How Wall Street Bought Toys ‘R’ Us And Left 30,000 People Without Jobs.
The toy company’s bankruptcy left 30,000 people without jobs — or severance. As Wall Street deals to buy rusty retail companies collapse, minimum-wage workers stand to lose the most.
Previous coverage of Toys ‘R’ Us on Adafruit.
Shared by hale_b0b on Instructables:
When looking for some new DIY projects around arduino I found some nice ideas on RFID based MP3 players for Kids. And there is one great professional toy box on the market – these guys rule. They made a great business out of their smart idea. Check out – you’ll find their page!
As my two kids are getting into listening to audiobooks and music, more and more, and still are using good old compact discs with all the handling hassle, I decided to build such an MP3 player box with some nice features to make it a great individual toy for them. After I recently bought my first 3D printer this project seemed to be some good playground to also dive into 3D printing.
So I started into concept phase – which features would I want to implement – RFID, MP3 Player, WLAN (cancelled later), IMU control, LCD display, Alarmclock, wireless charging … Needed to do some research, what components I would need. Which components could I reuse? I still had an IMU, LCD module, some Arduino nanos.
With some experience in soldering and measuring the assembly is doable within 1-2 after work sessions.
The printing of the Box, consisting of a base, a cover plate and a charging station, takes some time (12+ hours depending on the printer and slicer settings), but I did that that during soldering.
Quite the resource, from The BBC Archives.
These 16,016 BBC Sound Effects are made available by the BBC in WAV format to download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license.
Access dataset metadata by visiting our dedicated LOD site.
If you have any queries regarding usage, please contact jake.berger at bbc.co.uk
Via lifehacker
Shared by hale_b0b on Instructables:
When looking for some new DIY projects around arduino I found some nice ideas on RFID based MP3 players for Kids. And there is one great professional toy box on the market – these guys rule. They made a great business out of their smart idea. Check out – you’ll find their page!
As my two kids are getting into listening to audiobooks and music, more and more, and still are using good old compact discs with all the handling hassle, I decided to build such an MP3 player box with some nice features to make it a great individual toy for them. After I recently bought my first 3D printer this project seemed to be some good playground to also dive into 3D printing.
So I started into concept phase – which features would I want to implement – RFID, MP3 Player, WLAN (cancelled later), IMU control, LCD display, Alarmclock, wireless charging … Needed to do some research, what components I would need. Which components could I reuse? I still had an IMU, LCD module, some Arduino nanos.
With some experience in soldering and measuring the assembly is doable within 1-2 after work sessions.
The printing of the Box, consisting of a base, a cover plate and a charging station, takes some time (12+ hours depending on the printer and slicer settings), but I did that that during soldering.
Shared by hale_b0b on Instructables:
When looking for some new DIY projects around arduino I found some nice ideas on RFID based MP3 players for Kids. And there is one great professional toy box on the market – these guys rule. They made a great business out of their smart idea. Check out – you’ll find their page!
As my two kids are getting into listening to audiobooks and music, more and more, and still are using good old compact discs with all the handling hassle, I decided to build such an MP3 player box with some nice features to make it a great individual toy for them. After I recently bought my first 3D printer this project seemed to be some good playground to also dive into 3D printing.
So I started into concept phase – which features would I want to implement – RFID, MP3 Player, WLAN (cancelled later), IMU control, LCD display, Alarmclock, wireless charging … Needed to do some research, what components I would need. Which components could I reuse? I still had an IMU, LCD module, some Arduino nanos.
With some experience in soldering and measuring the assembly is doable within 1-2 after work sessions.
The printing of the Box, consisting of a base, a cover plate and a charging station, takes some time (12+ hours depending on the printer and slicer settings), but I did that that during soldering.
Now you can build a 1980s-style synthesizer in a cardboard box with DSP-G1 synth-on-a-chip, a Feather, and Trellis keypads and knobs for control! This new learn guide from John Park will show you how!
The DSP-G1 is a digital synthesizer chip modeled after an analog synth, that has three oscillators per voice, a +24dB filter, two ADSR envelope generators, LFO, and more, for a great, paraphonic, five-voice 80s synth sound! Control it using MIDI note messages with a Trellis or two for input, and six knobs to send MIDI CC parameters to the synth.
