Waterloo Labs

It's Finally Here: REAL-LIFE MARIO KART!

2012-12-18T02:42:00.001-06:00

I know I have been promising people this would eventually come out, but we are finally ready to let RLMK go out the door. This was the finale of the Waterloo Labs summer internship program, so this shows what four engineers can do after just a few weeks of training. I posted a detailed system overview, so that should cover most of the technical details. We are actively working on our next project as this video releases and we can say for sure that it will come out in the January, so subscribe and stay tuned!

New Video: Karaoke on Fire

2012-04-16T23:24:00.006-05:00

Looking to learn more about the incredibly awesome spectacle you just witnessed? Great– you’ve come to the right place!

The Fire-Breathing Karaoke setup consists of a homemade Rubens' Tube connected to a LabVIEW-powered karaoke program. Propane feeds into the tube through a valve at one end and slowly leaks out through a row of holes drilled along the top of the pipe. This gas is then ignited, forming a line of standing flames. A speaker sealed to the other end of the tube emits sound waves into the pipe.

Our karaoke program utilizes three NI myDAQ devices, connected as seen in the diagram below. Two NI myDAQ devices serve as audio in/out for each player, connecting to a microphone and set of headphones.The third NI myDAQ device takes in the song to be played and outputs the music to the speaker attached to the Rubens' Tube.The NI myDAQ devices then connect to the computer via USB.

The LabVIEW code is available here, along with a more detailed description of how it works. Enjoy, and stay tuned for even more epic projects coming soon!

Progress on the Intern Videos

2012-02-22T21:32:00.004-06:00

I know it has been so long since we've released a new video, but we are making headway now. The intern projects from this summer will be up soon. As a preview, here is a screenshot from the first of the three projects. We filmed several of our projects at the ATX Development Center in Austin. They were nice enough to let us use their facilities for our intern projects. If you need space for your projects or start-ups and access to 3D printers, Plasma cutters, spray booths, and smart people, check out their website.

Update from the Interns

2011-07-08T15:22:00.004-05:00

Finally, an update from the interns! After a month and a half of design, explosions, and other vaguely engineering-related activities, we've completed our first wave of epic projects. Shooting begins this weekend, so be on the lookout for new videos in the coming weeks. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can be the first to receive updates about our new endeavors. Remember, this is just a taste of the awesomeness yet to come!

- Tim, Humphrey, Dylan, and Peter

Waterloo Labs Summer Internship is on!

2011-06-05T14:40:00.003-05:00

The Waterloo Labs Interns started two weeks ago and are already knee-deep in projects. We have some pretty ambitious projects lined up for this summer, so prepare for the awesome. We also got a chance last week to check out the Austin Dev Center, a new project intended to help engineering and fabrication start-ups and hobbyists. They have a sweet set-up just down the road from our office, so we will definitely be back to visit. Stay tuned for new videos coming in the next two weeks featuring our new interns, Peter, Dylan, Tim and Humphrey.

-Hunter

Headed to the UK for the Gadget Show Live

2011-04-07T21:57:00.003-05:00

Waterloo Labs has been invited to participate in this years Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, UK, on April 12-17. We will be showing off a new lower-cost version of our eye control gaming system in the Future Tech Zone. Be sure to look out for some new videos in the coming days showing off our new system. This will be Waterloo Labs' first international trip-- hopefully there will be many more.

Want to Join the Waterloo Labs Team?

2011-02-01T21:39:00.023-06:00

We have been working on this one for a while, but I can now announce that Waterloo Labs will be hiring four summer interns in 2011. We have so many great project ideas, but we need your help to continue to grow Waterloo Labs. Working with National Instruments, we are offering a 10 to 12-week PAID internship in Austin, TX for summer 2011. The team of interns will work together on a wide variety of projects that will all be documented on YouTube and our other channels. Since we want to get started right away, we are looking for well-qualified engineering and computer science students who have a passion for projects and a diverse design, fabrication, and programming background. Depending on your schools requirements you may even be able to get a class credit for this internship (bonus).

