Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#31

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:08 PM UTC

colorcoded wrote: post #8

I'm building a two person research submarine with some friends. Targeted diving depth: 100m I have an electronics/IT background so building something so mechanical is a fun learning experience. http://ubaad15.org

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#32

Post by blandry » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:08 PM UTC

Does wetware count?

I'm rebuilding engineered bacteria which can take pictures [1]. I'm using new proteins which will make the bacteria more reliable and use cheaper materials to take pictures. I hope to create some pretty sweet looking images to hang on the wall.

[1] - http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051121/full/news051121-8.htm...

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#33

Post by dawnerd » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:10 PM UTC

tobz wrote: post #3

I'm working on a headphone stand that has a USB DAC/headphone amplifier built in, along with circuitry to detect when the headphones have been hung up, thereby switching the DAC output to a line out (to drive speakers, or whatever). It's a shameless amalgamation of a DIY post on Reddit[1] and some design aesthetics from an existing DAC/headphone amp[2] that I really like. I'm currently at the point where the internal…

That's really cool. I've always wanted something that would seamlessly switch between headphones and my monitors.

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#34

Post by Qworg » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:10 PM UTC

brettanomyces wrote: post #24

I'm adding flow meters to my keggerator so I can detect when someone pours themselves a beer from one of the taps. The plan is to have a camera take a photo, do some facial recognition to see if its either one of my flatmates or myself, then optionally post the pic to #beertheif on twitter or start playing some music based on the chosen beer.

Are you building your own flow meters? That's a fun project in magnets/magnetometers.

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#35

Post by timlyo » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:12 PM UTC

pcglue wrote: post #22

Using a BeagleBone Black to read current sensors and send MQTT messages whenever an appliance (washer/dryer) is turned on/off.

Which current sensors are you using? This sounds interesting.

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#36

Post by xutopia » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:13 PM UTC

bloudermilk wrote: post #15

I'm currently converting a cargo van into a camper van suitable for full-time living. I bootstrapped the project out of a garage in two weeks and will now be doing most of the work in SF out of the van itself. It's an exercise in woodworking, metal working, solar/electronics, and interior design. I'm documenting the build on Instagram (same username) if anyone wants to follow along.

https://www.instagram.com/bloudermilk/ for the lazy

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#37

Post by kejaed » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:14 PM UTC

brettanomyces wrote: post #24

I'm adding flow meters to my keggerator so I can detect when someone pours themselves a beer from one of the taps. The plan is to have a camera take a photo, do some facial recognition to see if its either one of my flatmates or myself, then optionally post the pic to #beertheif on twitter or start playing some music based on the chosen beer.

My buddy has something going along the same lines but is using temp sensors to detect a pint being pulled:

https://mobile.twitter.com/toms_beer_keg/status/799323771043...

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#38

Post by codewritinfool » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:14 PM UTC

A completely numeric orrery for lack of a better term.

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#39

Post by dejawu » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:14 PM UTC

I've got one of those IKEA Dioder strips, and I've got it hooked up to a RasPi. There's a node library (of course) that lets you set it to any RGB color and even supports transitions.

Next step would be to make it flash when messages come in - different color for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. - and having it integrate with the Philips Hue and Alexa.

Re: Ask HN: What is your hardware/garage side-project?

#40

Post by harperlee » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

I'm trying to design and build a small direct-drive robot arm, inspired by this cool post:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12536041

I haven't worked with electronics since college, so I was trying to find a suitable project.

I unconscioussly bought some components and a couple of CHIP computers and I wanted to do something that interacts with the real world (sensors and actuators), but servo-based actuators seemed a bit lame.

Initially, I was going to use two motors and a spring per DOF in order to simulate a muscle ("variable stiffness joint", according to the previous post - I was going by intuition).

But then I read that direct drive was possible (the motor's magnetic field acts as the "spring") and that once that you have a suitable motor controller built all the rest is software defined, and I found the sweetspot for a project.

Such a motor controller is sufficient to keep me researching and prototyping for some time!

If I succeed with this, I'm planning on researching how to do some sort of artificial skin for robots. For the moment the idea revolves around connecting a USB camera to a bunch of fiber optic threads from a cheap lamp such as http://prosites-lottofun9.homestead.com/files/fiberlamp2.jpg and try to detect pressure on loops of the fiber by changes in the light source. That way you can cheaply and efficiently have a huge number of data points, with off-the-shelf components... but if someone does it beforehand I'll also be happy!