GfxHax

Beta Signups

Craig — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:36:59 +0000

We are accepting signups for beta testing. This is primarily for new hardware prototypes. If you are selected you will be offered the chance to buy an early prototype for the cost of materials. We release limited stock of early prototypes to get quick feedback. If you have bought products from us before you are more likely to be selected but even if you have not, you still maybe eligible.

If you are already a customer please fill out this survey (beta signups are at the end): survey

If you have never purchased a gfxhax product before but want to beta test then send an email to craig@gfxhax.com

Note: If you have already filled out this survey you do not have to fill it out again. You will be notified if you are selected to be part of the next beta program.

New Shopping Cart

Craig — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:50:03 +0000

We are rolling out a new shopping cart this week. We are considering moving away from ZenCart and going with something more integrated with the main site. Both carts will be running at the same time for a while. Please email if you run into any problems or would simply like to submit extra feedback to craig@gfxhax.com.

Thanks, hopefully this will make things nicer for everyone!

PureData + Firmware v0.4

Craig — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:21:02 +0000

Below is some demo code in PureData that is available here on SVN. It demonstrates some of the newer realtime functionality as well as how easy it is to change the behavior of the device without uploading a new sketch. You will want pd-extended to test some of these demos.

Firmware v0.4 Released

Craig — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:41:13 +0000

A new version of the DrinkShield firmware is out now. This one focuses on more realtime feedback from the serial based APIs. This means you do not necessarily have to write new sketches to modify the behavior of your DrinkShield. The focus on this version was to enable more realtime data and manipulation of the device. Some of the new features are:

Streaming MQ-3 Sensor readings
Streaming Lightbar level readings
Directly manipulate the lightbar in realtime

To use these new features simply use the DrinkDuino sketch and follow the API details. In the next few days we plan to release some libraries to allow you to easily test out these new features and better communicate with your DrinkShield.

Download new firmware

DrinkShield Rev 0.2 is out!

Craig — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:11:32 +0000

The new DrinkShield Revision 0.2 kits are finally here! Most features remained the same and is backwards compatible with the old software and firmware. However this new version has breakout sections for all the pins in the arduino. This makes version 0.2 is much more hacker friendly. Version 0.1 got a lot of love from the student and art scene and this time around I want to make it even easier for you to include into your products and ideas. The breakouts are also done in such a way that if you have an extra set of rails you can slide them into the areas as connectors.

New version is available for sale here

Introducing the ATX Box!

reportingsjr — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 03:01:07 +0000

Hello everyone! My name is Jon and I’m one of Craig’s fellow Hive13 hackerspace members. For the past several months I have been working on a project at Hive13 and I decided to share it with the public. The ATX Box! This is a device that easily lets you connect to an ATX power supply, which are very commonly found in desktop computers. The ATX box provides a clean look, compact size, and easy way to connect to the high power rails on an ATX power supply. It has many uses such as: simply hiding an ATX supply under your bench and freeing up space, providing power for a breadboard, providing high amperage (up to 9 amps continuously!), a quick power supply tester, and many, many, many other uses.

The ATX Box has a power switch and LED built in so you can easily see and control if the power supply is on or off. It has no fuses, but above 9 amps the power supply connector may start melting! It also features load resistors which are mandatory for all ATX power supplies to start up. This means all working ATX power supplies are compatible with the ATX box. It features a 24 pin connector which will also fit the older 20-pin connectors that are on many older power supplies.

This is the first revision of this product. If you would like to send any suggestions, comments, complaints, etc. just send me an email at reportingsjr+atxbox@gmail.com!

Shipping now!

DrinkShield Rev. 2 – Proto

Craig — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:13:56 +0000

First I would like to thank everybody for their wonderful support on our first DrinkShield. We have officially sold out of stock. You can still get some of the drink shields at maker fares or directly from Maker Shed. In celebration we are creating a new version of the DrinkSheild. This one is geared to be more hacker friendly. The firmware is backwards compatible with rev 1, however there are now breakouts for all the pins on the arduino. Just like rev 1, this board uses the same pins and can work with a usb host shield but now you can more easily expand and use different sensors, etc. We also added solder pads to help tack down the LEDs along the side of the board. With revision 1 it was possible to mount the light bar along the side of the board but they would bend up if bumped. Hopefully this new design will let you tack them down to add stability in this configuration.

The current design has been uploaded to the SVN repo and a proto board has been sent out to BatchPCB. If all works out and test well I will put in a new large batch order for more PCB boards.

Drink Automation Alert System

Craig — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:32:05 +0000

A recent submission showed a work in progress design for a drinkshield integrated with additional hardware to develop anautomated alert system. Very cool stuff! We can’t wait to see more!

Acknowledgements:

Brian Barnett

Eugene Vaynshteyn

Hedarson Erardo

Sam Cabrera

Bounty #1 Achieved

Craig — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 07:17:48 +0000

Jon Neal just sent in an amd64 debian package that works. Code was uploaded to SVN and tested. Once I get x86 binaries compiled I will upload both of those to the site and post an update when they are ready. But for now I want to congratulate Jon for completing the first GfxHax bug bounty.

You sir, deserve a beer… $50 worth

Bug Bounty #1 – Deb Packages

Craig — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:19:37 +0000

Ok, one of the reasons we have not posted in a while is that life has caught up with us and restricted our time greatly. This is really unfortunate because we have several things that were reaching release. One of those things is a debian package for the DrinkDuino Game. This is the game interface for the DrinkShield. We have the debian folder mostly setup. You can build a debian package with debian/rules binary, but the data directory isn’t included. I’m sure it’s just a configuration thing but I currently don’t have time to look into it. This is why we are calling for a bug bounty!

This is soooo close to finished! We are placing a $50 bounty on the first person to fix this bug. If you want to participate goto drinkshield.googlecode.com and download the SVN version of drinkduinogame. If you don’t have a drink shield you can still participate. Simply use the -e flag for the game (-e will emulate a drink shield). The game should load and function fine in this mode.

Good luck! Once this bug is squashed we will post binaries and move onto other platforms!

Email submissions to craig@gfxhax.com