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Posts Tagged ‘DIY’

WASP is built from a retired Army target drone, and creators Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins have crammed all kinds of technology aboard, including an HD camera, a small Linux computer packed with a 340-million-word dictionary for brute-forcing passwords as well as other network hacking implements, and eleven different antennae. Oh, and it’s autonomous; it requires human guidance for takeoff and landing, but once airborne WASP can fly a pre-set route, looping around an area looking for poorly defended data.

And on top of that, the duo has taught their WASP a new way to surreptitiously gather intel from the ground: pose as a GSM cell phone tower to trick phones into connecting through WASP rather than their carriers--a trick Tassey and Perkins learned from another security hacker at Defcon last year.

Tassey and Perkins say they built WASP so show just how easy it is, and just how vulnerable you are. “We wanted to bring to light how far the consumer industry has progressed, to the point where public has access to technologies that put companies, and even governments at risk from this new threat vector that they’re not aware of,” Perkins told Forbes.

Consider yourself warned. For details on the WASP design--including pointers on building your own--check out Tassey and Perkins site here.

[Forbes]

Fortunately, there’s a way to combine the distinct sound and look of tubes with the utility of an iPod dock. I’ve seen a few commercial and DIY tube-amp docks, but they’re expensive, uninspired or both. So I’ve come up with a version that anyone can build for about $400.

It uses a number of off-the-shelf components, including the dock itself and an easy-to-assemble tube-amp kit for the heart of the system. I used the 16LS kit from s5electronics.com, but there are many options depending on how much money you want to spend and how loud you want the amp to be. I built my dock into an aluminum enclosure from Hammond Manufacturing. You can replicate mine or design your own.

Once you’ve made those choices, the most time-consuming part of the project is putting holes in the enclosure and mounting the components. Add a set of speakers, and you’ll have a functional and cool-looking amp you can control with a remote. It isn’t outrageously loud, but it will easily fill a living room with fantastic sound.
Here's how to build your own tube amp. Complete build instructions and diagrams are available here.

Fortunately, there’s a way to combine the distinct sound and look of tubes with the utility of an iPod dock. I’ve seen a few commercial and DIY tube-amp docks, but they’re expensive, uninspired or both. So I’ve come up with a version that anyone can build for about $400.

It uses a number of off-the-shelf components, including the dock itself and an easy-to-assemble tube-amp kit for the heart of the system. I used the 16LS kit from s5electronics.com, but there are many options depending on how much money you want to spend and how loud you want the amp to be. I built my dock into an aluminum enclosure from Hammond Manufacturing. You can replicate mine or design your own.

Once you’ve made those choices, the most time-consuming part of the project is putting holes in the enclosure and mounting the components. Add a set of speakers, and you’ll have a functional and cool-looking amp you can control with a remote. It isn’t outrageously loud, but it will easily fill a living room with fantastic sound.
Here's how to build your own tube amp. Complete build instructions and diagrams are available here.

This gleaming black hexapod could be yours to command

It has only two servos per leg, one for vertical control and one for horizontal, which reduces costs. A system of springs and bar linkages gives the robot added flexibility, according to the Japanese robot blog Robots Dreams. It is designed to handle uneven terrain, although it’s pretty impressive to watch it march, goose-step-style, on a flat surface.

Along with the hexapod kit, Kondo will sell individual legs and parts, so home robot builders can design whatever they want — like heads or tails for cameras, sensors, grippers and other uses. The spider-bot will set you back 76,000 yen, or about $880. Kondo expects to begin shipments in early May, targeting the education and hobbyist markets.

[Robots Dreams]

A graywater system uses shower and sink runoff to flush the toilets. Plus: four more ways to save water at home

Graywater refers to the runoff from sinks, showers and washing machines (as opposed to blackwater, which contains solid waste). With some basic plumbing and a storage tank, it’s easy to recycle that water to flush my house’s four toilets. By using the water twice, I’ll also save wear on my septic system.

The setup is pretty straightforward. Water from the bathroom sinks and showers goes through a chlorination filter and into a holding tank, where it can be pumped to the toilets. (I’m skipping the washing machine and kitchen sinks, since they require additional filtering and I’ll recycle plenty of water from the bathrooms alone.) It’s not difficult to DIY, but the central challenge is monitoring and controlling the level of chlorine in the storage tank. Too little, and you’ll get bacteria in the tank. Too much, and it will kill the bacteria your septic system needs. So I’m using a new setup from a company called Blue Eco Systems that funnels water through a chlorinator to carefully control how much chlorine goes in. Carbon filters on the overflow and bypass lines prevent chlorine from getting back into the septic tank and the toilets, lest my bathroom smell like a swimming pool.

The system uses a pair of 25-gallon tanks—enough for my family of four—but I can easily expand it with more tanks if we have more kids or the in-laws move in.

How the Green Dream's Plumbing Works
Fresh water in: If there’s not enough graywater in the tanks for a flush, the system pulls in regular street water.

Graywater in: Water coming from bathroom sinks and showers

Graywater to Toilets

Carbon filters: Remove the chlorine from the water before it reaches your toilet or septic system so it doesn’t kill the bacteria the septic system needs

Chlorinator: Cleans the graywater to prevent bacterial growth in the tank

Vent

Overflow: Carries extra water out to the septic system so the tank doesn’t overflow

Pump: Sends the water from the tank up to the
toilet tanks

Flow sensor:If the system detects no water flow in 22 hours, it dumps the contents of the tank so it doesn’t sit long enough for any remaining bacteria to grow.

Four More Ways to Save Water at Home

Sprinkler Shutoff
A broken sprinkler can waste 100 gallons in 10 minutes when the irrigation system kicks on in the early-morning hours. This automatic shutoff valve prevents waste by holding water in the irrigation tubes if the sprinkler head is broken, saving about 65 percent more water than a system without one. From $4;

We’re rolling out our annual invention awards today, so it’s perhaps a fitting coincidence that this video should surface of the so-called peasant inventor Wu Yulu, a Chinese farmer and robot hobbyist displaying his whimsical creations at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum.

Following a rich tradition of DIY inventors from China's interior, Wu doesn’t benefit from university backing or a robotics lab of his own, so he instead scavenges rubbish piles for throwaway parts and the odd aesthetic fixture. As such, some of his creations possess a Tim Burton-esque kind of macabre quality: rust-covered drummer boys patched together from scrap marching tirelessly in a circle, or a remote-controlled child-bot that ambles around with an unnaturally spastic gait.

Chinese Peasant Inventors from Malcolm Moore on Vimeo.

And what do his robots do? Mostly, they entertain. Some walk around, some hop about aimlessly like children’s wind-up toys, and one simply jumps off a high platform to be violently caught by a rigid cable strapped to his back. But some do possess a certain degree of functionality. “I had no money to buy a car,” Wu says of his rickshaw bot, a yellow humanoid in a straw hat that tows a passenger-bearing rickshaw cart behind. “So I built my own.”

[Shanghaiist]

For now, the robot only walks in straight lines, but Todo is working on future versions that automatically greets people and naturally avoids objects in its path. More than simply showing off his own amazing ingenuity, Todo hopes his robot serves as an inspiration to other Africans to pursue science, math, and engineering.

But, once again, don't take my word for it! In the video below, check out Todo's robot in action, and hear in his own words the inspirational power of his little bot.

[BotJunkie]