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• AVR programmer modelled after the MkII – uses LUFA
  Here’s a new option for building your own AVR programmer. It’s called the MkII Slim and the diminutive size makes it live up to its name. The design is rather spartan, using just three chips; a voltage regulator, a MAX3002 level converter, and an Atmel AT90USB162 as the main microcontroller. This chip has a built-in [...]
• R/C Hexababy is guaranteed to give you nightmares
  For this week’s hack, [Dino] was working on a mechanical cat toy, but the project fell apart towards the end for some reason or another. With time running out, he had to come up with something on pretty short notice, using whatever he happened to have on hand. Luckily he picks up some seriously weird [...]
• Bejeweled Blitz bot makes your high score look just sad
  Programmers don’t need to get good at a game to achieve a high score, they code a bot for that instead. Take [hypnotizd] for instance. He was learning to write in the C# language and decided to make a bot that plays Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. He figures he took between 48 and 72 hours [...]
• USB Reddit Upvote/Downvote button
  [Chris] has recently become a self-declared Reddit addict and wanted to build something that would streamline the process of voting on posts. Inspired by the Awesome Button hack featured on Make a little while back, he thought that a physical upvote/downvote button would be the ideal peripheral for all of his Reddit needs. He was [...]

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• Comment system updates
  We’ve been working hard on this one and finally made a tiny bit of progress. You will find that comments are now nested.  We can see there are some slight visual issues, but we’re working on it. Please be patient with us. Another edition you will find is the “report” button. If you find comments [...]
• Putting a PDP-10 on an FPGA
  [dgcx] has been working on reimplementing a PDP-10/x on an FPGA for the last 2 and a half years. This surprised us because we’re only hearing about this project now. After designing three versions, [dgcx] eventually ended up with a one-FPGA implementation of a PDP-10 and an awesome PDF writeup. Although PDP-10 emulators do exist, [...]
• Adding auto-off to a cheap multimeter
  [Florin] picked up a cheap multimeter in order to make multiple measurements at one time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at remembering to turn it off when he was finished so he burned through some batteries. Why an auto-off feature wasn’t the first thing coded into the firmware we’ll never know, but [Florin] developed his [...]
• IR communications tutorial
  After seeing our communications via light post , reader [Chris] dropped this handy little link in our inbox. A very good tutorial about using infrared to enable communications between 2 pic micro controllers. The tutorial covers all the parts you will need, physical wiring and schematics with notes detailing each section of the circuit. It [...]

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• Wooden machine belongs in Willy Wonka’s factory
  Behold the wooden machine (translated) that is used for… well it does… it was built because… Okay, this is a case where asking what it does or why it was built is the wrong question. [Erich Schatt] began building the piece that he calls “Wheels” back in 1995. It took just seven years to complete, and [...]
• FrankenKindle: building an alternate Kindle keyboard
  If you’ve ever thought the Kindle keyboard was a bit cramped you’re not alone. [Glenn's] been working on developing an external keyboard for the Kindle for quite some time. It may not make easier for everyone to use, but he’s motivated to improve usability for his sister who has Cerebral Palsy. We see a lot of keyboard hacks that [...]
• RC car and Beagle Board mate for a versatile robot build
  Here’s a rover project that has plenty of power (translated) to go places. This is true not only of its locomotive capability, but processing power as well. The RC car used here (translated) is not overly expensive, but offers a lot of versatility. It’s got front and rear steering via two servo motors, as well as independent [...]
• A Professional Looking N64 Portable Build
  Although Hack A Day is no stranger to console conversions, this portable N64 build is worthy of note. The article itself is in Spanish, but for those that don’t speak the language, the steps and components necessary are well documented in pictures. There’s even a video of the finished product after the break. What is [...]

