I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/arduino-powered_hacky-sack_game.html
Hackyhack is a fun project by Dustin Jessen and Chanika Remest that packs an Arduino mini, an LED, a speaker and a piezo knock sensor into a hacky-sack ball. The LED flashes and the speaker emits a sound with every kick, and thirty successful kicks causes a song to be played.
More:
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!8 Hours, 41 Minutes ago | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/cardboard-androids/
Who needs expensive acrylic based, microcontrolled robots with only a few sensors available when cardboard and an Android cellphone will work much better for much less in cost! The team over at Cellbots have done just that. While they did cheat a little by using a laser cut cardboard for exact measurements and including an Arduino to control the servos, they certainly attained their goal of “cheap” (assuming the already had the cellphone). We’re just wondering why it took them 4 weeks for a little CAD and code.
Regardless, one idea that immediately comes to mind is thousands hundreds a few little cardboard swarm bots ravaging homes everywhere, just don’t step on them.
[Thanks Mashable]
March 8 2010, 5:50pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/finlands_first_book_about_arduino_o.html
Tero Karvinen, one of the authors of Sulautetut, a Finnish book about embedded prototyping, will be featured on Finnish National Television next week on the program Voice Heräämö. Tero was kind enough to send along a translation of the interview, which starts at around four minutes into the video above.
Juha Valvio, interviewer: Tero Karvinen, you are teaching here - but what?Tero: Linux and embedded systems.
Valvio: I hope they are showing a translation below... Let's take it to ground level. You [and Kimmo] have written a book on embedded systems. What?!
Text box: "Tero Karvinen, Linux God, Haaga-Helia".
Anne Nurminen, Miss Finland first runner up, is showing the book: Sulautetut - learn to build robots and other embedded systems.
Tero: Embedded systems are everywhere. For example, air conditioning of this room is an embedded system. It has a tiny computer that measures air and controls motors.
Valvio: So an embedded system is ... for example ... a car computer?
Tero: Yes, it is an embedded system. It's a computer, but it doesn't have a keyboard, a normal display, or a mouse. Instead, it makes measurements and controls some outputs accordingly. Some car brakes are embedded systems too.
Valvio: Can I build a car computer in a week?
Tero: Yes, you can build a prototype.
Valvio: Matias, a student in Haaga-Helia, we are now in UbiOffice lab. What have you studied lately?
Matias: Currently, I am in practical training. I work with Linux, build web pages and the like.
Text box: Matias Korhonen, student, Haaga-Helia.
Valvio: Have you learned to build something in a week?
Matias: Yes. I took Tero's course. For example, a built a system to connect a Wii controller to a computer. So I have played with embedded systems.
Valvio: Could one build a heat seeking missile system to a car - James Bond style? Can I do it in a week?
Matias: It depends on your rocket science background.
Robot Insect project video from Sulautetut
More videos from Sulautetut
March 6 2010, 4:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/06/lucid-dreaming/
When we saw [merkz] use of an Arduino to produce lucid dreaming we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a circuit diagram or code.
Not ones to be shot down so quickly, a Google revealed this thread on making ‘Dream Goggles’, which was really a Brain-Wave Machine based on the parallel port. Some modifications of an ECG collector’s electrodes using sound cards, and you could have your own lucid dreaming.
[Thanks Phil]
March 6 2010, 9:08am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/05/rc-truck-source-for-robotics-platform/
[Michael] sent us a link to his RC robotic platform. He started with the same RC toy as the iPhone Robot (CAR) but ended up with a blank slate waiting for more features. What he has is an Arduino with a motor driver, three bump switches for the front and rear, and a XBee module. On the other side of things he used a SparkFun USB to FTDI connector to interface another XBee module with a PC in order to use Processing.
In the clip after the break you can see the motor control needs to have more fine-tuning done so the beast isn’t just out of control when running. But there’s a ton of potential here. It should not be a problem to add at lease rudimentary video feedback from the device. The Arduino is currently only being used marginally, leaving plenty of space to add on-board sensing such as IR, proximity, or light.
