Entries from January 2010 ↓

[Kenneth] built a 5v controlled power outlet inside of a junction box. We’ve seen plenty of projects that can switch 120v outlets using 5v logic for refrigerator controllers, lighting controllers, or grow systems, but they almost always use solid state relays to facilitate the switching. This iteration uses mechanical relays along with the necessary protection circuitry. The project is housed in an extra deep single-gang box and allows for individual switching of the two outlets. You can see this connected to an Arduino switching two lamps after the break.

[Thanks Mightysinetheta]

[Micah] was inspired by projects he had seen of people using the Wii balance board as an input. He realized the balance board was overkill, and pricey for many applications. Since it is basically just 4 weight sensors, he thought, why not just use a scale? Often, only one sensor is needed and they’re really cheap from big box stores. He picked up a digital scale and cracked it open. As he moved forward, he wanted to keep this pretty simple. There are other ways of getting the information from a scale, but they have been generally more complicated than what he had in mind. He ended up bypassing the internal unknown microcontroller and just connecting the analog sensors to his parallax setup. You can read all about the process an download some source code on his site.

[via Flickr]

I find that I do a lot of fun projects but I’m very bad about documenting them when I’m done. Holidays are for hacking (in my mind) so I usually plan ahead and do something cool during my time off. This project, which I loving call the Autodine-2009, was a spontaneous event over Thanksgiving that I’m just getting around to writing about.

Our cat’s want to be fed at 6am and are very insistent about it. Like most folks, I’d rather be sleeping at that time of day so I built an automatic cat feeder. Now we sleep while the cats eat. We don’t want to rely on a hack to feed our cats when we’re away so I didn’t go the route of an Internet-enabled multiple-dose feeder. Instead, I used parts on hand to create a single-serving dispenser on a timer. A servo rotates a false bottom to gravity-feed the cat food. The servo doesn’t have control circuitry so it is controlled through an h-bridge (I did have to buy 2 transistors for that) by an AVR ATmega8 microcontroller. There are two salvaged tactile switches to set the time and timer, and a serial LCD display that I’ve had sitting around for years. Power comes from an old cell phone charger a friend had just given me that spawned the feeder idea when I asked myself “hmmm, what can I use this for”?

I’ll demonstrate this recycled device for you in a video after the break. This wasn’t as hardcore as my AVR Tetris build but I’m much happier now that I can sleep in a bit.

This is an Amazon Kindle DX with a Sparkfun Bluetooth Mate stuck in it. [Darron] hacked the two together in order to have a wireless serial terminal on the device. There are three big pads in the middle of the Kindle PCB labelled GND, RX and TX, making it easy to figure out those connections. Getting voltage was a bit more difficult. He managed to find 4V coming off of one side of the Kindle’s wakeup switch which works well because the Bluetooth Mate has a voltage regulator on board. To protect the Bluetooth module he modified it to pull-up the TX from the on-board regulated 3.3V rather than the 4V coming in from the Kindle.

He’s also been doing some software work on the device now that he has easy access to it. Along the lines of the Ubuntu-on-Kindle hack from September, he’s compiled QT for the Kindle and written a couple of programs such as Sudoku to show that it works.

Marble Junker

Here’s a quick and dirty kinetic sculpture. It’s a track for a steel marble to roll around in with a magnet on a rotating wheel to pick it up and start it over again. Not every hack has to be a beautiful masterpiece, they just need to be fun. Of course, if this were an incredibly complicated piece it probably wouldn’t have ended up in a links post.

Eight-eyed Computer

[AlexP] has been involved in the NUI Group and in writing drivers for the PS3 Eye. This time around he’s got eight of them running on one computer at 60fps. Security cameras come to mind but this could be useful in a lot of projects. We’d be interested in seeing what you come up with. [Thanks Kyle]

Urine-gone

If you have a problem with folks peeing on your stoop then this is the answer. [Hannes Nehls] put together a urinating-drunkard deterrent by placing a humidity sensor in the (achem…) trouble-spot and a small tube above. When they pee on the sensor, it pees right back on them. Video available if you click through to the link.

