Addictronics » Hack

Nintendo Optical Mouse

admin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:49:51 +0000

I first saw this idea online and knew I had to do it myself.

There are quite a lot of things to do with an old NES controller but none are perhaps as useful as an optical mouse. The first step was to buy an old NES mouse off of ebay. I got this one for $3.

Once open, the controller is very simple on the inside.

At a local computer store that specializes in older computers parts I picked up a 3m joystick mouse. It has left, right and scroll-lock buttons but no scroll wheel.

After disassembling the mouse here is what I am left with in comparison to the NES controller.

I cut off the original circuitry that was behind the d-pad. Then I scraped off the coating over the copper trace on the pcb board. On the mouse I cut off its 3 buttons and soldered the wires directly to the traces. So now the controls are Down = left click, Up = right click, and Left = scroll lock. I also added some foam to make the whole thing feel solid.

And here is the mouse in action, you can see that left and right click are still left and right (or up and down on the controller). It works great actually.

This is the only hole I had to cut in the case, it is for the optical sensor. I just copied the hole that was in the old 3m mouse.

Power Inverter

admin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:43:52 +0000

About twenty seconds after testing my new 150watt,12v car power inverter, I knew something had to change. The built in fan was entirely too loud and I instantly came up with several ways of changing that.

Put a resistor on the fan power to slow it down and make it quieter.
Put a variable resistor so I could adjust the power level for better cooling.
Get rid of the fan and see what happens.
Add an external heat sink to take the heat load out of the case.

I finally decided on the latter of the choices as it is the quietest and safest combination. I figured that the fan was there for a reason and just getting rid of it would turn out to be a disaster. So my first step was to try and find a small heat sink that I could use to cool the inverter. Here is the location of the screw holding the inverter together.

Next I had to pry back four tabs that held the two sides together. I suggest using a knife for this task. And here is the case disassembled with the LED status light still glued to the lid. Also you can see the aluminum “heat sink” inside the case that the external heat sink will transfer from.

I found a heat sink lying around my room but it was still far to big so I hacked it down to size with my grinder.

Next I cut the leads holding on the fan, making sure to insulate them from each other afterwards.

My Dremmel tool is out of commission at the moment, so I had to use my grinder to murder the plastic case to allow the heat sink to pass through. Here is the final result.

After gluing the heat sink in and putting thermal paste heavily on both it and the small heat sink inside the case, I reattached both sides back together and pushed the heat sink hard in to make contact with the metal inside the case. The glue I used to hold in the heat sink was not dry yet so now it will be seated in the proper position.

Now that I have reached my destination (4hrs of driving) I can say that the heat sink is not near large enough to passively cool the inverter by itself. I am planning to re-insert the fan back into the casing, but adding a small resistor to knock it down from 12v to about 9 or even 7. Also I will add a small switch (PB or Toggle, I don’t know which yet) to allow the noisy fan to be turned off if it is powering small loads. My laptop charger says it only draws 65watts, and it is a 150watt inverter, so I had planned for it to not be under much of a load. I guess I was wrong.

One thing I learned that is good is that when the inverter overheats the beeper that I almost cutout will beep about once every five seconds. This informs the nearest passenger to either remove it or duck. When I get back to my workshop I’ll fix the known problems, hopefully not finding any more one the way home, and post some pictures later.

After reinstalling the fan I discovered that the heat sink I added now hits the top of the fan. This prevents the case from closing back together. My plan to fix that is to grind a notch off of that side of the heat sink.

I added an 100ohm resistor to the fan in order to shut it up some. It worked quite well and I decided not to put a switch since it is now quiet.

I also decided to help the now slower fan out by cutting down on air resistance. I carefully bent some of the capacitors out of the way, and rearranged how the LED wire bent into place. Then I cut out some of the plastic on either side of the case where the vents are and added some soft foam next to the fan to prevent a circulation inside the case. I have noticed a tremendous improvement in airflow and am quite happy with my hack.

It has now been several months since I finished this project and the inverter is still working great.

Holophony

admin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:02:27 +0000

Holophony is an audio recording technique that utilizes the placement of two microphones in the location that your ears would normally be (also known as a binaural recording). When the sound is played through headphones, the user experiences the sensation of actually being there. Their brain decodes the delay of sound from one microphone to the other and off of surfaces and objects. Not only is it left and right dependent but also front, back, up down… Every direction is carefully decoded by your brain to accurately “show” you where it is coming from.

The space in which the sound is recorded also plays a major role. A small room will not have the same sound as a large open area. Walls will reflect sound differently than trees and every scenario has its own qualities. By closing your eyes it is easier to place yourself where the recording took place.