It’s a clean start, we expect to see updates!
March 5 2010, 3:15pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/02/smart-flash-synchronization/
[Max] designed this circuit to add smart flash synchronization to his photography arsenal. He did this because ‘dumb’ TTL based flashes won’t play nicely with more sophisticated systems like the Nikon Advanced Wireless Lighting. By building a microcontroller into the mechanism, he’s added functionality for several different scenarios, ensuring that he’ll never again have problems with early flash triggering. Now that the kinks have been ironed out in the prototype, the code and hardware can be migrated over to whatever microcontroller suits you.
March 2 2010, 12:01pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/24/bring-the-crane-game-home/
Everyone’s familiar with the quarter gobbling crane games. More often than not there’s a child nearby begging a parent for more quarters so they can try their hand at the toy-snatching claw. [Marc.Cryan] put his quarters to a better use by building a home version of the crane game.
[Marc] installed a gantry in an archway of his house. The crane trolley rides on this gantry and uses a spool to raise or lower the tether for the claw. Winning copious style-points, he used the case of an old mouse to form the claw. An Arduino controls the different motors in the system and a toy was repurposed to act as the controller. As you can see after the break, it’s more fun than the cinema-lobby version of the game and your kids can play with it for free.
February 24 2010, 10:39am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/arduino_helicopter_game.html
The Arduino Helicopter Game uses less than 8kb of memory, yet it still features things like day/night mode and score keeping. There are still a few random artifacts that show up while playing the game, and they are looking for some help trouble shooting the code. So what do you think readers? Can anyone help figure out what is causing these weird artifacts? If so, please let us know in the comments.
In the Maker Shed:
The Maker Shed has everything you need to get started with Arduino
February 24 2010, 4:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/18/reboot-life-in-a-heartbeat/
This hoodie senses your heartbeat and uses it to control Life. Conway’s Game of Life, popular in all kinds of electronics projects, uses a grid of cells coupled with a set of rules to mimic the life and death of simple organisms. This iteration displays the game over your own heart, then taps into your heart rate, resetting the game at the beginning of each cardiac cycle. We guess you could say that Life goes on only if you do not.
The EKG circuit that detects the heartbeat is made up of an IR transmitter shining through the tip of your finger to a receiver. An ATmega168 running the Arduino bootloader controls the EKG circuit and resets an ATmega48 which is responsible for Life. [Joe] admits that this is overkill but he’s currently without an AVR programmer; he went this route to make it work. The stylishly-geeky hoodie is taken for a test run (er… test-hop?) after the break.
February 18 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/17/binary-clock-uses-ds3232-rtc/
[Kenneth Finnegan] quenches our clock-a-day compulsion with his Arduino based binary timepiece. The clock uses a 5×7 LED matrix as a display and shows month, day, and time. He sourced a DS3232 real-time clock which automatically compensates for temperature to achieve very accurate time keeping. We like the super-cap circuit he added to keep the RTC running if the power is cut.
Is an Arduino overkill here? Well, the code is certainly not filling the 16k available on the ATmega168. At $4.32, the $1-2 you could save by using a lower-grade chip is not worth having to rewrite the code developed during prototyping. [Kenneth] also mentions that these projects usually only hang around for a few weeks before they’re re-purposed for the next endeavor.
Take a look at [Kenneth's] superb hardware walk through in the video after the break. If you’re a fan of clean breadboarding, he’s also made a time-lapse of the circuit building process.
Clock components explained
Time-lapse of circuit building.
February 17 2010, 9:20am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/blink_leds_at_2x_speed_with_overclo.html
Like making blinky light projects, but not able to pump enough performance out of those measly 8 bit instructions on your Arduino? Yeah, us too! Thankfully, the folks over at liquidware antipasto have us covered with this liquid-cooled, overclocked Arduino.