Amplifier Tutorial

If you’re a little shaky when it comes to understanding and working with amplifiers this tutorial is for you. It’ll walk you through the basic concepts, then apply that knowledge in a simple op-amplifier circuit.

Severed Heads

It’s always nice to end a links post with something creepy. These faces are made from a cast of the artist’s face. They sing a trio of nonsense and it’s the life-like movements combined with the obviously mechanical backend that tingles our spine. But they’re really just a novelty and not the real thing. [Thanks Browneyedalbino][via Powered by Nerd]

[Kieran] let us know about his hybrid analog/binary clock. The circuitry behind the clock is nothing too new. An Arduino combined with a Chronodot to produce an accurate clock. What we really enjoyed however was the creative implementation of an old British Telecom Linesman’s Multimeter as the case. The analog meter acts as the seconds hand, while a another display made of LEDs diffused with stripboard is the binary clock. The end product is nothing short of ingenuitive.

[Simon Inns] designed a circuit board to retrofit an original Simon electronic game. This hack is immediately a win because he made sure that his design required no modification of the original case. The new PCB has many improvements. It moves the device from using 2 D-cells over to a 9 volt battery, the incandescent bulbs were out swapped out for three LEDs per button, and the use of tactile switches makes the buttons a lot more responsive (but does require a bit of modification to the colored button covers). Under the hood there’s a PIC18F2550 controlling a serial LCD chip and handling input monitoring and sound generation. The video after the break is safe to watch at work, there’s no swearing involved this time.

[Pat Metheny] has a robot armada backing him up when he performs on stage. They’re going on tour and he’s done an interview explaining his mechanical band. Like the auto-drummer, this setup uses multitudes of solenoids to play the percussion instruments, each getting commands from a computer. It’s pretty wicked to see him use his guitar as a marimba controller; it’s so responsive that he can tremolo and the solenoid follows in kind.

But there’s a lot more going on here. We love to see crazy facial hair from time-to-time, but this guy’s just got crazy hair! This easy listening isn’t exactly hair-band material but more like live-action Animusic. It’s also reminiscent of the automated orchestras at House on the Rock, an attraction you may remember reading about in American Gods. It’s fun to kid, but whether you like the music or not, he’s certainly talented when it comes to this genre.

[Thanks Grey]

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

The Haptic Guide team took a moment of their time for us today. Their N900 hack is a belt that helps point you in the right direction with motors. But after our interview we found out they had much much bigger plans. Remember to check their blog for updates – including new video of their progress (sweet flexible circuit boards guys!)

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

[Mike] and [Tim] worked together at Dell for nearly two years.  After the call center in Edmonton closed, they maintained contact and soon decided to compete against each other in the Microsoft “embeddedSPARK” competition in 2008/2009.  Even though they were competing against each other, they worked together often while figuring out the Window CE development tools.  [Tim] has strong skills with software development and [Mike] is strong with hardware development.  While helping each other complete their projects, they discovered that they made a really good team.  When the Nokia PUSH competition came about, they decided to work together on it.

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

We have competed (against each other) in the Microsoft “embeddedSPARK” 2008/2009 competition and have both made it to round 2 of the 2009/2010 competition as well.  We also occasionally work on side projects both individually and together as hobbyists.
The PUSH N900 competition was our first joint venture into the world of cell phone hacking.  [Tim] had previously experimented lightly in building applications for Windows Mobile devices, but no other platforms.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

[Mike] has liked the idea of a haptic compass since he first read about one.  We spent an evening brainstorming in preparation for the PUSH competition and the idea of doing something with a haptic compass kept floating back to the surface.  We decided to expand on the idea, as a haptic compass by itself was nothing new.  Instead, we decided it would be perfectly complimented with a cell phone like the N900 to give it much more capability and even a social aspect.