This is an incredible blend of multiple forms of art- and music-making into one very distinct style:
Oliver Mobeli, a young talent from Lobaye, Central African Republic, performing local music with his handmade band / orchestra made with puppets, toys and marionettes. Amazing.
A while ago we made R is for Robots – a coloring book that explores robots, robot makers, and making robot friends. The next ADABOX (008) is all about building your own robots! Sign up now – we’re shipping late June/early July!
AdaBox is curated Adafruit products, unique collectibles, and exclusive discounts. All delivered quarterly. Subscribe now or give AdaBox to a friend.
Today’s letter is F for FIRST Robotics!
Wikipedia: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is an international youth organization that operates the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League Jr., and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions.[4] Founded by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers in 1989, its expressed goal is to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. Its philosophy is expressed by the organization as coopertition and gracious professionalism. FIRST also operates FIRST Place, a research facility at FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire, where it holds educational programs and day camps for students and teachers.[5]
AdaBox 008 – MAKE ROBOT FRIEND! (video)
Jack Berberette is a man on a mission to make tabletop role-playing available and accessible for visually impaired gamers. He started DOTS RPG, a project for making braille dice that have been meticulously designed and re-designed to best help players make those important rolls. And as incredible as that is, it’s just the beginning.
3D printer files are available for download so you can make your own.
For more on the story follow this link.
This is an incredible blend of multiple forms of art- and music-making into one very distinct style:
Oliver Mobeli, a young talent from Lobaye, Central African Republic, performing local music with his handmade band / orchestra made with puppets, toys and marionettes. Amazing.
Via Hackaday
DESCRIPTION
I’ve been a fan of the original NES from childhood. To me it was a magical system, which captured my interest for the first time one Christmas morning. As an adult, I still have fond memories of that console. Part of the impetus for this project came from those childhood memories.
The Spartan Mini NES, as its name implies, has at its foundation a Spartan Mini FPGA board. The Spartan Mini is a development board I built around the Spartan 6 FPGA by Xilinx. The NES core that runs on the FPGA is a modified version of Brian Bennett’s design. To facilitate the transfer of games from the SD card to the FPGA, I’m using a Parallax Propeller, which is connected to the FPGA with a serial link.
DETAILS
At its heart, this project relies on the Spartan 6 FPGA by Xilinx. I’m using the TQFP 144 pin version for ease of soldering. To facilitate breaking out all of the pins and getting the project up and running quickly, I’ve used the Spartan Mini FPGA board, as well as the perfboard shield.
For the NES core I chose this one developed by Brian Bennett. I first prototyped the project as much as possible on a breadboard, working out the kinks in the design until it was ready to be wired onto perfboard.
Besides the Spartan Mini, the other components used for this build were:
40-pin TFT Friend – FPC Breakout with LED Backlight Driver; This breakout board is something we designed in-house to help us work with ‘dot-clock’ 40-pin TFT displays that require the RGB pixel data to be clocked in continuously. These displays have 40-pin Flex PCB (FPC) cables and often require a boost converter for the backlight LED, which makes them annoying to breadboard. To make them breadboardable, we stuck a 40-pin FPC and a FAN5333-based backlight driver with adjustable current onto a labeled breakout board. Now you can poke and probe each pin! Read more!
Adafruit Mono 2.5W Class D Audio Amplifier – PAM8302; This super small mono amplifier is surprisingly powerful – able to deliver up to 2.5 Watts into 4-8 ohm impedance speakers. Inside the miniature chip is a class D controller, able to run from 2.0V-5.5VDC. Since the amp is a class D, its very efficient (over 90% efficient when driving an 8Ω speaker at over half a Watt) – making it perfect for portable and battery-powered projects. It has built in thermal and over-current protection but we could barely tell it got hot. There’s even a volume trim pot so you can adjust the volume on the board down from the default 24dB gain. This board is a welcome upgrade to basic “LM386” amps! Read more!
