This littleBits frame changes based on your gym habits

---

A piece of art that gets more beautiful when you “do good.” 

---

With the new year officially underway, it’s a safe assumption that many, if not all, of you had exercising among their resolutions. However, truth be told, actually getting up and going to the gym isn’t as easy. That’s why Maker Natasha Dzurny has created a simple mechanism in the form of a picture frame to help keep her routine going.

Aptly dubbed Smart Art, the project uses the power of littleBits cloud and Arduino (ATmega32U4) modules to know the last time she has been to the gym and how long it’s been since then. If she’s completed a workout recently, the art reveals a colorful rainbow over a beach. However, if she hasn’t exercised in three days, a storm rolls into the piece.

Using IFTTT, Dzurny set the trigger as her smartphone and entered the location of her gym. She then configured the action as the output of her littleBits cloud module. The Arduino listens for the signal from the cloud module, and begins the counter. In the event that too much time passes, the Arduino activates the servo motor (ATtiny25), thereby changing the sky’s backdrop.

Smart Art is also equipped with a button, so the Maker can trigger it manually if she happens to squeeze a workout in somewhere other than her regular gym, as well as a long LED that lights up when either trigger is activated.

Interested in a similar gadget of your own? Check out the project’s official littleBits page here to get started.

μHack is an Arduino-compatible board for Makers of all levels

---

The μHack is a penny-sized microcontroller looking to bring DIY hardware hacking to the masses.

---

Created by Silverwing Industries, the μHack is a penny-sized, Arduino-compatible microcontroller designed to bring hardware programming to everyone. The Prescott, Arizona-based startup hopes that the board’s simplicity, flexibility and ease-of-use will make it a suitable option for novice and advanced Makers alike.

Originally appearing on Hackaday and now launched on Kickstarter, the μHack is powered by an ATtiny84A. Its very small form-factor (0.7″ x 0.7” to be exact) allows for the MCU to be embedded in just about anything a Maker may want to hack.

To help facilitate the process, the team has developed a piece of cross-platform programming software for the μHack. Targeted primarily for beginners, the aptly dubbed ezHackStudio features an intuitive interface that enables users to drag-and-drop various functional blocks into the workspace.

“The ezHackStudio supports simple functions, complex functions, various hardware interfaces and all of our booster packs! Ever wanted to make a complex temperature controller or a PID controller to balance a robot on 2 wheels? Well, the ezHackStudio has blocks like the PID block and IMU interface block which makes your job a lot easier! Just make a diagram of your project’s logic and let the ezHackStudio do the tedious coding for you,” the team writes.

The μHack’s I/O ports are very flexible and most of its pins can be used for multiple purposes. With a total of 12 digital I/O pins (out of which four have PWM capability and either have analog input capability), the μHack packs a punch even despite its minuscule size. The μHack is equipped with various common communication ports, such as SPI and I2C, while Makers can also connect UART devices using a Software Serial Library — which is included by default in the company’s drag-and-drop program and available for download for those using the Arduino IDE.

“The μHack alone is already pretty awesome, but we’ve made it even more awesome by developing a wide variety of stack-able booster packs for the μHack that give it a lot more functionality. No more messy jumper wires,” the team writes.

Additionally, the team has its sights set on another board for those who looking to work on more powerful projects. Based on the versatile ATmega32U4, the μHack+ is double the size (measuring 0.7″ x 1.4”) and has twice as many I/O pins as the μHack. The MCU also boasts a built-in micro-USB port. It should be noted that the μHack+ is still in the midst of development, though a larger prototype has already been tested.

Makers can take comfort in knowing that both the μHack and μHack+ are indeed Arduino-compatible, meaning that those who’d prefer to program it old-school with the Arduino IDE can do so with ease. By default, the team emphasizes, both of the MCUs come with Arduino bootloaders programmed into them. In other words, Makers can program them with Arduino C out-of-the-box, or with Atmel’s AVR Studio.

“If you’re using the μHack, just plug in the USB programmer booster pack, hook it up to your computer (whether you run Windows, Mac OS X or Linux) and start hacking!”

Last but not least, μHack features a wide-range of booster packs that can enhance the functionality (and possibilities) of your next project. These include everything from a Bluetooth 4.0 module to an XBee adapter to a motor driver.

