A smart thermostat for the Landhuis

Michael is a member of a scout clubhouse (Landhuis) in the Netherlands. The old building housing the club isn’t exactly energy efficient, as it traditionally required two furnaces to heat the structure’s various nooks and crannies.

“The system directly connected five thermostats (each in a different room) to a valve responsible for the room the thermostat is in,” Michael explained in a recent blog post.

“When a valve opened, the furnace linked to it would start. So most of the time both furnaces would be on at the same time with only two rooms needing heat, which could be easily delivered by one furnace.”

The club members realized it was time to install a new, smart thermostat. However, rather than going the typical commercial route, the Landhuis decided to design a fresh system from scratch using parts subsidized by iPrototype.

The new thermostat is built around five DS18B20 temperature sensors, coupled with an i2c LCD(16×2) and a button in a wooden enclosure. Each thermostat is connected to a central Atmel-based Arduino Mega 2560 (ATmega2560).

“The one-wire bus for the sensors easily managed the long distances to each of the rooms (longest cable ~30m/98ft), the i2c though, was a lot harder to send over such a long wire (CAT5e FTP),” Michael added.

“An i2c bus buffer from NXP/Ti named P82B96 made it possible to send i2c signals over such a long bus, the whole bus being around 70m/230ft.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out HackADay’s write up here and the project’s official page here.

Video: Mega + Uno drives this 8X8X8 cube invader

Anred Zynch recently debuted a massively slick 8x8x8 LED cube — configured as a Space Invaders style game with a Playstation 1 controller.

According to Hackaday’s James Hobson, the cube is powered by an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) which is tasked with driving the 512-LED array. 

Meanwhile, an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) is responsible for generating sound effects during gameplay.

Aside from the two Atmel based Arduino boards, key cube components include:

• 512x LEDs
• 10x Silver plated wire 0.8mm for sinkers and LED grid
• 2x Breadboard 160×100 H25PR160 (sinkers)
• 1x 100 Ohm resistor
• 1x Speaker 8 Ohm
• 2x resistor between 1,5 K and 47 K
• 1x switch 2 or 3-positions
• 1x or 2x 10K ohm resistor

Zynch’s cube — recently surfaced on Instructables — was reportedly inspired by a number of cube projects, including Chr’s and yes, the Borg cube by Das-Labour.

Interested in learning more? You can find additional information, along with a full parts breakdown on the project’s official page here.

Simulating a minicomputer (PDP-11) on an Atmel MCU

The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from around 1970 until the 1990s.

Image credit: Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia, the PDP-11 offered a number of uniquely innovative features and was easier to program than its predecessors due to the inclusion of additional general-purpose registers. Perhaps most importantly, the very first officially named version of Unix ran on the PDP-11/20 in 1970.

Recently, an engineer named Dave Cheney kicked off a project to simulate the PDP-11 using a board powered by Atmel’s versatile ATmega2560 microcontroller (MCU) and a custom-built SPI SRAM shield. Combined, the two components form a platform aptly dubbed “AVR11.”

“Today the simulator boots V6 Unix and can execute some simple commands. [Yes], there are some remaining bugs in the mmu which cause the simulator to fail when larger programs (/usr/bin/cc and /usr/games/chess for example) are executed,” Cheney explained in a blog post describing the project.

“The hardware emulated is somewhere between a PDP11/40 and PDP11/45. The EIS option (MUL and DIV) is properly emulated, but FIS (floating point is not). Only a single RK05 drive is simulated, backed by a file on the micro SD card.”

Cheney says he ultimately plans on improving the accuracy of the simulator so it can run V7 Unix, 2.9/2.11 BSD, RSX-11M and even the original DEC diagnostics. In terms of speed, Cheney confirms the simulator is approximately 10x slower the an original 11/40.

