Let the BitOlympic Games begin!

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littleBits + Olympics = BitOlympics

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While we may still be a year out from the Rio Summer Games, our friends at littleBits have launched the first-ever BitOlympics. The three-week competition encourages Makers of all levels to create extraordinary inventions, learn new skills, meet other Bitsters from around the world, and of course, go for the gold with up to $5,000 in prizes. The games kick off with a global makeathon during the weekend of July 10th.

Makers can either participate independently online, join an event in their local community or host an informal meet-up of their own. What’s more, the BitOlympics work just like the actual Games but with easy-to-use electronic modules instead.

Step 1: Choose a game to ‘bitify!’ The littleBits community has handcrafted six design challenges to help Makers get started with their project.

• Football: Premium or Deluxe Kit
• Rhythmic Gymnastics: Synthesizer Kit and Arduino Coding Kit for advanced builds
• Track & Field: Any kit + the Makey Makey module
• Downhill Skiing: Premium or Deluxe Kit
• Table Tennis: Smart Home Kit or cloudBit
• Choose Your Own: Premium or Deluxe, cloudBit and Arduino Coding

Step 2: Learn new skills. Step up your Maker game and receive feedback from the DIY community on your inventions.

Step 3: Join the global makeathon on July 10th.

Step 4: Upload your project and tag it with #BitOlympics in the header by noon (EST) on Sunday, July 26th.

Step 5: Take home the gold! Winners will be selected by an esteemed panel of judges — including Ayah Bdeir, Zuradia Buter and Renaud Bedard — and announced on the community call on Wednesday, July 29th.

• Football: Golden Shoe (Bits of your choice up to $250) 
• Rhythmic Gymnastics: Big Air (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Track & Field: Iron Bit (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Downhill Skiing: Black Diamond (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Table Tennis: Topspin (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Choose Your Own: The Olive Wreath (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Most Uploaded Projects: Record Breaker (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Best Documentarian: The Golden Camera (Bits of your choice up to $250)
• Grand Prize: The Grand BitOlympian (One of Everything Collection)

Ready to get started? Race over to littleBits’ official page here.  

Building a low-cost Delta 3D printer out of recycled electronics

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Maker creates a Delta-style 3D printer using recycled parts from an old dot matrix printer and flatbed scanner. 

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When it comes to the Maker Movement, DIYers never cease to amaze us with new ways to recycle electronic waste. Take Instructables user Hesam Hamidi for instance, who has impressively created a Delta-style 3D printer using parts from an old dot matrix printer and flatbed scanner.

Whereas FDM printers typically posses an aluminum or precision shaft frame, the Maker had swapped it out for five pieces of 16mm MDF, fixed together by wood screws. Three adjustable cabinet legs were attached under the body to keep it level, while another beam was added to the top of the body to support the filament spool. Attached to the trio of vertical MDF frame pieces are rail and carriage assemblies taken from the dot matrix printer, which fortunately already had their stepper motors and belts installed.

“Each slider has a step motor that moves carriage by a timing belt for about 430mm. At the end of sliding course, there is a home position sensor that senses the tractor motion end. Each step moves the carriage for 106 microns and in case of using micro stepping drivers we can reduce this length. Dimensional specifications of our 3D printer were specified based on slider motion,” Hamidi writes.

The end effector is also a unique attribute of Delta-style printers. In this project, it was made from a steel plate and provides a mount of the extruder, which is driven by another scavenged stepper motor along with a timing belt pulley and pulley tightening mechanism.

“A U-shaped profile was used to support stepper motor, ball bearings and hotend. Support plate is a CNC cut circular steel plate that has six holes for ball end supports with 120 degrees to each other. Hotend was purchased from a Felix printer with nozzle diameter of 0.3 mm,” the Maker adds.

For the print bed, Hamidi repurposed an Epson flatbed scanner, which was selected due to its durability and smoothness. The inner workings of the device were removed and replaced with a 220V 300W flat heating element beneath the glass. Meanwhile, the bed heater has a 12V element and NTC thermistor to regulate temperature, and is controlled separately by way of a household thermostat.

In terms of its electronics, the 3D printer is based on an Arduino Leonardo (ATmega32U4) and four different stepper drivers that take the place of the common Arduino Mega/RAMPS 1.4 combination. Beyond that, three analog inputs were employed to sense signals of home position sensors, while eight digital outputs send pulses to four stepper motors. Temperature of the hotend and heater are managed separately by individual controllers.

What’s more, the DIY machine boasts a size of 600mm x 650mm with a build volume of 200mm x 200mm x 200mm and can achieve printing speeds of up to 80mm/second in all three directions. Interested in constructing one of your own? Head over to the project’s Instructables page, where you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the build including its schematics and code. In the meantime, watch it in action below!