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

We largely suspect people will react in one of two ways.  First, there will be a large group of people that have never seen the like before and will look at it with an open mind and see the great potential of the product.  Second, there will be a group of people that have seen a haptic compass before and will make the incorrect assumption that the project is just an unoriginal copy of that.  We hope that the second group will look at the project again and realize that the belt itself is only a tool to help realize the larger picture.
There is a much larger vision for the Haptic Guide project than most people might realize.  The primary focus on the blogs has been around the belt, which is a critical component, but the fact is that it is the N900 gives the project its primary value.  The N900 is able to take photos and automatically encode them with geo-tags.  These photos can then be shared online or sent to friends and they can use their N900 and the Haptic Guide software to load the photo and automatically be guided in a step-by-step manner to where that photo was taken.  This provides a lot of value because you no longer need to type or talk in the location you want to go to, neither by address nor by latitude/longitude coordinates.  You just need a photo of the location and the software breaks down the current and target locations into turn by turn directions just like you would find on a commercial GPS navigator.  This is where belt comes into play; it eliminates the need to constantly watch the screen or listen for directions.  Now you can have the phone in the holder or your pocket and be walking down the street and subconsciously following the vibrations in the belt without any distraction whatsoever from the environment around you.  It is the perfect touring device.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

Going forward, we plan to develop other devices similar to the belt design so there is more than one option of a wearable device.  Such things might include a wristband or armband, a watch with lights to indicate the direction, hats, etc.  Also, we might look into the possibility of setting up an online geo-coded photo sharing service so you can plan a tour of locations you are visiting.  Take a picture of a landmark, post it on the service, and people in the area can find the photo and go to that location if they choose to.

>What do you think of the other winners?

The other winners of the competition have been great.  There is a very interesting mix of people across the teams, from geeks to artists.  Also, the teams have been great as far as sharing information.  For example, when [Tim] was getting started with the application development, Introcept from the Lighthack Crew was happy to share the details of his Bluetooth implementation which gave [Tim] what he needed to get the ball rolling.

>Questions from our commentators.

>What are your thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

There is no denying that the Arduino is a great learning and prototyping tool.  For our prototypes, we are using the Arduino Mini Pro.  We chose this because of the size constraints, outputs and processing power we might need.  In a production environment, we would use an appropriate chip and design the circuits directly.  But ultimately, this is just a prototype and the Arduino works great for it.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

At first, working with the N900 was like diving into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim.  But this was largely because [Tim] had never worked with any of the N900/Linux development tools before.  Anyone familiar with C, C++, or Python coding in a Linux environment would likely have no problem at all with creating applications for it.  The development tools are very compatible.  In many cases, all it takes to get a desktop GTK application working on the phone at its absolute most basic, is to recompile the source code using the Scratchbox compiler and copy the files to the phone.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

Open source software is almost always a step in the right direction.  The real value of the Maemo environment is that the open source tools allow you to simply copy a Python script, for example, from one platform to another and it will just work.  [Tim] has considered Android development for the future, but will likely stick to the N900 because of its open platform.

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

We are currently using a small 2000 mAh Lithium Polymer battery to power the haptic belt.  Because of the motor selection we chose to use, the belt gets pretty good battery life: around 12 hours of constant use.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

For our prototypes, we chose to use mostly standard modular parts, most of which can be purchased at sparkfun.com.  Each belt has the following major parts:
1 x  Arduino Pro Mini (3.3V)
1 x  BlueSmirf Gold Module
1 x  HMC6352 Compass Module
8 x  Vibration Motor
1 x  Polymer Lithium Ion Battery – 2000 mAh
A double layer leather belt
One Nokia N900 (optional.  Without it, the belt acts like a regular compass always pointing to magnetic north)
BlinkM I2C LEDs (optional)

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Because there are so many possible amusing answers, we will decline to answer and see what the other teams say.

Thank you again!

The iPad, announced earlier this week,  has been a massive media extravaganza. Some people were elated, and some let down. We’ve been asked over and over what our thoughts on the device are. Join us after the break to find out.

[Caleb]–My grandma would love this. I really think that she is their target. It is easy to use, portable, and has a custom interface that removes all of the windows style interface cruft. Personally, I don’t need one. I have an iPhone (yes, I know most of you hate them). The iPad offers me nothing that my iPhone doesn’t, except a larger screen.

