You may need a magnifying glass for this mini ATtiny10 breakout board

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“I lost one in the carpet and I’m hoping to find it before the vacuum does.”

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The super small ATtiny10 is a high-performance, low-power 8-bit MCU that combines 1KB of Flash memory, 32B SRAM, four general purpose I/O lines, 16 general purpose working registers, a 16-bit timer/counter with two PWM channels, internal and external interrupts, a programmable watchdog timer with internal oscillator, an internal calibrated oscillator, a four-channel A/D converter, and four software selectable power saving modes. The device operates between 1.8-5.5V.

But what really makes this chip stand out is its minuscule size. Because of this, the ATtiny10 doesn’t use the normal in-system programming port like its much larger siblings. Instead, this particular AVR employs a Tiny Programming Interface (TPI), which only requires power, ground, data, clock and a reset pin. Connecting these pins to the proper programming header is fairly straightforward, and with the right layout, you can cram everything into a breakout board that’s tinier than a typical 8-pin DIP.

Well, this is exactly what Dan Watson has done. The Maker has created a mini breakout board for the ATtiny10 that’s so small, you’ll lose it. “Literally,” he adds, “I lost one in the carpet and I’m hoping to find it before the vacuum does.”

The PCB itself is 0.25” x 0.325″ and uses 0.050″ header pins. The breakout could actually be made smaller, but turns out, Watson ran into the minimum PCB size limit on OSHPark. Despite its form factor, he was able to include a 100nF bypass capacitor, a power LED and a user LED on pin PB1 — that pin is also the clock pin for the programming interface, so it flashes when the board is being programmed.

Admittedly the board was a bit difficult to use and program, and is “certainly not breadboard compatible due to the small pitch headers.” To overcome this issue, Watson built a small landing pad for it, which adapts the 0.050″ headers to 0.1” headers. The landing pad has a 6-pin TPI programming connector, which enables the ATtiny10 to be configured using the Atmel-ICE development tool.

In any case, Watson is now the proud owner of a shrunken-down board that can fit pretty much anywhere. And since you can do plenty of things with 1KB, it’ll be interesting to see what the Maker comes up with. Some possible ideas include designing a pint-sized drone, building a swarm of cybernetic bats, showing off your fine soldering skills to friends, making digital fireflies, or simply incorporating it into a project’s PCB by adding 0.050” male headers to the board. Intrigued? Head over to the project’s page here.

Bring the weather forecast to your Chucks

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Hack a pair of Converse using an Adafruit FLORA, NeoPixels and a Bluetooth LE module that relays weather data from your phone.

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San Francisco-based creative studio Chapter, in collaboration with Converse, have hacked a pair of Chuck Taylors to bring the forecast to your feet.

The Converse Beacon consists of an Adafruit FLORA board (ATmega32U4), a Bluefruit LE module and a NeoPixel ring, which together, can alert you to custom weather conditions through IFTTT. In other words, your sneaks can let you know when rain is coming, when the surf is just right, or when conditions are perfect to take a stroll outside. Talk about walkin’ on sunshine!

What’s more, you’re not just limited to weather. Once you’ve connected IFTTT to the Adafruit channel, you open the door to hundreds of possible recipes that link various inputs to your NeoPixels.

Think you want to relay data from your smartphone to create stylish alerts on your Chucks? Then check out Chapter’s full project write-up on Hackster.io.

The Ski Buddy is a FLORA-powered coat that teaches you to ski

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A DIY wearable system that can make learning to ski fun for kids.

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As anyone who has ever hit the slopes will tell you, learning to ski can be quite challenging — especially for youngsters. Tired of seeing children be screamed at by parents trying to teach them to ski, Maker “Mkarpawich2001” decided to develop a wearable system that would make the process much more enjoyable for kids.

The Ski Buddy is an electronic jacket that helps novice skiers through the use of lights. Based on an Adafruit FLORA (ATmega32U4), the coat is equipped with an accelerometer, a AAA battery pack, and conductive thread that connects to LED sequins.

“Knowing that childhood memorizes can unintentionally affect our adult lives, I sought out to come up with a tool to help making the process of learning to ski fun for kids at young ages,” the Maker writes. “Of course, all children love light-up toys, so why not transfer that love to learning? With changeable settings, you can use this coat for a variety of lessons.”

According to Mkarpawich2001, the Ski Buddy can be used to teach linking turns, parallel skiing, hockey stops and even gradual pizza stopping (the act of pointing your skis together and pushing your heels out to form what looks like a slice of pizza).

The lights will flash once to suggest that they are working, and then guide the user along the desired path, including direction, speed and stops. While on the slopes, instruction is provided via the LEDs, depending on the particular lesson. For instance, alternating lights can let a person know to slow down, or when turned off, can mean they’re going the right way.

You can see it in action below, and head over to its page here. Those looking for a more commercial solution should check out Carv.

 

 

This machine can solve the Rubik’s Cube in just 0.887 seconds

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And just like that, we have a new world record! 

