Working with relays
SparkFun’s latest tutorial shows you how to work with relays. A relay is an electrically operated switch. In this case, they’re using it to switch a 120V AC outlet. The article carries the standard warnings about how not to kill yourself with AC (plus some non sequitor linking throughout). As an extra precaution, they chose a GFI outlet. You probably know how a relay works, but it’s worth seeing how they implemented it. They use a transistor to prevent overloading the microcontroller’s GPIO pin. The control pin is pulled to ground to keep the relay off. A diode is placed across the relay coil to manage the power flow when it discharges. An indicator LED is included to show when the relay closes. This is a great foundation for an automation project, or maybe you just want to terrorize your cat.
Ripsaw MS1
The Ripsaw MS1 is an unmanned ground vehicle built by two brothers in Maine. The tracked vehicle can go 0-60 in 3.5 seconds with an 80mph top speed. In its current form, it has a 2000 pound capacity, which opens the possibility for many different types of weapon systems. Control is provided by two people: one driver and one gunner. They work in independent remote stations. The Ripsaw could potentially be used in any application normally reserved for a tank. It could lead a charge without putting soldiers at risk.
We’ve been watching this project mature since 2005 when it was being marketed as a Grand Challenge competitor. This week it’s being demoed at the Army Science Conference. Check out footage of it in motion below.
[via BotJunkie]
Arduino switch box
When you’re prototyping a new project, sometimes all you need is a switch. The folks at oomlout were tired of constantly having to rewire things, so they built a universal switch box for the Arduino. It has five potentiometers plus three switches. They’ve put together a software package that monitors the switches and can show you a live view of the knob positions. Have a look at the video below for a demo.
The writeup actually hints at what we can only assume is the next kit they’re releasing: a robot arm.
You received this email because you are subscribed to the real_time feed for http://hackaday.com/feed/. To change your subscription settings, please log into RSSFWD.
A beta edition of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista is now available for anyone willing to put pre-release system fixes on their desktop. Vista SP2, previously available only to certified testers and due out in final form in April 2009, aims to put the wrench to 
If you're looking to get some more use out of an old machine, or just play around with multimedia programs but not interested in shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars, download Puredyne. Based on Debian Linux, the downloadable disk image fits on a standard CD-R and will boot on almost any machine — you can even run it on your current system without having to partition any drives or re-install your operating system. The distribution includes all the software a multimedia maker might need, including Kino and Cinelerra for video editing; Audacity and Pure Data for audio; and GIMP and Inkscape for images, along with other fantastic open-source tools ranging from software synthesizers and drum machines to BitTorrent clients and encoding tools. Since all the software is free, it's perfect for educators as well as starving artists and enthusiastic hackers. It's a great introduction to Linux for creative types scared of anything besides Mac OS X — the interface is familiar enough to any casual computer user that you should be able to start watching videos from accross your network with media player VLC in no time.
Windows only: Lots of folks rave about Microsoft Office 2007's ribbon interface, but now you can have it for free in Microsoft Word's younger sibling, WordPad. A developer over at deviantART—not Microsoft, mind you—has released "Wordpad 2009," which offers multiple documents in tabs, Windows 7 icons, and yes, the ribbon interface. While this is yet another way you can 
Here's a screenshot of WordPad in the Windows 7 preview. Notice that the ribbon here is laid out to match Microsoft's authentic ribbon, but Wordpad 2009 has one thing that Win7 WordPad does not: the ability to edit multiple documents in tabs.
Now that the majority of our media has made its way to the digital realm, we've seen a proliferation of media center applications designed to integrate all of that media into one central, easy to use application you can control from both your computer and your TV. Between the various spinoffs of Xbox Media Center, Vista's DVR-sporting Media Center, and various other excellent solutions, you've got more choices than ever for managing and accessing your digital media. For this week's Hive Five, we want to hear about the media center you love best. Keep reading for voting details, then nominate the application you favor in the comments.