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• Hackaday Comment Policy; We’re cleaning up.
  Sit down for a moment commenters, we need to talk. Yes, you all knew this post was coming one day. We’ve talked about this topic at length internally, and we have decided that we’re going to clean up our act. For some time, Hack a Day has been growing a reputation as the prime source [...]
• Bass Hero combines Guitar Hero with Dance Dance Revolution
  Standing up to play Dance Dance Revolution type games is sooooo much work. Thankfully, [Jebadiah0001] is taking the strenuous exercise component out of the game by altering a guitar controller to play dancing games. He’s calling it Bass Hero because the DDR games only use four inputs, reducing the guitar controller to four string buttons [...]
• Camera flash marquee: Real of Fake?
  It’s time for everyone’s favorite comment thread game: Real or Fake? This week’s edition comes in from a tip that [Fabian] sent us about the music video Bright Siren by the band Androp. The video starts by showing bundles of cables being sorted and connected to breadboards. We get a brief shot of a large [...]
• Unlocking Wireless PC Locks
  [Mr.Pantz] pointed us to a web page  we thought you would find interesting. It deals with hacking a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) PC Proximity lock. Following the good practice of logging off or locking your workstation while your not at it, it is darn hard to get users to actually do it. These little [...]

There is a brand new Captain Planet Live Action Movie coming out!

When is the movie coming out for this potentially awesome Captain Planet Movie? I do not know yet.

But I do know that the Planeteers will help save the world from pollution with the help of Captain Planet Hopefully it’ll be good. This project is being worked on this by Cartoon Network and others. For more information and possibly later information to come on things like the Captain Planet Movie Release Date, keep checking the recently created CaptainPlanetMovie.net for things like release dates, information, leaks, character bios, etc.

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• Purdue IEEE ROV
  Purdue University’s IEEE branch participated in this year’s Marine Advanced Technology Education Center Competition, taking second place for the Hybris ROV seen above. The competition included several compulsory functions, including the ability to cap an underwater oil well, collect biological samples, and take water samples at depth. What they came up with is a quick and [...]
• Component storage roundup
  It’s been suggested that the first self-replicating computer virus was a single IC that eventually expanded into multiple plastic component storage boxes. Organizing components by their values is a huge PITA as well. Here’s some solutions we’ve found: Photo Boxes [Mathew] sent in his organization scheme that uses 4×6 photo boxes. Better get those boxes [...]
• A study in AVR power saving techniques
  [Scott] found the iCufflinks from Adafruit Industries pretty interesting, but he thought that the stated run time of 24 hours was a bit short. He figured he could improve the product’s power consumption at least a little bit, to improve the overall battery life. From their schematics, he placed an order for parts and built [...]
• The Isostick
  The Isostick, a Kickstarter project now in development, is meant to emulate an optical drive in the form of a USB stick.  Although there is nothing new with putting an iso file (optical disk image) on a USB stick, what is unique about this drive is that it fully emulates a drive without actually having [...]

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• Is that a rom in your locket?
  [Andrew] recently ordered some lockets to bejewel them with some LEDs but got a bonus small locket for free with the order. Not really having a plan for the small locket it kind of sat around until finally some inspiration hit. Meet the ee-locket which contains a tiny circular pcb with a 64k eeprom, a [...]
• Digital cootie detector
  Kids love games of exclusion. This usually manifests itself in games of ‘keep away,’ having someone ‘catch cooties,’ or the ever-popular ‘No Brian club.’ [Rob] wrote in to tell us about the digital cootie detector he built. The cootie detector operates on galvanic skin response. It’s actually very similar to an E-Meter, although instead of Thetans this [...]
• Adding USB connectivity to old benchtop tools
  [Scott] was recently given a frequency counter, and once he brought it home, he started contemplating how he could possibly make it better. While the counter worked well as-is, he wanted to find a way to record data readings over a reasonably long period of time. He figured that interfacing it with his computer would [...]
• Singing Robot
  The 4DOF CXN-I anthropomorphic robot arm in the Mechatronics Lab at FICES-UNSL (Engineering faculty, San Luis National University, Argentina) was built from scratch, and it is still a work in progress to teach and learn about mechatronics , in order to build another, more robust and precise arm in the future. When one of the [...]