Interested? You can head on over to its official Kickstarter page to learn more or back the project for yourself. The board is currently seeking $16,000.

Maker powers his Keurig from bed with Arduino

---

Jumpstart your morning routine with the press of a button… while still in bed. 

---

Maker “davids1961” is a recently-retired high school teacher. As a result, he finds his morning routine completely disheveled, getting out of bed at various times. And like many of us, he can’t kick things off without his morning cup ‘o joe. Sometimes, he has to have his Keurig come on before 6am, while much later on other days.

With his free time, David decided to channel his inner Maker and take a shot at his first Instructables project using an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4). He aspired to create an automated system for his Keurig machine that would not only turn on when he was ready to get out of bed, but run long enough to create two cups with just the touch of his mobile device.

“I had done one other experiment with the Arduino Yún so I was not hesitant. I chose the Yún because it works over Wi-Fi; I did not want to run Cat 5 cable from my router to my coffee maker. I wrote a short web page which I can run on my smart phone, which charges beside my bed. I ‘borrowed’ a sketch used to allow a web page to control the pins on the Yun and I shortened it for my one-command sketch,” he writes.

How it works is relatively simple. First, the Maker goes to website on his smartphone and clicks on a graphic representing his coffeemaker (that is actually an HTML link to a page on the Yún). This activates the switch on his Keurig, thereby turning the coffeemaker on. While he still has to load a K cup and press the brew button, having the machine heat the water while he gets ready in the morning puts the coffee in his mouth faster.

Did this coffeemaker mod perk your interest? Head over to the project’s official page here to get started.

This Pac-Man eats time instead of pac-dots

---

It’s time for some nostalgia with this Pac-Man alarm clock. 

---

First released in 1980, Pac-Man was an arcade game developed by Namco that became a pop culture icon. In the game, the player controlled Pac-Man through a maze, eating pellets along the way. When all the pac-dots were eaten, Pac-Man advanced to the next stage. Well, one Maker has taken his love for the classic to a new level with a themed clock that will surely spark up some nostalgia.

And, while it may not be the most practical timekeeping device, it will surely look great on the shelf of any bedroom, man cave or game room. Created by “Making Things,” the alarm clock features Pac-Man who periodically opens and closes his mouth at random intervals, while a pair of ghosts remain stationary along its side.

Based on a Teensy 2.0 (ATmega32U4), the clock itself is packed with a simple RTC module, a servo and a serial LED board for its display. The gears and servo are mounted to a 3D-printed bracket. Meanwhile, the frame is outlined with blue EL wire, giving that classic Pac-Man look a nice little touch.

The alarm clock itself was comprised mostly of 1/8” plywood, with the Pac-Man and the pair of ghosts all cut on a scroll saw. Though, the Maker does note that he would’ve 3D printed them if his printer was large enough.

“I like the Teensy boards because they can emulate other devices and are compatible with the Arduino IDE,” the Maker writes. “I used this [LED board] because it reduces the number of wires required to drive the display, plus it’s all I had on hand. There are no other parts other than a couple of pull up resistors on the RTC and a couple of filter caps.”

Time for some retro geekiness? Head over to the project’s official page here.

This fan helps deal with ethical dilemmas

---

The Internet of Ethical Things? 

---

Created by Simone Rebaudengo and Matthieu Cherubini, Ethical Things is a project that explores the effects of autonomous systems of the future as they head increasingly towards complex algorithms aimed at solving situations requiring some form of moral reasoning. The Makers speculate how these algorithms may not only be concerned with decisions we can’t solve, but more so, what happens to the mundane and insignificant objects that occupy everyday lives?

“Soon, ‘smart’ objects might also need to have moral capacities as ‘they know too much’ about their surroundings to take a neutral stance. Indeed, with fields such as home automation, ambient intelligence or the Internet of Things, objects of our everyday lives will have more and more access to a multitude of data about ourselves and our environment,” the duo writes.

Even when faced with as simple situations, the level of complexity of products cannot accommodate all parties. The system will be designed to take into account certain inputs, to process a ‘certain’ type of information under a ‘certain’ kind of logic. Take a smart coffeemaker who knows about its user’s heart problems, for example, should it accept giving him a coffee when he requests one?

