the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, OSHWA is taking a giant step towards expanding open source hardware in academia through the Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows initiative. The one-year fellowship provides grants to individuals who are leading the way as open source hardware expands into academia. The fellows will document their experience of making open source hardware in academia to create a library of resources for others to follow.

The call was incredibly competitive. We received truly amazing submissions. The fellows were chosen by the program’s mentors and an OSHWA board selection committee.

Congratulations to the Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows!

Read more about the fellows…

OSHWA announces Open Hardware Trailblazers

2022 Hackaday Prize Enters Second Round: Reuse, Recycle, Revamp

“Ding! That’s the bell for the second challenge round of the 2022 Hackaday Prize. If your project reuses or recycles what would otherwise be waste materials, or helps you to do the same for further projects, we want to see it.

Hackers are often frugal folk — we’ll recycle parts for projects because it’s easier on the pocketbook when prototyping. But in these strangest of times, when we’ve seen $1 microcontrollers in such shortage that they fetch $57 apiece (if you can get the parts at all), making use of what you’ve got on hand can be an outright necessity. If this is going to become the new normal, it’s going to make sense that we automate it. There’s gold, literally and metaphorically, in busted PCBs. How are you going to get the most value out of our broken electronic waste in our post-apocalyptic near future? Have you built an unpick-and-unplace machine? We’d like to see it.

But electronic parts are a small fraction of your recyclable materials, and plastics might play a larger role. If you’re a 3D printerer, you’ve doubtless thought about recycling plastic bottles into filament. Or maybe you’d like to take some of the existing plastics that are thrust upon you by this modern world and give them a second life? This factory churning out paving stones by remelting plastic with sand is doing it on an industrial scale, but could this be useful for the home gamer? Precious Plastic has a number of inspirational ideas. Or maybe you just need an HDPE hammer?

Have you built a fancy can crusher, or a plastics sorter, or a recycling robot? Head on over to Hackaday.io, write it up, and enter it into the Prize!”

Read more on Hackaday…

2022 Hackaday Prize Enters Second Round: Reuse, Recycle, Revamp

The 2022 Open Hardware Summit is LIVE!

Tune in to the 2022 Open Hardware Summit live stream:

Here is the schedule:

The summit is available on YouTube for free, but buying a ticket helps support OSH year-round! We have PWYC, Standard, and Goodie Bag tickets, as well as free RSVP tickets.

The Open Hardware Summit is the annual conference organized by the Open Source Hardware Association a 501(c)(3) not for profit charity. It is the world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware; a venue and community in which we discuss and draw attention to the rapidly growing Open Source Hardware movement.

Speakers include world renowned leaders from industry, academia, the arts and maker community. Talks cover a wide range of subjects from electronics, mechanics to related fields such as digital fabrication, fashion technology, self-quantification devices, and IP law. As a microcosm of the Open Source Hardware community, the Summit provides an annual friendly forum for the community. For over five years we have had an established fellowship which supports travel and admission for women and other minorities as well as hardship tickets for low income individuals. The Open Hardware Summit was founded in 2010 by Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir with support from Peter Semmelhack and Bug Labs in its founding years. Read more about the history of the organization and feel free to contact us with any questions.

The 2022 Open Hardware Summit is LIVE!