Formlabs Form 1 Teardown @ bunnie’s blog. What’s the first thing I do with any shiny new gadget? That’s right, I take it apart!

After seeing a Game Boy emulator for the first time, [Thijs] was amazed. A small box with just a handful of electronics that turns a Game Boy cartridge into a file able to be run on an emulator is simply magical. [Thijs] has learned a lot about GB and GBC cartridges in the mean time, […]

NEW PRODUCT – Standalone Momentary Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout – This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single “momentary” capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here – just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor. When a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad area) the red LED lights up and the output pin goes high. You can also solder a wire to the middle pad and create your own capacitive pad if the built-in one isn’t suited to your project. If you want to save power, the LED can be disconnected from the output pin (cut the trace between the jumper marked as such). We designed this breakout to have the more-responsive “fast mode” which draws about 0.5mA. If you need ultra-low (~50uA) power usage, the mode jumper can be cut on one side & soldered closed on the other to fix it into that mode. Check the datasheet for specific power usage measurements. Comes with a fully assembled board, and a small stick of 0.1″ header so you can solder and plug it into a breadboard. For additional contacts, we suggest using copper foil, then solder a wire that connects from the foil pad to the breakout. The datasheet has many details on sensitivity, power usage, etc. Technical Details: Dimensions: 20mm / 0.8″ x 28mm / 1.1″ Weight: 1.87g In stock and shipping now! NEW PRODUCT – Standalone Momentary Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout – This breakout board is the simplest way to create a project with a single “toggle” capacitive touch sensor. No microcontroller is required here – just power with 1.8 to 5.5VDC and touch the pad to activate the sensor. This sensor is a toggle output type: touch-on then touch-off. That means that when a capacitive load is detected (e.g. a person touches the sensor-pad area) the red LED will alternate turning off and the output pin will go high or low, respectively. This sensor is good for a project where you want to activate something on the first touch, then deactivate it when touching again, like a switch. You can also solder a wire to the middle pad and create your own capacitive pad if the built-in one isn’t suited to your project. If you want to save power, the LED can be disconnected from the output pin (cut the trace between the jumper marked as such). We designed this breakout to have infinite time-out. The chip does support having the sensor time-out, so for example, if something is turned on, it will eventually turn off on its own. If you’d like to use this mode, cut the TIMER jumper and then connect a resistor/capacitor to the TIME pin. Check the datasheet for how to calculate the TIME pin to match your desired timeout. Comes with a fully assembled board, and a small stick of 0.1″ header so you can solder and plug it into a breadboard. For additional contacts, we suggest using copper foil, then solder a wire that connects from the foil pad to the breakout. The datasheet has many details on sensitivity, power usage, etc. Technical Details: Dimensions: 20mm / 0.8″ x 29.35mm / 1.15″ Weight: 2.03g In stock and shipping now!

I got a Form 1 3D printer! It’s the first 3D printer I’ve purchased (technically, I “backed” it). I managed to acquire a pre-release beta unit, as I’m affiliated with Neoteny Labs, one of Formlabs’ investors. What’s the first thing I do with any shiny new gadget? That’s right, I take it apart! Unboxing The complete Form 1 kit consists of three boxes: the printer (shown above), bottles of liquid photocurable resin, and a cleaning station. Many optical stereolithography printers require a cleaning step to wash off the uncured resin; for the Form 1 this means rinsing the part in isopropyl alcohol (the same stuff you use to disinfect cuts, but more concentrated) for a few minutes. The packing method, at least for the beta, is styrofoam-free. It uses a pair of thin plastic sheets suspended on cardboard frames to hold the printer in a cradle. For a box that went as checked luggage from Boston to Singapore through three flights, it held up remarkably well. The printer box also contains the power supply, cables, and the requisite quickstart guides. The serial number scheme, at least for the beta units, is “AdjectiveAnimalname”, so mine is simply “ChiefCat” — hurray for easy-to-read serial numbers! Undressing You need exactly one tool to disassemble the printer: a 2.5mm hex key (or, if you’re a fan of Torx, a T-10 bit). I really appreciate the balance of good design with practicality: it looks good, and you don’t need whacky pentalobe screwdrivers to service it. It does take a bit of elbow grease to undo the screws; but a grippy Torx driver makes short work of the problem without a single stripped screw. Two screws release the orange-colored light shield from its hinge, and four screws release the top of the base unit from the frame. The orange-colored shield protects your eyes from stray blue laser light, while also protecting the photosensitive resin bath on the inside from stray ambient light. Six more screws (two of which are on the bottom) release the mid-frame from the base. The mid-frame is screwed to the front and back panels, but I didn’t need to remove the panels, as there is enough flexability in the sheet aluminum to slide the mid-frame off. The wiring to the front panel is tidily secured and is exactly the right length to allow the frame to sit next to the base without having to undo any cables — super-convenient for service and debug. The inside of the front panel reveals the adapter for the OLED display, as well as the very handsome back-lit power button. The Mechanism One of the great things about a stereolithography 3D printer is that it uses a laser to cure a resin, instead of melting and extruding a plastic. As a result, the operation is whisper-quiet, and there is no odor during operation — you can put the printer in a bedroom and still sleep at night. To borrow the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: “This is the 3D printer of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or as random as an FDM, but an elegant tool for a more civilized age.” I count four motors in the Form 1: two stepper motors with lead screws, and two galvonometers (which I refer to as simply “galvos”). Let’s tour the printer’s mechanisms, motor by motor. A large stepper motor with a lead screw running up the spine of the device pulls the build platform upwards. This causes the printed object to appear to “grow” out of the resin bath. The build platform is attached to the leadscrew with an anti-backlash nut. The spring in the picture above applies a static force to the leadscrew-nut interface, reducing the play between the two and improving accuracy. Every time a thin layer of resin is cured, a second motor performs a “peel” operation by tilting one edge of the resin tank downwards. The peel operation separates the newly formed layer from the bottom of the resin tank, allowing the build plat

