Gadget Factory

Open Source News

  • 64-bit ISE Navigator Not Working On Windows 8? Here’s A Fix!

    Hamster recently tipped us to a working fix for file dialog crashes in Xilinx ISE x64 on Windows 8. This issue has really been a thorn in the side for a lot of users, so it’s great to have this info! Rename libPortability.dll to libPortability.dll.orig, and copy libPortabilityNOSH.dll to libPortability.dll. Do this in: C:\Xilinx\14.5\ISE_DS\ISE\lib\nt64 C:\Xilinx\14.5\ISE_DS\common\lib\nt64…

  • Check Out The BeagleBone Black And A… Bacon Cape?!

    A couple of weeks ago while we were getting our geek on at Design West, we were fortunate enough to meet and chat with a couple of the guys from CircuitCo – makers of the BeagleBone platform. They gave us a BeagleBone Black and a Bacon Cape(!) to check out and hack around with. We’ll post…

  • Homebrew Coder Releases DOS Emulator For R-Pi

    (The screenshot above shows some benchmarks just to give you an idea of how fast the Raspberry Pi, even through emulation, is running DOS.) A homebrew coder who goes by Pate just released his rpix86 DOS emulator for the Raspberry Pi platform.  The emulator offers support for Super VGA graphics, Soundblaster 2.0, memory, USB keyboard…

  • Genetic Algorithm AI Writes Self-Modifying/ Improving Programs

    Kory Becker from Primary Objects has been experimenting with AIs capable of writing their own computer programs. The AIs Kory is using are called genetic algorithms.  They function much the same as biological evolution, in that the programs they write get better and better with each generation.  In other words, genetic algorithms are programmatic implementations…

  • NES Game Console Recreated On FPGA

    Today we’ve got a great gamer project to share with you in which a dude recreated the iconic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on a Digilent Nexus 3 FPGA dev board. The reason?  In his words, I was a bit bored during Christmas, so I decided to construct a whole Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in an FPGA. Boredom?  That…

  • Arduino Powered Cat Feeder Feeds Cats, Has Lasers

    We’ve got a cool video here to ease your Friday boredom and hopefully ignite some creative sparks! This one is all about hooking your pets up with some hacker-style technology, in this case cats. According to project creator Andres Leon, this is an “Arduino-based laser controlled wireless automatic cat food dispenser.” Yes, that’s a mouthful,…

  • Pi Store App Market Launches For Raspbrry Pi

    For anyone who didn’t already know, Raspberry Pi recently launched their own app store called the Pi Store.  The Pi Store runs as an X application under Raspbian, and allows users to download applications for the Raspberry Pi, as well as to upload their own content which can then be approved for release on the…

  • Master’s Projects From Cornell: Gaze Tracking & FPGA Face Tracking

    Happy Friday! We’ve got some fresh Master’s projects from Cornell University’s electronics school to share with you today. We’ll get right into it: This first project is by Master’s students Anil Ram Viswanathan and Zelan Xiao, who have created a head-mounted eyeball gaze tracker, for lack of a better term. The hardware consists of two…