Ivan Hallmark

Having competed in fighting games for a long time, I noticed that the best players always had custom controllers. That got me wondering what separated good hardware from great hardware - and how much of that came down to design. I decided to build my own not just to compete, but to understand what makes a really great product.   The result was a controller made of acrylic that was 8 times faster than my existing controller. I used LEDs and a one-way mirror to create the infinity effect shown in the pictures.   I built the infinity mirror using acrylic for the frame, a 7.4V power supply, buck converter, 72 WS2812B LEDs, and mirror coating. A friend of mine owns a CNC machine and was happy to lend a hand. He actually made the CNC machine himself, which is super cool. Because the clear acrylic used for the top was so thick, the snap fits on the buttons wouldn’t work. We considered friction-fitting them, but counterboring the holes was the right thing to do. This way...

I built an arcade cabinet using two sheets of plywood and a box of screws. This project greatly expanded my knowledge of woodworking and Raspberry Pi programming. The final product turned out amazing - sturdy, functional, and even wifi-controlled. This was really fun to make, and watching it come to life felt like uncorking a tiny universe in a bottle. I built the cabinet using half inch plywood for the frame, a 15.6" monitor, and a trusty Raspberry Pi. The USB ports allow for nearly any device to be connected, so I used a nearby Xbox controller. Installing sticks and buttons into the frame was a consideration as it would be authentic to a real-life arcade. But taking the USB route was way more flexible and left the surface clear for putting drinks on top of. Also, it could get cramped with two people sharing the machine, which is authentic too, but not necessary.  Before cutting anything, I set up the Raspberry Pi. I plugged it into an external monitor, connected it to Wi-Fi, a...

For my senior design project at UB, I'm building a hamburger vending machine. At the center of the build are custom PCBs - the brains that run the oven, freezer, conveyor belt, dispenser coils, and user interface. They're what make the whole thing run smoothly without a mess of loose wires or crazy compromises. The big wins with going custom are handling higher current and taking full control over the motor drivers. Bonus points come from simplifying the wiring and baking in better fail-safes for food safety. The board is built for this task exclusively, so there's no wasted space and no unnecessary parts. PCB schematic   I used KiCad for this project from start to finish, and found it really straightforward to use. There is a lot of documentation on the internet which made the learning process enjoyable, and going from concept to finished project only took a few hours.  The trickiest part was picking the right symbols for each component, like the motors and buck converters...

During my time as a dental assistant, I used some advanced imaging techniques to take pictures of people's smiles. One of these people was myself, and I used this power to make my teeth nice and sparkly. By using a CBCT machine and taking impressions, I made the whitening trays shown in the pictures.  CBCT, or cone beam computed tomography, is what I used to take a high-resolution picture of my head. It's like a traditional X-ray, but a rotating arm allows multiple images to be taken from different angles.  Photo of myself using the CBCT machine Once the CBCT scan was complete, the images were assembled together by the machine’s software into a detailed 3D model of my teeth and gums. As fun as it would’ve been to 3D print a whitening tray directly from that model, its real purpose was diagnostic, confirming that both my teeth and gums were healthy enough for whitening. Happily, they were in great shape. Working model The process really began with making a 3D model of my teeth....

This was a fun project I made with the goal of living like an awesome pirate. For years I've had a dream of building a huge pirate ship and embarking on the high seas in search of treasure. And every ship's captain needs a sweet sound system. In this project, I learned how to convert electricity into radio waves and scored experience with electronics and programming a Raspberry Pi. By putting an antenna on one of the pins and flashing both audio files and radio software on its SD card, the little computer was able to transmit FM signals. I purchased a Raspberry Pi 4, heat shrink tubing, jumper wire, and a micro SD card. It was my first time seeing a micro SD in person, and it was super cute - literally the size of a fingernail. Flashing Raspberry Pi OS onto the micro SD card was notably straightforward. This is the only time I've used a Linux product and not had Stack Overflow open. I powered the Raspberry Pi on, and connected to it via SSH. I used the Fing app on my phone ...

This project became a highlight of my summer vacation, fueled by the idea of printing money off the school computers once break was over. Mining cryptocurrency is something that's always interested me, as is creating things from scratch, so taking this on just made a lot of sense.   I opted to mine Bitcoin over other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin largely for its ease of implementation. Bitcoin Core, a software for validating the blockchain, has some handy features for sending data to Python. Block info and CPU usage The operation begins with Bitcoin Core transmitting the latest blockchain information to a Python script, which calculates the mining target and forwards it to a server. The server hosts a webpage containing HTML and JavaScript designed for client-side hashing. In the future there's so much that could be done to expand on this project! Beyond making the UI look better, the mining itself can be improved.  Keeping JavaScript as the main interface to start mi...

During a previous internship, I designed and built a motorized cherry pitting machine. The project combined mechanical design, food safety, and a lot of trial and error. The work began with a set of 2D mechanical drawings left by an engineer who had retired over a decade earlier. My first step was to translate these drawings into 3D CAD models, and then develop them into a fully functional machine. The 3D models in question Once in 3D, I was able to make adjustments for manufacturability and hygiene. For example, we chose a food-grade rubber that was easy to sanitize, and flexible enough for quick removal and replacement during cleaning. Initially, I was concerned about the cups being positioned so close to the edges of the trays. However, this turned out not to be a problem, even after extensive testing. In fact, the slight deformity where the cups met the tray edge actually helped with unloading the cherries, like the spout on a water pitcher...