“I was never expecting to be amazed with the speed of this simulator, especially at this early stage. However, on a performance per watt basis, I think it’s hard to beat AVR11. The PDP-11 that this simulator models is spartan, even by the standards of the early 70s, yet still consumed over 2 kilowatts of power for the CPU and memory (256kb),” he continued.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

“The 2.5 megabyte RK05 boot drive was another 600 watts. Real Unix installations would have three or more drives, so there goes another 1200-1800 watts. Compared to that, the AVR11 draws well under the 500ma limit of a USB port. Although I lack equipment to measure the current draw I estimate it to be around 100ma at 5 volts which is 0.5 watts.”

Interested in learning more about simulating a PDP-11 with an Atmel MCU? You can check out Dave Cheney’s project page here or download the relevant code from GitHub.

@Heart with Atmel-powered Arduinos

Arduino has officially kicked off its @Heart initiative. According to company rep Zoe Romano, the program “allows Arduino to build strong partnerships with products and people we appreciate, [while] bringing forward these relationships [and] communicating them clearly with a symbol visible to a broader audience.”

As Romano notes, numerous companies and individual Makers create products based on Arduino tech and would like to be clearly identified as supporters of the versatile platform.

“Arduino@Heart allows them to show they are part of the Arduino ecosystem while receiving support and recognition from Arduino,” Romano explained. “Arduino@Heart is a relationship of mutual help: Arduino supports makers and companies with visibility; at the same time, interesting products show how Arduino can be used in cool sustainable ways.”

Arduino@Heart is available for any product supported by the Arduino Development environment and currently including the following Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs):

• ATMega328 clocked at 8 or 16 MHz
• ATMega1280 clocked at 16 MHz
• ATMega2560 clocked at 16 MHz
• ATMega32U4 clocked at 16MHz
• SAM3X

Unsupsirisngly, a number of companies have already endorsed the @Heart initiative, including littleBits Electronics, Smart Citizen, Bare Conductive, Aesthetec Studio, primo.io and EarthMake.

“littleBits is thrilled to be a part of the new Arduino@Heart program. An Arduino littleBits module has been a popular request for quite a while and we are huge fans of the Arduino ecosystem and community,” said Ayah Bdeir, the founder/CEO of littleBits Electronics Inc.

“The littleBits Arduino module will simultaneously increase the power of the littleBits library by adding programming capabilities and make the Arduino environment easier to get involved in by eliminating the need for soldering or wiring. We can’t wait to see what people with make with it!”

Filippo Yacob and Matteo Loglio of primo.io limited expressed similar sentiments.

“As a Maker-centric company, we mostly concentrate on ideating and developing products; we believe that this partnership could give us much more visibility through marketing and advertising,” the duo explained.

“Moreover, from our point of view being part of the Arduino@Heart program would increase the visibility in the community and being recognized as ‘Arduino approved’ would stimulate us to improve our processes and products to a quality level that would match the Arduino brand. As a consequence, this makes our product more accessible and user friendly to a community that is already familiar with the technology.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out the official Arduino@Heart page here.

Video: Atmel-based Arduinos in a semi-auto production line

Alexander Kozusyev from Kiev recently contacted the official Arduino blog to describe how he integrated Atmel-based boards into a semi-auto production line designed to cast polyurethane foam.

According to Ardunio’s Zoe Romano, Kozusyev is using an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) to read RFID codes and control a number of components, along with an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) (+ firmware GRBL version 0.9) to control the CNC.

“[The] production line has two independent CNC 3-axis manipulator. The first [is] spraying of [a] release agent. [The] second [is the] automatic pouring [of] polyurethane into the mold,” Kozusyev explained.

“Before spraying or pouring, [the system] reads RFID unique code for the mold, and then loads the G-CODE from the database server based MySQL. After pouring, the mold is moved to the waiting area.”

Interacting with the Atmel-powered morphing table

Last week, Bits & Pieces reported that MIT researchers had created a morphing table with Atmel microcontrollers (MCUs) under the hood. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at the platform’s interactive features.

Dubbed inFORM: Dynamic Physical Affordances and Constraints through Shape and Object Actuation, the Atmel-powered table is equipped with a number of ATMega2560s, along with 900 individually actuated white polystyrene pins that make up the surface in an array of 30 x 30 pixels.