Here’s an amazing compilation of women in electronic from 1938 – 1982. from Ubuweb. Here’s a small sample:
Clara Rockmore – Vocalise (Rachmaninoff) (recorded 1987)
Johanna M. Beyer – Music of the Spheres (1938, recorded 1977)
Bebe and Louis Barron – Forbidden Planet / Main Titles, Overture (1956)
Daphne Oram – Bird of Parallax (1962-1972)
Delia Derbyshire – Dr. Who (1963)
Delia Derbyshire – Blue Veils and Golden Sands (1967)
Delia Derbyshire – Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO (1966)
Else Marie Pade – Faust and Mephisto (1962)
Mirelle Chamass-Kyrou – Etude 1 (1960)
Pauline Oliveros – Mnemonics III (1965)
Ruth White – Evening Harmony (1969)
Ruth White – Sun (1969)
Micheline Colulombe Saint-Marcoux – Arksalalartoq (1970-71)
Pril Smiley – Koloysa (1970)
Alice Shields – Study for Voice and Tape (1968)
Daria Semegen – Spectra (Electronic Composition No. 2) (1979)
Annette Peacock – I’m The One (1972)
Wendy Carlos – Timesteps (1972)
Ruth Anderson – DUMP (1970)
Priscilla McLean – Night Images (1973)
Laurie Spiegel – Sediment (1972)
Eliane Radigue – Adnos III (1980)
Maggi Payne – Spirals (1977)
Maryanne Amacher – Living Sound Patent Pending: Music Gallery, Toronto (1982)
From MusicTech:
These days, it’s easier than ever to get your hands on the sought-after tools that were once beyond the realms of possibility for non-professional musicians to use. In this feature, our resident hitmaker Marc JB explores the most effective gear, in both software and hardware, to use for a wide range of genres and approaches – the same gear that was used to build the hits of yesteryear…
Get ready to dive deep into the world of legendary pro-studio gear and the modern emulation software that’s shaped the sound of many of the key genres in popular music. In this feature, we’re essentially going to show you how to recreate various ‘sonic signatures’ from music history. Throughout the next few pages, we’re going to be exploring some key pieces of technology and highlight just what they do, how they have been
and indeed still are being used – and how you can now use them yourself in software form to get that genre-specific hit sound for your own productions, more conveniently and at a fraction of the cost.
Spotted this in today’s The Prepared Newsletter “The company behind C.H.I.P., a linux based computer that crowdfunded for $9, appears to be insolvent.” Hackaday had a post in April and here is a post “Refund Experiment” on the CHIP nextthing.co forums.
Additionally, there is a site called “http://www.ntcfailure.com/”
This website will try to explain and cover the story of what happened with ‘Next Thing Co’ from when they started with the CHIP to when they went silent and left backers without refunds or a product.
From MusicTech:
These days, it’s easier than ever to get your hands on the sought-after tools that were once beyond the realms of possibility for non-professional musicians to use. In this feature, our resident hitmaker Marc JB explores the most effective gear, in both software and hardware, to use for a wide range of genres and approaches – the same gear that was used to build the hits of yesteryear…
Get ready to dive deep into the world of legendary pro-studio gear and the modern emulation software that’s shaped the sound of many of the key genres in popular music. In this feature, we’re essentially going to show you how to recreate various ‘sonic signatures’ from music history. Throughout the next few pages, we’re going to be exploring some key pieces of technology and highlight just what they do, how they have been
and indeed still are being used – and how you can now use them yourself in software form to get that genre-specific hit sound for your own productions, more conveniently and at a fraction of the cost.
KiCad (pronounced Key-CAD) is the preferred EDA design tool for many makers, because of its open-source ethos, compatibility with multiple operating systems and their various distros, native 3D viewer, and many more features. And of course with the recent announcements of features for version 5 coming down the pipeline many are beginning to ask, “Should I update?” (or perhaps, switch?) Whether you’re considering the switch, or future-upgrade, or just interested in getting started with EDA and PCB design, Shawn Hymel has an ongoing series of videos presented by Digi-Key that uses version 4.0.7 of KiCad for the YouTube videos:
Digi-Key Electronics presents: An introduction to KiCad with engineering superhero Shawn Hymel. In the first part of this series Shawn discusses how PCBs are made and the benefits of utilizing KiCad as a design tool. KiCad is a free and open source platform which makes it great for learning how to make your own PCBs while still being powerful enough to do more complicated design work.
Once version 5 comes out some things will slightly change, even improve, but now is a good time to get started on getting started if you’re interested in diving into this space – never before has there been such a wealth of knowledge and opportunity for makers as right now.
Via CGTN
“The dish is so delicious; the robot cooker has better cooking skills than me,” said one person.
According to staff, it only takes the robot cooker three to four minutes to cook a dish and the cooker also has an automatic cleaning system.
