“hey look a View-Master, I had one of those growing up.” is what you may be thinking seeing this little guy here, well think again sonny Jim! This isn’t your mothers View-Master. No sir! What we have here is the idea of the View-master brought into the 21st century.

Long gone are the days of light shining through celluloid images on a disk… Long gone! Why this little feller here has Two, count them, 2 Colby 1.5 inch digital key chain picture frames lined up with each lens to create a digital stereoscope. Wait there’s more don’t go. What more you ask? Well this little device actually comes pretty damn close to doing stereoscope really well. It even surprised me!

The device functions very close to its original design, look through lens, see that new 3d thing all the kids are talking about, pull lever see new wondrous things! Black magic you say? Why would you say that? Now now put down the pitch fork and let me explain.

The two new digital screens sit inline with where the original design would have the dual film images sitting. When you pull the lever it taps a switch inside the gizmo to progress to the next image. Power is on the top, USB ports on the side. Just plug ‘er in load your images and or charge the screens, then you’re good to go. Childhood nostalgia brought back to your face!

Special thanks and birthday wishes to Skydog who lent great advice, words of encouragement and a helping hand when things went sour with the project.

Also A criminal sketch artists rendition of what a View-Master might look like.

But wait there is more!

MOAR PICS!

Your trusted friend in science, Tuttle.

Instructable to come in the next few days.

After being inspired by the instructables article I put my own together.  Radioshack only had one pack of the required threaded banana clips so for now there are just two extra hands.  Like the article I will be experimenting with other attachements.  Stay tuned and watch as I strive to become an eight armed deity.

Are you one who wants to know how to bypass locks to gain illegal entry? Are you one who wants to be able to escape from handcuffs in police custody? Are you one who wants to know how to crack safes and steal the crown jewels from the tower of London? Well are you? If you said yes to any of these this class is not for you, please go away…

If you’re someone who has a great analytical interest in solving puzzles and understanding the inner workings of the mechanisms that surround us on a daily basis or just open that lock in your house you lost the keys for long long ago, then this class should be right up your alley.

In Tuttle’s educational learning school of basic comprehensive lock sport you will learn many of the principals behind the art of lock sport. In this class you will learn about basic pin and tumbler locks, wafer locks, shims, handcuffs, bump keys, combination locks, making and the use of various tools, where to purchase tools, ethics of lock sport, and much more.

There is no set date, time, or price at the moment, or if the students will get to keep the tools after the class. This announcement is just gauging how many people are interested in learning about lock sport. If you are interested and would like to attend the future class please write to Tuttle [at] hackerconsortium [dot] com so I know how many people to prepare for.

Now I cant stress this enough if you are interested in breaking the law this class is not for you, such ideas will not be tolerated in said class.

-FREE SAMPLE-

Thank you – Tuttle

http://creativelive.com/courses/arduino/

O’reilly has announced a free Arduino and Processing course! Goto the above link and check it out. Quite a few of us have Arduinos, and this course would allow for personal study to interface it with your laptop to do some dynamic art. Check out the link and sign up if you’re interested. I will be making an order for parts soon, so if you want in on it, let me know.

-SkyDog

Once there was a man, a man who’s bowling might was so powerful it could crack bowling pins in a single hit, (BOOM!, CRACK!, KAPOW!) and wedge them into the pin Wrangler causing a ruckus with the staff around him. That man was the some ninja master, that pin who met an untimely demist was rushed to the HC-ER where a crack team of Tuttle and a huge fuggin drill bored out the pin’s innards to save its life. Alas Tuttle is no bowlingpinologist he can barley cook toast. After the pin was disemboweled and lobotomized the corpse was strung with electrical wire then lamp bits were attached, the pin’s stuffed corpse was then put on display at the casa de Tuttle where it stands to this very day. The End.

The following is an artists rendition of what a lamp might look like.

Back with part 3! I built the circuits without an interface for programming to eliminate the need for a header. I didn’t want them to catch on clothing, etc.  I figured that I would program the arduino chips before I installed them on the board, and would just finalize them before install. Well, I can’t leave well enough alone, can I?

I looked at the circuit, and decided that I’d give it a shot to make an in-circuit programming interface. From what I read, it wasn’t difficult, so I fired up pad2pad, and went to town. Picture 1 is the two boards I etched, one with toner, one without. Picture 2 is a view of the board with solder applied to all of the traces. The shiny goo is flux, so that the solder flows nicely. Picture 3 is of the completed frontside, with a 10K ohm resistor, and a small pushbutton. It is originally designed for a thru-hole application, but I just flattened the leads and trimmed them accordingly.

I made the mistake of using a pre-made template in Pad2Pad for the switch, and used the way it was setup to build the circuit. You’ll notice a jumper between one end of the resistor and the lead marked as ‘RST’. After testing ALL of the small switches I had on hand, I determined that NONE of them worked as the template had it laid out, so I had to hack it a bit. No biggie, but I would have liked to have gotten it right the first time…

Picture 4 shows the backside of the board. I used a 6 position header and mounted it through the back so you can read the info on the front. I used hot melt glue to secure the wires to the backside, hoping to provide a little strain relief.  It would have been nice to have different colored hooks, but I didn’t want to cut a bunch of Someninja’s supply, even though he offered. It’s easy enough to just go by the text I put at the bottom.