We’ve updated the Adafruit Learning System with a new feature that may be useful to those of you that don’t like clicking!  Single page view is the newest addition to the learning system.  We think the best default is still the guided navigation, as each page in the tutorials are specifically designed as a step in the process, but not everyone learns in the same way. We hope this latest update to the Learning System will be another useful tool for you to learn all about electronics, wearables, and more.  If you have any suggestions for features, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

The latest version of the Adafruit webIDE now supports the BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black.  We’ve been working out many of the issues with this installer the last few days, and it appears ready to be released into the wild.  The installer is specifically designed to work with the default Angstrom Linux distribution that is pre-installed on the BeagleBone’s.  You may want to update to the latest version of Angstrom prior to installing the webIDE as well. You can find the instructions on how to install it in the Adafruit Learning System’s webIDE tutorial.  We’ve also created a new installation video to help as well: If you run into any issues with installing the webIDE on the BeagleBone, or with any issues running the webIDE, please open a ticket in the issues section of our GitHub repository.

Probably you are already familiar with famous DS1052E hack where guys were able to double and even triple bandwidth. It happens that on my table is DS1022CD scope with 25MHz analog bandwidth. And this hack doesn’t apply to my model. We all know that same series Rigol oscilloscope models tend to have same hardware weather they are 25MHz, 50MHz or 100MHz analog bandwidth. Of course sampling rate (400MHz) stays the same. So it all lies in software. I felt that someone will figure out how to do this with this pretty old oscilloscope. And here it is – a hackaday pointed to a great news – simple way of changing model from DS1022CD to DS1102CD which converts analog bandwidth from 25MHz to 100MHz. This is quite a step without spending a penny. –> Andreas Schuler (aka Krater) shared simple method how to do this without using any serial interfaces and firmware updates. By following his step by step guide you can do this as follows: First of all go to system info under Utility menu button; Enter following scope button sequence: TRIGGER MENU, ACQUIRE, ACQUIRE, UTILITY, MEASURE, STORAGE, CURSOR, CH1, CH1, REF, TRIGGER MENU Press Run/Stop button; Go back to menu where you will find new menu entry “Service”; Change Model number to one you desire. Probably it will be highest like DS1102CD which is 100Hz bandwidth scope. Select “Save”; And then restart oscilloscope. Alternatively you can change scope serial number if you wish. But this isn’t necessary. Among other settings you can find color settings, but I don’t find it necessary. Be sure you don’t touch system parameters. You can start your scope and see that time base range have changed – you can go down to 5ns/div instead of 20ns/div for 25MHz bandwidth. All is left is take marker and change scope model number on it. Sorry for you guys if you already have 100MHz scope not much fun for you. Be careful and don’t brick your scope!

MIT Members Invited to Color Nighttime Sky with Pilobolus & UP: The Umbrella Project | CSAIL. MIT students, faculty and staff are invited to come light up the Cambridge sky during the second performance of UP: The Umbrella Project on Sunday, May 19 at 7:45 p.m. at Jack Barry Field. A collaboration between the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and internationally acclaimed dance company Pilobolus, UP will bring together members of the MIT community to participate in a large-scale live performance piece using umbrellas outfitted with LED lights.   Each UP participant will be provided with an umbrella equipped with red, green and blue LED lights. Using hand controllers designed by researchers in the MIT Distributed Robotics Lab at CSAIL, participants will be able to independently change the color of their umbrella. Guided by the Pilobolus creative team, UP participants will traverse the field and manipulate the hue of their umbrellas, creating a colorful and ever-changing display of live art.   UP premiered at the PopTech Conference in Maine in October 2012, when more than 300 participants transformed a rainy sky into a sea of changing colors. This is the second collaboration between the Distributed Robotics Lab, led by CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, and Pilobolus; the two organizations first joined forces on Seraph, a performance piece involving human dancers and flying robots.   Bringing together a large group of people to participate in a collaborative effort fits well with the overall research goal of the Distributed Robotics Lab.

This single digit display is an old edge-lit module that [Ty_Eeberfest] has been working with. The modules were built for General Radio Company and have a really huge PCB to control just one digit. [Ty's] modules didn’t come with that driver board, so he was left with the task of controlling an incandescent bulb for […]

Starting your summer break reading list? A new release from Mario Livio highlights notable "missteps" from well-known scientists. Today in TIME Science & Space: "Science's Brilliant Blunders: How Oops Moments Became Eurekas", discussion of Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by Mario Livio, author of The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number. The adult non-fiction title offers an inside look at a few notable (and then notorious) moments in science history from five prominent science figures: Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein. For students, spin the conversation from blunders to accidents and failed experiments that yielded unexpected results and another realm of notable discoveries opens up and invites fun science-themed conversation for family dinner or the car ride home! Scientists are not always right, but being wrong can still result in forward motion. This is an important concept for students, especially when students do not always see their hypotheses supported by their experiments and projects. Science is often about testing, retesting, refining ideas, and looking at different angles. See "Putty Science: Family Fun with Polymers" and "Encouraging and Inspiring Female Student Engineers" to get the conversation started.