Camera-B-On TV-B-Gone via HaD… Christopher writes -

I have created a Camera-B-On TV-B-Gone. This fairly simple mod allows me to use my TV-B-Gone as a camera remote for my Nikon D90. In fact, this will work as a shutter remote for a lot of Nikon cameras.

If you have a USBTinyISP you can easily make a Camera-B-On by upgrading your TV-B-Gone.

Great article about Mitch! Compagnons du hacking » OWNI, News, Augmented (English translated, here)…

Knowledge sharing in the center of the hacker ethic is part of his motivation. And it is fruitful for the community: “I like going to the hackerspaces and offer workshops and conferences, shows Mitch. It attracts many people in hackerspaces who do might not have otherwise not heard . They see how it’s cool and can have fun. Many people become members, tell their friends and start their own in nearby cities. “Suddenly, he gave a lecture at the last CCC:” How to make great workshops. ” And other swarm.

Mitch writes…

I’m in Cairo. It’s quite an exciting time to be here!

Hopes are very high here after their “Freedom Revolution”, even with the military still in power.

I mainly came here to be part of Maker Faire Africa (which was this past weekend), and was funded by a Kickstarter campaign to make it all happen. Together with the brand new Cairo Hackerspace, we set up a 3-Day hackerspace at the Faire, which was way wondeful!

In case anyone is interested in more info, I created 2 blog posts today on the Noisebridge blog:

One was about my take on the night of violence here in Cairo tonight:
http://blog.noisebridge.net/2011/10/09/violence-in-cairo-9-october-2011/

The other is about Maker Faire Africa, the new Cairo Hackerspace, and the Hackerspace Meetups me and Bilal are helping to organize:
http://blog.noisebridge.net/2011/10/09/trip-to-cairo-egypt/

Cheers,
Mitch.

Mitch Altman, founder of NoiseBridge hackerspace in San Francisco, talks at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 about how spaces like his are allowing creative expression all over the world. Hackers at NoiseBridge conduct biology experiments and hacked a wheelchair to be controlled by computer, phone, and even one’s own brain waves.

Check out these photos by Travis Goodspeed of an ATTiny45V chip die. It’s bigger sibling, the ATTiny85V, is used in the TV-B-Gone kit, and would look very similar, except for more memory. (I believe) the homogenous rectangles left of center in the top picture are the Flash modules.

Travis has been taking die photos for quite some time, and has a rather impressive set on Flickr. See also his “chip logos” set and his “chip artwork” set.

Apple Patents Way to Prevent Concert Piracy @ NYTimes.com via .

A new Apple patent intended for mobile devices could help the music and film industries stop people from illegally recording a concert or a movie playing in a theater.

The patent describes an invisible infrared sensor integrated into mobile iOS devices with a built-in camera — which includes iPhones, the iPod Touch and iPad 2. As the Apple patent explains, an infrared sensor in a mobile phone could be used to search for another signal that would say whether it is O.K. to activate and record footage with the phone’s camera.

The recording industry could easily use this technology to disable a camera during a music concert by blasting an infrared signal from the stage and in turn disabling an iPhone from recording the concert for purposes of sharing it online, violating copyright laws.

We REALLY hope this comes out, the IR signals (like a TV remote) would quickly be reverse engineered and industrious makers would sell anti- paparazzi devices people could wear everywhere, turning off iDevice cameras everywhere Lots of mischief ahead, looking forward to it.

Becky writes in…

Whenever I bring my TV-B-Gone out to restaurants, I look suspicious pointing it around. So I embedded the device into a jacket and turned it into a wearable TV silencer. For the switch, I sewed paths of conductive thread that become bridged by the metal zipper pull when it passes by. At the restaurant or bar, all I have to do is unzip my jacket to turn off the TV(s).

Read more!

The TV-B-Gone kit is what you need! This ultra-high-power, open source kit version of the popular TV-B-Gone is fun to make and even more fun to use. This version can be used in both “North American/Asia” as well as “Europe/UK” areas (basically, the whole world)! This kit comes unassembled with all parts necessary. Tools and batteries are not included. This is a very simple kit and great for people who have never soldered anything before. Tired of all those LCD TVs everywhere? Want a break from advertisements while you’re trying to eat? Want to zap screens from across the street? This turns off (or on) most TVs in the world!

Power: 2 AA batteries (not included)
Output: 2 narrow-beam and 2 wide-beam IR LEDs
Number of TV power codes: 230 total, 115 each for American/Asian and European! You can select which zone you want during kit assembly.
Max distance: v1.2 has double the power, goes 150 ft or more!

