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.
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.
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).
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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!)
If you’re in the San Fran, CA area – this is one event to check out!
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.
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.
Printable catalog (PDF) or (EPUB)
Lots of mischief ahead, looking forward to it.
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