May 6th, 2013 will stand out in the memory of anyone involved in the 3D printing community as the day that the mass media, for better or for worse, really took notice of this rapidly evolving field. That’s because as of right now, anyone in the United States can legally download and print their own [...]
PhoneSats in Orbit, Transmitting Data To Listeners Worldwide
After a few delays, the inaugural mission of the Orbital Sciences Antares mission successfully made it into orbit on April 21st. While the mission didn’t carry the actual spacecraft Antares is designed to lift (that’s currently slated for June), it didn’t go up there empty handed. The Antares rocket safely delivered all three of NASA’s PhoneSats into their intended orbit, and [...]
Back to the Future: Pwn Pad Review
It was nearly one year ago that we took an in-depth look at the Pwnie Express Pwn Plug, a security appliance that absolutely exploded its way onto the scene. By combining an off the shelf hardware platform that was well supported by open source software, custom software front-end, and the experience and knowledge of their team of [...]
Taking Control: Interview with FLIRC Creator Jason Kotzin
We’ve covered a lot of hardware projects here on “The Powerbase”, from completely open source creations such as the OsciPrime, to 2012′s incredible influx of Kickstarter campaigns. But none of them have kept our attention as closely as Jason Kotzin’s FLIRC. Jason has managed to achieve a delicate balance between the obsessive attention to detail that comes [...]
A New Way to Play: MG Handheld Review
We first told you about the MG back in September of 2012, when it was in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign attempting to raise a staggering $950,000. Perhaps they were inspired by the historic success of the OUYA just a few weeks prior, hoping to repeat that system’s incredible funding level on the same $950,000 [...]
LA Robotics Club’s Low Cost MCU Blasts Past Kickstarter Goal
The LA Robotics Club founder Annika O’Brien has started a Kickstarter campaign for a new low-cost, Arduino-compatible, microcontroller (MCU) development platform. The goal of the project was to design a very small and cheap development board that could easily be built and repaired by even a electronics novice. It looks like that goal has struck a cord [...]
STRaND-1 Satellite Preparing to Activate Onboard Nexus One
We’ve previously reported on the NASA project to base a new generation of small, cheap, spacecraft around Android phones, dubbed PhoneSat. While PhoneSat is still on track to launch in April, the British have beaten their American counterparts to the punch with the Surrey Training, Research, and Nanosatellite Demonstrator (STRaND-1) satellite, currently orbiting the Earth. [...]
Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter Available for Pre-order
One of the most promising quadcopter designs to ever come to market is currently available for pre-order from Seeed Studio, with a scheduled ship date of April 25th. If you’ve ever been interested in trying your hand at playing with quadcopters, or ever wanted to work on the technology that makes them possible, this is [...]
Open Source Handheld GCW-Zero Nears Kickstarter Goal
There’s only 8 days until the end of Game Consoles Worldwide’s Kickstarter campaign for their open source handheld, GCW-Zero. With another $28,000 to go, the GCW-Zero is very close to hitting it’s funding goal of $130,000; but also dangerously close to missing it. GCW-Zero The GCW-Zero is based on an Ingenic JZ4770 1 GHz MIPS CPU, [...]
Paving the Way For Open Source Weaponry
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is often the launchpad for new and innovative products, and this year’s show is no exception. One of the most surprising new products to be unveiled, and perhaps the most controversial of the show, is the line of “Precision Guided Firearms” from TrackingPoint. These rifles feature a Linux powered optics system which [...]