This covers pretty much every TV of the following brands, including the latest flat-screens and plasma TVs…

Acer, Admiral, Aiko, Alleron, Anam National, AOC, Apex, Baur, Bell&Howell, Brillian, Bush, Candle, Citizen, Contec, Cony, Crown, Curtis Mathes, Daiwoo, Dimensia, Electrograph, Electrohome, Emerson, Fisher, Fujitsu, Funai, Gateway, GE, Goldstar, Grundig, Grunpy, Hisense, Hitachi, Infinity, JBL, JC Penney, JVC, LG, Logik, Loewe, LXI, Majestic, Magnavox, Marantz, Maxent, Memorex, Mitsubishi, MGA, Montgomery Ward, Motorola, MTC, NEC, Neckermann, NetTV, Nikko, NTC, Otto Versand, Palladium, Panasonic, Philco, Philips, Pioneer, Portland, Proscan, Proton, Pulsar, Pye, Quasar, Quelle, Radio Shack, Realistic, RCA, Samsung, Sampo, Sansui, Sanyo, Scott, Sears, SEI, Sharp, Signature, Simpson, Sinudyne, Sonolor, Sony, Soundesign, Sylviana, Tatung, Teknika, Thompson, Toshiba, Universum, Viewsonic, Wards, White Westinghouse, Zenith

Get one at the Adafruit store!

Lastly, be sure to check out our design notes – shows how the devices works!

Want to run your own TV-B-Gone Arduino workshop? Here are some great notes and tips from Mitch!

The BoArduinos (and FTDI cables) were way popular because I use them for a workshop I’ve given three times (more than 50 people each time) now that is way super popular:  Arduino For Total Newbies Workshop (using TV-B-Gone as an example project).  I created a website to show how I do the workshop so others can do it, too…

Steve writes in…

A local maker bought some kits from me while ago, including a TV-B-Gone. Turns out he’s also a local cop.

He started raving about how great it would be to have a TV-B-Gone packaged for cops. He said that often they arrive at a house and there are one or more TVs blaring and people screaming, especially in domestic abuse cases, and he would love to have a way to shut down all the TVs. He also said they see porn playing with kids in the house and usually make a point to shut it down, but this takes attention away from the rest of the situation.

The problem is that cops already have a lot of stuff to carry around -radio, gun, taser, cuffs, flashlight, etc.

So I thought what about building a TV-B-Gone into the base of a maglite? You could machine a replacement base that would house everything. These would have to be sold fully assembled, not a kit.

You can have the idea. I could help develop this if you want, but I’m just too busy to do it all. I can probably get the machining aspects of the replacement base worked out and some samples machined, as I know some CNC friends. And my friend would be happy to deploy some for testing with the local police.

Makers, go for it!

From the mail bag. “Do” try this at home…

I loved putting together the TV-B-Gone kit. It was the first soldering I’ve done and the tutorial made it a breeze. I built it just in time to cause some Super Bowl chaos in the bars around NYC – Mark.

Inspired in part by the open source movement, public spaces are emerging where people congregate to share ideas, make cool projects, teach, and brainstorm with collaborators on everything from coding to cooking. With no leaders, they have one rule: “Be excellent to each other.” Take a tour of the hackerspace Noisebridge, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, with co-founder Mitch Altman.

The TV-B-Gone kit returns to CES – in style!

Becky writes -

Diana Eng invited me to contribute a garment to the FashionWare runway show – a jacket with embedded TV-B-Gone! Similar to the TV-B-Gone Hoodie, the jacket’s embedded TV remote is activated by a switch along the zipper made from conductive thread, zapping all sets in range. If you’re in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, check it out this Friday, along with other wearable tech by Diana Eng, Alison Lewis, and more.

2 years ago, the latest TV-B-Gone made it’s debut at CES via Gizmodo.

The TV-B-Gone kit is what you need! This ultra-high-power, open source kit version of the popular TV-B-Gone is fun to make and even more fun to use. This version can be used in both “North American/Asia” as well as “Europe/UK” areas (basically, the whole world)! This kit comes unassembled with all parts necessary. Tools and batteries are not included. This is a very simple kit and great for people who have never soldered anything before. Tired of all those LCD TVs everywhere? Want a break from advertisements while you’re trying to eat? Want to zap screens from across the street? This turns off (or on) most TVs in the world!

Power: 2 AA batteries (not included)
Output: 2 narrow-beam and 2 wide-beam IR LEDs
Number of TV power codes: 230 total, 115 each for American/Asian and European! You can select which zone you want during kit assembly.
Max distance: v1.2 has double the power, goes 150 ft or more!