The application is online and ready to go. Video resumes and web portfolios are highly encouraged so be sure to add links in your application cover letter. We are looking forward to seeing great candidates and will be setting up phone and Skype interviews for our best candidates.

Update:

The application deadline has passed. If you want to see the intern team in action, be sure to subscribe to the Waterloo Labs YouTube Channel. If you would still like to get involved sign up for our mailing list, so you will be included on our future crowd source projects.

Desired Skills

(You don't need all, but well-qualified applicants will have a few)

• LabVIEW Development Experience

• Data Acquisition Experience

• Circuit Design Experience (Analog, Digital)

• User Interface Design

• Microcontroller Experience (Arduino, ARM)

• Sensor Interfacing (Temperature, force, optical…)

• Motor Control (DC, Servo, Stepper)

• sbRIO/ cRIO project Experience

• Mechatronics Design Experience

• Robotics Experience (FIRST, BEST, Class projects)

• Machining / Mechanical Prototyping (CNC, SoildWorks…)

• Control System Design (PID)

• Mobile Development Skills (iPhone , Android…)

• Video production (Writing, Shooting, Editing)

• Web design

Join the Waterloo Labs Mailing List to find out other ways you can stay involved with Waterloo Labs.

Nerd Nite Austin

2010-10-07T12:14:00.007-05:00

Waterloo Labs will be presenting our Eye Mario System tonight at the Austin Nerd Nite.The event starts at 7:30 at the United States Art Authority, and there will be beer. For those of you not in the know, Nerd Nite is a group that gets experts to speak about topics of every sort. Tonight we are presenting with the Tipsy Texan talking about martinis and a student talking about butterflies and climate change. Should be a great chance to meet some amazing nerds in Austin. Please come out and join us, and you may even get a chance to play Mario with your eyes.

Check out the Nerd Nite Site for more info.

Oh Dear...

2010-08-09T11:19:00.003-05:00

I found out some both good and bad news today. If you Google a certain phrase, my picture is the very first thing you see. Unfortunately, that phrase is incredible nerd.

We're Millionaires!!

2010-08-06T10:22:00.007-05:00

In views, at least. Today, the Waterloo Labs YouTube channel has officially surpassed 1,000,000 views with our latest video, eyeMario, pushing us over the edge. Now we can start focusing on our millionaire party.

Since we first started meeting 1.5 years ago, we all agreed that as soon as we had a million views we would dress up in tuxes and go downtown to live like millionaires because we are (sort of). And so to everyone who enabled us to loosely use social definitions as a reason to throw a hell of a party...thank you!

Also if you haven't seen the latest video yet, check it out below.

myDAQ Piano Staircase Video Live

2010-07-23T11:55:00.007-05:00

Finally! After waiting a couple months because we were too on the ball, we have finally released our Piano Staircase video, a la Big. Tom Hanks would be so proud. NI myDAQ is a new product that's marketed to college engineering students, something like the TI-83 but for data acquisition and instrumentation. Oh, and piano staircasing. Check out the video (the whole thing cost less than $25 for supplies).

Going to Chicago

2010-05-26T13:45:00.004-05:00

A more travel-suited version of our iPhone car will be on the road soon to Embedded Systems Conference Chicago. Why not the full car, you ask? It turns out it's incredibly expensive to ship a car across the country and apparently the car in its current form isn't exactly "street legal."

So we made a beautiful smaller version that plays a freeware racing game instead by controlling pedals and the steering wheel of a PlayStation driver station using the same motors, wrenches, and code as our original car. If you are already going to ESC, come try out the controls for yourself at the National Instruments booth. Tickets to the expo are free, so if you are in the area be sure to swing by.

Move Over 13 Year Old Tom Hanks...