The staff added that the robot cooker was only currently available for rent, and that a 10,000 yuan (1,588 US dollars) deposit is required plus 1 yuan (0.16 US dollars) for every dish cooked.
Beautiful recent images from NASA!
Write-up from Gizmodo.
These images show the Lagoon Nebula, just 4,000 light-years away, in intense detail. Hubble imaged the star-forming region both in visible light and infrared, with the latter allowing scientists to cut through the dust to peer at the stars forming inside. And the new views really show off Hubble’s abilities.
Avengers: Infinity War came out on Friday and ruled the box office. You won’t find any spoilers here, just an appreciation of Jerry Almond’s excellent and intimidating Thanos costume. He wears a muscle suit underneath the clothes (photo below) to bring the Mad Titan’s massive form to life, and he has a mask and Infinity Gauntlet to go with it. The detailed Thanos mask is silicone and from Evolution Masks; Almond added some violet paint to the mask so it would better match the skin tone of his costume. You can see how flexible it is in this Instagram video.
See more photos on Jerry’s Facebook page and Instagram.
via The RPF
Avengers: Infinity War came out on Friday and ruled the box office. You won’t find any spoilers here, just an appreciation of Jerry Almond’s excellent and intimidating Thanos costume. He wears a muscle suit underneath the clothes (photo below) to bring the Mad Titan’s massive form to life, and he has a mask and Infinity Gauntlet to go with it. The detailed Thanos mask is silicone and from Evolution Masks; Almond added some violet paint to the mask so it would better match the skin tone of his costume. You can see how flexible it is in this Instagram video.
See more photos on Jerry’s Facebook page and Instagram.
via The RPF
KiCad (pronounced Key-CAD) is the preferred EDA design tool for many makers, because of its open-source ethos, compatibility with multiple operating systems and their various distros, native 3D viewer, and many more features. And of course with the recent announcements of features for version 5 coming down the pipeline many are beginning to ask, “Should I update?” (or perhaps, switch?) Whether you’re considering the switch, or future-upgrade, or just interested in getting started with EDA and PCB design, Shawn Hymel has an ongoing series of videos presented by Digi-Key that uses version 4.0.7 of KiCad for the YouTube videos:
Digi-Key Electronics presents: An introduction to KiCad with engineering superhero Shawn Hymel. In the first part of this series Shawn discusses how PCBs are made and the benefits of utilizing KiCad as a design tool. KiCad is a free and open source platform which makes it great for learning how to make your own PCBs while still being powerful enough to do more complicated design work.
Once version 5 comes out some things will slightly change, even improve, but now is a good time to get started on getting started if you’re interested in diving into this space – never before has there been such a wealth of knowledge and opportunity for makers as right now.
Congrats and good luck to all the finalists on their circuit bending challenge projects!
Each year during Moogfest we celebrate the electronic art of circuit-bending with the annual Moog Music Circuit Bending Challenge. This year’s contestants took their devices to the outer limits of creative alteration, creating altogether new inventions from various consumer electronics. For the 2018 Moog Circuit Bending Challenge, we are sending 3 devices to Moogfest 2018, where their creators will compete for Moog Synthesizers and top honors.
Poignant yet bleak new work from designer Mike Campau.
Nice write-up from designboom.
we spend time on social media, in a way, like online hotels, but with the #deletefacebook movement running amuck, many prominent influencers are checking out. most-recently, elon musk and playboy ended their long stays at the facebook-inn. meanwhile, instagram nears its peak, twitter picks up some traction, snapchat scrambles, and digital artist mike campau deconstructs it all into a series of empty parking lots, lit only by desperate neon signage. with each one, he reveals a different sad truth about mainstream social networks.
David Bock: There are a couple of things that go into that. The bottom line is that the ’50s were really the golden age of audio design. Those guys really did know what they were doing when they designed a lot of the key gear that people are still using. They used a lot of the correct techniques, and they had the luxury of decent materials and the time to research things properly.
There is a tone to these things that is harder and harder to duplicate. Not impossible, just harder and harder. They had tubes back then that are harder to get now. The available selection of materials was a lot greater back then. Then there’s the element of chance. Why would someone pay $20,000 for a 251? Well, maybe that particular 251 really does sound unique because AKG’s production was so sloppy and the capsules were so poorly machined that you’re bound to get one that excels beyond everything else and the rest are just kind of average. Now we have CNC machines that can make these tiny little holes on the capsule backplate all the same, which AKG really couldn’t do at the time.
