Both friendships and flowers flourish with Air Garden

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Gardening + Arduino = Garduino?

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City dwellers immersed in the daily hustle and bustle seem all too often tend to overlook interacting with neighbors. Drawing on urban gardening practices and the space limitations of community housing, a team of Makers from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design recently created Air Garden as an innovative way to form bonds among nearby tenants.

“We seek to introduce a space efficient environment, a give and take system that nurtures people to emotionally connect to their living spaces. Air Garden aims to foster indirect communication between tenants with the hope of creating a platform for connections and chance encounters,” Maker Amalia Goutaki writes.

How the system works is pretty simple. The edible plants move vertically along a column outside an apartment complex’s windows. Participating inhabitants can summon the plants to their window, pick from them, and assume responsibility for watering.

In order to bring this idea to life, the team created a pulley system based on a pair of Arduino boards: an Uno (ATmega328) for the pulley and a Yún (ATmega32U4) for the interactive portion of the plant. Buttons were placed on the side of its wooden structure, corresponding to each floor of the building. This enables a tenant to call upon the plant. The Arduino Uno is responsible for deciphering the plant’s distance from the ground and translates that information into either “tenant1,” “tenant2” or “tenant3,” depending on from where it is summoned.

The plant is equipped with two screws in its soil, which are connected by wires to the ATmega32U4 based Yún. According to its creators, values such as “watered,” “needs water” or “overwatered,” are then relayed to recipients. Once water is poured, the soil becomes more conductive, causing the values and messages to change accordingly. Both the apartment dweller’s floor and water condition are displayed on the pot’s easy-to-read LCD screen.

Interested in learning more? Head over to the project’s official page here. In the meantime, you can watch the Air Garden system in action below!

This installation makes music out of crushing your belongings

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Who knew slowly-crushed toys, electronics and accessories could make such haunting tunes?

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Dmitry Morozov— who many refer to as ::vtol::—has returned yet again with another interactive installation. Just days after directing a symphony of robots, the artist is now looking to destroy any object that might happen to be on a person for the sake of sound composition. The unique project, called Oil, is comprised of five 10-ton hydraulic presses that crush practically anything, albeit an expensive smartphone, a pair of cheap glasses or anything in between.

In the process of destruction, a special microphone records the sounds made as the object undergoes deformation, and in just a few minutes, a computer algorithm transforms them into a 20 minutes album. Aside from a customized mic, each Oil station consists of an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), a Mac Mini, and an Apple CD drive. As visitors approach the shop press, they are instructed to steadily pump levers which bear down on an object (in some cases, even a maneki-neko figurine), as it expectedly emits crunching and cracking sounds.

“The project is intended to provoke visitors into spontaneously ridding themselves of material consumer objects for the sake of creating their own individual work of art via deprivation, divestment and destruction. Sound has been taken as the chief medium here with good reason, since sound art is perhaps the least material and most abstract of all genres in art,” ::vtol:: explains. “The technological aesthetic involved constitutes an ironic attempt to make the process of art production into a technological process, but the result, unlike that of mass production, demonstrates a contrary phenomenon – this is a work involving programming and code in the context of generative art, with the potential to broaden the range of instruments at art’s disposal.”

::vtol:: set parameters for how the sound would be processed using Pure Data, Max/MSP and AppleScript software programs. However, as you can imagine, the way in which each thing breaks is unique — especially when a 10-ton hydraulic press is at the helm.

So what do the participants get in exchange for destructing their possessions? The sound production is automatically recorded onto an audio CD and then handed over to the participant, of course. For those wondering if anyone would contribute to the ATmega328 driven installation, over the course of its exhibit commissioned by Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 1,574 tracks were distributed. Looks like ::vtol:: crushed it yet again. (Literally.)

Those interested in learning more can head over to the project’s official page here.

Destiny player builds an auto-leveling robot with Arduino

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Games like Destiny can take up a lot of time if you want to level multiple characters. Or, you can let a robot do it for you.