I am excited though. I’m excited at the prospect of a mid level touch screen tablet with an appliance style interface becoming common. I can’t wait to see the knockoffs that can run Linux with a custom interface. The knockoffs that will actually have USB ports, and a non wobbly back. Those same knockoffs that will most likely have a front facing camera. I want one of those.

As far as hackability goes, this might actually be fairly hackable. The processor isn’t actually as proprietary as some would think. It is ARM based, and not too different from some other devices we’ve seen. It appears as though they planned for a camera. There might even be a spot on the motherboard for it. I fully expect to see it “jailbroken”, but what I WANT to see is the guts modified. I want to see home hackers add external storage (card slot), load a different operating system, up the storage. Then again, I thought the same thing about the iPhones and iPod touches, but haven’t seen hardware hacks at all really.

[Mike]–This is the first I’ve heard of the iPad. I got soooooo tired of all the apple tablet rumors that I quit paying attention. I run Linux only and unless this device will sync out of the box with my Linux systems I’m not interested. I also don’t usually do hardware hacks on anything that cost me more than $250 but buy so I’m not going to be cracking the case open on this thing anytime soon.

[James] — The iPad has the opportunity to be a great product, but probably not for me, and probably not for most of our readers. It markets itself to the casual internet user who wants to listen to music, browse Facebook, or watch Youtube on the couch rather than the hardcore photo editor, writer, or programmer. I am excited to see someone like Apple really push the market, and cant wait to see the responses, especially from people like MSI and Asus. Personally, I’m waiting for someone to make a really great convertible tablet netbook with native support for Linux.

[Jakob] — I hate Apple products, I mean almost with a passion. But I actually do own an iPhone – and I admit, it is one slick nice device. Small, powerful, convenient – all things the iPad is not. Its like Apple couldnt decide on making yet another iPhone revision or a full tablet PC and decided to give us a semi nerfed iPad instead. From what I’ve heard, there is no multitasking and several other features that – if can be included on the iPhone – why did they remove it from the iPad? Final note: being an apple product, its  about $500 more then it should be.

(And it doesn’t even come with wings for extra absorption)

[Devlin] — Meh, I don’t think there is going to be much to do with hacking the iPad, I won’t buy one because I don’t see a reason for having it. If others have the same thought, not many people are going to be buying the iPad and therefore not many people are going to be hacking the iPad.

The iPad, announced earlier this week,  has been a massive media extravaganza. Some people were elated, and some let down. We’ve been asked over and over what our thoughts on the device are. Join us after the break to find out.

[Caleb]–My grandma would love this. I really think that she is their target. It is easy to use, portable, and has a custom interface that removes all of the windows style interface cruft. Personally, I don’t need one. I have an iPhone (yes, I know most of you hate them). The iPad offers me nothing that my iPhone doesn’t, except a larger screen.

I am excited though. I’m excited at the prospect of a mid level touch screen tablet with an appliance style interface becoming common. I can’t wait to see the knockoffs that can run Linux with a custom interface. The knockoffs that will actually have USB ports, and a non wobbly back. Those same knockoffs that will most likely have a front facing camera. I want one of those.

As far as hackability goes, this might actually be fairly hackable. The processor isn’t actually as proprietary as some would think. It is ARM based, and not too different from some other devices we’ve seen. It appears as though they planned for a camera. There might even be a spot on the motherboard for it. I fully expect to see it “jailbroken”, but what I WANT to see is the guts modified. I want to see home hackers add external storage (card slot), load a different operating system, up the storage. Then again, I thought the same thing about the iPhones and iPod touches, but haven’t seen hardware hacks at all really.

[Mike]–This is the first I’ve heard of the iPad. I got soooooo tired of all the apple tablet rumors that I quit paying attention. I run Linux only and unless this device will sync out of the box with my Linux systems I’m not interested. I also don’t usually do hardware hacks on anything that cost me more than $250 but buy so I’m not going to be cracking the case open on this thing anytime soon.

[James] — The iPad has the opportunity to be a great product, but probably not for me, and probably not for most of our readers. It markets itself to the casual internet user who wants to listen to music, browse Facebook, or watch Youtube on the couch rather than the hardcore photo editor, writer, or programmer. I am excited to see someone like Apple really push the market, and cant wait to see the responses, especially from people like MSI and Asus. Personally, I’m waiting for someone to make a really great convertible tablet netbook with native support for Linux.