The sound comes first, but that’s not the whole story. The first thing I had to do was try to find what makes the microphone sound the way it does. There were at least 15 points that you have to look at, it turns out, if you’re going to emulate the sound of a microphone. The first large problem is, “I want to copy the sound of a 251.” Well, which 251? I rented about ten 251s here in town [Hollywood], and you know what? There’s no such thing as a common 251. They’re all totally different. I could hear it and I could measure it.
This video from The Verge shows some of what the Labo can do outside the cardboard sets. You can go surprisingly deep with programming on the system.
Over the last few weeks on YouTube, Nintendo’s been teasing what you can do with Labo — the DIY cardboard accessory kit for the Switch — which comes out this Friday. One of the most intriguing videos was a demonstration of Toy-Con Garage, the programming platform within Labo’s software. Using the toy piano included in the Variety Kit, a makeshift cardboard guitar, and multiple controllers (including one attached to some Crocs), Nintendo showed off a Labo band.
Toy-Con Garage works with a series of input and output nodes. You can set your input (for instance, a touch bar) and connect that to an output node (in our case, making a guitar sound). Inputs and outputs are highly customizable. You can set them so that a part of the screen lights up when you shake a controller, or make a blue controller vibrate when an IR sticker is detected by the infrared camera on the red controller. You can also have outputs be dependent on multiple inputs, which was the part I had the most difficulty with.
Via Averagemaker
I’m a gamer at times – I like to pillage innocent villages and build houses with blocks as much as the next guy.
I’ve never really mixed my addiction to gaming with my love for electronics, however I finally found a cool way of merging the two in aggressive harmony.
Today I’m showing you my Arduino Backlight project – great for games, films and anything else noisy!
First up, here’s a 60-second video of what the Arduino backlight looks like in action once fitted:
As you can see, when loud things happen, the Adafruit sound sensor picks that up, which makes the LEDs flare up behind my screen, adding an awesome immersion that makes it actually feel like I’m participating in hopeless trench warfare!
It’s all about loudness. Loud thing = flash.
From TED Ed:
As far as we know, there’s only one thing in our solar system sophisticated enough to study itself: the human brain. But this self-investigation is challenging because a living brain is shielded by skull, swaddled in tissue, and made up of billions of tiny cells. How do we study living brains without harming their owners?
Want to give your Labo piano new sounds but don’t want to trace & cut out cardboard waveforms?
Hunter Irving shares his process & files for making waveform cards with a 3D printer. He even uses some instrument samples for the source waveforms –
… this is very cool and could easily be adapted for use with a CNC milling machine.
Check out the site for more infos.
Real People Are Turning Their Accounts Into Bots On Instagram — And Cashing In.
Sitting in his small, lofted bedroom in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, Kent Heckel picked up a palm-sized computer off a ledge next to his bed and explained how it’s home to more than 2,900 Instagram bots. The computer, called a Raspberry Pi, is a $35 hobby machine designed for students, teachers, and tinkerers. For Heckel, it’s been something else: a bot farm, delivering a stream of US-based likes to his Instagram account and the accounts of five paying clients.
Heckel’s bot farm is not a complex operation. He uses the Raspberry Pi to run a script that checks his and his clients’ accounts every few seconds. When the script sees a new post, it logs into each of the 2,900 accounts it controls and uses them to like it. The script can automate up to three likes per second. It pulls the bots’ usernames and passwords from a spreadsheet Heckel bought access to on Telegram’s Black Market group for approximately $1,600 last year. For Heckel, the bot and Fuelgram come together masterfully. In April alone, he’s used them to make $12,000.
Postin’ for the Pi part.
Via the University of Oxford
It was already thought that the subthalamic nucleus might play an important role in balancing the opposing demands of speed and accuracy during decision-making. Scientists suspected that it helped us delay decisions for the optimum amount of time, to enable the best choice to be made in any given situation. But our own research reveals that this part of the brain gets involved in adjusting these ‘decision thresholds’ at a very particular and brief moment during the process of deliberation.
The aim of our new study was to probe the mechanisms by which the subthalamic nucleus influences decision-making. We were able to do this using deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s patients (an intervention which has been shown to be very successful in alleviating some of the movement symptoms related to this condition).
Read more here.
