For those who are seeking prosthetic limbs, or just require a little bit of robotic gripper help, the choices are very few and very costly. A newcomer to the area is hoping to change the costly part with their door opening arm. Costing only $2,000 to build, it is quite cheap compared to the other offerings. This arm can grip, twist, and swing its arm at the same time using a single motor thanks to a slip clutch.
[via Poular Science]
We know that feeling, you’ve been up all morning working hard, and now you just want to relax. What better way than to sit back and watch as helpless electronic devices are stripped, forced to show their goods, then put back together only hap hazardly – not that we’re into that or anything. Today, we had one thing on our mind, game systems.
With the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver shoppers were also given a device called the PokéWalker. A pedometer that helps your pocket monster gain experience and affection towards you. Here is a tear-down of the device next to Nintendo’s other try at getting children active, the Activity Meter pedometer. [Thanks Arty2]
Sega, while in todays day all we see is more and more rip offs of everyone’s favorite Hedgehog, we do remember a time when you brought more to the game field, especially with your advanced consoles. It does bring a tear to our eyes seeing this beast being torn apart, but its all for the best.
Those keeping up with Nintendo’s DS series will notice one thing, the console keeps getting smaller and smaller. That trend continued until the (Japan) release of the DSi LL. Some think its size can be attributed to an easier to see screen, others feel its jam-packed with more features. Make your own decision after seeing its tear-down. [via engadget]
Finally, we couldn’t decide what a fourth tear down should be, and couldn’t just leave with only three. So how about 10 separate Sony gadgets torn apart!
It’s hard to believe we missed this one from a couple of years back but we’re thankful that reader [Christian] tipped us off about it. This a Nintendo DS with two tablet pc screens being used as an external display. He’s using an FPGA but not to emulate the processor. It is translating the video data from the DS board into usable signal for the larger LCD screens. In the video after the break you can see that pen input has been implemented, with the FPGA sending location data back to the DS.
[Neal], the creator, priced the project out at around $580. It’s worth a lot more considering the know-how needed to get the video scaling and pen input right using the FPGA. It won’t fit in your pocket, but it doesn’t have a case either so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Pay close attention. At roughly 36 seconds we see Asimov’s laws going out the window. We’re pretty sure we saw this little autonomous battle bot take a shot at a human. We can’t tell for sure, but it looked like it enjoyed it too.
This bot is being built by [xdream] to compete in the Mech Warfare section of the Robo Games 2010. His target acquisition system and firing are completely autonomous. We think his motion is controlled by an operator though.
This little fellow may seem harmless enough, until you realize that those servos and guns could be replaced and this “little guy” becomes that “big fella”. That’s not anything the maker suggested, we’re just pointing out that a killer robot is only cute when it’s small.
[via BotJunkie]
Yes, we know, this is not a hack, yet it just has the vibe of something we’ll likely be seeing in many small form-factor systems and wearable hacks in the future.
The USB Wireless Handheld Keyboard is a diminutive keyboard and mouse replacement with a passing resemblance to a BlackBerry PDA — where the screen has been replaced with a laptop-style trackpad sensor. This seems a shoo-in for home theater PC use; it’s unobtrusive and won’t look out of place on the coffee table alongside the universal remote. But any tiny system requiring only occasional input could likely benefit.
The keyboard layout is funky as heck, though likely adequate for its intended use of couch web-surfing and interactive messaging (or whatever wild applications our readers will surely come up with). A USB wireless receiver and a charging cable are included in the $62 package. Video after the break…
[Incudie] tipped us off about a method to fix a borked HDD in your Xbox 360. Many of the one million consoles banned earlier in the month also had the hard disks scrambled making off-line gaming impossible as well. It turns out that this is caused by having a ban flag in the NAND chip on the motherboard. It has been discovered that because of wear levelling, the NAND will have two copies of the “secdata.bin” file which stores the ban flag. Please note, this will NOT allow the console to use Xbox Live, it just re-enables the HDD.
The quick and dirty of the fix is as follows: First the NAND is dumped from your Xbox 360 to a computer. After verifying the file, it can be opened in a HEX editor and the two copies of “secdata.bin” located. Once identified by date, the older version is injected on top of the newer to overwrite the ban flag.
Looks like this is not for the faint of heart, but if you got banned for modding in the first place this should be easy to pull off.
Update: Looks like xbox-scene now has a collection of apps to help you with this process. [Thanks CollinstheClown]
The chill of autumn is upon us, and with it comes the awkward sport of trying to work touch-sensitive phones and gadgets with gloved fingers. One can try toughing it out with fingerless gloves, or we’ve seen some costly solutions in the forms of specialized gloves and capacitive-compatible styluses, but sometimes simple is best: all it takes is a few stitches of conductive thread in the fingertips.