This Arduino-powered plant wants to take a selfie

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As part of their “Secret Life of Objects” class, a group of CIID students created a selfie-taking plant. 

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Without question, 2014 will forever go down in history as the year of the selfie. You’ve seen them just about everywhere, whether it’s your Facebook news feed, Instagram stream or running rampant on Snapchat. The idea of taking a photo of oneself and sharing it has become ubiquitous, transcending well beyond just a fad and into a self portrait reimagined for the age of social media. Selfies are believed to make up nearly one-third of all pictures taken by people between the ages of 18 and 24, not to mention, over half of all men and women have snapped at least one at some point in their lives. Now what if plants could do the same?

That was the idea behind a recent project from students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. As a way to explore how the general public would react to the idea of nature interacting with their social lives, the group of Makers developed the aptly named Selfie Plant. 

“In recent times, the selfie culture has risen in popularity, but it has also raised a few questions,” the team explains. “Whether the selfie culture helps to build self-esteem or does it force us for self-obsession? Is it an expression for admiration or is it to achieve a sense of self, place and community? What if nature gets addicted to this selfie culture?”

The project expresses itself in the form of nice-looking selfies, which it captures based on its mood, weather and occasion. Impressively, the potted plant mimics human behavior by giving its best pose and adjusting the camera angle to take the ideal shot. And what would a selfie be without being shared online? The plant then goes on to post the images on Facebook.

The plant is powered by Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4), which controls a set of servo motors and adjusts the position of the plant and camera stick. Meanwhile, a Python script communicates with the Facebook’s graph API to post the captured photos on the plant’s profile.

In an effort to further bridge the gap between mankind and its environment, the CIID students hope to one day make the plant autonomous. Until then, you can watch it in action below or read more about it on GitHub here.

Tracking Bitcoin conversion rates with Arduino and ESP8266

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Maker creates a Bitcoin price ticker using the combination of an Arduino Pro Micro and an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module.

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What do you do when you have an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module just lying around? Well, if you’re Bitcoin enthusiast Kendrick Tabi, you make an Arduino-based Bitcoin price tracker.

For this project, the Maker decided to employ the combination of the incredibly popular Wi-Fi chip along with a 5V Arduino Pro Micro (ATmega32U4). The ESP8266 interfaces with the Arduino via serial connection, and operates at 3.3V. Meanwhile, two 3.6V Zener diodes handle the logic level conversion.

“Since I am using an Arduino Pro Micro which only has a 5V output, I made a little tweaky experiment to achieve a 3.3V to 3.7V output. Using a two 3.6v Zener diodes connected in series, I managed to get a voltage drop of 1.05V and an output voltage of 3.74V from the 4.79V output of the board. This seems enough to make the ESP8266 work and to prevent overpowering the module,” Tabi explains.

The code running on the Arduino is tasked with checking the CoinDesk API every 60 seconds, retrieving the incoming JSON data and then displaying the current Bitcon price in the serial monitor. While this may be a bit of an elaborate project for simply monitoring conversion rates, it’s pretty cool nonetheless and opens the door to a wide range of potential apps.

Intrigued? Head over to the Maker’s project page here.

Aistin is an Arduino-compatible modular IoT sensor platform

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This family of 20+ wireless sensors enables Makers to devise their own connected solutions. 

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Recently launched on Indiegogo, Aistin is a small, lightweight and modular sensor platform for the Internet of Things. The brainchild of former Nokia R&D team members who together make up iProtoXi, these low power, wireless devices are helping Makers bring their ideas to life by focusing on three main elements: compactness, expandability and mobility.

“Instead of functionally limited ready-made IoT sets, or flexible but unpractical self-wired desktop hassles, we wanted to inspire people to create new mobile products by providing the best that can be achieved with current technology,” the Finnish startup shares.

Aistin is comprised of various sensor heads including environmental, motion and passive IR modules, as well as programmable LEDs, switches and other dev boards suitable for a wide range of IoT projects. Makers can choose from Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, wireless LAN and IQRR radios for connectivity, while example firmware, a web-based interface and a mobile app are provided to accelerate development.

“You can setup the logic how your Aistin sensor node works, what is the sensor reading interval and what is the trigger to start the sensor readings. You can also read the stored sensor data from the sensor node internal memory, if you have left your sensor node alone and connect it afterwards. Mobile application visualizes the sensor data. Sensor data can be stored in the application and then forwarded for further use,” its creators explain.

