“He set the transmitter up so it can plug directly into any RC controller training port, decoding the incoming signal and converting it into a serial data package for transmitting,” Sweatman explained.
“While they don’t provide the range of other RF transmitters we’ve seen, the 40 mile range of the modem’s are more than enough for most projects, including High Altitude Balloon missions.”
Interested in learning more? The code for the Arduino transmitter system is available on GitHub here, while a Wikipedia page about the project can be accessed here.
Jean-Noel was fixing a broken Lurem woodworking machine equipped with a three-phase Dahlander motor. The trio of operation modes originally included: stop, half speed and full speed.
As HackADay’s Eric Evenchick notes, the motor uses a special mechanical switch to select the operating mode. However, the mechanical components inside the switch were broken, preventing the motor from being activated.
How to solve the problem without sourcing a new switch? Well, Jean-Noel decided to build his own Atmel-based, Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega328 MCU) powered Dahlander switch consisting of three relays tasked with selecting the wiring configuration for each speed mode.
Jean-Noel also added a button to toggle settings, along with two lamps to indicate what mode the motor is currently operating in.
“The Arduino runs a finite-state machine (FSM), ensuring that the device transitions through the modes in the correct order,” Evenchick explained.
“This is quite important, since the motor could be damaged if certain restrictions aren’t followed.”
Meanwhile, the state machine graph was generated using Fizzim, with the final product housed in a DIN rail case, allowing it to be securely mounted along with the rest of the wiring.
“This project was an experiment for me in making a 3D printed mounting board for the various parts instead of having to have a standard PC board with the etching done. It felt like there were few enough connections that it would be pretty easy to solder with just plain wire as long as there was a decent support layout,” Zippy314 explained in a recent Instructables post.
“The important thing was to get all the buttons in a fixed place so they wouldn’t move around as you use the Magpi. Because printing small bore holes is tricky, what I did was leave the very bottom layer of the print solid and then drill holes through it with a 1/16″ drill bit. After you drill the holes insert [the] buttons and make sure [they are placed well].”
On the software side, Zippy314 said he and his son have already written two games and a basic drawing app. Interested in learning more? You can check out the project’s official page and relevant files on Github here.
“You must copy the header file that contains bitmap images to load and use them. You should copy bitmap.h in RetroWatchArduino folder to /Arduino install folder/Arduino/hardware/libraries/RetroWatch. If there’s no such folder, simply [create] it,” GodsTale explained in his Instructables post.
“Open Arduino IDE and load RetroWtchArduino.ino. Next, set pin numbers that you used when you connect the watch. It’s not necessary to modify if you use Arduino pins that are [detailed] in this instruction. SoftwareSerialBTSerial(2,3); // Input your TX, RX pin numbers int buttonPin = 5; // Input your button pin number.”
The DIY RetoWatch features a number of basic modes or displays such as clock, emergency messages, normal messages and idle. Additional key features include:
A Larson Scanner can best be described as a set of red LEDs that scan back and forth, recreating the left and right blinking motion of those formidable Cylon ships and Knight Rider’s AI KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand). The scanner is named after Glen A. Larson, the man responsible for producing both the original Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider television shows.
Recently, a Maker by the name of DJJules created the “Ultimate Larson Scanner” which was posted to Instructables and subsequently featured on HackADay.
DJJules’s iteration of the popular scanner consists of sixteen 10W LEDs, each mounted on a heat sink which bolt on to a 6′ long piece of angle aluminum sourced from a local hardware store.
“He used a basic MOSFET constant current driver for each LED, attaching the MOSFETS to the heat sink with 4-40 screws,” explained HackADay’s John Marsh. “Each LED module then connects to a TLC5940 LED driver breakout board from Sparkfun, which plugs into an Arduino Pro Mini (Atmel ATmega168).”
The Iron Man Factory recently debuted a (prototype) 3D-printed Iron Man suit. As Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch reports, the suit weighs in at only 3kg (6.6 lbs) and features metal joints with a carbon fiber/polymer body, along with a number of light-up aesthetic features, powered by AAA batteries.
According to Etherington, the creators of the Iron Man project are a team with an injection moulding factory out of Shenzen including engineers with over 15 years experience in die casting manufacturing.
“They’ve been working with designers in Beijing on the Iron Man project and began producing small runs of the Iron Man helmet alone via 3D printing. To get costs down and volumes up, they’re looking to cover the costs of initial setup for a full-scale, injection moulding production run,” Etherington explained.
