Hacking a SX2 Mini mill

sx2_tachometer_blue — SX2/CN2 tachometer kit in action

I picked up a SX2 Mini mill recently via Little Machine Shop (They call it the HiTorque Mini Mill 3900). When I received it, I noticed there was a port for a digital tachometer readout on the side of it. I though this might be useful, but felt 125$+ for it was a little excessive for what it was. Atop of this, they were out of stock.

I ended up reverse engineering the protocol, building some less expensive kits, and documented how exactly I figured out the protocol. Along the way, I also discovered how to make the mill run in reverse!

If you wondered how a reverse-engineering problem like this is approached or what tools are used, this could be an interesting read:

http://macpod.net/misc/sx2_tachometer/sx2_tachometer.php

Robot Fest 2011

Last weekend we displayed our projects at Robot Fest 2011. In our photos, you may notice a few new things on display. This is because in 2010 Robot Fest also became Mid Atlantic Mini Maker Faire. Unfortunately we spent most of the day behind our table and we were not able to capture everything at the event. If you have photos of the event to share with us please e-mail them to info@harfordhackerspace.org

Don’t forget RobotFest!

Come by our table and say hi!

Combat Robots Workshop

I took my son to the Combat Robots Workshop at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, MD. The workshop was hosted by the PennBots Robot Club of Pennsylvania. The rules of the game were demonstrated to us at the arena and then it was our turn. For the low price of $25 we were given an RC toy to hack and a bunch of parts to pick through. The biggest challenge was reducing the weight of the robot to the Ant Class (1lb). The other classes were Flea (150 grams) and Beetle (3lbs).

I have to say that my 7 year old son made me very proud today when he cleanly pushed another bot into the pits while it was being controlled by an adult. See him in action in the video below. After the competition, we stuck all the robots into the arena for one last melee. Since there were only two frequencies being used it made for a really interesting match.

Skeet Shooting in Lochraven

Several Harford Hackerspace members spent the day at the Lochraven Skeet and Trap range shooting clay pigeons. If you are interested in the sport you should have a look at SCSkeet.com beginner tutorial and watch the instructional video below. There is a little bit more to the game of skeet than just aiming and shooting.