Directions to listed to holophonic/binaural recordings

You must wear headphones or earphones!
Ear buds are preferred due to the inner ear and lack of head strap.
Closing your eyes enhances the effect and allows you to depend on your ears more than what you see.
Getting the volume level is important to make the sound more believable to your brain. Playing a sample file is recommended so that the proper volume levels are reached.
Make sure that the headphones are on the correct ear, otherwise it is very confusing to listen to and the entire effect is lost.

To get the volume level correct try playing this audio clip and adjusting your volume to get the most realistic results.

Hair Dryer

After Hearing my first holophonic recording (Virtual Barbershop) I was hooked.

Virtual Barbershop

That got me thinking and I decided to build my own Holophonic Recording Device. My plan is to acquire a manikin head and drill out the ear canals. Then insert microphones into the head and have the microphones in the ear canals. Lastly I will come up with scenarios and different locations to record some audio and post them on this page!

Project Progress

5-20-07 Setup holophonic project page
5-20-07 Purchased manikin head pictured below off of ebay
5-21-07 Found a stereo microphone that uses a single mic jack. Otherwise I would have to find a way to plug in two microphones.
5-21-07 Ordered the lapel microphone pictured below.
5-23-07 Won ebay bid for stereo condenser mic.
5-30-07 Received Griffin mic and manikin head in mail.
5-31-07 Assembled manikin head and microphones.

Here is the manikin head and stereo mic I plan to buy.

Today the manikin and microphone arrived! I was very excited as I opened my package to find a head wrapped in newspaper, it was like Christmas…. In that odd demented sort of way.

The Griffin Microphone in all it’s glory.

First I took apart the mic. It is a very simple 2 microphone, 2 diode setup.

I Unscrewed the bottom of the head to find that it was filled full of expanding foam. It gives the head plenty of denseness and will help it withstand bumpy car rides and stuff being packed on top of it.

Next I drilled a 1″ hole up the center of the head and a small hole in each ear. All three align in the center of the head. I took my Griffin stereo microphone and stripped the wire back so that there was enough length between the microphones that one could go in each ear.

The main wire goes down the hole in the neck and it secured with a zip-tie so that I don’t accidentally yank it out. (Sorry about the blurry picture.)

First Recordings after project completion turned out great. I had lots of fun carrying around a manikin head and my laptop to various locations to see what the audio would yield.

Backyard Pond

- Very tranquil with trickling water and birds in the background.

Other Recordings by Other People

Bell
Matches
Scissors

La Fonera

admin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:45:16 +0000

Back in January (2007) www.Fon.com started a new 10,000 FON Giveaway. Fon routers are popularly used around Starbucks and other public places. They send out two access points, one secured for you to use, and another unsecured for public use. The two signals are completely separated and you can’t cross between them. When the public use your public signal they are redirected to your Fon user page. From there they can pay a small fee to use your internet. And you the owner of the fon actually make money with it. Other people hack the fon and install DD-WRT. I am planning on modding mine quite a bit, but since I got mine free and that would morally be wrong, I am going to buy another fon at actual price. The mods include things like adding a serial cable, adding a second antenna, adding fans and extra cooling, and making it a web server.

After three weeks I got my Fon router in the mail

I removed the dinky little heatsink fan from the inside of the Fon.

I used the rest of the heatsink from my Inverter Project to use as an upgrade from the old one. I had to trim it down quite a bit to get it to fit. Here it is compared to the old one.

I had to trim down the fins also to get the cover to fit back on. They were a lot tall as you can see here where I compared the trimmed heatsink to the part I cut off earlier.

I have always wondered about using JB Weld as a thermal paste/glue. So I decided to give it a shot on this project. I am very pleased with the results.

I also trimmed the tabs off of the old heatsink, applied JB Weld to it and put it on the chip that I noticed always was scorching hot. Everything fits in the case and I might later enlarge the vent holes next to both heatsink’s for better airflow.

If you go here then you can get yourself a DS275 free! Just request it as a sample and they will mail it to you free. The schematics for this Serial to TTL converter is.

Thank you PwnStar for the old and new diagram.

This is an extremely easy circuit and the main part you can get free. The only thing better would be if you could get the whole unit free and already assembled. I will add pics when I get my free one and my actually paid for serial to ttl converter.

I purchased two more Fon’s for whatever reason. Truthfully I still don’t know exactly what I am going to do with them. Some ideas include:
* Universal Wireless Repeater
* Wireless Receiver
* Wireless Robot Controller
* Wireless AC Controller
* Web Host

I still do not know what all I am going to do with them, but I am that much more excited about having them.

I know that the first thing that I have to do is to secure my investment. Since they are renowned for overheating I will have to figure out a way to cool them better. Here is the internals of the Fon router unaltered.

To take the heat sink off you have to either unsolder or just cut the metal tabs that go through the pcb board. I choose the cutting method. The red circles are the tabs.

Now that the heat sink is off I can take off the metal cover under it. I do not understand how the designers can expect the heat to efficiently be transferred from the chip through the thick thermal pad, through the metal cover, through another thick thermal pad, and finally into the heatsink. I will eliminate most of those by only using one of the existing thermal pads between the heatsink and the chip.

