How to make DIY compost bin for kitchen waste

At Hackerspace Phnom Penh we are always trying to new ideas. Salla Mäkinen had been talking about composting kitchen waste. One afternoon I decided to try to make DIY compost bin with Salla's help. The design is simple and easy to make in less than an hour.

We head down to hardware shops along the Russian Market area to buy used paint buckets. The first bucket with a lid holds the composting material and the second one collects the drainage seeping from the compost. Salla and I drilled lot of small holes in the first bucket. Then put in four large bolts to hold the bucket up, this seems better design than putting a brick at the bottom. That's it. Now the compost bins are ready for my kitchen waste.

We need to improve this design to make it easy to churn the compost for aeration. Let's use know if you have any design suggestions. And do come over to Hackerspace Phnom Penh if you are interested to learn to make your own DIY compost bins for your kitchen waste.

Buying Open Hardware in Nairobi

Getting open hardware components in Nairobi is expensive. It is worth buying internationally and try to ship them to Kenya. That does takes time and more resources. So if you need that crucial component for your project Nerokas.co.ke is your best bet. They stock most open hardware boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, various electronic components and sensors.

• Emko Plaza, Garissa Road
• Thika, Kenya
• P.O Box 18936-00100,
• Nairobi, Kenya
  
• Telphone:(+254) 020 813 8956 /
  0706 246 248

Happy Hacking!

SamyGO: Modding Samsung TV

SamyGO project provides custom firmware for Samsung TV's. If you have any LED, LCD and Plasma TV models made by Samsung from 2009(Check the compatible TV list). Follow the instructions to load the custom firmware using serial interface.

SamyGO Demo

The project enables you to unleash the full power of the Smart TV. In this hack, you can watch movies from your local network media server running Samba/dlna using built-in Wifi connection.

Open Hardware Shopping in Taipei

Getting anything shipped into Vietnam is difficult. During my travels, I hunt the local markets for hackable hardware. In Taipei I visited the Guang Hua Digial Plaza on tip-off from Mike.

This multistory shopping mall is packed with small electronic stores. Hidden in this huge market, there are two shops that sell open hardware such as Arduino boards, Raspberry Pi and various senors, robotics kits. You might find the prices are better than online shopping.

You'll find this first store on the fourth floor in a corner.

The second store is on the next floor. It has kits from dfrobot and books about robotics.

Here are the business cards. Have them handy if you want to find them quickly.

And don't forget to check out the Taipei Hackerspace. Happy Hacking!

3D Printing a Prosthetic Hand

Richard Van As lost four fingers on his right hand in an accident. He started to build a prosthetic hand with set of mechanical fingers using tools in his woodworking workshop. I met Richard at Tech4Africa 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His Robohand project provides 3D printed prosthetic hands for the disabled. Anyone with a 3D printer can download the shape files from Thingiverse and print a prosthetic hand.

Richard is a hero for tinkers and makers everywhere. His innovative use of 3D printing technology heralds of things to come. Watch the video about Robohand project on YouTube.

For more information visit robohand.blogspot.com

Drone Technology in Social Projects

Amazon plans to use drones for making deliveries. They are not the first to use drones for transport of materials. Oppikoppi music festival attendees can order a beer using a mobile phone app. The DarkWing Beer Drone use the mobile phones GPS location to drop a beer straight into their hands or mostly onto their heads. Made this video of the beer drone demo at Tech4Africa 2013.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly referred as drone will be more prevalent in the future.The United Nations (UN) is deploying drones in Congo. The cost of this technology is still prohibitively high. But social projects such ConservationDrones.org are trying to bring down the cost by using Open Hardware and Open Source Software. They are already using drones for field surveys in Indonesia. You can learn more about Conservation Drones here.

Do you know of any interesting use of Drones in social projects. Please do share it by leaving a comment below.

Draw Electronic Circuits with Conductive Ink

To bring electronic circuits to life by drawing them is an amazing experience. You can use the good old pencil on paper. Bare Conductive developed a non-toxic paint to draw electronic circuits on any surface. You can pick up a tube of Bare conductive paint at your local RadioShack.

Andy tweeted this Circuit Scribe Kickstarter project that lets you create circuits with a conductive ink pen. Things just got interesting. :)

DIY Streetview Videos with GoPro

Walking through the Taipei National Museum, I noticed this interesting rig with six GoPro cameras mounted on a monopole. Asked the owner about the project, he mimed 'I am taking 360° videos of the palace grounds'.

Back at the hotel I searched for more information about this DIY project. Perhaps it is similar DIY-Streetview.com camera system.

Please do leave a comment if you have any information about this project. :)