All joking aside, it can be a fun experiment to try overclocking a microcontroller (skip the liquid cooling part, though). If you are actually running into the limits of performance that you can squeeze out of the Arduino platform, you might want to consider a faster system, such as the Maple.
In the Maker Shed: 
The Maker Shed has everything you need to get started with Arduino
February 16 2010, 8:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/16/ultimate-flame-bait-liquid-cooled-arduino/
We do so many things around here just because “we can”. Though this guy cites this as his reason, we somehow can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it just to troll the Arduino hating crowd. He has decided to overclock his Arduino by replacing the crystal and dropping it in some non conductive liquid coolant. Can you guess what sketch he’s running? That’s right, he’s blinking an LED.
Normally we would point out that we have no preference when it comes to Arduino. We simply post what is submitted. Though we are often accused of being Arduino lovers, it is simply just another tool to us. We sometimes delete obnoxious comments that get off topic, threatening, or vulgar because that’s just good house keeping. That being said, we know what to expect here. Go ahead, bash the Arduino. Get it out of your systems. Just keep it non offensive or it will be moderated.
[thanks jfreak09]
February 16 2010, 2:59pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/twinkle_pad_for_fairytale_fashion.html
I am getting ready for my first NYC runway show, the Fairytale Fashion Show, on Feb. 24th at Eyebeam. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be writing about some of the preparations, on CRAFT and here at Make: Online. This show will be of the technology fashion collection developed at FairytaleFashion.org, where technology is used to turn make-believe into reality.
While working with little girls on the Fairytale Fashion project, I found that all girls wanted the magic of sparkles. One girl describe this as a dress that "sparkles like Edward" (reference to Twilight).
Inspired by the LilyPad, and the wishes of little girls, Dave Clausen and I created the Twinkle Pad, a board made specifically for sewable LEDs, to create the Fairytale Fashion designs. Twinkle Pad has a ATmega48 microcontroller and resistor banks on one side and a battery on the other. To create a good connection between the board and sewn circuit, we use plated through holes. I like to sew with a size 7 needle and the conductive thread from Lame Lifesaver, so we made the holes a bit bigger. There are four connections to ground around the board so that we can create a variety of patterns.
February 12 2010, 6:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/veteran-robot-features-eight-legs-and-beagleboard/
This spider-bot was built by [Zhanx] during his deployment in Iraq. He didn’t have prior hardware building experience and started out on this project when he received an Arduino to play with in September. Must be a fast learner! The parts are laser-cut from ABS plastic and connected to 24 servos. He sourced an SSC-32 serial servo control board to take care of the motor connections.
[Zhanx] has since migrated from the Arduino to a BeagleBoard which you can see perched atop the body in the video after the break. This should give him plenty of speed and power to improve the movement routines. There’s some nice work here but adding rubber feet, like on yesterday’s hexapod, wouldn’t hurt.
February 11 2010, 11:31am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/10/the-day-after-arduino/
There will come a day in every budding hacker’s life that they realize that plopping an entire arduino in their project and leaving it there is a bit of a waste. [Domiflichi] realized this, and has shared his next steps with us. He takes us through the process of removing the ATMega chip and breadboarding it for final use.
For many of you, this is an obvious chain of events. However, there are also many who just haven’t ventured forward and taken this one step that will forever change how their projects are seen by the hacking world. For the anti-arduino crowd, realize that this is an opportunity not to bash a useful tool but to help nurture and lead people to the next step.
February 10 2010, 9:31am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/10/cuecat-meet-arduino/
Have you ever felt like you needed a portable barcode scanner around the house? No? Well, [Mkanoap] did, so he made one. He has hooked his CueCat up to his Arduino to capture barcode data and store it on an SD card. He is using it as an inventory tool for his personal library. Where before he had to carry a laptop around to do his scanning, or lug the books to his desk, he now just scans wherever he pleases.
You may notice some silly sounds dubbed over the video. Take note, these are the actual sounds it plays. The camera didn’t pick them up well enough, so he dubbed them in. You wouldn’t want to miss out on the entire experience would you?