Heatsink to chip size comparison picture.

with the extra pad and metal case gone, the metal tabs on the heat sink can now go through the pcb board and still stick out plenty enough to be soldered back to the board.

Everything back in place and the new heatsink arrangement installed.

While repeating the above steps on the other router I managed to rip off one of the tiny resistors… (The little speck on the white paper). But even with my shaky hands I was able to solder it back on with no fuss.

Specs So Far:

I don’t know how hot the original setup ran but I would guess at least 160-180 F. on average with the lid on.
Version 1 heat sink mod (large heatsink) = Chip 110deg F, Ram 110deg F.
Version 2 heat sink mod (metal removal) = Chip 145deg F, Ram 125deg F.

the difference that the larger heatsink made is tremendous. If I took off the metal cover and installed it directly to the chip, then it would function quite a bit better. I am happy with the results and will leave it the same unless it breaks.

I decided to try and add some more vents to my original Fon. I decided that the best place is right above the main heatsink. This way the air will be drawn in from the sides and out through the top vents. I first made a border in which I knew that I couldn’t cut outside of. The border is the size of the heatsink except for the corner that has the fon logo on top.

Here is the view from the top. I made the cuts with a dremmel and a cutting wheel at low rpm’s. I choose a low speed so that the plastic wouldn’t melt as much or burn. I am very happy with the results and I am thinking about adding more vents above the ram heatsink and repeating the process on the other two Fons.

I decided to attempt something similar with the other two routers. I mapped out the area to cut and I decided to make three cuts. On the last router I noticed a difference between the ends of the cut due to the direction in which the dremmel rotated. So I thought I might go over each cut on this one twice. Once from either direction. I didn’t realize the angle that I was cutting at was quite off 90deg. So it didn’t turn out how I planned but it still works.

On the third router I decided to make a total of five cuts; Three large and two small. I learned from my last attempt to only cut from one direction and I am very happy how this one turned out. Since the heat sinks are smaller I made smaller vents to lessen the risk of a screw-up.

Here are all three routers next to each other. The middle one is the one that I cut from two directions and you can tell that the vent is wider. I don’t care for how it turned out but like I said, It works.

I ordered a usb to ttl converter so that I could plug it into any comptuer. After reading around on the internet I saw that only two wires are needed in the communication. Seeing as how I have multiple Fon’s I knew that I wanted to be able to use the cable on all of them. So I came up with the idea of using an audio jack to connect the Fon to the cable. Here is the Fon with audio jack installed.

The audio jack is very slimline and not noticeable. It was very easy to drill a hole and install. I would recommend this for anybody else attempting this project.

Floppy Camera

admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:23:30 +0000

Uses a floppy drive R/W head to pan camera. Eventually this will be controllable and viewable from this web site.

Here is what a floppy drive looks with its shell off.

Here you can see the stepper motor that will rotate the camera. It is normally used to move the read/write head back and forth on the disk.

On the left you can see the back of the stepper motor and on the right is the ide cable port.

After tracing leads on the pcb board I figured that I could cut the majority of it off. After I chopped it i decided to work on the metal case also.

Here you can see what is left of the circuit board. I am using the metal case as the mount for the camera.

I added another bent piece of metal to make a hinge. The left piece is what the camera will be attached to and an arm will go to the read/write head to rotate the camera left and right.

Another angle of the hinge design.

Here is the circuit design to control the stepper motor. The computer will control the camera through its printer port. On the right is a spliced printer cable.

The usb webcam is taped to the metal hinge and a piece of coat hanger wire is used to push and pull on the side of the hinge causing it to turn.

The controller program was written in VB and connects via socket connection to this website. Eventually there will be a page dedicated to this webcam and the movement of it.

Video

Highly Directional USB Wifi

admin — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:15:34 +0000

EDIT: Pleas note that this project is several years old. Before I actually new anything about gain,db, wifi, and a lot of other things. The values given as gain are obviously not true but I can’t retest this setup and would like to leave it for nostalgia purposes. Thank you

This is the antenna that I use to pinpoint the location of wireless access points. With this parabolic antenna I can even determine where in the house the router is located! I bought a $2 strainer from Walmart and attached a usb WUSB54G V4 antenna to it. With that I am able to achieve 46dbi Gain!

Here is “Version 2″. It has gotten the best reception so far. I am hoping to improve.

This picture is the first version I made. It was only able to reach a max of 30dbi gain…only

Here are the statistics of version 1.

Version 2 statistics compared to Version 1 statistics.

Motorized Base

One day I came up with the thought of mounting the dish on some type of motorized base. I considered making my own from scratch and using servo motors. However I found that if I purchased a Usb Missile Launcher, 90% of the work was already done for me.

Here is the Missile launcher right out of the box.