Conductive thread is available from various sources; SparkFun Electronics comes naturally to mind, but most vendors carrying the LilyPad Arduino will stock a suitable thread as well. Don’t fret if you’ve never sewn before — just a few simple loops are required, and it doesn’t need to be especially tidy. In principle this should work for trackpads and capacitive mice as well, if you use those in the field. For multitouch devices, add a separate conductive bit to each fingertip.
[via Lifehacker]
Tomorrow’s turkey day here in the United States. Do you fully expect your trashy neighbor to burn down his house while trying to cook a holiday feast? To see what’s in store for your neighborhood we’ve rounded up a great collection of idiots deep frying turkeys. Read the rest of this entry »
How would you like to have a 3-axis accelerometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, RF wireless, and an LCD screen in a development package? What if we told you that you can have it in the form factor of a wristwatch offering from Texas Instruments? How much would you pay for such a device? Quit guessing, you can pick it up for just $49 with an estimated delivery in mid-February of next year.
Our tip-line has been packed with emails about this since it was announced on Monday. The device ships with the firmware to serve as a sports watch with heart rate monitor. The price is pretty good just for that functionality but this package also includes a USB programming and emulation dongle so that you can develop your own firmware. It looks like the included development software is written for Windows but we’re hoping you can get it running on other platforms as well.
The LCD is a segment display, so you won’t see DOOM running on board. That said, we expect your first project to turn this into a wireless controller using the buttons and accelerometer.
If you watched the video before reading the article (like we did) and started shaking in your boots at a voice controlled lock system, prepare to be disappointed. His spoken commands are actually to his son to press the appropriate keys on a keypad off screen, the lock is not actually voice controlled.
But still, [Michael Krumpus'] door lock is pretty astounding. By using a torn apart CD drive he easily attains a nice fast and smooth linear motion to bolt and unbolt his door. It wont open his door like some locks we’ve seen, but it will probably be added sometime in the future…right alongside voice commands.
[via DVICE]
[Alpay] sent in this project he did recently. He was hired to produce a kiosk that would stand out to the kids at the event. He chose to make a bike riding game utilizing open source hardware and software. There was some thought put into what interface to use to make it easiest for people to just pick up and use. The ultimate decision was a simple one. Use real handle bars from a bike. As for software, they used Blender, the open source 3d creation program. The actual control is done via a pair of Arduinos, an accelerometer, and a pair of XBee modules.
He notes that blender is fully capable of accepting the serial input from the controller, but they opted to have the controller mimic keystrokes to make life easier on the developer, as well as make the controller usable on more games. Maybe if enough people ask really nice, he’ll release the source code for the controller.
Before we begin, let us soothe those first dreaded thoughts. No, the commodore was not destroyed in the process. They can simply clip the 16 wires they added to interface the keyboard and be back to stock. Breathe a sigh of relief, and enjoy the twypper, a twitter wall made from a commodore SQ1000.
[Alex] needed to make an interesting project for his companies Openspace/hack day. A friend, suggested a twitter wall, and that’s when [Alex] got the idea for a typewriter. After a quick search, he found oomlaut’s typewriter. They didn’t let that deter them from making their own version though. They found a nice fully functional commodore SQ1000 and began hacking. Ultimately they simply decided to use an Arduino to short the key switches to simulate typing. There are all kinds of details on the necessary steps to get the typing to function absolutely correct on the project page. Over all it was well done and we’re happy to see that it can be undone just as easily.
We were wary at first when the email came in with the headline “SparkFun is having a free day” and figured surly this is in relation to recent events? But no, after 7 years of loyal customers, SparkFun is simply giving back to the community.
It’s interesting to think that without their services, we wouldn’t have some of the amazing hacks we introduce every day. Such as the DIY mood lamp, or Cell phone alt-variometer, or Arduino iPod remote control. And their free day will allow some disadvantaged hackers the ability to finally flex that muscle sitting between their shoulders. What do you plan to make?
Mark your calendars folks, On January the 7th 2010 SparkFun is giving every household a $100 (until they reach $100k), if that’s not an incentive to wake up early, what is?
As a side note, do you think we’ve had enough posts about SparkFun lately?
[Thanks Diego]
Sometimes we miss that old Etch a Sketch we had when we were kids. The challenge of producing a decent image using those two knobs was always fun and frustrating at the same time. This project lets us recreate this interface on our computer. The Hack a Sketch is a combination of an Etch a Sketch style input and a processing sketch to recreate the experience. They’re using an Arduino to interpret the inputs and feed it to the computer via USB. We really like this thing. Simplify the electronics and we could see this as a neat toy for sale somewhere like Thinkgeek.