February 10 2010, 8:29am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/arduino_18_cures_mega_woes_expands.html
Analog pins 8-15 on the Arduino Mega been giving you trouble? (perhaps you'd assumed they were fried - I did!) Turns out, due to a problem in Arduino 17, the Mega's second set of analog inputs were temporarily out of service. Thankfully, the issue has been taken care of in the newest release Arduino IDE.
Other notable additions to the software include the tone() frequency generating function and a simpler way to add support for 3rd party hardware (Sanguino, etc) from your sketches folder. Check out the release notes for more.
In the Maker Shed:
February 10 2010, 7:00am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/arduino_prototyping_lap_desk.html
What a great idea, Riley Porter's lasercut organizer for an Arduino, a solderless breadboard, and small compartments for components.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!February 9 2010, 7:00pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/turning_a_motor_into_a_sensor_with.html
Tom Igoe got his hands on a Peppermill circuit board, and took it out for a spin:
Nicolas Villar sent me a sample of the PepperMill, a new sensor board he and Steve Hodges designed at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. It's a nifty little board. You attach a DC motor and the board can an output voltage when the motor is turned, and analog signals telling you the direction and speed of the motor. It turns a DC motor into a rotary encoder, of sorts.
Wiring is very simple. The motor connects to the two spring connectors at the top of the board. Direction and Speed pins connect to two analog inputs on your microcontroller. Ground connects to your microcontroller's ground. The motor generates voltage when you spin it.
Check out Tom's article for circuit diagrams, source code, and information on obtaining a Peppermill board to experiment with. Using PepperMill to turn a motor into a sensor
(Tom is a member of the Arduino team and the author of Making Things Talk).
Making Things Talk
Our Price: $29.99
Programming microcontrollers used to require an expensive development environment costing thousands of dollars and requiring professional electrical engineering expertise. Open-source physical computing platforms with simple i/o boards and development environments have led to new options for hobbyists, hackers, and makers. This book contains a series of projects that teach you what you need to know to get your creations talking to each other, connecting to the web, and forming networks of smart devices.
February 8 2010, 7:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/08/ez430-home-automation/
[Oliver] has been doing some work to use his TI ez430 Chronos wristwatch for some home automation. He’s working with a RF controllable lightbulb adapter which operates in the 433 MHz band. A dirt-cheap breadboard-friendly transmitter is available from Seeed Studios and he uses this in conjunction with a computer and an Arduino. Before the trolls get to their thing, YES, this is incredible overkill. But remember that he’s prototyping. We hope that if he intends to actually use this setup he’ll migrate to something like an ATtiny2313 running V-USB. Better yet, you should be able to tap into the watch’s companion receiver and cut the computer out completely.
If you’re easily amused you’ll appreciate the video of a light turning on and off after the break. If you’re a little harder to please then take a look at Oliver’s methods of using Python processing for the watch’s data.
Ok, now we’ve seen this watch turning on lights and unlocking doors. What else ‘ya got?
February 8 2010, 1:07pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/05/arduino-to-nintendo-ds-interface/
[Hounjini] was poking around at the Game Boy Advanced bus of his Nintendo DS lite and figured out how to use it to connect an Arduino to the DS. For testing he’s soldered an IDC plug to the cartridge cover pin interface but this only requires four connections. The Arduino can both send and receive data from the DS lite as shown in the example videos after the break. The data access is made possible by making the Arduino look like a controller that the DS is happy to talk to.
[Thanks Christian]
February 5 2010, 10:33am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/tinkerits_tinkerkit_unveiled_at_int.html
interaction10 got underway today in Savannah, Georgia, and among the first workshops of the day was Arduino project co-founder Massimo Banzi's Tangible Interface Prototyping (Massimo, left, is pictured above with fellow Arduino team member Tom Igoe). Massimo's workshop featured the soon-to-be-released TinkerKit, a collection of pluggable sensor modules designed to work with the Arduino electronic prototyping platform.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!February 4 2010, 4:30pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/arduino_powered_laser_trigger_for_y.html
You can make a camera trigger without a micro controller, but this system allows you to easily add sensors or variable timers, making it extremely flexible. [Thanks Haje]
There are loads of reasons for why you could want to trigger your camera remotely - to avoid camera shake, for example, or to be able to take a photograph of yourself without having to rely on a timer. If you want to build more ambitious projects, however, you may have to consider getting more exotic.