Picture 5 is the finished product, sans the FTDI cable. Picture 6 is the finished product in use! One lead goes to the positive(5V), one to the ground(GND). The reset(RST) lead connects to Pin 1 on the Amtel chip, and the last two connect to Pins 2 and 3.  They are marked correctly on the board, so that I don’t get TX and RX backwards on the chip. It will not harm the chip, but I will not be able to program it, and since there are no LEDs on the adapter board, I will not be able to see data flowing. Maybe in the next revision… Hmmm…

I was them able to upload the newest program for the badges to a prototype that is already built, bringing it up to date with the newest revision. Woohoo! Open the arduino software and select the FTDI com port that shows up. Load the program you want to upload, and them click the upload icon. Once the software says it is uploading, press the reset button on the adapter, and viola! The program gets uploaded and the system starts the program over again. The reset button is key, since the bootloader waits to see a certain string before it starts the process.

I finally got the first batch of badges dry, so I decided to peel the mask off the back… I am so happy with the results!

Picture 1 is of the front face of the badge. There is two coats of primer, three coats of black, and three coats of clear on each one.  Picture 2 is the backside, with the masking tape mask to keep the solder clean. I made an aluminum plate template to cut the masking tape the same on each one.  Picture 3 shows the process of peeling off the masking tape. I have to admit it looks great! Picture 4 is the final view of the back, clean, tinned, and ready for components. I will be getting two orders in the mail tomorrow, one for the battery holders, and one for the 16Mhz ceramic resonators. Everything else is here and ready to go.

There will be an assembly party at the Hacker Consortium tomorrow, and I figure I’ll be the only participant, so I’m gonna have a beer. Woohoo! Almost done!

So I wanted to make some badges for SkyDogCon to wear to DefCon this year. I sat down and designed the circuit, programmed the arduino, then designed the circuitboard in Pad2Pad. The cost of making the circuit boards thru Pad2Pad’s service was prohibitive at the moment, so I decided to etch my own boards. Using the “Toner Transfer Paper” from PCBFx.com, I printed my circuit, in reverse, onto the paper. Essentially it is just paper with a coating of corn starch. This allows the toner to stick, but when it gets wet, the toner releases from the paper. You’ll see why this is beneficial in a minute…  In the pictures above, you see all five phases that the board goes through. Picture 2 shows raw copper-clad PC board. Picture 3 is the same board, after it’s been cleaned with a scouring pad to remove tarnish and impurities.  This is necessary so that the toner sticks to the raw copper, and not a glaze of crud. If it did, it would not resist the acid used to etch the boards. Picture 4 shows the board after the toner has been applied to it. I run the board and the paper through a laminator that has had time to get up to temperature. I also found that it helped to hit it with an iron that was set pretty high (Your mileage may vary) and that it helped to ‘set’ the toner to the board. After a dozen passes thru the laminator, I dropped it into a container of tap water, and left it for a few minutes. This allowed the cornstarch to release the paper, which slid right off.

Picture 5 is the board after I etched it in a solution of 2 parts hydrogen peroxide, and one part muratic acid.  It takes about 8-9 minutes to etch the copper off this thickness board.  The traces are still black from the toner, so I take it to the sink and wash/scrub with the scouring pad. This takes the plastic toner off, and gives a nice copper finish. Picture 6 shows the complete board. Now, repeat a dozen times!

Picture 7 thru 8 show the board in the etchant, and picture 9 shows the tool that I made from a fibreglass rod to be able to move the board and lift the edge without dropping it harshly into the acid. I have not had the guts to put my fingers in the etchant with only a glove on, since I have accidentally punctured the gloves before while handling the board. The fibreglass rod seems to fit the bill for the moment, so I’m going with that.

I’ll be posting pics and more about the rest of the process as I complete it. Thanks!

-SkyDog

Cooper stopped in today at about 2pm, and had come up with a motif for his locker door.  Tuttle and SkyDog were enlisted to make his idea come to life. A light saber was the chosen design, and they went to work immediately making it happen. SkyDog used a piece of plexiglass to make the blade portion of the light saber, putting it on the sander to shape the rounded profile. He drilled a hole in the end of the plex and inserted a green LED, and fashioned a battery box to fit inside the locker. Tuttle dipped into his bag of creativity, and used some odd parts and half a dowel rod to create a handle. Using images online to rough out an idea, he used a bit of a heat sink, a torid coil, and some vacuum cleaner hose as widgets on the surface. A coat of silver on the handle, and some fitting, and the handle was done.  The use of some glue and a little time and pressure left Cooper with a finished product. The last picture is of Cooper posing with his new locker door.  I think the pressure is on to make cooler and cooler locker faces now… I have this idea for a skull with red eyes…

The soda machine we picked up recently is in poor shape… parts are missing, super dirty, and with things living in it. This might be a problem for some, but not the HC no sir-re-bob! Giving the soda machine some sweet, sweet tender love and care can bring her back to a much superior quality then before. Oh yes we can rebuild her, we have the technology! “whunanananana”

We can give her the much needed cybernetic implants and plastic surgery to turn this old maid into a beauty queen. We can install arduino controllers, we can install touch screens, rfid credit/debit systems, lights, buttons bells, whistles and gongs! She will be a thing of beauty when finished, oh yes… she will. Stay tuned for further information.

wiki entry