[via hacked gadgets]
Cable management is a headache for all, and if unmitigated it becomes a playground for cats. [kws103] posted a project a while ago that takes care of the messy wires for electronics on pull out shelving. Channel bracket is used to house the cables and has been articulated in three places to facilitate the movement of the sliding shelf. For an added touch an outlet was built into the surface to make it easy to unplug and remove the components if necessary. The hinges for articulation use aluminum base plates and rely on rivets as a pivot point, something that might need improvement if pulling the shelf in and out is a common occurence. Add this to the Ikea based solution we looked at in August and your days of electronic rats nests may be coming to an end.
A complete microcontroller development kit for little more than the cost of a bare chip? That’s what STMicroelectronics is promising with their STM8S-Discovery: seven dollars gets you not only a board-mounted 8-bit microcontroller with an decent range of GPIO pins and functions, but the USB programmer/debugger as well.
The STM8S microcontroller is in a similar class as the ATmega328 chip on latest-generation Arduinos: an 8-bit 16 MHz core, 32K flash and 2K RAM, UART, SPI, I2C, 10-bit analog-to-digital inputs, timers and interrupts and all the usual goodness. The Discovery board features a small prototyping area and throws in a touch-sense button for fun as well. The ST-LINK USB programmer/debugger comes attached, but it’s easy to crack one off and use this for future STMicro-compatible projects; clearly a plan of giving away the razor and selling the blades.
The development tools are for Windows only, and novice programmers won’t get the same touchy-feely community of support that surrounds Arduino. But for cost-conscious hackers and for educators needing to equip a whole classroom (or if you’re just looking for a stocking stuffer for your geeky nephew), it’s hard to argue with seven bucks for a full plug-and-play setup.
[thanks Billy]
The Stimmmopped is an electronic guitar tuner made to be used as a guitar pick. This uses two LEDs synchronized to blink at the exact frequency of the string you are tuning. Pluck the string with the corner of the PCB and then shine the light on the string you are tuning. As the vibrating string moves back and forth it will only pick up the spot of light when the frequency matches that of the blinking LED. Once in tune, both red lights will appear to be constantly illuminated and immobile on the string.
An Atmel ATmega8 is used to control the device, interfacing with two buttons and a seven-segment display to choose the pitch currently being tuned. Gibson has a robotic guitar that features an auto-tuning mode, but if you don’t want to shell that much this low cost and simple build is for you.
[Thanks Sören]
[Jonathan Ward's] pcb mill is as impressive as it is inexpensive. Twenty-six plywood parts, labeled A-Z, are used to assemble the machine along with the customary precision rods, stepper motors, and router assembly. His bill of materials prices the unit at $458.18, a small price to pay in order to forgo a multi-step etching process.
His test board shows some fairly fine pitch that could turn out most home-project circuit boards. We’ve contacted [Jonathan] regarding the specifics of milling the plywood parts out of a 2 foot by 4 foot sheet of plywood. Watch for an update with any information he’s willing to share. We hope he’ll make the milling files for the plywood parts available so that you can build a copy of the device for your own use.
[Thanks Charles]
While we have our fun ethically hacking, its very easy to forget that sometimes our ideas could be used with malicious goals. Take for instance SparkFun’s BlueSMiRF – the device’s original intention is simply to act as a wireless serial cable replacement. After hackers discovered several PIN pads use a serial interface, they put one and one together to steal several hundreds of people’s personal bank accounts.
It seems SparkFun is getting a lot of heat lately, but we’re glad they stand up and address these issues. You can check out the original news clipping here.
Move over Steve and PEART… there’s yet another robotic drummer in town. [Fauzii] tipped us off to his own MIDI-controlled creation – WizardFingers. According to him, WizardFingers is already capable of 64th note rolls at over 250 beats per minute. That’s on every drum simultaneously. Each drum is hit with a lever attached to a linear pneumatic actuator. A laptop running MAX/MSP generates MIDI sequences, which are sent to Doepfer MTC64 board. All of these actuators are hooked up to the board, which sets them off in sequence.
[Fauzii] ultimately hopes to develop AI software that will allow WizardFingers to compose its own tunes on not only a drum kit, but bar chimes and an organ as well. His site documents the whole concept quite well (just watch out for wild cats).
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According to Vogue and other important fashion magazines, gold is back in fashion. Of course, I don't think that it was ever out! I love the gleam of gold, and while I will concede that there are certain gemstones that are best served by sterling silver or white gold, (think rose quartz) I generally prefer my own jewelry to be gold or a mixture of silver and gold.
