Category Archives: Android Hacks

Making a Gesture

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When [krich] switched keyboards he lost his volume control. So he decided to hack one together out of an Arduino, an old floppy disc case, and a Hover Labs Hover board (not the Back to the Future kind). You can see the result in the videos below.

You’ll notice in the video that the device reads a “spin” motion to resemble a round volume control. The program sends simulated keyboard presses to the PC to control the audio. In the write-up, [krich] mentions it may be the first gesture-based volume control. However,we’ve done it before and so have others.

The …read more

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Making a Gesture

Posted on by

When [krich] switched keyboards he lost his volume control. So he decided to hack one together out of an Arduino, an old floppy disc case, and a Hover Labs Hover board (not the Back to the Future kind). You can see the result in the videos below.

You’ll notice in the video that the device reads a “spin” motion to resemble a round volume control. The program sends simulated keyboard presses to the PC to control the audio. In the write-up, [krich] mentions it may be the first gesture-based volume control. However,we’ve done it before and so have others.

The …read more

Continue reading Making a Gesture→

Seeking Treachery in a Questionably Sourced Phone

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Have you ever considered sourcing an off-brand phone from the China markets? Why, or what stopped you? The answer is data and identity. You are trusting both when you decide to use a smartphone. Let’s face it, smartphones are a personality prosthesis in our society. They know your physical location, what your interests are, the people you hang out with, and how you spend your money. The keys to the castle are shared with these devices and you shouldn’t grant that kind of trust without knowing your phone is worthy of it.

But… what if that phone has amazing features …read more

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Arduino Absentmindedly Blows Bubbles

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If you ever wanted to make an occasion festive with bubbles, [Sandeep_UNO] may have the project for you. As you can see in the video below (and, yes, it should have the phone rotated and it doesn’t), his Arduino uses a servo motor to dip a bubble wand into soap solution and then pulls it in front of a fan. The entire operation repeats over and over again.

There’s not a lot of detail and no code that we could find, but honestly, if you know how to drive a servo motor from an Arduino, the rest is pretty easy …read more

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Death, Taxes, and Laundry

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There’s an old saying that the only two things that are certain are death and taxes. However, unless you live in a nudist colony, there’s probably also laundry. [Darpan Bajaj] and some friends were at a hackathon and decided to put their washing machine on the Internet.

Most of us here at Hackaday — and many Hackaday readers, judging by the comments — are a little suspicious about how much we really need everything attached to the Internet. However, a washing machine is probably not a bad idea: you use it often, you need to know when it is done, …read more

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Arduino RF Network Analyzer

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What do you get when you combine a direct digital synthesis (DDS) chip, a power detector, and an Arduino? [Brett Killion] did make that combination and wound up with a practical network analyzer.

The project uses an Analog Devices AD9851 DDS chip clocked at 180 MHz which will output a sine wave at any frequency from 0 Hz and 72 MHz. A Butterworth low pass filter processes the DDS signal and then feeds a two-transistor amplifier. The circuit will output about 0dBm into 50 ohms. The power detector is an Analog Devices AD8307 along with a 50-ohm input load. There …read more

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