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Like with a number of video games, playing Destiny can be time consuming, particularly for those looking to level up multiple characters. And though we’ve seen several projects out there that encourage a healthier lifestyle while gaming, one Maker has done the complete opposite: designing a contraption that doesn’t require physically playing the game at all. In an attempt to create the “slowest, laziest way to level up to 20 without having to lift a finger,” Yavin Four has developed an automated mechanism using a servo motor, an Xbox controller and an Arduino Uno (ATmega328).

The project, which first appeared on Reddit, may not be the most complex robot, but does allow Four to open up an early Ocean of Storms level on the moon and let the game run while headed out for class, work or to grab a bite to eat. As Kotaku notes, the robot will rush enemies all by itself, reload the checkpoints and enable the character do it all over again. The Maker can then come back whenever he pleased, regain control and reap the experience rewards.

“Woke up this morning to a brand new 20,” Four wrote on Reddit. “Had about 3,600 kills, and 900 deaths, and like 50 green engrams. I started at level 16.5 yesterday afternoon, and reached 20 sometime while I was asleep. With the armor I had waiting for him he is now a 26.”

Intrigued by this ATmega328 based, auto-leveling bot? You can find the Maker’s entire build here.

This DIY system lets you open the door with a special knock

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Protect your home or secret hideout with a lock that will only open with a secret knock.

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With the rise of the Internet of Things, we’re seeing a number smart access systems enter the market, enabling users to gain keyless entry into their homes. And for those who aren’t looking to delve deep into their wallets, Makers are developing DIY projects for a fraction of the cost of a commercial locks. Recently brought to our attention from the Hackster.io crew, Ashraf Nabil has designed a clever method to open a door without keys using an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), an Android smartphone and 1Sheeld (ATmega162).

In order to bring his idea to life, the Maker recorded a door knock pattern through the 1Sheeld’s keypad and mic shield. Each time a homeowner approaches the front step, they must simply press the keypad button on their smartphone, hold the device against the door and repeat the designated knock sequence. If correct, access is granted.

Intrigued? Unlock the possibilities by heading over to the project’s setep-by-step breakdown here. Meanwhile, watch it in action below!

Reading punch cards with an Arduino interface

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How one Maker is reminiscing the days of typing programs onto punch cards. 

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Back in the day, punch cards (also known as IBM cards or Hollerith cards) were a standard form of controlling automated machinery or data processing applications. Both commands and data were represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. And while obsolete today, Maker Kyle Owen decided to score an old reader and with just a little tinkering, get it functioning once more.

Owen recently purchased an old Documation M-1000-L punched card reader from eBay, but wanting to use it to read in some cards, realized that it lacked an appropriate interface. After a bit of searching, the Maker happened to stumble upon the manual on BitSavers. He opted to use an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) as a Documation to serial interface with some simple port manipulation to read in data, column by column, card by card. As Hackaday’s Adam Fabio notes, the Arduino not only had plenty of I/O to wire up with the card reader’s interface, its ATmega328 even had enough power to translate each card from one of IBM’s many keypunch formats to serial.

“The Arduino does some basic card decoding and prints out the punched card data over the serial port. The reading speed is currently limited to the Arduino’s serial speed and sheer amount of characters to print. Otherwise, reaching the touted 1,000 cards per minute would not be a challenge for the microcontroller.”

Owen’s test deck of cards turned out to have a floating point coordinates, which translated into a linear set of data points when plotted in an Excel sheet.

With this phase of the hack complete, Owen is now seeking to locate a M843 CR8-E punched card interface for an OMNIBUS PDP-8. If one cannot be found, the Maker says he will modify an M863 to act as one, but it’ll surely require both hardware and software changes.

If you like hacking old electronics back to life, then you’ll love reading some of these projects as well.

DiyouPCB is a DIY open-source PCB printer

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Makers are designing open source, low-cost tools that allow others to accelerate the manufacturing process right from home.

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Inspired by the highly-popular RepRap 3D printers, a pair of Madrid-based brothers have unveiled a new open-source PCB printer powered by an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), along with a custom pickup driver and controller shield.

The open-source platform is equipped with a Blu-Ray optical pickup (PHR-803T) and various UV laser components. More specifically, the PHR-803T incorporates a UV laser diode that functions at a wavelength of 405nm, while the device itself features a build area of 210mm x 170mm and a print speed of 600mm per minute.