The Makers ask, “How are these ‘certainties’ defined, and by whom? How are these autonomous systems going to be able to solve problems without objective answers? And, moreover, as the nature of ethics is very subjective, how will machines be able to deal with the variety of profiles, beliefs, and cultures?”

Ethical Objects looks at how an autonomous fan, when faced with an ethical dilemma, can keep a dose of humanity in its final decision while being flexible enough to accommodate various ethical beliefs. In an effort to demonstrate this, the so-called “ethical fan” connects to a crowdsourcing site each time it is dealt with a quandary. It then posts the dilemma it’s facing and awaits the help of one of the “workers,” or “mechanical turks,” who will tell the fan how to behave. Thus, it assures that the decision executed by the system is the fruit of real human moral reasoning.

In addition, the fan is designed to allow the user set various traits, ranging from religion and degree to sex and age, as criterion to choose the worker who should respond to the dilemma, in order to assure that a part of the user’s culture and belief system is in line with the worker, or ethical agent. The project is powered by an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4) using Python, PHP, and jQuery. Furthermore, a real-time map on the Makers’ website offers an excerpt of dilemmas faced by two fans in varying locations as well as its answers.

Faced with a complex decision? Ask the fan. Head over to the project’s official page here, and watch it in action below.

Measuring flash speed with AVR

---

How fast is your flash?

---

Whether you’re a Maker or a photographer, there’s nothing more interesting than learning about timers, interrupts and input capture on AVR MCUs. And, if you’re a flash fanatic like Matt Kane of Vela Labs, you’re sure to love his latest project: a low-cost, high-speed timer for camera flashes as an Arduino shield.

When it comes to measuring flash speed, it is typically done in one of two ways. One is determining the lag time between the trigger signal at the hotshot or sync cable and the light emitting from the flash. If this remains consistent, everything is fine. The other is the speed of the pulse width, which refers to the amount of time that the lamp is shining. This is analogous to shutter speed, and combined with the luminosity of the flash gives the exposure. When varying the “power” of a speed light, it doesn’t actually change the brightness of the flash; instead, it simply alters the pulse width. This is why for high-speed photography you need your flash to be on its lowest power setting.

“For most high speed photography, lag isn’t a major problem as long as it’s consistent. If you’re capturing a bullet you can compensate for lag by simply moving the camera further from the gun. If it’s inconsistent then it’s more of a problem, as this makes it very hard to align shots. The really important thing is the pulse width. The longer the pulse, the more motion blur you’ll get in your shot. Sure you can test this by trial and error, but it’s a lot easier if we measure it first as it means we can easily calculate what sort of speed of object we can capture with the flash,” Kane explains.

While usual equipment like a photodetector and oscilloscope that can do the trick, it will generally set someone back quite a few bucks. However, Kane’s DIY project is a much more affordable, easy-to-use way to measure both types of flash speed. In fact, the Maker used a $0.50 photodiode that is sensitive to visible light and a 3.5mm jack that ties into the flash remote, both of which are wired to an Arduino Leonardo (ATmega32U4). The current measured through the device indicates the brightness of the shining light, while an added RC filter helps avoid high frequency noise interfering with their readings. Meanwhile, a 50ohm load resistor provided Kane with enough voltage to measure with the Arduino.

A push button was tasked with the triggering. To get a reading for just the pulse width, Kane pointed the flash towards the detector and fired away. It then printed the pulse width over serial. As Kane advises, if you want to measure the lag as well, then the flash must be connected the shield and pointed at the detector, while pressing the shield’s button. This will then allow the user to receive both values over serial.

So why turn to AVR for the project? “ATmega chips have a built-in analog comparator which is great for this. This measures whether the voltage on one pin is higher or lower than the reference voltage and generates an interrupt or sets a register accordingly. The reference voltage can either be the micro’s internal reference voltage, or a voltage on an external pin. We’ll be using the latter so that we can set our threshold. Once the voltage from the photodiode goes over that threshold it will trigger an interrupt. A little trial and error with the oscilloscope showed that 100-200mV was a good threshold, so I used a voltage divider to generate this.”