An overhead projector provides visual guidance of the system, with each pin capable of actuating 100mm and exerting a force of up to 1.08 Newtons each. Actuation is achieved via push-pull rods that are utilized to maximize the dense pin arrangement – making the display independent of the size of the actuators.

MIT’s latest configuration of the morphing table features two separate interfaces – adding a display so viewers can observe the individual who is manipulating the surface. As HackADay’s James Hobson notes, MIT’s advanced platform opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for the tactile digital experience.

“The inFORM also has a projector shining on the surface, which allows the objects shown from the other side to be both visually and physically seen — they use an example of opening a book and displaying its pages on the surface,” he explained.

“To track the hand movements they use a plain old Microsoft Kinect, which works extremely well. They also show off the table as a standalone unit, an interactive table. Now all they need to do is make the pixels smaller.”

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered morphing table? You can check out MIT’s official project page here.

Printing circuit boards with the Atmel-powered EX¹

The Atmel-powered (ATmega2560) EX¹ allows Makers and engineers to quickly print circuit boards on a wide variety of material. Simply put, the EX¹ is helping to transform electronics and prototyping in the same way that conventional 3D printing revolutionized traditional manufacturing.

However, it should be noted that the EX¹ printer isn’t designed to create 3D objects like “classic” 3D printers. Rather, it 3D prints circuit boards by layering silver nano-particles onto paper or any suitable surface to rapidly create a circuit board.

According to a Cartesian Co. rep, printing circuit boards is now as easy as clicking File > Print.

“This lets you create electronics, just as you’ve envisioned – wearable electronics, paper circuits, printed computers or whatever you imagine. A 3D printer creates the objects of your imagination; the EX¹ lets you create the electronics of your imagination,” the rep explained.

“In addition to more conventional circuit board materials the EX¹ can print on a variety of different substrates you might not associate with circuits. Materials we have been able to print on include plastic (many types), glass, wood, ceramic, silicone and even fabric and paper. In fact it is possible to print on most surfaces. If that’s not enough, we are developing coatings that can allow virtually any surface to be printed on.”

Cartesian, says the rep, wants to change the way Makers and engineers think about electronics, with a particular emphasis on wearable electronics.

“One capability of the EX¹ we’re really excited about is the ability to print straight onto fabric. Anyone who has used conductive thread will tell you how frustrating it is when the thread breaks but you can’t find the break! With the EX¹ you can print circuits straight onto the material of your choice,” the rep added.

So, how does the EX¹ work? Essentially, two inkjet cartridges (similar to the ones in a standard desktop printer) print images on a substrate, but instead of ink they lay down two different chemicals. When these two chemicals mix, a reaction occurs, producing silver nano-particles, leaving a silver image on the substrate.

On the software side, Cartesian offers complete flexibility with its software, from simply importing an image with default settings and clicking print, to exerting control over every printing variable.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered EX¹? You can check out the official product page on Kickstarter here.

R-360 is a modular 3D printer

The Replicator Warehouse crew has debuted the R-360, an open source modular 3D printer. The R-360 is equipped with a rotating printing bed for 3D scanning turntable mode and can be folded up for traveling without compromise on printing volume.

Plus, the 3D printer arrives partially pre-assembled, allowing Makers to build the versatile platform in about an hour or so.

“We know that there are vast numbers of amazing Makers or Makers, and some of them are really hesitant to have their own 3D printer because of the high price or the complexity to build,” the Replicator Warehouse crew wrote in a recent Kickstarter post.

“So we’ve invented a new 3D printer for those people. We would like more and more people to have 3D printers and bring more genius Makers into the world!”

On the software side, the R-360 offers easy access to a free slicing service aptly dubbed “Slicer Cloud” which processes files on clusters of online servers. Slicer Cloud also boasts a 3D object files library for Makers to browse and download pre-Sliced objects for fast printing.