[Jakob] — I hate Apple products, I mean almost with a passion. But I actually do own an iPhone – and I admit, it is one slick nice device. Small, powerful, convenient – all things the iPad is not. Its like Apple couldnt decide on making yet another iPhone revision or a full tablet PC and decided to give us a semi nerfed iPad instead. From what I’ve heard, there is no multitasking and several other features that – if can be included on the iPhone – why did they remove it from the iPad? Final note: being an apple product, its  about $500 more then it should be.

(And it doesn’t even come with wings for extra absorption)

[Devlin] — Meh, I don’t think there is going to be much to do with hacking the iPad, I won’t buy one because I don’t see a reason for having it. If others have the same thought, not many people are going to be buying the iPad and therefore not many people are going to be hacking the iPad.

It’s important to point out that Nintendo counts all four iterations of the DS in its life-to-date sales numbers. Considering each version has a number of improvements over previous versions, we’re sure there’s plenty of overlap among consumers. Still, there’s no denying that Nintendo’s latest hardware lineup has been incredibly successful, even if it was slightly less successful in 2009.

[Via Shacknews]

[Andrew] takes his coffee very seriously and like any hardcore aficionado he wanted to do the roasting himself. The coffee roaster design uses a heat gun for the roasting and sources an old bread maker as a vessel. As part of the automatic bread making process there’s a little agitator arm inside which keeps the beans moving while the heat is applied. A computer controls the heat gun, adjust with feedback from a temperature sensor. We had a bit of a laugh reading about melted temperature sensors, but design flaws aside this computer interface allows rather strict control of the roasting profile.

Reader [Youseff] tipped us off about this after seeing the Popcorn Coffee Bean roaster from last week.

[Davross] pulled off an LED lighting build for his coral aquarium. The module consists of a wooden body holding a 3×16 grid of LEDs. They are mounted to heat sinks which themselves have cooling fans to help keep those puppies from melting. The system is controlled by an Arduino which allows for almost limitless lighting options. The photo above shows the LEDs running at 50%. He’s also taken some photos of the tank in “moonlight” mode. It’s a long and detailed forum thread but you can skip to some nice photos of the coral under the lights or details about the build.

[Thanks Passmadd]

Several of you were rather angry with us yesterday for our competition. Those not in the loop, our email competition@hackaday.com was not correctly configured and no body could send in their entries!

But have no fear, we have fixed the problem and now you can send in your guesses. To remedy the situation we have decided to extend the competition until 10AM PST Monday the 1st of February, 2010. We will announce the winner (so long as nothing else fails) Monday afternoon. So what are you doing here still reading? Time is wasting – go win some tickets!

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

Todays team interview is KAPing with the N900. They’re N900 hack is the high flying Kite Aerial Photography. Check out what they have to say after the break. And be sure to keep up on their blog – they’ve released their first test video just a few days ago.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

Hi there, I’m [Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira], from the “KAPing with the N900″
project.

First of all, I’m a big fan of Hack-a-Day (even if I was not able to
read it for quite some time), so I’m happy to answer your questions.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

My other teammate is my wife. Lot’s of fun stories, but none related to
this project (yet).

Hmm… on second thought, here’s one: my wife’s stepfather was helping
us out when we were filming for the project. I asked him to assemble our
largest kite (a Maxi-Dopero, a bit larger than 4m x 2m) in the
background while I was giving an interview. We couldn’t stop laughing
when we saw the footage: he appeared scratching his had all the time, as
if he had no idea of what he was doing! Because, in fact, he didn’t!

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

We have never worked on anything like this before. We never had or used
an N900 or Arduino before this project.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

I’ve been practicing KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) since 2005, and I
always wanted a powerful yet simple to use KAP controller, so my
inspiration was my necessity. I already had planned to use an N900 for
this even before the launch of the Push N900 project. When I found out
about it, I did a bit of research and just submitted our project.