In the Maker Shed:
Make: Arduino
February 3 2010, 4:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/01/game-controllers-using-usb-host-shield/
Circuits@Home has put together some libraries that make it easy to use gaming controllers with an Arduino. They interface through the USB host shield. This means that PS3 controllers connect via USB through a cable or a dongle. With the Wii remote things get a little more interesting. A Bluetooth dongle is used to make the connection wirelessly. What we have here is a cheap and easy way to add Bluetooth connectivity to your projects either through the USB Host shield, or by building your own hardware with the schematics and code that are available from Circuits@Home. There are several pages that walk you through the protocols using as well as a demonstration video you can see after the break.
February 1 2010, 1:41pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/30/hybrid-analogbinary-clock-the-mk2/
[Kieran] let us know about his hybrid analog/binary clock. The circuitry behind the clock is nothing too new. An Arduino combined with a Chronodot to produce an accurate clock. What we really enjoyed however was the creative implementation of an old British Telecom Linesman’s Multimeter as the case. The analog meter acts as the seconds hand, while a another display made of LEDs diffused with stripboard is the binary clock. The end product is nothing short of ingenuitive.
January 30 2010, 6:00pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/the_diy_chip_-_the_atlantic_january.html
MAKE pal and author William Gurstelle has an Arduino article in the Atlantic! The DIY Chip @ The Atlantic (January/February 2010)...
HYSICAL COMPUTERS AS populist devices may be the most momentous tech trend of the past five years that practically no one has heard about. Typically a small circuit board housed in a customized case, a physical computer is an easily programmable device that is aware of its surroundings. It is designed to interface with sensors that measure things around it—say, how fast an object is going, how close something is to it, the temperature around it. Based on that input, the computer takes action by moving switches and levers, displaying information, or otherwise controlling the environment.For humans, connecting to computers via a mouse and keyboard has long been cheap and easy. For sensors, not so much. Now an inexpensive physical computer called the Arduino is changing all that. When the Arduino burst onto the do-it-yourself (“DIY” to devotees) scene in 2005, all manner of tinkerers seized on it as a device that could easily and cheaply run interactive projects.
Using an Arduino is fairly straightforward: buy a board (ranging from about $19 to $65) and attach it to a personal computer via a cable. Then load instructions into the Arduino’s processor via the personal computer. Once programmed, the Arduino makes decisions based on the information transmitted by whatever sensors you’ve hooked up, and does something corporeal, such as turn on or off the motors, displays, valves, and lights attached to it. For a few dollars, creative and motivated individuals—rather than just corporations or institutions—can make highly intelligent tools, perfectly customized for a particular need.
January 30 2010, 5:30am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/alicia_gibbs_art_history_thesis_on.html
Alicia Gibb, NYC Resistor member, hacker, crafter and maker, just finished her art history master's thesis on Arduino. It's called "New Media Art, Design, and the Arduino Microcontroller: A Malleable Tool," and features a lot of familiar names and projects!
Above photo by Anthony Mattox.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!January 29 2010, 1:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/28/10000-watt-fluorescent-array/
This is an array of flourescent tubes that form a display. The video above is just two modules of a ten module installation that [Valentin] and his team are showing at an exhibition in Berlin tomorrow. The connected modules form something of a scrolling 16-segment display (similar to the 17 segment display modules of the ninja party badges but much larger). They’re using triacs, optocouplers, DMX, and an Arduino to interface a computer with the 182 fluorescent tubes of the display. Check out a second video after the break to see (or be blinded by) all ten modules pulling 10,000 watts.