“Backers can lay down pledges for either the full injection moulded suit ($1,999), a helmet alone ($1,800) or the full, 3D-printed suit ($35,000). The company also tells me that it’s working on a space-grade aluminum version of the suit, too, which it plans to put into mass production provided the initial campaign is successful.”
And in September, a Maker by the name of Thomas Lemieux turned numerous heads when he showcased his rather impressive Iron Man suit at the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC.
“Everything is Arduino powered. There are four Arduino UNOs (ATmega328) in the suit; one for each bionic repulsor, one for the sound board, and one for the arc reactor. All of the components are powered by ten 2600 mAh batteries that had to be ordered from Hong Kong,” Lemieux told Electronic Design.
“The sound components for each repulsor and the sound board are wave shields from Adafruit. The SD cards with all of the sound files are located there.”
According to Lemieux, the project actually began with the arc reactor.
“I wanted one to sit on my desk at home and thought it would be cool to build one myself. So I walked the aisles at Home Depot and found any part that would seem to work,” he explained.
“The fins are cut from a solid sheet of metal and I used copper coils to bend around them. I used a sink tap as the center piece. And the rest is washers, rubber tubing and erector set pieces all J-B welded together. I got all of the electronics and LEDs from Radio Shack.”
Lemieux also told Electronic Design that the biggest challenge in designing the suit was fitting all the electronics into such a constrained space.
“It was very much trial and error… I started building on May 2nd, spending about four hours a day plus many all-nighters.”
Lemieux says his next suit will be more streamlined and easier to assemble.
“I also want to make Ultron. I have some great ideas on lighting his face up,” he concluded.
Open Informant – powered by an Arduino Pro Mini (Atmel ATmega168) – is a wearable badge with an e-ink display that “attempts to confront the unsettling realities of surveillance in a networked age.”
“Open Informant is [both] a phone app and e-ink badge. The app searches your communications for NSA trigger words and then sends text fragments containing these words to the badge for public display,” a Superflux rep explained in a recent blog post.
“Using the body as an instrument for protest, the badge becomes a means of rendering our own voice visible in an otherwise faceless technological panopticon. By openly displaying what is currently taken by forceful stealth, we question the intrusive forms of mass surveillance adopted by democratic nations on its own citizenry, and in the process, shift the conversation around wearables from being about you and your body as machine, to the culture of machine intelligence and algorithmic monitoring.”
According to the Superflux rep, the aesthetics of the wearable device are purposefully embedded in popular DIY Maker culture to encourage greater adoption and use. As such, all aspects of the badge’s design and construction are available on Github for DIY Makers to use and mod.
It should be noted that the Open Informant was recently featured on the official Arduino blog.
Flutter – which recently tipped up on Kickstarter – can best be described as an open source Atmel-powered wireless platform with a 1000m+ (3200 ft) range. Protected from digital intruders by Atmel’s ATSHA204 which offers 256-bit AES hardware encryption, Flutter makes it easy for DIY Makers to build projects that communicate across a house, neighborhood and beyond.
“Creating Flutter networks is easy, even if it’s just two boards. Specify networks in Arduino code or configure Flutter with our mobile app,” the Flutter crew explained in a Kickstarter post. “Once configured, devices can enter and exit the network seamlessly. This makes it extremely easy to set up a network at home (or anywhere else) where all of your projects can reliably communicate. Flutter is like a second network for your devices.”
In terms of hardware, the Flutter crew is currently offering a range of options for Kickstarter backers, including basic, pro and a number of shields (Bluetooth, breakout board, RC, network and Bluetooth).
Potential applications for Flutter? Mesh networking, quadcopters, sensors (light, water and temperature) sensors, self-diagnosis/spectrum analyzer, as well as RC cars.
As noted above, Flutter is powered by Atmel technology. More specifically, prototype devices were originally designed using the Arduino Pro Mini board(Sparkfun), although the final version of Flutter will be built around Atmel’s SAM3S, based on a powerful ARM CPU with plenty of speed and storage space.
If you’re like most people in this connected world, you probably spend a lot of your time in front of a computer–whether it’s a PC, laptop or tablet. Do you ever find yourself slouching, or even feeling some pain as the hours online tick by?
With some ingenuity and an Arduino Pro Mini featuring an Atmel AVR ATmega168 microcontroller, Tobias Sonne has created smart Posture Suspenders that alert the wearer when he or she isn’t maintaining a healthy posture. For those who suffer from back pain–and there are a lot of us in this world!– the Posture Suspender could be just what we need.
Learn more about how this wearable electronic solution works. Have you created any interesting wearable electronics?