With just some work around high-speed timers and interrupts on Arduino, you too can determine the speed of your flash. Head over to the project’s official page to get an in-depth breakdown of the build.

Bare Conductive’s Touch Board is bringing stories to life

---

Isn’t reading much more fun when it’s interactive? 

---

Who remembers the 2008 flick Bedtime Stories starring Adam Sandler? The movie centered around a hotel handyman, whose life changes when the lavish nighttime tales he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true. And while literally bringing fantasy to life may be impossible, Bare Conductive is helping to enable the next best thing with its Touch Board (ATmega32U4) with a pair of recent exhibits.

First, Dataflags is a narrative series of artwork created by Fabio Lattanzi Antinori that explores the financial troubles of corporations as they head towards bankruptcy, while highlighting the pivotal role data plays in today’s society. The piece, which was originally displayed in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum back in September 2014, was brought to life through Bare Conductive’s incredibly-popular ATmega32U4 MCU Touch Board and some Electric Paint. The printed sensors were concealed by a layer of black ink, and when touched, triggered a selection of financial trading data theatrically sung by an opera performer.

“Dataflags is a series of works I am creating that deal with the notion of failing; they represent fragile corporate flags that celebrate the ups and downs of those corporations that were thought to be invincible but went bankrupt. Lehman Brothers, in this context, made up for a very good candidate, yet there are others which will be explored in the next artworks,” Antinori told Bare Conductive.

In order to program the Touch Board to announce various sets of numbers each time the sensors were touched, a series of voices were prerecorded ahead of time. The code then reassembled each sample in real-time depending on the set of figures that corresponded to the daily history of the company’s share prices.

Similar to a number of other forms of art which require engagement from a participating audience, the ATmega32U4 based board would only trigger sound when a passerby interacted with the exhibit. “One could say that there would be no work at all without the intervention of the public, which is a continuation of the metaphorical aspect of the piece,” Antinori added.The flags themselves were comprised of somerset paper, as it “preserved a sense of heritage to which we all relate.” According to the Maker, it was the perfect material to represent a flag, given that it appears solid and eternal, yet it fragile and ephemeral, especially when it is meant to be touched by hundreds of people.

Next, The Northwood’s Childrens Museum in Wisconsin recently created a storytelling tree capable of reading along with you. The old computers inside the the museum display were retrofitted with an ATmega32U4 based board. In fact, this was a welcomed replacement as one staff member said that the computers “broke constantly and hogged power, keeping us from updating sounds files periodically throughout the year.”

Unlike its embedded predecessor, the Touch Board allowed sound files to be changed in an expedited manner, and was slim enough to nestle neatly into the trunk’s design. And what would a treehouse-like exhibit be without a makeshift walkie talkie comprised of cans strung together? Creatively, a set of headphones were also placed inside the can to make it exciting for participants to listen to the story.

As previously explored on Bits & Pieces and seen inside Atmel Maker Faire booths around the world, Bare Conductive continues to inspire and enable Makers to transform touch into sound in countless ways. We can only imagine what Makers will think of next! Interested in learning more? You can head over to the team’s official page here.

Students create a rubber band-flinging drone with AVR

---

When shooting a single rubber band just won’t do, its time to build a UAV to do it for you!

---

For those who may not know, PennApps is the granddaddy of college hackathons converging over 1,200 hobbyists and tinkerers from all over the globe onto the campus of University of Pennsylvania. Students work in teams of up to four people for thirty-six hours to create a web, mobile, wearable or hardware project, and show if off at the final expo, which is open to the public.

A Carnegie Mellon University team — going by the name “Bodyguard” — comprised of Makers Kumail Jaffer, Angel Zhou, Kyle Guske and John Lore recently decided to create a rubber band-flinging drone for their PennApps project last fall. In order to do so, the team affixed an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4) to a servo motor that would power the rubber band cannon. To do this, they connected the Arduino to the drone’s own Wi-Fi network and relayed signals to shoot.

You can watch it in action below!

Control your Philips Hue lighting with this DIY device

---

With just a ‘littleBit’ of tinkering, you can set the mood in real-time.