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

I hope more people will get to know about KAP, the N900, and use our
software and guidelines to develop their own KAP systems.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

This project is addictive! So the answer is yes, I plan to keep
updating my system and also develop other hardware and software
solutions for the N900.

>What do you think of the other winners?

They all have great and interesting projects, each one tackling
different problems and facing different challenges. I’m looking forward
to meet them and their creations in London!

>Questions from our commentators.
>
>What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

I never used one before, but decided to use an Arduino Duemilanove after
reading the “PUSH N900 Hacker’s guide”. It will control two servo motors
with commands received from the N900 via Bluetooth.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

Awesome! It’s like programming a desktop system. Since I’m a software
engineer with Unix experience, I felt at home with the device right from
the start.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

I’m a big fan of both Nokia and Google for this. You can feel you really
“own” your device if it has one of these systems.

I always admired both Maemo and Android, but when I was looking for my
next gadget, I elected the N900 because Maemo seemed more mature and
with much better support for applications written in C / compiled into
native code. Of course, this opens more opportunities for processor
intensive applications than Android’s Dalvik Java virtual machine.

(Obs.: I know you can write native code for the Android, but AFAIK, it’s
not as simple as is on the Maemo, which supports it on the official SDK.)

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

This will depend *a lot* on the settings and how the system is used, but
my guess is that both motors and phone batteries will be good for
sessions longer than an hour. This is usually more than sufficient for a
good KAP session.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

Here’s my ingredients list:
- two N900 devices
- one Arduino Duemilanove
- one BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth modem
- two servo motors
- one Picavet suspension
- one rig to hold the motors and one N900
- one Rokkaku kite
- one pair of gloves
- one winder
- a lot of line

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Please see my answer below. Should take just a couple of seconds for
some people do understand what this really is.

  ''=~('(?{'.('`'|'%').('['^'-').('`'|'!').('`'|',').'"'.(
  '['^'+').('['^')').('`'|')').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
  '[').'\\"\\\\'.('`'|'.').('`'^'!').('`'|'.').('`'|'$').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'(').('['^'"').('{'^'[').(('`')|
  '$').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('['^'"').('`'|'/').('['^'.').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'!').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
     '[').('['^'/').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('`'|'+').('`'|
        '.').('`'|'/').('['^',').'?\\\\'.('`'|"\.").
           '\\\\'.('`'|'.').'\\";"})');$:='.'^'~'
             ;$~='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';$/='`'|'.';
               $,='('^'}';$\='`'|'!';$:="\)"^
                 '}';$~='*'|'`';$^='+'^'_';
                  $/='&'|'@';$,='['&'~';$\
                   =','^'|';$:='.'^'~';$~
                    ='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';
                     $/='`'|'.';$,='('^
                      '}';$\='`'|"\!";
                       $:=')'^'}';$~=
                       '*'|'`';$^='+'
                        ^'_';$/='&'|
                        '@';$,="\[";

Thank you!

Not too long ago we asked our readers what they would like to hear about from the PUSH N900 winners and their hacks. We got some silly questions, and some serious, we asked both and now the PUSH teams have answered.

Todays team interview is KAPing with the N900. They’re N900 hack is the high flying Kite Aerial Photography. Check out what they have to say after the break. And be sure to keep up on their blog – they’ve released their first test video just a few days ago.

>Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for HackaDay. We love when a hacker is willing to share their work with us.

Hi there, I’m [Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira], from the “KAPing with the N900″
project.

First of all, I’m a big fan of Hack-a-Day (even if I was not able to
read it for quite some time), so I’m happy to answer your questions.

>How did you and your team get together? Any fun backstory you care to share?

My other teammate is my wife. Lot’s of fun stories, but none related to
this project (yet).

Hmm… on second thought, here’s one: my wife’s stepfather was helping
us out when we were filming for the project. I asked him to assemble our
largest kite (a Maxi-Dopero, a bit larger than 4m x 2m) in the
background while I was giving an interview. We couldn’t stop laughing
when we saw the footage: he appeared scratching his had all the time, as
if he had no idea of what he was doing! Because, in fact, he didn’t!

>Have you and your team worked on any other projects? Cellular related projects? N900 projects?