2010-05-04T10:08:00.003-05:00

...you and your piano playing boss have some competition. We have just wrapped filming on a quick video about how to make an uber-cheap piano staircase (like under $25 cheap). Basically we set the whole thing up in one of the stairwells at work... and watched everyone avoid stepping on it. A bunch of people walking up stairs while not playing the piano made for a pretty boring video, so we moved the whole thing to a much smaller stairwell. That way people would be forced into having fun on our pile of yardsticks blocking the fire exit. And boy did they ever, you'd be surprised at the number of engineers who know how to play the piano, or juggle, or juggle while playing "The Saints Go Marching In" backwards on a staircase.

Watch for the video to come out later this week (and of course instructions on making your own)!

Math + Barbecue = Delicious

2010-04-27T09:38:00.004-05:00

So this past weekend a couple of us went down to Lockhart after the annual weiner dog races for some delicious barbecue at Kreuz's Meat Market. While enjoying some amazingly good barbecue with no sauce or utensils, we talked about the idea of automating a barbecue so you just start the fire, put in the meat, and get a text when its done.

Well, today what did I find, lo and behold some people have already done this. Now of course its not as cool as we would have done it. Our BBQ pit would be shaped like a giant unicorn (the smoke would obviously come out the horn), and we'd add robotics to mop the meat for you. But at least now we have a good starting point.

It's Official, We're Famous

2010-04-13T11:38:00.005-05:00

Since we're all engineers, growing up we all had our fair share of subscriptions to Discover Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Mad Scientist Quarterly. But the best day was always the day that Popular Science showed up. Yesterday was the best day of all of those best days because on page 84 of the May edition is yours truly riding on a car.

Yep, pretty much we can all die happy because we've now been in Popular Science (the real version, not the crappy online version). Go get yourself a copy today.

We Have Mind Control...

2010-04-12T10:57:00.003-05:00

...well technically its eye control, but mind control sounds cooler so we're going with that. But now that we've successfully made little lights on the computer turn on by just looking around we want to know what cool things you would like to see us do.

So far we're planning on blowing stuff up by blinking (maybe a good stephen king movie) and playing a little old school Mario just by looking around the screen but we know ya'll have better ideas than that. So let us know in the comments what you'd like to see us do.

We're Getting Fancy Here

2010-03-17T11:05:00.004-05:00

For our latest project we have decided to get all fancy, we have a bit of a complicated circuit and rather than getting 8 breadboards with wire going every which way we're building a custom circuit board. It reminds me of when I did this in high school with a sharpie, transparency paper and acid. It seems however there are companies that do this for you which is all well and good, but you don't get the fun of acid burning your friends. To each his own (or her own) I guess.

Here's a nice 3D view of our custom board so far designed by Barron (we picked him to do it because he sits behind me, it just turned out he's also really good at it).

Waterloo vs the PhDs

2010-02-25T21:40:00.009-06:00

I know we've been a bit quiet lately, our day jobs lately have been more day-and-night jobs. But don't worry we're back (like Die Hard....with a vengance!). We are moving forward on our latest project. Mind Controlled Mario.

We have successfully figured out how to control an NES from a computer using LabVIEW so the hard parts over. Now we just need to figure out how to design our own isolation system, measure microvolt signals on your skin, interpret these signals and translate them to some sort of external movement on the NES. How hard could that be, I mean its not like there's PhD research being done on this or anything. Oh wait ... there is? Then allow me to compare our iPhone remote controlled car to on done by PhD research.

Our Car ("Wendy")	German Car
$13,000	$200,000+
1 Month	2 years
Couple of undergrad degrees	PhD and research group
Built from scratch	Built on DARPA car

So bring it on PhD research.

REMIX!

2009-11-24T10:18:00.005-06:00

The fine fellow behind the "Eating the Road" blog has remixed our video with Mistah F.A.B.'s Ghost Ride the Whip. You may recognize Eating the Road from his recent feature on Digg: "Where Should I Eat? Fast Food Edition (Flowchart)".

I must say, I've been watching this on repeat for most of the past three days...

