Wii Nunchuk controlled Monotron
Adding a bit of motion control to your music synthesizer turns out to be pretty easy. Here’s an example of a Wii Nunchuk used to control a Monotron. [Thanks John]
Hackers on the Moon and other space related goals
Yep apparently a non-government backed expedition to the moon is in the works. But you’ve got to walk before you can crawl and one of the first parts of the process is to launch a hackerspace-backed satellite network called the Hackerspace Global Grid. Check out this interview with one of the initiative’s founders [Hadez]. [Thanks MS3FGX]
Laser pointers and frosted glass
We were under the impression that a laser show required finely calibrated hardware. But [Jas Strong] proves us wrong by making pretty colors with laser pointers and slowly rotating glass. [Thanks Mike]
MSP430 Twitter Ticker
[Matt] built a Twitter ticker using the TI Launchpad. It works on an LED matrix or OLED display along with a Python script which handles the API.
Android floppy drive hack
[Pedro] shows us how he reads floppy disks with his Android tablet. The hardware includes a docking station to add a USB port to the tablet, as well as a hub and USB floppy drive. On the software side of things an Android port of DOSbox does the rest.
Shouldn’t it be “you’ve got to crawl before you can walk”? Otherwise, thousands of toddlers disprove this every day^^
I appreciate that Hadez and crew want to gain satellite launching skillz, but I don’t see the one critical task in their wiki: find AMSAT engineers and take them out for beers.
As for the FloppyTab, next project, this…
http://www.commodore16.com/index.php/component/content/article/70-upgrades-a-mods/335-xu1541.html
Of course in regards to HGG my first though was that the satellite communication part has been ongoing for coming up on four decades now, even more if one described Earth-Moon-Earth comms satellite comms. No doubt someday An Amateur radio satellite will be put in orbit by amateur by amateur rocketeers. Personally I wouldn’t want to be place on the moon by anyone who may not have the resources to get me to Earth when that time comes. In reading the headlines in the media coverage section at the wiki, has me wondering about unrealistic expectations. The governments still would control the RF spectrum, and probably what goes into orbit, and how it gets into orbit.
While the wiki mentions amateur radio it doesn’t Mention AMSAT specifically, but they have to be aware of AMSAT http://www.uk.amsat.org/3172