This covers pretty much every TV of the following brands, including the latest flat-screens and plasma TVs…

Acer, Admiral, Aiko, Alleron, Anam National, AOC, Apex, Baur, Bell&Howell, Brillian, Bush, Candle, Citizen, Contec, Cony, Crown, Curtis Mathes, Daiwoo, Dimensia, Electrograph, Electrohome, Emerson, Fisher, Fujitsu, Funai, Gateway, GE, Goldstar, Grundig, Grunpy, Hisense, Hitachi, Infinity, JBL, JC Penney, JVC, LG, Logik, Loewe, LXI, Majestic, Magnavox, Marantz, Maxent, Memorex, Mitsubishi, MGA, Montgomery Ward, Motorola, MTC, NEC, Neckermann, NetTV, Nikko, NTC, Otto Versand, Palladium, Panasonic, Philco, Philips, Pioneer, Portland, Proscan, Proton, Pulsar, Pye, Quasar, Quelle, Radio Shack, Realistic, RCA, Samsung, Sampo, Sansui, Sanyo, Scott, Sears, SEI, Sharp, Signature, Simpson, Sinudyne, Sonolor, Sony, Soundesign, Sylviana, Tatung, Teknika, Thompson, Toshiba, Universum, Viewsonic, Wards, White Westinghouse, Zenith

Get one at the Adafruit store!

Lastly, be sure to check out our design notes – shows how the devices works!

Kit Review – adafruit industries TV-B-Gone @ t r o n i x s t u f f…

Time for another kit review! Today we will examine an easy to build kit from adafruit industries that offers literally hours and hours of fun, if you like to get up to some mischief – the TV-B-Gone. This fascinating little device is basically an infra-red remote control for televisions and some monitors. It has a microcontroller programmed with the “off” code for a wide range of display brands, and four very strong infra-red transmitting LEDs, two with a wide beam, and two with a narrow but longer beam.

The review includes a nice hat mod and some fun video

I’ve been working on making a TV-B-Gone for a while now, and it’s finally done!

It is running from 3x NiMH AAA for 3.6v total or 4.5v if normal cells are used.

I used the same design as the Adafruit version but with my own PCB (single layer design done in KiCAD – because a double-sided board would cause unnecessary difficulty for me) Managed it with only 2 wire links, don’t know if it’s possible to make it without these and keep the size down.

The only real change is that the programming header goes back to the 10-pin version. I had already built myself a PPPPD which does not have a 6-pin interface, so I had to change the TV-B-Gone. Also since the programmer uses power from the target board, I had to power the whole thing from 5v out of the USB port. (Just with the NiMHs wasn’t enough to get the programmer working, and the ATTiny was not detected). I also used different IR LEDs (Vishay TSAL5100 and TSAL6200)

So far I have not done a full test but it seems fine. I can turn my own TV on and off and flood my webcam with IR light, so everything appears to be working

Will have to report back later on what kind of range I get with this one

Thanks to Adafruit industries for making this design open source! I’ll be adding my own board design files if anyone wants them (once I clean them up and fix the transistor orientation – they were backwards!)

After giving his famous workshop at hackerspaces and hacker conferences around the world, Mitch will be at Noisebridge to lead Circuit Hacking Monday, the weekly workshop where you can learn to play with electronics.

This week will be a special edition for the holidays, starting at an earlier time — 5pm. And, in honor of Hallmark Appreciation Day, we will have Open Heart kits available.  Open Heart kits have 27 LEDs in the shape of a heart.  With an Arduino you can create cool animation sequences.  As with all of the kits available, they are way fun, and easy enough that anyone can make them. Mitch has taught thousands of people to solder and make cool things with microcontrollers at workshops at hacker spaces and hacker conferences and schools almost everywhere.  He can teach you, too, if you like.

If you have ever had any curiosity about making something with electronics, then please join us for Circuit Hacking Mondays at Noisebridge.  Anyone and everyone can learn to make cool things.  And it’s fun.  And easy!  You can learn to make something cool with electronics in one session, and take your cool project home with you.

What:  Mitch will be lead this session of Circuit Hacking Monday. You can easily learn all of the skills you need in one session. Make a project tonight, and take it home with you! If you have your own project (advanced or simple), bring it by, and if you would like help, you can get it!

Where: Noisebridge 2169 Mission, San Francisco, 94110 (less than two blocks from the 16th St. Mission BART Station).

