Getting Ready for Maker Faire NY!

Call me strange, but I’m a big fan of planning and logistics, so I’m pumped that everything is set for our trip to Maker Faire NY next week!
We’re only 8 days, 20 hours, 35 minutes and 12, no 8 seconds away from Maker Faire New York 2012. This will be my first Maker Faire, so I’m really excited to head down and see what projects people have been working on. I’ve read through the list of Makers and can’t wait to sneak away to check out their projects.
I’m heading down with Mike, Justin and Rith, who have all been to...

[Перевод] Лазер на шариках от подшипника

Фото © fabymartin.com
Недавно в журнале «New Scientist» была опубликована интересная статья, рассказывающая о разработке лазеров с изменяемой длиной волны. Ознакомившись с оригинальной работой на сайте arXiv.org, и взглянув на схему экспериментальной установки, я решил, что это устройство достаточно простое, чтобы его собрать самостоятельно.
Основная идея заключается в том, чтобы ввести в рабочее тело лазера на красителях множество отражающих шариков и встряхивать их так быстро, чтобы они вели себя, как будто находятся во взвешенном состоянии. Затем производится накачка красителя внешним источником излучения, а изменяя частоту колебаний, можно отфильтровывать различные длины волн лазерного излучения, которое испускается красителем.
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How to connect a cellular modem on your Android and BeagleBoard on boot up

Last week, I wrote a tutorial about how to get a 3G/4G cellular modem working on my Android/BeagleBoard setup. The next question (after everything works) is, how can I get this running automatically every time I boot up my Android device?
Boot scripts are nothing too fancy, and anyone with some basic Linux or Android experience can navigate this process pretty easily. But I always find it helpful to have the actual scripts written out. As a beginner, it’s a great way to figure out what the commands actually mean, and as an advanced developer, it’s a huge timesaver to copy...

How to install a 3G/4G cellular modem on my Android BeagleBoard setup

A lot of folks have been asking me about this one, so I figured it’s about time to pull together my notes on the tutorial and get started…
In this case, I used an Android Ultimate Pro Kit, which runs Android 2.3.4 on the BeagleBoard xM/BeagleTouch/BeagleJuice, 2nd Gen.
Note: There’s a much sleeker (beta) way to get cell modems running in Android with the new PPP widget from Draisberghof. I haven’t tried it out yet, and hooking up modems the old-fashioned way helped me learn a few useful tips and tricks in navigating ADB, so I’m writing it all out here. Enjoy!
Hardware...

Introducing the Dual-Core Android 4 Dev Kit for PandaBoard

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=JfAT2k7OGFA

With dual-core processors and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, at least) a mainstay of smartphones and tablets, some folks suggested it was about time for the Beagle Embedded Starter Kit and Android Hardware Development Kit to get a big brother…
After quite a few months of requests, Chris and I got Android 4 running on the PandaBoard, along with an HDMI adapter board and some drivers to get the PandaBoard a “DIY tablet kit” of its own.
Just as the name suggests, the Dual-core Android 4 Dev Kit consists of the dual-core OMAP 4430 PandaBoard, Android 4 ICS (with Android serial...

Twittering shark laser intrusion detection system, in honor of Shark Week

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=wHJpeQcUvSM

Thanks again @bbenchoff for the post about the DIY perpetually-powered wireless outpost on @hackaday! A lot of good discussion on natural/perpetual power sources :)
I got an email from Dan earlier this week about making a fish tracking aquarium. Being that we’re right in the middle of Shark Week, I respectfully obliged…
This may or may not have implications for real-life shark tracking, but I’ll take an excuse to have my shark tweet me when he (or she, I’m no marine biologist) breaches the perimeter over to the sunny side of the tank.
Of course, I’m doing this with my toy...

Recap: "Forever Sensor" at the RI Mini Maker Faire

On Saturday, Rith and I loaded up the car, and took the 30 minute ride down to Providence, RI for the 4th Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire!
During the faire, I had chance to explain the concept of the mystery box, and the rooster call it kept making.  The younger and artistic audience really like the concept of a digital rooster, and the engineers truly appreciated the technical hurdles or the DIY perpetually-powered wireless environmental study project.
At first, the customized Android Tablet, 2 deep cycle marine batteries, the Arduino, the light sensor, the temperature/ humidity sensor, the solar panels and Pelican...

How to build a DIY perpetually-powered wireless outpost

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=_ZY_d-CL0t0

Earlier this week, I had a mystery box of electronics and was looking for something to do with it. Thanks to Bryan from New Zealand, who asked about creating a wireless farm monitoring outpost…

The idea of a perpetual power supply comes up now and again, mostly in the context of a remote outpost. Naturally, the idea of creating mesh networks in the wild and digital dead drops appeal to my inner Bourne, but that’s a story for a different day.

This project is really broken out into two parts: the perpetual powering, and then doing something useful with...

Powering my Raspberry Pi with the BeagleJuice, 2nd Gen Battery

My Raspberry Pi finally showed up today! Naturally, an unboxing event was in order…

I haven’t gotten around to setting up my SD card yet, but I just wanted to see if it would power on with the BeagleJuice sitting on my desk. In theory, it should work, since the BeagleJuice outputs 5V from each of the 2-pin molex connectors.

I took the micro USB cable that I spliced last week and plugged it into the Raspberry Pi…

…then I connected the other end to the BeagleJuice.

And voila! The Raspberry Pi powers on, as indicated...

What project should I do today?

Chris and I were kicking around a few ideas on excuses to get out of the office and work on some interesting projects while we’re at it. I’ve personally gotten quite a few emails for some cool projects, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone.

As a huge fan of The Ben Heck Show, as well as Ladyada’s Ask an Engineer, I thought some kind of interactive weekly Youtube show might be a fun experiment that could also get some local Boston makers involved as well. It also solves the $1,000,000,000 question (that I wake up to...