Via The Atlantic
One energy-harvesting strategy involves converting energy from vibrations, pressure, and other mechanical stresses to electrical energy. This approach, producing what is known as piezoelectricity, is often used in loudspeakers and microphones.
A commonly used piezoelectric material is lead zirconate titanate, whose lead content raises concerns that it might prove too toxic for use with humans. “But for lead to decompose from the structures, they would have to be heated to temperatures higher than 700 degrees Celsius,” Dagdeviren says. “You’ll never reach such temperatures in the body.”
To take advantage of piezoelectricity, Dagdeviren and her colleagues have developed flat devices that can be stuck onto organs and muscles such as the heart, lungs, and diaphragm. These devices are “mechanically invisible” in that their mechanical properties are similar to whatever they are laminated onto, so they don’t hinder those tissues when they move.
Read more here.
Via Engadget:
Ohio’s Ashland University’s new eSports program will be the first in the US to offer player scholarships for the wildly popular battle royale game Fortnite. They’ll hey plan to field a four-player team alongside squads for Overwatch and League of Legends when the program debuts in the collegiate eSports landscape next fall.
The Ohio school’s program was first announced in February, making it the latest university to join a collegiate scene that’s blowing up. Fortnite is an obvious choice for its popularity and surprisingly broad appeal — plus, prospective players can get the game for free. Ashland is offering $4,000 scholarships to their student e-athletes, and will announce open tryouts for its Fortnite squad in the future.
Via FaithisTorment
This ongoing project entitled Lux Noctis by Chicago-based photographer Reuben Wu “depicts landscapes within the framework of traditional landscape photography but influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, 19th-century sublime romantic painting, and science fiction.” Wu imagined these scenes as the familiar transformed into undiscovered landscapes to renew perceptions of our world.
“Each image is a carefully-planned scene consisting of multiple lighting positions, layered to produce a theatrically-lit composition. Using the GPS-enabled aerial light/drone in specific positions in space, I am able to create moods of drama and tension through chiaroscuro, and the ability to illuminate isolated features of a scene and exclude unwanted elements.”
Via Hackster.io:
Display real-time estimate of commute time between two locations based on traffic and historic data on a Character LCD using Raspberry Pi, Python 3 and Google Maps Distance Matrix API. If you have a LCD and a Raspberry Pi lying around or want to purchase one or if you are often late for work like me and want to have a traffic monitor then this project might be for you.
Things used in this project
Hardware components
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
- 20×4 Character LCD
- Jumper wires (generic)
- Breadboard (generic)
- Potentiometer (Optional)
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
How To Raspberry Pi have a siiiiimple step-by-step for running Android (with Play Store) on a Pi, using not-much-more than a few Terminal commands.
This article will explain how to install and configure Android 7.1.1 (with the Play Store) on your raspberry pi.
Above all, it is important to point out that this is only an experimental setup. No version of Android is officially compatible with the raspberry pi and therefore the version we will install is not optimized for our dear motherboard. It is therefore difficult today to use Android on a daily basis on its raspberry pi even if the installation we are going to present turns relatively well.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
This video was sent in by Steve Haan.
Here’s what he had to say:
Thought you might want to see how deep one of your PiZero W has gone in Hood Canal Puget Sound Washington 584’ (178m). https://youtu.be/7dOwVS0H6aA
That ’s a Spotted Ratfish (chimaera) it seems to like the lights along with the worms.That’s segment #5 of the drop on Monday. Segment #1 has a Harbor Seal looking at it as it falls. Oh there are also a couple of your 293D controlling the lights.
Thanks Steve!
You can send any blogtips to support@adafruit.com. Please send with links to the project if you have them along with pictures.
For more details about sending tips to the Adafruit blog, please visit:
https://learn.adafruit.com/how-to-send-a-blogtip-to-adafruit/
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
This video was sent in by Steve Haan.
Here’s what he had to say:
Thought you might want to see how deep one of your PiZero W has gone in Hood Canal Puget Sound Washington 584’ (178m). https://youtu.be/7dOwVS0H6aA
That ’s a Spotted Ratfish (chimaera) it seems to like the lights along with the worms.That’s segment #5 of the drop on Monday. Segment #1 has a Harbor Seal looking at it as it falls. Oh there are also a couple of your 293D controlling the lights.
Thanks Steve!
You can send any blogtips to support@adafruit.com. Please send with links to the project if you have them along with pictures.