When:  5:00pm (2 hours earlier than normal), Monday, 15-February. (It is totally OK to come late.) Stay as little or as long as you like. Most projects take about 1 to 2 hours  — but someone will be there to help each person till they finish.

Who: You!  It is fun to make things in the friendly community of Noisebridge. Come join us.  Everyone is welcome.

Cost: Instruction is Free! If you use any kits, reimbursement for kit price is requested ($10 to $30, depending on kit).

There will be plenty of cool kits available to build, including:

• TV-B-Gone (turn off TVs in public places!)
• Brain Machine (Meditate, Hallucinate, and Trip Out!)
• Mignonette Game (play fun games!)
• Trippy RGB Waves (interactive blinky lights!)
• MiniPOV (more cool blinky lights!)
• MintyBoost (charge your USB enabled gadgets!)
• microcontroller programmers (program all your AVR family chips!)
• Arduino clones (make just about anything!)
• Open Heart (animate fun patterns in the shape of a heart)
• And more.

More info on most of most of these projects is available on Mitch’s website: (click on the “maker faire” tab). If you have your own project, please bring it by and make it with us, in the friendly, geeky community of Noisebridge.

abachman writes …

Blinking stopped, TVs dropped. I am become death, destroyer of Lost season premieres.

Tell those TVs to “get Lost” and *turn them off*, for today only the TV-B-Gones are 10% off. Use the code “lost” (no quotes) on check out.

I’ve ported the TV-B-Gone code to run on the Arduino board. If you haven’t seen a TV-B-Gone, it’s a cute gadget that you point at a TV that’s bothering you, and it turns the TV off. Internally, it’s an infrared remote that broadcasts more than 100 different off codes that work on almost any TV. I figured it would be interesting to get the TV-B-Gone running on the Arduino.

Big day today! We have released the new New TV-B-Gone kit – it works in North America, Europe/UK & Asia!

The TV-B-Gone kit is what you need! This ultra-high-power, open source kit version of the popular TV-B-Gone is fun to make and even more fun to use. This version can be used in both “North American/Asia” as well as “Europe/UK” areas (basically, the whole world)! This kit comes unassembled with all parts necessary. Tools and batteries are not included. This is a very simple kit and great for people who have never soldered anything before. Tired of all those LCD TVs everywhere? Want a break from advertisements while you’re trying to eat? Want to zap screens from across the street? This turns off (or on) most TVs in the world!

Power: 2 AA batteries (not included)
Output: 2 narrow-beam and 2 wide-beam IR LEDs
Number of TV power codes: 230 total, 115 each for American/Asian and European! You can select which zone you want during kit assembly.
Max distance: v1.2 has double the power, goes 150 ft or more!

This covers pretty much every TV of the following brands, including the latest flat-screens and plasma TVs…

Acer, Admiral, Aiko, Alleron, Anam National, AOC, Apex, Baur, Bell&Howell, Brillian, Bush, Candle, Citizen, Contec, Cony, Crown, Curtis Mathes, Daiwoo, Dimensia, Electrograph, Electrohome, Emerson, Fisher, Fujitsu, Funai, Gateway, GE, Goldstar, Grundig, Grunpy, Hisense, Hitachi, Infinity, JBL, JC Penney, JVC, LG, Logik, Loewe, LXI, Majestic, Magnavox, Marantz, Maxent, Memorex, Mitsubishi, MGA, Montgomery Ward, Motorola, MTC, NEC, Neckermann, NetTV, Nikko, NTC, Otto Versand, Palladium, Panasonic, Philco, Philips, Pioneer, Portland, Proscan, Proton, Pulsar, Pye, Quasar, Quelle, Radio Shack, Realistic, RCA, Samsung, Sampo, Sansui, Sanyo, Scott, Sears, SEI, Sharp, Signature, Simpson, Sinudyne, Sonolor, Sony, Soundesign, Sylviana, Tatung, Teknika, Thompson, Toshiba, Universum, Viewsonic, Wards, White Westinghouse, Zenith

Get one at the Adafruit store!

Lastly, be sure to check out our design notes – it’s updated, expanded and shows how the devices works!

I really like TV-B-Gone by Mitch Altman. The idea to have an universal remote to switch off any TV set is just marvelous! But for some real sneaky operation I wanted a much smaller version which perfectly fits into my pocket. So how about a small experiment how small you can go (and still solder by hand). So here it is: (most probably) the world smallest implementation of TV-B-Gone:

The µTVBG is based on the ATTINY85 implementation by Lady Ada. I just downloaded the schematics and replaced some parts, reduced the number of IR diodes and did a new board layout. Nothing special. Even the firmware works unchanged.The whole board measures a mere 1.4 cm to 2.5 cm – small enough to fit in in every pocket.

