Back in March, the call went out: take your wiggliest, floppiest, most dimensionally compliant idea, and show us how it would be better if only you could design it around a flexible PCB. We weren’t even looking for a prototype; all we needed was an idea with perhaps a sketch, even one jotted on the…
via These Projects Bent Over Backward to Win the Flexible PCB Contest — Hackaday
We are really impressed by this amazing project by Ben Krasnow and the detailed project video that explains how Ben created it:
Schematic, PCB layout, mechanical CAD, and firmware to create a replica of the DSKY with electroluminescent display are available on GitHub:
We loveed seeing this lamp bot hop around during Bring-A-Hack back in May. Thanks to Roger Cheng for writing about it on Hackaday:
Reinforcement learning is a subset of machine learning where the machine is scored on their performance (“evaluation function”). Over the course of a training session, behavior that improved final score is positively reinforced gradually building towards an optimal solution. [Dheera Venkatraman] thought it would be fun to use reinforcement learning for making a little robot lamp move. But before that can happen, he had to build the hardware and prove its basic functionality with a manual test script.
Inspired by the hopping logo of Pixar Animation Studios, this particular form of locomotion has a few counterparts in the natural world. But hoppers of the natural world don’t take the shape of a Luxo lamp, making this project an interesting challenge. [Dheera] published all of his OpenSCAD files for this 3D-printed lamp so others could join in the fun. Inside the lamp head is a LED ring to illuminate where we expect a light bulb, while also leaving room in the center for a camera. Mechanical articulation servos are driven by a PCA9685 I2C PWM driver board, and he has written and released codeto interface such boards with Robot Operating System (ROS) orchestrating our lamp’s features. This completes the underlying hardware components and associated software foundations for this robot lamp.
via Little Lamp To Learn Longer Leaps — Hackaday
We are excited to see this LED-studded flexible Möbius strip by Chris Miller on Hackaday.io. The hardware design and firmware are available on GitHub. The project is using our 2 Layer Flex PCB service.
Want free flexible circuit boards? Well this is your chance!
Enter your design idea by TOMORROW into the Flexible PCB Concept Contest on Hackaday.io!
We are very excited about the Flexible PCB Concept Contest on Hackaday:
Have you ever wanted to try using a flexible PCB in your project but just haven’t gotten around to it?
Well this is your chance!
Want free flexible circuit boards?
You don’t have to build something to win. Show us what you want to design.
#bringahack Bay Area is coming up on May 19th! Please join us for this wonderful tradition that Jeri Ellsworth started:
2206 Bridgepoint Parkway
San Mateo, CA 94404
650-931-2990
Check out photos of previous Bring-A-Hack for some inspiration:
Come join our Drew Fustini (@pdp7) at the first Hardware Happy Hour (3H) Berlin this Monday, May 6th, at 7:00 PM, at Dolden Mädel Braugasthaus:
https://www.meetup.com/3HBerlin/events/260730178/
Exciting times for people in Chicago that like hardware!
Tonight, Thursday, April 25th is Hardware Happy Hour (3H) Chicago at Ballast Point! It’s an informal hardware show ‘n tell that is a lot of fun:
https://www.meetup.com/Hardware-Happy-Hour-3H-Chicago/events/260730042/
And KiCon 2019 begins tomorrow! Come learn more about designing circuit boards with KiCad.
There is also a party at Chicago hackerspace Pumping Station: One on Friday night and then a Bring-A-Hack party with Hackaday on Saturday night.
Look for our Drew Fustini (@pdp7) in purple at all the above events!
Glen Atkins writes controlling an industrial stack light over USB using a PIC16F1459 USB microcontroller and a PCA9685 I2C PWM LED controller:
After using the PIC16F1459 to build numerous USB HID input devices including a giant keyboard, a tiny keyboard, and a big red button, it was time to see if the PIC16F1459 could be used to control outputs too. Sticking with the industrial theme, I chose to build a USB controller for a, um, stack of industrial stack lights.
Industrial stack lights are usually used to indicate the status of machines on production lines. Green could indicate all is functioning normally, yellow could mean the machine is running low on input material, and red could indicate the machine jammed and needs intervention.
For a simple, quick project such as this one, one does not want to have to write a custom USB driver for a Mac, PC, or Linux box. The best way to avoid writing a custom driver is to use an existing USB device class that lends itself to controlling custom hardware. The USB Human Interface Device (HID) and USB Communication Device Class (CDC) device classes both support controlling custom hardware.
OSH Park 