Additional key specs include:

• Torque – 4.4kg cm or 44 Ncm (62.3 oz.in)
• Voltage – 2.8 V/Phase
• Current – 1.68 A/Phase
• Resistance – 1.65 Ohm/Phase
• Inductance (mH/Phase) – 2.8
• Inertia – 68 g.cm²
• Weight – 0.35kg
• Length “L” – 47mm (1.85 in)
• GT2 belts and aluminium pulleys
• CNC Motor Shaft Coupler (Flexible Coupling)
• 608zz, 624zz bearings and LM8UU, LM10UU linear bearings
• RAMPS 1.4 with Atmel-Arduino ATmega2560 rev3 and 5x A4988 motor controllers
• Mechanical endstops
• Memory card reader
• LCD/SD (upgrade) panel with RAMPS GADGETS3D Shield (Kingston 4GB SD card included)
• Extruder tip – 0.4mm
• Layer heights 0.1mm – 0.3mm
• Printing speed – up to 150mm/s
• Traveling speed – up to 250mm/s

Interested in learning more about the R-360 modular 3D printer? You can check out the project’s official page on Kickstarter.

Field Lines: An Arduino-powered interactive instrument

Designed by Charles Peck, Field Lines draws on a number of disciplines including physical design, carpentry, circuit design and coding. The instrument itself includes three sections of magnetic material: magnetic sand, a compass array and zinc-plated iron.

“Audiences are able to manipulate these materials with a magnet in the space below each case while infrared sensors pick up their movement,” Peck wrote in a recent blog post referenced on the official Arduino site. “The sensors send that information to an [Atmel-powered] Arduino board, which then creates unique music for each section.”

Field Lines premiered at the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis to a mostly adult crowd this past March.

“I ran into a few kinks, which I was subsequently able to solve, but for the most part I was able to enjoy meeting with the curious audience and seeing how they interacted with the musical and physical materials,” Peck explained. “Since then, the piece has found a home at the Works Museum, which caters to elementary age students. There it has been integrated into their ‘Sensor Zone’ exhibit.”

According to Peck, Field Lines is powered by an Arduino Mega 2560 (ATmega2560), which was selected due to its 16 analog inputs and the Mozzi audio library.

“This is a terrific ‘almost 9-bit’ open-source library for the Arduino platform. Having said that, the library comes with its limitations (or at least it did, it is being improved by leaps and bounds every day). The main issue being a high and continuous ringing pitch, which seems to be derived from the sample rate (16kHz),” he continued. “After a bit of digging, however, I discovered that this issue can be solved with a small electronic circuit. The circuit combines a low pass filter and a twin-t notch filter in series and you can find the schematic floating around on the Mozzi website.”

Interested in learning more about the Arduino-powered Field Lines? You can check out the official project page here.

These falcons are monitored by intelligent nests

The Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) is a small falcon that can be found across the Mediterranean and south-central Asia. The bird is a summer migrant, wintering in Africa and Pakistan and sometimes even India and Iraq.

A number of Lesser Kestrel falcons are currently participating in HORUS, a real-time monitoring project headquartered at the Doñana Biological Station, a public Research Institute in Spain. According to Horus Project staff, the falcons breed in smart nest-boxes on the window sills which are equipped with sensors, cameras and other equipment controlled by an Arduino board.

“The [Arduino] board is based on Atmel’s ATmega2560, an economic, low-power and robust microcontroller. It controls and processes the nest’s sensor information,” the Horus Project researchers explained. “This board [links] with sensors and other components, processing the collected information sent to the process server over the communication interface.”

Specifically, the program implemented in the microcontroller performs the following tasks:

• Links with the process server over a communication interface and synchronizes clock times.
• Checks infra-red barriers. Each nest-box has two infra-red barriers at both extremes of the corridor. The sequence in which they are activated indicates whether birds are entering or leaving the nest-box.
• Checks if the RFID reader has read a code from ringed kestrels.
• Obtains the body mass measurement from a digital balance.
• Monitors the temperature and humidity of the nest.
• Controls the RFID reader to identify individuals.

Additional information about the Horus Project can be found on the official Facebook page or Wiki here.