Complex Hacks

Terremoto -  Earthquake Sounder based on the 555 Timer

Victor from Roteno Labs has built this Earthquake Sounder based on the 555 Timer called the Terremoto as a submission to the 555 Timer Contest that is running right now. The project is very interesting and yes the 555 Timer isn’t doing any of the heavy lifting in the project and isn’t the most efficient way to make sound but it is an interesting use of the device. “The ECO

Fresh Baked Bread Vending Machine

  There is nothing better than fresh baked bread (well almost nothing). Only problem is that bakeries only make it once or twice a day so the warm and soft fresh out of the oven taste is hard to come by. That has now changed with this innovative  Fresh Baked Bread Vending Machine, pop in some cash and wait a few minutes and out comes some freshly baked french bread.

Nao Robot Demonstration

Our friend Carlos from Carlitos’ Contraptions has joined the Aldebaran Developer Program, they make the Nao humanoid platform. Thanks to Carlos we will get a first hand view into how this robot works and what it can do. At $16,000 it isn’t a toy but as a humanoid development platform that is a decent price. It reminds me a bit of the RoboSapien but is much bigger and has a

DIY Video Chat Robot

Johnny Lee from Procrastineering (who we interviewed about 3 years ago) made a great DIY Video Chat Robot project. He is using a Roomba as the movable robotic platform and a netbook as the video conferencing system. Skype is used to do the actual telepresence. We did an article about the Anybot Telepresence Robot recently which is the same idea in a more polished package but essentially provides the same

Anybot Telepresence Robot

I had a great time meeting the team responsible for creating the Anybot Telepresence Robot. The founder of Anybots is Trevor Blackwell who was featured on Hacked Gadgets about 5 years ago for his cool electric unicycle. There was an Anybot mingling with the people in the Las Vegas Anybots suite, it was being controlled by Ian Danforth who was back at the Anybots head office in Mountain View California.

DIY Electric Car Motor Controller

DIY Electric Vehicles are catching on, Instructables member MPaulHolmes has designed and built this 100 HP DIY Electric Car Motor Controller. You normally see the technique that Paul used when you make a circuit board on a CNC machine. But the reason so much copper was left on the board is because the board is used as power distribution within the controller instead of bundles of wires. So what sort

SARTRE - Self-Driving Auto Train

This is the car I want, reading a paper and drinking a coffee is my idea of a commute! I just hope the driver in the front who is leading the train of autonomous vehicles doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel, have a heart attack or have a drinking problem. Via: Gadget Blog and Geekologie “SARTRE has been researching and developing a new system that enables a convoy of cars