January 28 2010, 9:40am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/arduino_blinkm_music_visualizer.html
This music visualizer project combines two of my favorite things, Arduino's & BlinkM's, with another one of my favorite things, music! In the video above, all the BlinkM's are mapped to display the same value, but they can be controlled individually with some modifications. Check out the link for complete build instructions and the Arduino source code. [via arduino.cc]
This project demonstrates using an Arduino, a LM386N opamp circuit and multiple BlinkM LED units to create an audio visualization device. The audio is not pass-through so it requires a dedicated mono input. In the video demo, the Arduino enclosure is connected to the tape-out of a DX052 mixer and powered by USB by my previous DX052 power hack.
The Maker Shed has Arduino's and BlinkM's!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!January 27 2010, 4:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/25/android-g1-serial-to-arduino/
With the ability to get root access to some of these new powerful pieces of hardware we call cell phones, we’re a bit surprised we haven’t seen more interfacing with external hardware. Here’s an example of some rudimentary connections between an Android G1 and an Arduino. To do this, you must have your G1 rooted, have the Android SDK installed, and then a custom python program running. There is also a simple level shifter from 3.3v to 5v necessary for the connection to the Arduino. You can get all the details from the instructable. They’ve documented the process quite well adn we’re excited to see what kinds of stuff people come up with.
January 25 2010, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/arduino-controlled_hourglass.html
The USB Hourglass combines a sand timer with a rotating mechanism and an optical beam through the center of the timer to observe the falling sand. The amount of light reaching a detector is digitized at frequent intervals and processed by a microcontroller to determine when to rotate the hourglass. The digitized light levels are also sent by USB to a host PC where they can be used as a source of random entropy. Power is supplied over the USB cable.
[via Embedded projects]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!January 25 2010, 3:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/24/hackaday-links-106/
Everyone Remembers Free day right? [The Ideanator's] Bus Pirate came in such a nice red box – he decided to make it his permanent case.
[Chico] is in the middle of making a CNC, but decided to make some music with the steppers in the mean time.
What looks like an old wooden box is actually [Ludvig's] super sweet retro arcade cabinet. Complete with a giant emergency stop red button.
Who says Legos are dead? [Carl] used them to create a simple and cheap diffraction grating projector. Including video!
[Torchris] used an Ethernet shield exactly as it was designed, sending data over Ethernet. Still a nice hack for those needing help working with Ethernet shields and Arduino.
Finally [Robert] let us know about a friends Arduino Binary Clock. But we think his elegant use of tape and a sand blaster to engrave glass is cooler.
January 24 2010, 2:44pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/23/ideas-based-on-photo-frame-clock/
[Mahto] bought a digital picture frame but the image quality turned out to be terrible. He decided to turn it into a clock in a unique way. He loaded up 720 images, one for each minute in a twelve hour period. He then used an Arduino to simulate a button once a minute, cycling to the next image.
This is a simple solution and it works. Visions of hardcore hacks danced through our head when we first looked at this. We’re wondering if there is a way to inject image data into the frame’s memory? How about rewriting the SD card location where the image file that’s currently being displayed is stored, then having the frame reload the picture? Those are projects for a snowy weekend, but we’re sure that [Mahto] finished this hack long before we would have because he kept it simple.
Sooner or later we’re going to need a category for all of these clock hacks.
[Thanks Drone]
January 23 2010, 8:45am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/morse_code_puzzle_box.html
Lucas Fragomeni built a puzzle box that can only be opened if a specific morse code sequence is entered. His starting point was a Reverse Geocache Puzzle he'd read about on Hack a Day, where a person has to bring a box to specific coordinates to release the catch.
I was amazed by it, so I immediately decided to make one for a good friend as a birthday gift. As I thought it through an idea of doing a hangman-like-puzzle using Morse Code popped into my head, and that's what came out:
It's called "Buzzle". It's a locked box with a button on the front, a couple of LEDs on the top and a power plug on the back. When the button is pushed, it emits a 'beep'. The longer you hold the button longer the box beeps.