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• Going a long way for Game Boy Advanced video out
  Here’s an intense hack that lets [Matt Evans] play Game Boy Advanced on a larger LCD monitor. He didn’t take the easy way out during any step of the process. He’s using an FPGA to translate the LCD signals from the GBA hardware into a 1280×960 picture that is then pushed to the large monitor. [...]
• Hackaday Links: July 24, 2011
  Plasma speakers Apparently if you run AC and DC currents through a welding torch flame you can use the resulting plasma as a loudspeaker. [Thanks Cody] Power metering The Google Power Meter API is no longer in development but that didn’t stop [Pyrofer] from finishing his metering hardware. It uses a reflectance sensor to read [...]
• Desktop email notification bell
  Instructables user [meseta] wanted an audible notification whenever he received an email, but must have thought that his computer’s built-in sounds were lacking in some regard. To get the perfect sound that he desired, he built himself a USB-powered notification bell. Using an off the shelf “front desk bell” and a hand made electromagnet, he [...]
• Guitar becomes an improved color organ
  [Charles] wanted to put some LEDs in his guitar. He also wanted individual notes to output certain colors, but he couldn’t find any projects with tone-based algorithms to convert sound into colors. After about a year of work, his ColorChord guitar was born. Unlike every other color organ build we’ve seen, the color of a note [...]

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• The Firebird32, a new dev board on the block
  Here is yet another development board to add to your list (If you are into keeping lists), introducing the Firebird32. There seems to be no end to the production of new development boards, following the current style the Firebird32 comes in the familiar Arduino form factor to fit all of your Arduino shields. The Firebird32 [...]
• Frustrating fun with magnetic levitation
  [Andrey Mikhalchuk] built his own magnetic levitation device and you can too… if you have the patience. He’s not using electromagnets, like the Arduino levitator or the floating globe. Instead, a pair of ceramic ring magnets and a few hours are all it takes. The base of his device is a couple of very large ring magnets [...]
• Apple laptop batteries vulnerable to firmware hack
  When you think about hacking laptops, it’s highly unlikely that you would ever consider the battery as a viable attack vector. Security researcher [Charlie Miller] however, has been hard at work showing just how big a vulnerability they can be. As we have been discussing recently, the care and feeding of many batteries, big and [...]
• Radio Shack will now stock cellphones, cellphone accessories, Arduinos
  A few months ago, we covered Radio Shack’s efforts to suck less, and the Radio Shack DIY team has now come back with the top ten suggestions submitted. Of course Arduinos make the list at number 1, which we somewhat expected for beginner projects.  Here’s the entire list in order: Arduino More kits and project suggestions [...]

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• Using Binary Code Modulation to control LED brightness
  Pulse Width Modulation is definitely the preferred method of dimming an LED with a microcontroller, but we were interested in hearing about a different method called Binary Code Modulation. BCM does the same thing as PWM, it turns the LED on and off very rapidly so that your eye cannot detect a flicker. The brightness [...]
• Resistor substitution box
  [Vincent] on the EEVblog forums had an idea for an inexpensive resistor substitution decade box. The build uses cheap decimal thumbwheel switches he bought on eBay. Each switch is wired up with resistors for each digit, and each switch is wired up in series. The result is a small, easy to read resistor box with [...]
• Beefy rover looks like tons of fun
  [Eric] and the crew over at The Tech Junkies, just put the finishing touches on a pretty powerful robot that they call “Mantis”. The six wheel, chain-driven robot is pretty impressive at first glance. The robot is centered around a Netduino, which controls four 60 amp speed controllers. The speed controllers are tasked with driving [...]
• Modded Wall-E becomes a real robot
  [DJ Sures] got his hands on a plastic Wall-E toy and decided to build a robot that includes a camera, voice recognition, and object tracking. The result is adorable so we’re putting this video before the break: Wall-E is built around an EZ-B Bluetooth Robot controller. All the software functions are handled with the complementary [...]