Aside from the ATmega328 driven ‘duino, custom PD and PCS, key specs include:

• Auto-focus: Through astigmatic method
• Diameter of focused laser beam: ~0.1mm
• Travel speed: Max. 15,000mm/minute
• Dimensions: 385 mm x 345mm x 100mm
• Weight: ~2.6Kg
• Power: 110V/230V, 50 – 60 Hz, 2A

“The printer is still not perfect. We [need to] further improve the printing quality and solve the problems of the vibrations caused by the stepper motors and the induced by the use of timing belts (backlash and resonances),” the team writes.

Interested in learning more about the DiyouPCB printer? You can assemble your very own by following this detailed step-by-step breakdown.

Building a sound-activated outlet for your home appliances

Clap on…. clap off! It’s a fair assumption that anyone who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s has come across the infamous jingle for The Clapper at one time or another. Created by Bay Area-based Joseph Enterprises, the device was a simple sound-activated switch that could turn on any electrical outlet in your home with a clap. Nearly 30 years after its debut, MAKE: Magazine’s Jason Poel Smith has shown off a DIY version of the gadget, not only capable of evoking your lights but appliances as well.

In order to bring his idea to life, Smith powered the home-brew Clapper utilizing an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) programmed with certain patterns for each outlet throughout the house. This allowed the Maker to trigger his lamp with a single clap and two claps for his fan.

The Arduino also enables users to program how the outlets are turned on and off.

“For instance, if your Internet router needs to be reset, you could program it to turn your router off for ten seconds and then turn it back on automatically. Or, you could turn a heater on for a few minutes and have it automatically turn itself off,” Smith writes.

In addition to clapping, users can also activate the switch with any other loud noise, like knocking on the wall, stomping on the floor, whistling or any other tone that exceeds the set threshold.

“Users can modify how the output performs by simply rewriting the code to give the desired response. You can have the appliance turn on or off when signaled. You can have an appliance such as a heater or a fan turn on for a set duration. You can also use it to reset your router by turning the power off for ten seconds and automatically turning it back on. The only limitation is your imagination.”

Interested in an ATmega328 powered personalized Clapper for your home? Head on over to MAKE: Magazine’s official project page here.

Celebrate New Year’s with you own LED disco floor

What better way to end 2014 than by transforming your kitchen into a slick LED disco floor? Maker Matthew Collinge did just that, using 120 RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino Uno (ATmega328). Happy New Year!

You can watch it in action below, or access the Maker’s entire build on Instructables here.

Creating an ultrasonic radar system with AVR

Created by Maker Anuj Dutt, RADAR is an ATmega328 powered object detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects within range.

An ultrasonic sensor mounted onto a servo motor, and connected to a handmade Arduino Uno, is responsible for feeding data to a PC or laptop. There, a customized VB.NET processing software translates the information into a “green radar sweep” screen, and relays the text to an LCD display that reveals the distance from and angle of the target.

The Maker notes that the home-brew, AVR based RADAR system can be used in a variety of settings, such as cars and bicycles. Interested in learning more about the project? You can download the Dutt’s entire paper here.

Build a spy camera inside your coffee cup

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Are you a boss looking to inconspicuously monitor employees? A jealous boyfriend? A member of the paparazzi? Looking to channel your inner James Bond?

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Whatever the case, you may be interested in a recent project from MAKE: Magazine’s Steve Hobley, who has devised a slick spy camera embedded inside a coffee cup using an Arduino Uno (ATmega328).

How it works is relatively simple. It was designed in such a way that when you lift the cup up to take a sip, it snaps a picture. If your cover is blown, simply rotate the cup to hide the camera.

Aside from an ATmega328 based Arduino, the build calls for a JPEG camera module, an SD card shield, a Memsic 2125 two-axis accelerometer, a few resistors and two indicator LEDs which can be seen through the plastic lid — one illuminates when the tilt switch is triggered, while the other flashes to indicate a photo has been taken.

“Now, I’m not going to lie to you, installing all this stuff inside an innocent looking coffee cup is … err… tricky, to say the least,” Hobley admits. However, those wishing to create a master spy cup of their own can get a more detailed look at the step-by-step build here, or simply watch the video below.