One of my favorite combinations is lapis, carnelian, and turquoise; all of these gemstones look great with silver (although lapis always looks better with gold), but put them all together and you've just got to have yellow gold to match the richness of the colours! Above, a unique bracelet with lapis, carnelian, and turquoise accented with 14 karat goldfilled elements (with the exception of the toggle which is vermeil), and below, the matching necklace and dangling earrings.
The Christmas rush is upon us already! This is going to be a short post, just to get out some of the newer things that will be on the website soon. Above a pretty blue aquamarine bracelet that features matte lampwork beads in soft blue and khaki and a second strand of sterling chain with 3 little charms. Below, a long aquamarine necklace that drops just at or below the bustline (depending on where yours is!)
The next jewelry piece is a thin silver bangle bracelet that has faceted rondelles of tourmaline at intervals. And finally, some of the prettiest carnelian earrings I've ever made of lampwork beads and deep, dark, gorgeous red carnelian!
The first two pieces today, top and bottom, will be listed under chalcedony jewelry on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website. The chalcedony necklace above is a single strand necklace featuring faceted nuggets of aqua chalcedony along with the prettiest faceted coins of a strong pink chalcedony, Bali sterling silver and the unique lampwork beads of Suzette Celestin. The lampwork picks up the aqua and pink and adds a creme colour to the mix as well. The necklace would look great against a dress or blouse in one of the season's hottest neutrals, a deep creme with a touch of brown called creme brulee.
Below, more chalcedony, this time faceted nuggets of a golden yellow chalcedony that positively glow! The only silver: the tiniest Karen Hill Tribes silver beads, barely noticeable, between the beads, and the pretty sterling toggle clasp. Why? Because the nuggets themselves are so beautiful and so strong in colour, I wanted a very gemmy look for the bracelet, a look that calls for very little silver. This is a simple nugget bracelet with a lot of impact!
One of the Fall 2009 season's colours is "rapture rose." It is a colour that is epitomized by the rhodonite bracelet that you see below - a strong but soft deep pink or rose colour. Sterling silver and two borosilicate artist's lampwork beads add a dash of different colour to the bracelet which consists of two strands of different shapes and sizes of rhodonite gemstones. If rose is not your colour or you can't afford to add this colour to your wardrobe right now, this is a perfect way to get a dash of the colour! Rhodonite is a matte gemstone making it suitable for daytime or nighttime wear, so the bracelet is quite versatile - it also looks great with the iron grey that is one of the most popular neutrals this Fall.
The last two jewelry pieces are a necklace and bracelet and both feature blue. Above, the simple sapphire necklace is made entirely of blue sapphires with the addition of a focal dichroic that sparkles in natural or artificial light. (It's also this month's birthstone).
The last piece is a double strand bracelet that features amethysts and kyanite. Very special lampwork beads add a magical touch to the bracelet and the geometric toggle with the amethyst cabochon keeps it from looking too froufrou.
The Annenberg Diamond was the centerpiece of Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction on Wednesday, and while the stone was estimated to sell for around $3 million when Jewelry.com last reported back in July, the real figure left the experts gasping, "What recession?".
The 32.01-carat D-flawless stone mounted in a ring by Manhattan jeweler David Webb, sold for $7.7 million, healthily above the estimate. In fact, the per-carat price of $240,000 set a new world record for a colorless diamond at auction.
The Annenberg is named after its previous owner, Leonore "Lee" Annenberg, who died in March at the age of 91. Annenberg purchased the ring for herself to mark her 90th birthday, Christie's said. It was delivered by armed guards to her Rancho Mirage home in California from the Beverly Hills jeweler's store.
Now THAT'S a right hand ring, ladies!
Christie's would not reveal the name of the phone bidder who can now add this 'little' walnut-sized gem to their jewelry box, but Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie's New York, expressed enthusiasm over the sale saying that for a time it was "as if the recession never happened."
Indeed.
Read more... 
Diamond wishes and gemstone dreams come true in Chicago this season as the Field Museum reopened their Grainger Hall of Gems with one whopper of a bling fest.
"We're calling October 'Rocktober,'" Anna Huntley, the museum's project manager told the Chicago Sun Times. "We're reopening the Grainger Hall today with a permanent exhibit ("Grainger Hall of Gems") that features a majority of gems that are new or have never been on display."
The touring "Nature of Diamonds" exhibit, here until next March 28, is museum's shining star with one of the world's largest yellow diamonds, a 128.54-carat gem, returning to the city for a third time. The famous diamond "...got more fabulous when Audrey Hepburn wore it (in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's) and it is a coup to have it here."