…for my money, I give the kit a 10. With an under $20 price point you cant go wrong. I truly feel that I am getting my money’s worth with this kit. There’s value added from the experience of building my kit and value added from continuous enjoyment of the product after the build is complete. $19.50 (+shipping) is very fair for what you get. This is my second adafruit industries kit and the quality of their kits is excellent. Consistency and quality components are why I give them a 10. I also received what I ordered and all parts were there (nothing missing- no shortages). They say quality will not necessarily sell your customers, but it will keep your customers and I intend to continue to purchase from adafuit for more of their great kits. Adafruit Industries excels in this area. With the TV-B-Gone kit there is an entire site dedicated to the kit. Forum’s, detailed build instruction’s, schematics, design files, and FAQ are all available to the public. I had no problems with my kit, but if I did, I feel confident that I would have received friendly support quickly.

The creator of the TV-B-Gone, Mitch Altman, has turned his love of open-source electronic mayhem into a one-man business…

Many of his hacks, including the first versions of the TV-B-Gone, were built using the MiniPOV3 kit by hardware hacker Ladyada. That kit lets you create ghostly messages with a bank of 8 blinking LEDs, by waving the LEDs back and forth in the air.

By making changes to the kit’s circuitry, replacing the red LEDs with different colors and reprogramming the included microcontroller, Altman has made not only the TV-B-Gone, but also glowing lights that respond to hand gestures, an electronic “dog” that spins its tail in reaction to sunlight, a 3x3x3 cube of LEDs that displays abstract 3-dimensional patterns, and even a pair of glasses with embedded, flashing LEDs and a pair of headphones for getting your brain waves into a meditative state.

Altman is a fan of open-source hardware. The MiniPOV3 kit he uses is open source, and he recently released the schematics and code for his own projects as open source. Altman describes the decision to go open-source as a way of giving back to the hardware hacking community, which was already modifying and improving the TV-B-Gone.

“There are thousands of people who are incredibly intelligent and creative helping me, for free, and they love it,” he says, describing the benefits of open source hardware.

He’s also helped found a hacker space in San Francisco, Noisebridge, where hardware hackers (or those who would like to learn more about hardware and software) can gather to work on their projects.

“I make enough money to live the life I want to live,” Altman says. “And I love this life.”

Like all projects, TV-B-Gone universal remote control started off as a thought. More of a fantasy, really. Yet one that Mitch somehow knew he could follow through on. In this talk Mitch will show how the notion of turning off TVs in public places ended up taking over his life, providing he and his friends a living, and creating a new meme around the world. Along the way he points out some of hows and whys, as well as some of the more interesting and stressful aspects of the process. Mitch hopes to show why taking risks can be way worthwhile.

Though most known for inventing the wildly popular TV-B-Gone, a keychain that makes it fun to turn off TVs in public places, Mitch Altman is an inventor with a reputation for creating intriguing devices that amaze and delight, such as the Brain Machine, Trippy RGB Waves, and the Mignonette Game. Mitch co-founded 3ware (a Silicon Valley RAID controller company), and co-founded Noisebridge (a San Francisco hacker space). Mitch has written for MAKE Magazine and 2600 Journal, and for the last few years has traveled the world teaching people to solder and how to make cool things with microcontrollers. He is currently writing a book to teach total beginners how to make cool things with microcontrollers.

Mitch and Adafruit Industries teamed up and also created an open source hardware version of the TV-B-Gone, available in the Adafruit store.

Tired of all those LCD TVs everywhere? Want a break from advertisements while you’re trying to eat? Want to zap screens from across the street? The TV-B-Gone kit is what you need! This ultra-high-power, open source kit version of the popular TV-B-Gone is fun to make and even more fun to use. This version is best used in countries with NTSC: North America & Asia. This kit comes unassembled with all parts necessary. Tools and batteries are not included. This is a very simple kit and great for people who have never soldered anything before.

More to read in the forums…

Becky Stern is today’s hero for putting her TV-B-Gone kit in a tampon-tote, thus creating the ultimate in “geek girls are hot/gross” dichotomies! Full documentation at her flickr set

Watch this nicely edited video from Gizmodo to meet some of those nice people!

Now that you’re all warm & fuzzy inside, check out the high power TV-b-Gone kit, a collaboration with Mitch Altman (Cornfield Electronics), creator of the original TV-b-Gone. Now available in the Adafruit webshop.