For more details about sending tips to the Adafruit blog, please visit:
https://learn.adafruit.com/how-to-send-a-blogtip-to-adafruit/
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
A while ago we made R is for Robots – a coloring book that explores robots, robot makers, and making robot friends. The next ADABOX (008) is all about building your own robots! Sign up now – we’re shipping late June/early July!
AdaBox is curated Adafruit products, unique collectibles, and exclusive discounts. All delivered quarterly. Subscribe now or give AdaBox to a friend.
Today’s letter is E for Elektro!
Wikipedia – Elektro is the nickname of a robot built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in its Mansfield, Ohio facility between 1937 and 1938. Seven feet tall (2.1 m), weighing 265 pounds (120.2 kg), humanoid in appearance, he could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words (using a 78-rpm record player), smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move his head and arms. Elektro’s body consisted of a steel gear, cam and motor skeleton covered by an aluminum skin. His photoelectric “eyes” could distinguish red and green light. He was on exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and reappeared at that fair in 1940, with “Sparko”, a robot dog that could bark, sit, and beg to humans.
AdaBox 008 – MAKE ROBOT FRIEND! (video).
A school project from the University of Glasogow Embedded Programing class. Via Hackaday:
Intended to combat the harsh and dangerous winters in Glasgow, their system uses a Raspberry Pi and a suite of sensors to automatically deploy a brine solution to streets and sidewalks. While the project is still only a proof of concept and hasn’t been deployed, the work the team has done so far runs the gamut from developing their own PCBs to creating a web-based user interface.
The core idea is simple. If the conditions are right for ice to form, spray salt water. Using salt water is a cheap and safe way of clearing and preventing ice as it simply drops the temperature at which water freezes. The end result is that the ice won’t form until it gets down to 10F (-12C) or so. Not a perfect solution, but it can definitely help. Of course, you don’t want to spray people with salt water as they pass by, so there’s a bit more to it than that.
Using the venerable DHT22 sensor the team can get the current temperature and humidity, which allows them to determine when it’s time to start spraying. But to prevent any wet and angry pedestrians, a HC-SR501 PIR motion sensor is used. If the system sees motion it will stop for a while to let the activity quiet down.
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Via Salmg.net
Intro
Moving data from one location to another sometimes could be complicated and challenging. Occasionally, the distance that your project needs to cover is out of the range of normal radio specifications. If we talk about CC1101 scenarios, we could talk about many different factors that could affect the communication: from frequency, dBm limitations to a clear and flat environments.
Even some restrictions and limitations in hardware and software should be considered to expand the link between the two radios connection. Some of the ideas and libraries of this post come from my last SDR post with Raspberry Pi and CC1101.
The idea
Imagine that you have to move data from the location of Raspberry Pi #1 to Raspberry Pi #2 but the distance is the problem. How you can design something cheap and adequate to use it as “Extender”?
Hardware
If you make a research about different SDR radios or possible alternatives, LoRa radio technology could be an option. Also the nrf24l01 radio is a good alternative which implements high frequency(2.4GHz), and it is cheap as well.
I prefer to use the CC1101s because their library is very stable for Raspberry Pi; and the most important part is that I can use them in different frequencies: 315, 433, 868, 915 MHz if I decide to implement another projects with them.
Software
The SpaceTeddy library is our best option to implement the “Extender” idea with Raspberry Pis.
The “Extender” is going to be another Raspberry Pi with a CC1101 radio as well. To do this, we have to enumerate the radios to know where to send the packets or from where we will receive them:
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Alien Day was yesterday, April 26 — it’s a reference to the moon in Aliens, designated LV-426. It’s never too late to celebrate a Xenomorph though, so we’re admiring a pint-sized Alien costume Replica Prop Forum (RPF) user Red2 made for his six-year-old son for Halloween 2017. Red2 built the creature from a base of insulation foam, hoses, and more. He explains his plans:
“So plan is to make the head from insulation foam with tube details from various hoses, and plastic wire sheathing. The jaw will be cut and molded out of EVA, and I think the teeth also. Hoping to get the jaw to work. Still figuring that out.
The body will be similar details, plus soft foam, EVA foam, and whatever works. I’m trying to find a used kids wet suit to chop up and layer upon. We’ll see if that ever surfaces.”
You can see the general shape coming together in the below picture.
Read more and see making of photos in this thread on The Aliens Legacy.
