EEVblog #785 - Sydney Maker Faire 2015 Interviews

Interviews with various people at the 2015 Sydney Mini Maker Fair:
Eora3D 3D Laser Scanner
Breadboard Killer - Low cost prototype PCB's
Diffusion Science Radio Podcast:
UNSW Create Maker Group:
Robotic camera tracking Pacman system
Kerbal space program custom hardware user interface from Robots & Dinosaurs
Scale (Chain) Mail

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[jasoneyes]

Thanks for bringing this to us Dave, cool stuff!

[mikeselectricstuff]

Still on a bloody breadboard - amateurs!

[sknt]

Some really cool ideas there ;)


Could it be possible that the link box to #784 at 18:05 is a bit misplaced ?

[caddyguy]

Those controls for KSP are sick. I want to try.

[cbluebeard]

What was the Scale (Chain) Mail website?  Awesome!  Thanks!

[KriLL]

Wow at that bread board, that's just asking for trouble, if someone pulls one cable they'll have one hell of a time fixing it.

[richfiles]

I've been following the construction of that Kerbal Space Program controller since the start of the project, as well as working on my own. Mine is still a way off. I'm using this project as an excuse to force myself to learn C. I've always dome hardware and logic gate design. The last time I did programming was on a TI-82, and on a Commodore 128. All my robots were done using physical hardware, no programs. This will be a great opportunity to give myself a new skill, make life easier, and -b-l-o-w-u-p- fly rockets with an amazing physical control panel! :P


While his relies on primarily the 4 digital displays with reconfigurable display selections, I chose to favor multiple analog meters and larger numbers of displays. I plan to use at least eight 8-digit displays, and I also have 11 analog meters. 7 of the meters are 6 inch (14.7 cm) edgewise meters (often used for power plant readouts). 5 are single, and 2 are dual movement meters. I also have a large (4 inch, 9.8 cm) 3/4 rotation center pivot circular meter that will serve as my vertical velocity meter (The meter style matches the style of the on screen vertical velocity meter). Finally, I have a 3-axis artificial horizon (navball) that I'm trying to develop a controller for. The stock device, referred to as an FDAI (Flight Director/Attitude Indicator) or ADI (Attitude Director/Indicator), has a mechanical "ball" that has markings to indicate your orientation to the horizon (or an inertial reference). The ball has 2 servos and 2 synchro receivers inside, along with gearing. There is a third synchro/servo pair behind the ball that spins it end on. Slip rings transmit power and signals into the wishbone assembly, and again into the pivot of the ball. An incredible mechanism! The control is from 3 synchros attached to rate gyros. When an error exists between the synchros inside the unit and the gyro synchros, the servos move the ball to correct the error. Rather than using mechanical synchros (driven by servos or steppers, for example), I'm trying to emulate them, by using ten 12-bit DACs and generating 10 since waves with different amplitudes and polarities. I am HOPING that an Arduino Mega has enough processing power to generate the requisite 400 Hz sine waves needed to drive this. If it doesn't work, I'll try again with some manner of attenuating/inverting circuit instead.

[bonezbaaaby]

That's good they have potential sea level, just in case a planet decides to get water.

[joblessalex]

I'll take first here, thank you.

[chrisryan]

A fantastic looking show with some really interesting ideas. I especially like the U of NSW robot packman. However these kids need to stop starting sentences with the word, "So."