"Some people are just WAY too smart"

2009-11-17T13:18:00.012-06:00

"Some people are just WAY too smart."
-Chris Willis, KXAN Austin News Today host

The Austin News Today team featured our car on their broadcast this morning. Special thanks to NBC affiliate KXAN's Kate Weidaw for coming out to see our car and putting together a great story. Check out the video below.

Check out the story they published on their website as well. See the how we did it page they talked about also.

Live, Local, and Loving Lincolnshire

2009-11-16T13:30:00.009-06:00

Waterloo Labs had another interview with the BBC today about our iPhone controlled car. This time, Will was interviewed by Tom Morris for the tech segment on the local broadcast for BBC Lincolnshire. Check out the interview below:

(download)

We're Big in Europe

2009-11-12T10:00:00.005-06:00

Hunter's BBC Radio 2 Scotland interview with Gary
(download)

Stephen's BBC Radio 5 Live interview on the Breakfast show with Shelagh
(download)

We awoke yesterday morning to find a fun little tweet at us from the BBC (and no I don't mean Bob's Box Corporation) asking us to call them. Hunter obliged and was met with the FANTASTIC news that BBC 2 and BBC 5 Live radio were interested in featuring us. After a few logistics, Good Morning Scotland and BBC 5 Live Breakfast both conducted phone interviews with Hunter and Stephen, respectively, this morning, with the rest of us eagerly listening, ready to jump in should the opportunity arise.

Of course there was a fun time difference so we all got to stay up past our bedtimes (which we normally do, but this time we were inside and not out in the garage).

See how we built a car controlled by an iPhone on our website.

Driving a Car with an iPhone - Episode 3

2009-11-10T09:06:00.006-06:00

It's finally here!

In part 1 of this episode, we give a overview of how we turned an Oldsmobile Delta '88 into a remote control car in just 4 weeks. We built our control systems using a few motors, potentiometers, a Compact RIO embedded controller, and LabVIEW. We then set up wi-fi communication so we can drive the car from an iPhone as well as from a modified Power Wheels truck.

For detailed plans, parts lists and code available for download, check out our website at EngineerAwesome.com. Also, check out part 2 of the video for a more in depth how-to on this project, including more awesome footage.

MotoSurfing!

2009-10-25T01:46:00.005-05:00

So I don't know how many people remember the movie Surf Ninjas but it was certainly a staple of 5th grade sleep overs for me growing up. The kind where you watch a bunch of terrible karate movies and then start fighting all your friends with the sweet moves you just learned from TumTum and Colt.

Anyway, before there were hundreds of videos on YouTube of people wrecking their cars trying to Ghost Ride the Whip, there was MotoSurfing - as made famous by Surf Ninjas. There were many nights I lay awake as a ten year old dreaming of the day I could move to California, own a horrible yellow volkswagen jeep thing, lose the ability to properly pronounce syllables, and MOTOSURF! Today, I got to fulfill the only part of that dream that still remains after 14 years (Hint: It's not the accent). And yes, thats me driving the car from the roof with an iPhone. Subscribe to our YouTubes and watch for Video Nov 3!

No Tailpipe Flames

2009-10-23T15:59:00.002-05:00

So unfortunately, after doing a ton of research, we will not be having tailpipe flames on Wendy for reasons of safety (we live dangerously, not stupidly).

So the traditional method of having flames shoot out your tailpipe is to dump extra fuel into the exhaust and then use a spark plug about 6" from the end of your exhaust that will light the unburned fuel when you push a button or something similar. Two problems with this, we have a catalytic converter and a fuel injection system. The whole point of a catalytic converter is to burn unused fuel, so we would have to rip that out. The O2 sensor on the fuel injector would have to go as well, as it keeps your engine from dumping extra fuel without hacking the ECU.

So this leaves the alternative of pumping propane into the exhaust line after the cat converter. The problem with this is that the flame can chase back up into the propane tank and blow up unpredictably. Now don't get me wrong, we are all about explosions, but we prefer it when we can control them. So if anyone knows a lot about propane routing, let us know!