Hepburn isn't the only star to have worn some of the items on display. The exhibit also features a 1928 Cartier brooch once owned and worn by Elton John, a diamond-encrusted coronita worn by Salma Hayek and a bracelet owned by Joan Crawford. Not to mention one of the largest diamonds on record - the aptly named, 'Incomparable Diamond', weighing in at a whopping 407.48 carats!
Now that's rockin'.
Visit the museum's website for more diamond details, and be sure to browse Jewelry.com's Diamond Education center for an online diamond primer straight from the experts!
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One lucky Ohio trick-or-treater may have more than just Snickers and Sweet Tarts at the bottom of their Halloween stash. Elizabeth Olson from Terrace Park, Ohio thinks she accidentally handed out her three-stone diamond anniversary ring along with the sweet stuff.
"I think that what happened is, I was tossing candy into pillow cases and buckets, that it just slid out, along with the treats," Olson told WLWT news. "The ring was pretty sentimental. It had three diamonds, and when (my husband) gave it to me, he said, 'One was for yesterday, one for today, and one for tomorrow'."
Despite her efforts to put out the word, the ring still hasn't turned up - but Olson is still hopeful.
"You're disappointed. It's not like I'm the first or last person that it has happened to. I just hope that it finds its way back."
And she's right. In fact, a huge star known for wearing lots of diamond ice recently lost a $20,000 ring while throwing out $100 bills to an eager New York City crowd. Visit our blog, The Jewelry Insider, to find out who.
And in the meantime, Elizabeth? You might want to troll our three-stone diamond coffers for a replacement ring from only the most trusted jewelry retailers out there. We'll keep our ring fingers crossed for you!
Read more... 
Ivanka and her mother Ivana appeared on the show together, and the youngster was scolded by Barbara Walters, who was a guest at their nuptials a week ago Sunday and noticed the missing ring finger ice.
"I knew you'd call me on that," Ivanka said, laughing. "I was engaged for three months and then I've been married around eight days, so it's sitting on my bedside table. I forget about the hardware."
To be fair, this is certainly not a common occurrence. "This is only one of two times," said Trump, who also admitted to feeling 'a little bit naked' without her ring.
Elizabeth Hasslebeck advised that once she gets used to wearing a wedding band, "You just don't even take the ring off. You keep it on. It gets dirty...but in the newlywed stage, you clean it and take care of it."
Have any of you forgotten to wear your ring finger bling? How do you care for your diamonds? Weigh in on the Jewelry.com Facebook page and be sure to read up on all our Jewelry.com diamond care details to make sure your ice stays shiny and bright.
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On Decebmer 6th, Affiliated Auctions in Tallahassee, Florida is putting a 10-carat diamond ring once owned by Elvis on the block.
The diamond dazzler was given to fan, Lloyd Perry, in Asheville, North Carolina at a concert in 1975. Elvis, known for his generosity, threw his guitar into the audience and both Perry and his neighbor caught it. Perry thoughtfully gave it up, but Elvis brought him on stage later in the show to give him his diamond ring for his generosity.
Not a bad consolation prize.
No word yet on the opening bid price, but the piece has a total of 19 four-prong set diamonds set in 14K yellow gold, weighing in at 27.2 grams - definitely something to get 'all shook up' about.
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Colored diamonds are all the rage these days - from pink diamonds to blue and even red. But Christie's is offering some of the most stunning colored diamonds on market for their 'Magnificent Jewels' auction in Hong Kong on December 1st.
The show will feature more than 250 gemstones and jewels valued at over $33 million, including important diamonds, gemstones and jadeite jewels. Four featured items from a private collection are headlining the event, including the "The Vivid Pink," a 5-carat fancy vivid-pink diamond with potentially flawless clarity set in a ring by Graff ($5-$7 million); a Graff ring featuring a 9.03-carat oval-shaped fancy vivid-yellow diamond ($900k-$1.2 million); a 16.65-carat cushion-shaped Kashmir sapphire ring by Van Cleef & Arpels ($700k-$1 million); and "The Cartier Diamond Love Cuff," a custom, one-of-a-kind creation studded with high-quality diamonds.
Rare blue and red diamonds, Burmese sapphires and impressive jewels from Bulgari and Cartier will also be included in case the sticker shock from the big items gets to be too much.
Get those auction paddle hands ready - but if these prices aren't exactly in your wheelhouse, check out the many colored gemstone styles on Jewelry.com. The perfect excuse to get a head start on those holiday wish lists!
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