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With their eyes set on the Guinness Book, Jay Flatland and Paul Rose last month unveiled an automated machine capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube in 0.9 seconds. However, their glory was short-lived as fellow Maker and industrial engineer Adam Beer introduced a robotic contender, named Sub1, that has officially sorted the colorful puzzle in only 0.887 seconds — breaking the previous world record by a mere fraction.

Beer’s machine only requires 20 moves to unravel the cube. As soon as the start button is hit, shutters are removed from Sub1’s two webcams, each of which capture the arrangement of all six sides. These images are then relayed to a laptop, which identify the various colors and calculate a solution using Tomas Rokicki’s implementation of Herbert Kociemba’s Two-Phase Algorithm.

The solution is sent over to an Arduino-compatible MCU, which is tasked with actuating the 20 moves of six high-performance steppers that rapidly turn each side of the cube in 887 milliseconds.

Despite Beer’s recent accomplishment, we can’t help but think that the two teams and countless other Makers will be eager to see how quickly they can unravel the Rubik’s Cube as well.

KeKePad is an ATmega32U4-powered wearables platform

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KeKePad is a plug-and-play platform that replaces conductive thread with tiny connectors and thin cables.

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Like most Makers, Michael Yang enjoyed using the Arduino Lilypad for his wearable and e-textile projects. However, he discovered that conductive thread has a few drawbacks: it is expensive, it has no insulation and its resistance is quite high. Plus, in order to achieve a tight connection, the wires need to be soldered (which means that it becomes rather difficult to remove if there are any mistakes).

So, as any DIY spirited individual would do, he set out to solve this problem. The result? KeKePad, a new modular platform that’s 100% compatible with the Arduino LilyPad USB and can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. The board is based on the ATmega32U4 — the same chip that can be found at the heart of the wildly popular Adafruit FLORA — and features built-in USB support, so it can be easily connected to a PC. Like other wearable MCUs, the controller boasts a familiar round shape (which measures 50mm in diameter) along with 12 tiny three-pin Ke Connectors and 11 sew tab pins.

What really sets the platform apart, though, is its unique wiring and connection method. The KeKePad entails a series of small sewable modules that link together via the Ke Connectors and special cables, or Ke Cables, with crimp terminals. This eliminates the frustration often associated with using conductive thread. With a diameter of only 0.32mm, the wire is extremely flexible, super thin and coated in Teflon.

At the moment, there are approximately 20 different modules to choose from, including sensors for detecting light, UV, sound, barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, and acceleration, as well as actuator modules for things such as LEDs, MP3s, OLED displays and vibrating buzzers.

Intrigued? Head over to KeKePad’s Indiegogo campaign, where Yang and his team are currently seeking $2,000. Delivery is slated for April 2016.

Turn your room into a night club with these sound-reactive lights

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This Maker installed 12 meters of FLORA-driven NeoPixels to his apartment for a lighting system like no other. 

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If you’re having a hard time deciding on which of the excellent (?) candidates to vote for this election cycle, perhaps Charlie Gorichanaz’s sound-reactive room lighting will swing your opinion. He doesn’t appear to actually be running for office, but at least he will have the website setup for any future political aspirations.

Regardless, he has our vote for the most fun bedroom, as he’s mounted 12 meters of NeoPixel strips in the corners where the walls meet the ceiling. The lighting is controlled by an Adafruit FLORA (ATmega32U4), which is normally meant for wearable use, but as shown here, can be quite versatile. This could be compared to how mere mortals put up comparatively boring crown molding.

This setup (explained here with diagrams and a parts list) was originally used in Gorichanaz’s apartment in Tokyo. After some code cleanup, it is now alive and well in the United States. You can see it shown in the video below.

If you notice that the audio is a little cleaner than you would normally expect, it was actually combined with the video after the fact. This is explained in the second link above, and could be useful for taking your DIY videos to a new level.

For another option, if you only want lights on one of your walls instead of the ceiling, here’s a sound-reactive panel idea inspired by the movie Ex Machina.

Kamibot is a programmable paper robot for kids

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This Arduino-compatible bot teaches children how to code and can be remotely controlled by smartphone.

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Let’s face it, there’s nothing more synonymous with DIY than arts and crafts. And while there are all sorts of paper projects out there, many lack in terms of interactivity and movement. That was until now. Thanks to one South Korean startup, young Makers will soon have the ability to create their own toy characters and personalize them as often as they choose.

Kamibot is a programmable paper robot hybrid that can be wirelessly controlled by smartphone or tablet. Completely modular, children can customize their character by simply attaching and detaching various magnetic designs to its body, which include Count Dracula, Frankenstein and a Transformers-like robot. And you don’t need to be an origami master to do so either — all the templates are available online. Just download, print and let the fun begin!

The robot itself is equipped with an ATmega2560 at its core and Bluetooth connectivity, along with three IR sensors, a pair of DC motors for mobility, a servo motor for rotation, RGB LEDs for color effects, two encoders for speed control, and an ultrasonic sensor for detecting any obstacles that may stand in its way. Each Kamibot is also rechargeable via USB.

