Crazy Hacks

Build a Steel Shotgun Pneumatic Cannon

  You can have some dangerous fun with some pipe supplies from your local home store. This Steel Shotgun Pneumatic Cannon is a good example of that. For more items like this have a look here. "The Steel Pneumatic shotgun is a very simple metal spud cannon, so see how to make it in this video. It is specially designed for C-cell batteries, but will work with any projectile (granted

Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun by Zero Op

   We have seen lots of automated sentry guns over the past year but this Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun by Zero Op is the first I have seen for sale. For about $3000 you could buy the system and have enough left over to buy some paintballs. If you need to guard a large open area this may be just the ticket. Find more paintball gear and supplies at Empire

Rubik's Cube Solving Robot

  We have featured lots of Rubik’s Cube solving robots on Hacked Gadgets. Seems that there are many creative ways to come up with the same result. Since the solution to the actual problem has been well documented the solution turns into a detection of the existing cube orientation and then a method of moving the cube one move at a time in the correct order. Spinning the cube is

Automated Turf Management  - Robotic Lawn Mower

  Have a look at this high tech approach to cutting your lawn. Sanjiv Singh from the Robotic Institute is using technology that we have seen used in many of the DARPA Grand Challenge to cut grass! "Approach The first approach to obstacle detection is color segmentation, which is the ability to distinguish obstacles based on color. We are developing a method that is robust to changes in color due

High-speed Magnetic Levitation

  Bill Beaty has created a neat way for magnets to be levitated. If you build it please be cautious since you could loose your hand if you aren’t careful. "While working on science museum exhibits in 1990 I came up with the above idea: it is known that a spinning metal disk will lift and fling a strong magnet. Therefore, metal rods with opposite spin will lift a magnet

Waterfall Display

  I have seen a few of these waterfall displays before. But this water display has some very impressive patterns. I think if the room lights were dimmer the effect would be enhanced. These systems use many solenoids which are computer controlled to drip at the right time.   Via: HackNMod

Xr-B3 - Trossen Robotics Project

  Trossen Robotics just completed their latest project contest, the Xr-B3 didn’t win but it is a very cool creation! "He is powered by an AVR ATMEGA324P micro controller on a custom board that I made. He is using an XBEE module to communicate with my PC (and eventually with other robots). Onboard sensory includes: 2 Sharp IR sensors (for wall following and obstacle detection), an SRF-05 sonar sensor and