Actually, brewing coffee is easy compared to roasting. Roasting makes or breaks the flavor of the brew. Precision temperature and duration is essential for a good roast. This DIY precision roaster has Linux controlling a heat gun and a bread machine repurposed to make the roaster. The smart roaster constantly monitors temper while listening for the beans to crack signalling that they are done. (more at Arkarthic.com)
Open Source microcontroller platforms have provided the foundation for applications as diverse as the individual imagination. While the new Flora wearable platform isn’t exactly Captain Piccard’s com badge from Star Trek NG, it has the potential to do far more. Flora includes USB, and supports Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass module, flex sensor, piezo, IR LED, push button, embroidered + capacitive keypad, OLED and more. The PCB is header free by design to make it more fabric friendly. I think it’s a great form factor for a belt buckle.
Ready to geek out your threads? You’ll find more information at the Adafruit site.
We’ve all seen countless videos lampooning people failing to take flight by flapping a pair of strap on wings. None of them deterred inventor Janos Smeets. While his initial flight isn’t all that impressive, he clearly did leave the ground. It’s important to mention that the Wright Brothers initial flight was equally underwhelming. Tightwad kudos to Janos for doing what conventional wisdom says can’t be done. Ongoing refinement will certainly improve future results. You can follow Jonos’ work at humanbirdwings.net.
Rotary controllers are on the wish list of just about anyone who has tried one. Having an extra controller for things like scrolling or controlling audio volume leads me to believe these simple devices would be more common if more of us had actually used one. Commercially made knobs on a box can be had for about $45. If you have an old mechanical mouse lying around, you can make your own for a few dollars.
Ready to build one? You’ll find a suggested parts list and complete instructions at MakeProjects.
While the less technically inclined are fascination with low grade proprietary speech recognition in smart phones, those who create technology are doing more with Open Source. The robot Chippu’s creator adapted existing speech recognition software from the Julius project to give it accurate voice command recognition.
Want to build your own version of Chippu? You’ll find more information and code for download on Achu’s Techblog.
WiFi keeps getting better. So does Open Source thanks to allowing anyone to adapt, embellish and improve without permission. Lashing together a few existing Open Source products with some exceptionally clever ingenuity has yielded the $119 Mesh Potato networking node that includes VoIP. That effort is poised to take another leap forward with new faster and cheaper WiFi hardware in the near future.
Village Telco could provide the foundation for a massive public WiFi network in the first world. With improving WiFi technology, more bandwidth in the 5GHz band and simple, cheap plug and play nodes, all it take is the will of a small number on Tightwads to build a usable wireless network of our own.
But I think most of us will wait for the high price tag ($250) to drop. At the right price ($100) , the product has legs. For now, I think it will only appeal to developers hoping to place it in niche markets. That’s really a shame, since it has great potential for the mass market. While MS may not be able to produce the Kinect at a lower price, licensing the technology to third party manufacturers at a reasonable rate could get it there very quickly. There’s still a chance Microsoft will recognize the opportunity to ride the mass market wave before it’s goes to a competing technology. Either way, we will get gesture UI at the right price. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
What can you do with a microcontroller? Automate almost anything. Where precision counts, a PID controller has an advantage. It’s never been easier to lay you hands on Tightwad friendly PID technology. There’s a newly minted open source design for just such a microcontroller available. You’ll find complete formation on how to build you own at OSPID.com. If building your own looks a little too tedious, a ready made one can be preordered for $85.
The maker of this device, Always Innovating wants you to skip the set top box and think dongle. With a CPU running at up to 1.8GHz, 1GB of RAM, microSD, WiFi and Bluetooth, with support for up to 1080p Full HD and H.264 video decoding, this little HDMI Dongle has specs as good or better than most set top boxes. While you can’t buy it today, the company will be taking orders at the upcoming CES, so it’s likely to be in a store near you soon for around $79.
It’s 2012 and free services are an essential for even the the most casual user of the internet. Mashups and consolidated logins can help make these services more useful with less hassle, but there’s a catch. When you grant permission, at best you give up some of your privacy. You can also compromise the security of your personal information and more. To make things worse, service providers are constantly changing their terms of service without warning. You can opt out, but that requires lots of diligence to monitor what has become a constantly moving target.
Fortunately, a two minute visit to MyPermissions.org can help you get your social media act cleaned up in a snap. It’s a Tightwad certified freebie that can’t be beat for speed and simplicity.
