Electronics

Hackboard 2 Is a $140 Windows 10 Pro Single-Board Computer

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The Raspberry Pi continues to be the most-popular choice for single-board computers, especially considering the very low price point. But what if you want a single-board computer capable of running Windows 10? The Hackboard 2 offers just that for a surprisingly low price.

Hackboard 2 was created by a team spread across Austin, London, and Shezhen. As The Hackboard website explains, the idea was formed very early in the coronavirus pandemic when Quantum Engineering CEO Mike Callow came up with the idea of “creating a small, low-cost, Windows-powered and Intel-based computer for children, parents, and educators who wouldn’t normally be able to afford one.”

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Debra Ansell Is Quickly Becoming the “Go-To” Authority on Great-Looking LED Lighting!

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It’s almost a guarantee that if you haven’t yet incorporated the ubiquitous WS2812x ‘NeoPixel’ or APA10x ‘DotStar’-style “digital” LEDs into a project, you will no doubt have seen the myriad works of many a maker, ranging from blinking, bedazzling digital jewelry to drive-in scale digital LED video walls.

No matter the form factor, getting these bare LED emitters to look their best can sometimes take quite a bit of work! A range of factors, from ensuring that you have provided an adequate power supply to diffusion of the light emitted from these devices — and everything in between! — means that there is usually a direct trade-off between the amount of thought that goes into the incorporation of these LEDs, and how fantastic the final product looks!

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Biorhythm Clock using Arduino Nano, RTC, 1602A Display, 74HC595

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It’s a biorhythm clock using Arduino Nano A biorhythm is a theoretical process by which the human body and mind are regulated according to set patterns. Biorhythms are usually separated into three distinct groups. The emotional, mental, and physical cycles. Classically, the lengths of these cycles are 28 days, 33 days, and 23 days respectively.

An Arduino Based Laser Guitar

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Our love for music was not enough for us to learn playing instruments except for a few basics of guitar and saxophone. The background in physics we had pushed us to delve into incorporating technology and music together. We thought of the possibility of enhancing the guitar, the most famous instrument of all time. It could outperform the classical guitar with its metal string by creating more flexible options for the player and his/her performance. The project aims to design and build a guitar based on an optical setup built of Lasers, Beam Splitters, and Light sensors. The strings of the guitar will be replaced by an optical setup. The general technique for playing guitar to shorten the string by pressing your hand on the desired fret, and plucking with your other hand the string needed to produce the note or chord you want. If no fret is compressed, it is called an open string. Note that many techniques were invented during the years: Pulling, tapping, sliding, etc… however, we will stick to the standard way of guitar playing.

The design is composed of two modules, mimicking the two main tasks of playing guitar. By receiving certain information, The microcontroller would generate the desired note.

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Plottin’ Bottles with a CNC Machine

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You’ve probably seen a plotter of some kind made from DVD players and the like. These devices, of course, normally work with objects in the XYZ coordinate system. As cool as they are, TUENHIDIY’s build takes things to another level – or at least in another direction – with a pair of printer rollers subbed in for the Y-axis. This allows a bottle to roll in coordination with an X/Z gantry system on top, decorating it with whatever text or drawings are programmed

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These side glow fiber optic panels make beautiful wall décor

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Side glow fiber optics – unlike their cousins that efficiently transmit light from one point to another – emit a glow along the length of each strand when light is applied. This creates a beautiful effect, which Andrei Erdei implemented nicely in his wall decoration project.

Erdei’s build consists of a series of nine square frames, inside of which 3mm fiber optic strands are connected, looping gracefully from one edge to another. Each strand is lit by an addressable WS2812B LED module, under the control of an Arduino Nano.

You can see this wall installation in action in the video below, and more info on how to build your own is available on the project write-up.

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Nemeio Puts a Keyboard Over an ePaper Screen for Maximum Customization and Flexibility

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Peripherals startup Nemeio has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a keyboard with a difference: Each key is a configurable ePaper display, allowing for unlimited customization.

“Nemeio is completely customizable because of its built-in wide ePaper screen,” explains project founder Laurent Villemonte de la Clergerie. “Whether you choose an existing keyboard layout or design your own, Nemeio will display your own personalized keyboard – just the way you like it!”

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This Breadboard Wristwatch Is Delightfully Geeky

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Wristwatch use today is more about making a fashion statement then any real need to tell the time, considering we’re surrounded by clocks and everyone has a smartphone on their person at all times. Mobsters and car salesmen make that statement with gold Rolexes, Ivy League types prefer diving watches made by unpronounceable Swiss brands, and hipsters like to wear old Casio watches ironically. Geeks, however, prefer LEDs and display readouts that are indecipherable to anyone who doesn’t understand binary. Unfortunately, binary wristwatches are a bit played out these days, which is why Inge took a different approach to geek fashion and built a breadboard wristwatch.

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New Flexible Battery Is 10 Times More Powerful Than Standard Lithium Batteries

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More powerful and easier to manufacture than commercial standards, this battery is ideal for wearables and soft robotics.

A team made up of researchers from the University of California San Diego and California-based company ZPower recently developed a flexible, rechargeable silver oxide-zinc battery with a five to 10 times greater areal energy density than standard batteries. Not only does it perform better than most commercial flexible batteries, but it’s also easy to manufacture. Most flexible batteries require sterile conditions, under vacuum for manufacturing. This new battery can be printed in normal lab conditions, making it ideal for use in electronic wearables and soft robotics.

This battery’s areal capacity is 50 milliamps per square centimeter at room temperature, which is 10 to 20 times greater than the areal capacity of your standard Lithium-ion battery. Due to its lower impedance or the resistance of an electric circuit or device to alternative current, the battery has a higher capacity than current flexible batteries.

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