Hack a Day official channel

to see the details, go to http://wp.me/pk3lN-pNO

[Thomas] has muscular dystrophy. This means he's going to gradually lose strength and control in his muscles over time. He has already lost his ability to stand, and even holding buttons on a game-pad for extended times can be difficult. Gaming, as you can imagine, is very important to [Thomas] and people like him. It offers a release of frustration, like it does for all of us, but also a level playing ground. When he's in the game, he's like everyone else.
music by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Skullduggery systems (a first time participant) came up with an extremely ambitious idea for their instrument. It was to be a jug, that would have a changing pitch based on water being pumped in and out. Ultimately, they ran into a few issues that meant that the effect wasn't quite what they were looking for. They shouldn't feel too bad, a bunch of teams didn't succeed in making things the first year they participated.

What their instrument did do, however, I found simply delightful. The jug sounded just like feedback from the sound system. The contest was happening during a big music festival called the NorthSide festival. There was a stage and a huge crowd most of the time. They were testing their jug and we noticed that the band on stage (with a full crowd at the time), had stopped playing and was checking all their equipment. The sound guys were running around like crazy. They thought they were getting feedback.

We held off for a while and decided we would wait till sound checks to mess with them. While we wanted to cause trouble, we didn't want to ruin the show for an entire crowd. As you can see in the video, the sound is very much like feedback. They would begin to play, then stop to track down this mysterious feedback. We even tricked [Tyler] the announcer that was talking over our local sound system in the Redbull tent (by accident, I assure you).

You've all already seen that there are 6 teams making some kind of a musical instrument. However, there are two more projects that have materialized out of nowhere and are looking like a lot of fun.

In the shop, there are "Shop Monitors", artists and hackers who are here to help the teams get stuff built. There are also the judges. Since all of us have some experience and craving for making things, you can imagine that no one is just twiddling their thumbs.

[Greg] the lead judge has taken this opportunity to play with the plasma cutter and various metal working tools and is making a voting system so that the public can walk up and hit a button to vote on their favorite. Yup, those are easy buttons you see there. This thing is shaping up to be pretty nice looking thanks to that cutting machine and [Greg's] hard work.

[JoeJoe], the guy who built the turbull incabulator is building "piss bot", an inside joke turning to reality. Pissbot will literally just freak out and urinate all over. Don't ask why, ask why not.

For more details and a picture gallery go to http://wp.me/pk3lN-pK3
For RedBull's daily recap and live feed, go here: http://creation.redbullusa.com

After a long day sitting around airports watching one flight after another get cancelled due to the storm in New York, I finally made it. Unfortunately I missed the entire first day, but luckily RedBull put out a recap of Day1. They also have a live feed if you want to check in.

I got a chance to run around this morning and check everything out. The 6 teams are already in the heat of competition, rushing to get their musical instrument built before the time runs out.

I apologize ahead of time for the noise. I don't have a better microphone for this environment. I'll do my best to try to pull them into a quieter area if I'm going to talk to them in the future. Also I can now see that the footage is over exposed. I'll fix that, though you can see the gallery of pictures turned out well.

hackaday hacks a prop portal gun to actually levitate a companion cube.
http://wp.me/pk3lN-mPR

I was out to lunch with a couple friends, brainstorming ideas for fun projects when one of them says "Wouldn't it be cool if we could build a working gravity gun?". We all immediately concurred that while it would in fact be cool, it is also a silly proposition. However, only a few seconds later, I realized we could do a display piece that emulated this concept very easily. Floating magnetic globes have been around for quite some time.

I determined I would tear the guts out of a stock floating globe and mount it on a portal gun, since they're easier to find than a gravity gun. I would also build a custom companion cube to be the correct size and weight necessary.

Go to the project link to see how I hacked this portal gun to actually float a companion cube.
http://wp.me/pk3lN-mPR

music is called whoaaa by EOM
www.eomdotcom.com
from further, farther album

I wanted Thor's hammer (Mjolnir), but I wasn't going to accept any old boring plastic prop. I needed something with a little more POP.

I worked with Staci Elaan to build this hammer that has a solid state tesla coil inside. When you push the button, 80,000 volts of electricity arc from the top.

It will light up any flourescent bulbs around, scare children, and leave the smell of ozone behind. It is super fun!

You can read TONS of details here: http://wp.me/pk3lN-psO

Watch the build video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PmARIlEztw

See more of Staci's bigger coils here: http://www.youtube.com/stacielaan

Musci by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com

I always thought it would be cool to build a giant fire breathing piranha plant. I never really came up with an excuse to do it though. Eventually, I just decided I didn't really need an excuse, and thus it was born.

The plant itself is pretty much just foam and cardboard. You can see the construction process in the video, it was really easy, but a little time consuming. I wanted to go with a bit of a crazy, hyper stylized look, so it is covered in veins and has these insane looking wrinkly lips. The plant itself would be a fun thing just to have around the house. Actually, I may turn it into a lamp.

The fire systems were very much trial and error. You'll have to go to hackaday to read about those. http://wp.me/pk3lN-pv7

http://hackaday.com/2012/06/18/building-a-bug-zapping-lig...
Bug zapping light saber hack. Music by Kevin MacLeod