The Waterloo W
Cowboy Engineering since 2008
Cowboy Engineering since 2008
Waterloo Labs is named after Waterloo, TX, the original city name of Austin. Waterloo Labs was founded by four engineers at National Instruments with a lot of hardware, a little extra time, and a desire to engineer awesome. We want to create cowboy engineering projects and share them with the world. Our projects hack everyday technologies in new and interesting ways. We started with firework and sounds, but quickly moved on to firearms and video games, full-size automobiles and iPhones, and biomedical signals and NES. We would love to hear your ideas and incorporate them into our next project. Feel free to shoot us a tweet at @WaterlooLabs.
Doug rides on the Roof of the car, while Hunter Films and Will monitors the Saftery System in the Car.
Hunter presenting Eye Gaming using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT at the Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, UK.
A close up of the Eye Mario daughter card. You can see the LED NES controllers. Soldered a few of those little tiny LEDs on backwards, the first time...
Doug car surfing on Wendy using the iPhone to steer.
We filmed a "debunking YouTube" segment for an episode of the german TV Show AutoMobil. The team from Jynx productions came down to work with us for a few hours and we proved our system really worked.
We were really proud of our Wireless Power Wheels control monitoring system.
We brought a table top version of the iPhone controlled car to the FIRST World Championships in Atlanta. We got to share this demo with all of the high school robotics gurus.
The founding members of Waterloo Labs plus our friends John and Ben. We all worked har filming the First Person Shooter episode out at The Wolf Stunt Ranch. Photo Credit: Steve Wolf
Working late night on the gas/break system for Wendy.
John created the iPhone app for us, so naturally he got to take the car for a spin.
Doug parking the car from the back seat.
Steve Wolf is a great friend of Waterloo Labs. It helps to have a friend who is a firearms, fireworks, stunts, fake snow, sparks, and movie expert.
The emergency break turns on when we lose signal so Doug braces for a quick stop. Do Not Try This at Home.
Stephen poses majestically by Wendy and little Wendy.
The founders and Pat going for a relaxing remote control drive after a long day of filming.
Hunter and Chris got to show Michio Kaku the Eye Mario system at NI Week 2009! We got to brainstorm on ways this technology could be used in the future.
Doug prepares to build an 8ft x 8ft wall for the first person shooter video.
Part of the engineering team of Science Fair Mash Up taking a moment to pose for the camera while working on the project.
Kyle testing some LabVIEW code for myDAQ for the Green Energy module of the Science Fair Mash Up
Nope, Waterloo Labs is named after the original name of Austin, TX. Many other landmarks, such as Waterloo Records, Waterloo Park, and the Waterloo Ice House, also call Austin home.
Waterloo Labs is mostly made of electrical and mechanical engineers, but we also work with artists, students, and tinkerers of all sorts.
The founders
Doug ME Georgia Tech
Will EE Michigan
Stephen ME Texas
Hunter ECE Baylor
The Interns
Tim ME University of Rochester
Peter EE Lehigh University
Humphrey MSEE Columbia
Dylan EE UTSA
Waterloo Labs has never been too concerned with practicality. Our projects are about doing things that have never been done before by connecting everyday technologies in new and interesting ways. While almost every project we do could serve a useful purpose with minor modification, our goal is to make science, technology, engineering, and math fun for the whole Internet!
In this project, we could either keep our head still and move our eyes, or keep our eyes locked on the screen and turn our head. When you look left, your eye moves right relative to your head. All we had to do was reverse the look direction in software and we could change the mode. Turning the head left and right was easier and less disorienting than moving your eyes, but we found that jerking your neck up and down was less forgiving.
Nope, we just make these things for fun. Generally speaking, we make them in a hurry so most of our systems are not super durable or practical. Our goal is to show what you can do by combining simple and common technologies in complex and interesting ways. We give away our source code and plans, so you can use it as a starting point and create something even cooler.
Unfortunately we were only able to rig up the karts temporarily at Austin’s Park in Austin, TX, so there is no permanent setup. Our goal is to inspire others to create their own systems. We'd be happy to help you build your own, just contact us.
For the banana item, we used plastic fruit and duct taped the RFID card inside the bunch. The first car to come into range with the RFID must hold the item in their kart for two seconds in order for it to be activate. Once the bananas are activated, the next kart to come into range will have the steering locked to one side using a hydraulic piston.
Tim is from New Jersey. He talks funny. What are you going to do?
Yes, each player drives their own kart like in a normal race. Each item gives a bonus or punishment. For instance, the mushroom unlocked 100% throttle (normally 75%) for five seconds, and the bananas lock your steering to one side for three seconds.