A random word is picked up by the box and the challenger's goal is to find it out, by telegraphing the right letters sequentially until the word is complete.
[via Hack a Day]
More:
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!January 22 2010, 7:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/22/arduino-programmer-for-arduino/
Wow, that title is flamebait… but give us a chance to explain. [George] wrote some code for the Arduino that allows it to program another Arduino. You may be thinking to yourself “this has already been done”. In a way it has, with the AVR ISP programming shield. But once the code has been uploaded to the Arduino, you don’t need a computer to program the next chip. This concept turns an Arduino into an in-the-field programmer. Right now his code only programs the ATmega328 and it’s a little buggy, but the concept is solid. A fully functioning independent programmer is easy to image; [George] has laid the ground work, the AVR ISP programming firmware has proven this can work with several different chips, and if your AVR has an ATmega328 there should be plenty of room to store the code you plan to flash to the target microprocessors. It’s up to you to put all the pieces together.
January 22 2010, 7:49am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/21/frustromantic-box-a-reverse-geocache/
One of the best feelings in the world is when one of our posts inspires a fellow hacker to plan, create, and execute his or her own project.
[Russ] let us know about his Frustromantic Box which he gained inspiration from the original Reverse Geochache we posted about. For those out of the loop, the box is locked and will only open in a certain location. The current distance to the location is displayed on the screen when a button is pressed, and usually there is a limited number of button presses (3 presses for those that know geometry, 50 for everyone else). As soon as the box is at location, it will open.
The Frustromantic Box uses an Arduino, classic HD44780 display, a servo, and the pièce de résistance EM406 GPS. All built in time to frustrate his wife for Christmas.
January 21 2010, 4:52pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/21/buzzle-a-morse-code-puzzle-box/
[lucasfragomeni] built the Buzzle after being inspired by the reverse geocache puzzle. The Buzzle was built as a gift to a friend. It’s a tricky gift too. His friend can’t open it until he decodes the words being displayed in morse code via an LED. A word is chosen at random, so you would have to decode it each time you want to open the box. That’s a pretty neat security feature. Sure it’s not the most secure, but it would keep casual peepers out. Unfortunately, the box was empty when his friend received it.
January 21 2010, 9:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2010/01/21/live-high-altitude-balloon-launch/
[Terry] is planning to launch his high altitude balloon within the next few days. As we’ve seen before he has gone for a general setup – GPS tracking, environment sensors including temperature and humidity and pressure, and 2 on board cameras – all with an expected height of about 100,000 feet. What makes this project unique is the transmission of live telemetry data to a Google Maps or Google Earth interface.
The planned launch date is Sunday the 24th about 00:00 UTC so long as the Civil Aviation Safety Approval for the launch is passed.
As a final note [Terry] wanted to let inspiring balloon launchers to check out the UK High Altitude Society – who have been an invaluable source of information.
January 21 2010, 7:10am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/winduino_makes_music_from_a_passing.html
A kind of digital update to the mysterious Aeolian harp instrument, the Winduino is played by the wind itself -
The Winduino II is a wireless, digital version of an Aeolian harp that can be listened to on its own or used as accompaniment for other instruments. Still based around the Adruino BT Bluetooth board, the Winduino II has several improvements over the last version which has vastly improved the performance of this unique sound generating device. The Winduino II also has a custom stand, so the device can be used inside or hung from a hook or tree branch outdoors.The onboard solar charger is a very nice touch. More regarding Winduino II's power, sensors, and software on Fascination Workshop. [via Matrixsynth]
January 21 2010, 5:00am | More »
I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/servo_tools_for_maya.html
Dan Thompson has released his Servo Tools Python plug-in for Maya. This is really exciting for me as a Maya user, because I can now rig and animate an object in software and drive a real-world servo plugged into an Arduino. Thanks Dan, I can't wait to try it!
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!January 19 2010, 12:30pm | More »