An accompanying mobile app enables kids to remotely control their gadget and change its behaviors, as well as switch to “line mode” if they rather have its infrared sensors take over along a black line course. Aside from that, the app’s dashboard features a battery indicator, the distance from a nearby object, a speedometer, and a bar for adjusting the LED colors.

It’s pretty smart, too. Kamibot can sense and navigate around objects in your living room and even illuminate various hues to double as a nightlight for children. But that’s not all. According to its creators, Kamibot was specifically made to serve as an educational toy. Since it’s built around the highly-popular Arduino platform and is compatible with Scratch, coding has never been easier — even for beginners.

Interested? Head over to its Kickstarter campaign, where the team is currently seeking $50,000. The first batch of bots is expected to begin shipping in May 2016.

The iBoardbot is an Internet-controlled whiteboard robot

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This ATmega32U4-powered bot can precisely draw images, write text and more.

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The iBoardbot is an Internet-controlled, whiteboard marker-equipped robot that can write, draw and erase on a colorful glass surface. Developed by Scottish startup JJ Robots, the device was designed to serve as a fun and interactive way to keep in touch with family and friends.

Whether you’re using it as a Twitter wall or to simply doodle nifty graphics, the system is managed through an accompanying app which enables users to easily create and send images directly to their iBoardbot via the cloud. With three different modes to choose from, users can do everything from draw pictures, to write messages, to upload graphics. It even boasts a multi-user interface so folks can collaborate on a project or compete against one another in a game of tic-tac-toe at the same time.

Beyond that, the iBoardbot comes with an open API that allows developers to explore their imagination. This opens up a realm of endless possibilities, from displaying local weather forecasts, motivational quotes and reviews for a store. It can be integrated with an IFTTT recipe, too.

In true Maker spirit, JJ Robots has made the iBoardbot’s electronics, 3D-printable frame and code entirely open source. The robot is based on an ATmega32U4 along with a Wi-Fi module for communication, and employs a set of stepper motors, bearings and timing belts for its mechanics. Additionally, the iBoardbot has an integrated eraser in its drawing head so it can wipe away the glass and proceed to jot down new text and pictures.

Intrigued? The iBoardbot ships in one of three different kit forms and can found on Kickstarter, where the JJ Robots crew is currently $15,962. Delivery is slated for April 2016. If you loved this, you may want to check out the team’s air hockey-playing robot hack as well.

Unlock your car door with a fistbump

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Maker Pierre Charlier shows how he was able to add NFC control to his car door with a KeyDuino.

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In the year 2016, the idea of having to use an actual key to lock and unlock your car is as obsolete as listening to a cassette tape. Pretty much every vehicle these days comes with a remote, which lets you wirelessly control your doors from afar. Not to mention, some whips can even sense when you’re in close proximity and automatically unlock as you approach.

Pierre Charlier, on the hand, decided to retrofit his old ride with a KeyDuino and a relay shield, which enabled him to experience keyless entry in the form of a fistbump via an NFC ring. To accomplish this, the Maker removed his car’s internal lock switch and modified the wire harness to take the connection to the ‘duino. For a permanent 12V power supply, he plugged a wire directly on a fuse and another to the ground of the vehicle. (However, it should be noted that connections differ from car to car.)

As you can see in the video below, the system also works with a smartphone for those who rather not wear a ring. Charlier has shared all of the code and a step-by-step breakdown of the project for those interested in adding NFC-enabled entry to your set of wheels. Looking ahead, the Maker hopes to have an improved prototype with a BLE+NFC board right on the door handle.

The brainchild of Charlier himself, KeyDuino is Arduino-like board with built-in NFC capabilities that was successfully launched on Kickstarter late last year. Based on the ATmega32U4, the KeyDuino shares pretty much the same form factor and DNA as the Leonardo, and is compatible with most shields.

 

 

 

Rough terrain is no match for this screw-propelled vehicle

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Watch this little off-road beast maneuver through sand, even with the occasional obstacle thrown in.

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If you want to drive off-road, a 4×4 truck is generally sufficient. This, of course, wasn’t good enough for the early 20^th century Russians, who decided to instead build a vehicle based on two giant screws. According to the builder of the modern screw-tank model seen in the video below, the original was “designed to cope with almost all kinds of landforms, such as snow, swamp, water, desert and forest, except normal asphalt road.”

This version’s screw-wheels are reportedly a little short, so it isn’t able to traverse on water. It does, however, show an incredible aptitude for maneuvering through sand, even with the occasional obstacle thrown in.

This machine is controlled by a Me Orion board (ATmega328). Instead of the typical plugs for individual wires, it features eight RJ-25 sockets that simplify wiring when used with compatible parts.

The little off-road beast uses two gear motors which are linked to the (comparitively) massive screw wheels. Besides figuring out how to print the driving screws, this build appears to be relatively simple compared to how cool it looks. If you decide to create your own, you too can use a gamepad to command your little vehicle to cruise around the beach, impressing all who behold your tiny Russian-inspired craft!