We have never worked on anything like this before. We never had or used
an N900 or Arduino before this project.

>What was your main inspiration for your team’s project?

I’ve been practicing KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) since 2005, and I
always wanted a powerful yet simple to use KAP controller, so my
inspiration was my necessity. I already had planned to use an N900 for
this even before the launch of the Push N900 project. When I found out
about it, I did a bit of research and just submitted our project.

>How do you think people will react when you finish/release?

I hope more people will get to know about KAP, the N900, and use our
software and guidelines to develop their own KAP systems.

>Do you have any future plans with your team? Continued N900 development? Update your current projects?

This project is addictive! So the answer is yes, I plan to keep
updating my system and also develop other hardware and software
solutions for the N900.

>What do you think of the other winners?

They all have great and interesting projects, each one tackling
different problems and facing different challenges. I’m looking forward
to meet them and their creations in London!

>Questions from our commentators.
>
>What are you thoughts on Arduino? Do you intend to use one in your project?

I never used one before, but decided to use an Arduino Duemilanove after
reading the “PUSH N900 Hacker’s guide”. It will control two servo motors
with commands received from the N900 via Bluetooth.

>How is working with the N900 hardware and software?

Awesome! It’s like programming a desktop system. Since I’m a software
engineer with Unix experience, I felt at home with the device right from
the start.

>What do you think about the movement of cell phones towards open source software, such as the Maemo? Do you plan to, or have you ever tried Android?

I’m a big fan of both Nokia and Google for this. You can feel you really
“own” your device if it has one of these systems.

I always admired both Maemo and Android, but when I was looking for my
next gadget, I elected the N900 because Maemo seemed more mature and
with much better support for applications written in C / compiled into
native code. Of course, this opens more opportunities for processor
intensive applications than Android’s Dalvik Java virtual machine.

(Obs.: I know you can write native code for the Android, but AFAIK, it’s
not as simple as is on the Maemo, which supports it on the official SDK.)

>(If you use a secondary power source, example – to run motors) What kind of battery life is expected for your project?

This will depend *a lot* on the settings and how the system is used, but
my guess is that both motors and phone batteries will be good for
sessions longer than an hour. This is usually more than sufficient for a
good KAP session.

>Can we get a list of what you’re using in your project? (example – bluetooth sets, motors, dedicated sensors, etc)

Here’s my ingredients list:
- two N900 devices
- one Arduino Duemilanove
- one BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth modem
- two servo motors
- one Picavet suspension
- one rig to hold the motors and one N900
- one Rokkaku kite
- one pair of gloves
- one winder
- a lot of line

>And yes, we actually had a reader (Joe) ask the following (feel free to omit)
>How often do you change your underwear?

Please see my answer below. Should take just a couple of seconds for
some people do understand what this really is.

  ''=~('(?{'.('`'|'%').('['^'-').('`'|'!').('`'|',').'"'.(
  '['^'+').('['^')').('`'|')').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
  '[').'\\"\\\\'.('`'|'.').('`'^'!').('`'|'.').('`'|'$').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'(').('['^'"').('{'^'[').(('`')|
  '$').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('['^'"').('`'|'/').('['^'.').(
  '{'^'[').('['^',').('`'|'!').('`'|'.').('['^'/').(('{')^
     '[').('['^'/').('`'|'/').('{'^'[').('`'|'+').('`'|
        '.').('`'|'/').('['^',').'?\\\\'.('`'|"\.").
           '\\\\'.('`'|'.').'\\";"})');$:='.'^'~'
             ;$~='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';$/='`'|'.';
               $,='('^'}';$\='`'|'!';$:="\)"^
                 '}';$~='*'|'`';$^='+'^'_';
                  $/='&'|'@';$,='['&'~';$\
                   =','^'|';$:='.'^'~';$~
                    ='@'|'(';$^=')'^'[';
                     $/='`'|'.';$,='('^
                      '}';$\='`'|"\!";
                       $:=')'^'}';$~=
                       '*'|'`';$^='+'
                        ^'_';$/='&'|
                        '@';$,="\[";

Thank you!