Farm hacking: 7 amazing corn mazes

If there’s one thing we’ve got a LOT of here in America, it’s corn. In the past few years Corn Mazes have become a wildly popular fall activity for all ages. We’ve enjoyed many ourselves and part of what we like about them is that they’re a hack. Whether made by the farmer down the road or a professional company most now use GPS to ensure a fun, challenging, and cool looking corn maze.

We spoke with [Scott Skelly] who owns Corn Mazes America, read the interview after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

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Farm hacking: 7 amazing corn mazes

If there’s one thing we’ve got a LOT of here in America, it’s corn. In the past few years Corn Mazes have become a wildly popular fall activity for all ages. We’ve enjoyed many ourselves and part of what we like about them is that they’re a hack. Whether made by the farmer down the road or a professional company most now use GPS to ensure a fun, challenging, and cool looking corn maze.

We spoke with [Scott Skelly] who owns Corn Mazes America, read the interview after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

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TomTom announces XL 340S Live

TomTom has recently announced a new GPS Navigation System that will be added to their big catalog, this time is the XL 340S Live which comes with a few services for free, at least for the first months. We’re talking about services such as Google Local Search, traffic updates, information about the weather, and more.

The TomTom XL 340S Live has a price tag of $300 and includes the mentioned services for free, during 3-months. The device has a 4.3-inch touchscreen, uses the QuickGPSfix to get information about a location faster, and sadly it doesn’t come with bluetooth so it means you can’t do any “hands-free-calling”. After the first 3 months, the services cost $10 per month.

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Build a Google-style panorama rig for $300

As part of a “disruptive technologies” course at the United States Military Academy, [Roy D. Ragsdale] produced a working prototype of a Google Street View-like system called PhotoTrail. Like its corporate-backed inspiration, the system captures georeferenced 360-degree panoramas that can be viewed interactively in a web browser…but at a hardware cost of only around $300. [Ragsdale’s] prototype is based entirely on consumer-grade off-the-shelf components and open source software, all tied together by the yin and yang of DIY: foam core board and a few Python scripts.

This article from IEEE Spectrum magazine provides some background on the selection of parts and construction of the system, including a hardware shopping list and a list of links to all of the open source packages used.

The PhotoTrail prototype is surprisingly small and lightweight. A vehicle isn’t even required; the camera array can be carried overhead by a single person, making it possible to capture remote locations. But [Roy] expects future revisions to be even smaller and less obtrusive, perhaps mounted to a headband. Mount Everest awaits!

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Pioneer Releases First iPhone App

A couple of days ago, we had posted about the Pioneer in-dash navigation systems which could be integrated with the popular iPhone. Now, the actual app to be used for the AVIC-U310BT and AVIC-Z110BT in-dash navigation systems has been revealed and it comes in the person of the Avic Feeds. The app creates a link between Apple and the Pioneer in-dash navigation systems that allow anyone to find points of interest or search for destinations in advance via Bluetooth. Thanks to the Avic Feeds, iPhone owners no longer have to plot their course manually since the app can do it all for them.

The Pioneer Avic Feeds app can be downloaded at the Apple Store and pioneerelectronics.com for free.

(Source) My Digital Life

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Pioneer In-Dash Navigation Systems Revealed

Pioneer has unveiled a dandy new device that integrates their in-dash navigation systems with an Apple app. The two new systems, the AVIC-U310BT and AVIC-Z110BT in-dash navigation systems, allows iPhone owners to find points of interest or destinations via Bluetooth connection. These new navigation systems provides drivers an easier way of getting around and reaching their point of destination through the combined efforts of these two familiar brands.

Drivers can get these systems for under $700. The AVIC-U310BT retails for $599 while the AVIC-Z110BT is priced at around $1,599. The Pioneer AVIC FEEDS App can be downloaded for free at pioneerelectronics.com or the iTunes store.

(Source) Press

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Harry Potter Marauders map realized

After reading about cheap wireless for microcontrollers, [Leigh] left a comment about his Marauders map. Much like the Harry Potter version, whoever holds the ‘map’ is able to see the location of the ‘marauders’ within certain bounds. Unlike the magical version however, each person being tracked needs to hold a PICAXE 08M, GPS, and 433.92MHz transmitter: while the map needs a computer running his Python script and a receiver of the same frequency. It has the potential for locating people, but we feel it might be better off in a swarm robotics setup.

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Pictures from space for $150

Ever wanted to be able to launch a balloon into space, track its location via GPS, take some photographs of the curvature of the earth, and recover the balloon, all for the low low cost of $150? [Oliver Yeh] sent in his teams project, Icarus, which does just that. The group of MIT students found that they could use a weather balloon filled with helium to reach heights of around 20 miles above the earth; their particular balloon achieved 93,000 feet (17.5 miles). Then, utilizing only off the shelf components with no soldering, conjured up a GPS tracker using a Motorola i290 Prepaid Cellphone. They then used a Canon A470 loaded with the chdk open source firmware to take pictures. After seeing the results of their launch, the team hopes that this could rejuvenate interests in science and the arts.

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GPS USB port repair

[Jair2k4] learned the hard way not to lend out your expensive GPS to untrustworthy people. His Garmin 200 was returned with a broken USB port and unable to charge. Luckily, all it took was some inventive thinking and he had it repaired in no time. By breaking open a Nokia cellphone car charger, he had a source of 5 volts. After that, it was only a matter of soldering the connections. However, not content with the design he pulled out a Dremel and mounted it in his 1991 Suzuki Sidekick. Quick, dirty, and actually working afterwords, just the way we like it.

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