---

In recent weeks, we’ve had some fun tinkering around with the latest kits from our friends at littleBits. As seen inside our CES 2015 booth, these itsy bitsy modules are enabling Makers to hack their own smart homes with ease, ranging from automated coffee makers to alarm clocks. Case in point: Maker Jeremy Blum’s latest project leverages the ATmega32U4 based Arduino module, along with a small Linux board and Philips Hue hub, to control the state, brightness and color of connected lightbulbs in real-time via a tactile interface.

“The system architecture of the littleBits Hue Lighting Controller is pretty simple, but I put a lot of thought into making the system robust, fast, and easy-to-setup. I’ve actually been using this controller daily for the last several months, but I completely rewrote most of the code in preparation for sharing it here – most notably, I built an automated setup routine, added serial device auto-connect logic, and made the system more robust against hardware state changes,” Blum writes.

The system is comprised of three components: the control pad, the Linux machine and the Philips Hue network. In addition, Makers looking to enhance their design are encouraged to 3D print the dials, buttons and enclosures. When a Maker presses buttons or turns the dial on the wall controller, it sends serial commands to a script running on the Linux device. The desired action is interpreted and relayed to the Hue hub over the local network in real-time.

“When you’re setting up the system, you’ll use a automatic setup mode that I’ve included in the Python software. The script handles configuring the Linux machine to automatically launch the listening service on boot, creates the secure connection with the Hue hub, and allows you to select which lights on your Hue network you’d like to control with the control pad. The Python script also automatically identifies the right serial device and will automatically handle reconnecting the serial interface on USB disconnection events.”

As Blum notes, you don’t have to be an advanced engineer or know anything about configuring Linux serial devices, for that matter, to implement the software – it’s entirely automatic. In fact, it will even work on systems that have multiple USB serial devices attached, such as multiple Arduino Leonardo boards.

Are you ready to control the smart bulbs throughout your home with a DIY controller? If so, you can access an entire step-by-step breakdown of the build here.

Can’t draw? This machine will show you how

---

Have you always wished you had some sort of artistic abilities? Well, thanks to one Maker, a tiny machine can help. 

---

Da Vinci, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso. Those are just some of the names responsible for pioneering art as we have to come to know and love. Fast forward several years, the Maker Movement is ushering in a new era of visionaries who aspire to revolutionize the scene in a similar fashion by granting the everyday Joe (or Jane) the ability to create their own masterpieces. Doing that just, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design student Saurabh Datta recently developed a wearable robotic device that can teach you how to draw.

Aptly named Teacher, the exoskeleton-like gadget gently forces your arm into the repetitive motions required for sketching simple shapes using force feedback and haptic response systems. Once strapped to the hand, the wearable directs a user’s wrist and fingers to the necessary positions, while the machine itself records the movement. It then repeats the motion and forces the hand to go to those previous positions, thereby creating a device rhythm.

Before focusing his efforts toward the drawing experience, Datta explored the use feedback mechanisms as a way to give piano lessons. While the first contraption controlled a single finger, the second took care of controlling the learner’s wrist — thus capable of modulating the hand movement over the whole keyboard.

“The whole notion is to understand when machines start knowing more about you and they start showing that to you as feedback — sometimes which may appear against our will, how do you act upon it. On one hand it can act as a teacher and on the other it might appear as machines are operating us,” Datta writes.

In order to bring this creation to life, the Maker salvaged 3D printer components and reused their encoders along with (what appears to be) an Arduino and a few EMG nodes. So far, there have been three iterations of Teacher prototypes, each of which demonstrate the potential of machine-led instruction. For Datta, however, the ideal scenario would incorporate both learning and teaching from robotics.

For initial purposes, Datta had employed an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4), which was later shrunken down to an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega328) for the final, more compact prototype.

“We can be better in designing an enabling system rather than just service robots, systems that allow us to do things ourselves better or making us better in certain things rather than doing it for us all the time.”

As to what inspired Datta to pursue this idea, the Maker shares, “I remember when I started first learning alphabets my teachers used to hold my hand with the pen and trace on the paper multiple times, the letters. After letting me go I would do it over and over again and finally it achieved a muscle memory and I could do it by myself. I’m taking this metaphor of the importance of holding hands when learning a new skill.”

Intrigued? Those wishing to learn more can watch Data’s entire thesis below, as well as access technical details on its official project page here.