What’s nice is that the sensors can be used either as a standalone, a smartphone accessory or attached to anything to become part of a complex IoT solution. The fully expandable Aistin family currently has about 20 members and comes housed inside a variety of 3D-printed covers. At the core of every unit is an open source Bus24 interface, which is a combination of standard I/O buses (like I2C, SPI and UART), along with intelligent power management signals to enable long battery life. Development kits with the Bus24 provide a low-cost, easy-to-deploy series of sensors for developing IoT nodes and corresponding applications.

“Aistin wireless sensor nodes are connected to a gateway. GW provides connection to Internet/intranet. Typically WLAN or USB is used. Sensor GW/nodes makes TCP connection to an Aistin server that is located in laptop, Raspberry Pi or other computer which has Linux, Windows or MAC operating system. Aistin server (SW) provides a web socket interface for web client. Web socket is used to carry sensor data from the server to the visualization page,” the team writes.

To really make use of the revolutionary Bus24 connector, Makers have the option of selecting from a comprehensive set of add-on MCUs. Among those already compatible is the popular ATmega32U4. Meanwhile, iProtoXi hopes that the number of available expansion boards will continue to grow exponentially in the future.

As for the sensors — each of which are named after the owl, an extremely intelligent and intuitively knowledgable animal — are compact enough to fit on just about anything, from a milk cap and a sink faucet to a power outlet and inside the refrigerator door. One device in particular, the Owl Brain, measures 36mm x 18mm in size and is based on the ATmega32U4, allowing it to be easily programmed using the Arduino IDE.

Depending on the version, Owl Brains are equipped with several Bus24 connectors, a microUSB port, controllable RGB LEDs, a Li-ion battery charger, current and battery measurement circuitry, a real-time clock and a multi-functional button. The board also packs an accelerometer, a barometer, a humidity sensor and 256KB of EEPROM. Beyond that, two of its models (the CPU242 and 252) include an integrated Wi-Fi module, making it what the iProtoXi team calls “probably most feature-rich Arduino conformant board ever created.”

Those wishing to explore Aistin’s entire lineup can head over to its official Indiegogo page, where the team is currently seeking $56,000. Delivery is expected to begin later this year.

The Model 01 is an heirloom-grade, open source ergonomic keyboard

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The Model 01 doesn’t look or feel like any keyboard you’ve ever had before. 

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The arrangement of characters on a QWERTY keyboard was first introduced back in 1868 by Christopher Sholes, who happened to also be the inventor of the typewriter. As legend has it, Sholes organized the keys in their odd fashion to prevent jamming on mechanical typewriters by separating commonly used letter combinations. Other than adding a few function and arrow keys, the text entry device has remained relatively unchanged for nearly 150 years.

With just about everyone nowadays spending eight-plus hours typing away on their computers, too many of us are putting unnecessary strain on our wrists. Have you ever thought about how you might improve the standard QWERTY layout? Well, Jesse Vincent and Kaia Dekke — who together make up Bay Area startup Keyboardio — have with their butterfly-shaped keyboard that places a greater emphasis on the thumb, lessens the stress on your pinkies and offers a more natural position for the hand and wrist — something that may prove to be a lifesaver for those suffering from carpal tunnel or arthritis. And sure, there are plenty of ergonomic keyboards on the market, but the Model 01 was specially designed for serious typists.

“The traditional keyboard was designed for typewriters, not hands. Staggered columns made room for mechanical components, without concern for wrist angles or finger lengths. Shift keys were placed under the weakest fingers,” Vincent explains.

Instead, the Keyboardio team has puts keys such as control, alt, delete, shift and a new ‘function’ button under the typists’ palms, all within easy reach of the thumbs. The duo says that they have been experimenting with ways to eliminate the mouse altogether by using the W, A, S and D keys for general cursor movements and other keys to tell the mouse where to go on the screen.

“You can think of it as a function key or a special sort of shift. Dropping the base of your thumb onto it turns the H, J, K, and L keys into your arrow keys, turns the number keys into F-keys and even turns the WASD keys into a high-precision mouse.”

Not only does Model 01 ship with the source code and a screwdriver, users can even define custom key layouts or macros based on the application currently running on the PC. Meaning, typists can assign complex sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements to a single key press through a simple program — on any computer compatible with OS X, iOS, Linux, Windows or Android operating systems.

The modular keyboard is built around a versatile ATmega32U4 along with some battery charging circuitry, Worldsemi WS2812B LEDs and a Bluetooth module — all housed inside two blocks of CNC-milled solid maple wood. The keyswitches, which boast a lifetime of 50 million presses, are Matias Quiet Click ALPS-mount keyswitches with ultra-bright, colorful LEDs located under each one. Its creators have custom sculpted each of the 64 individual keycaps on the Model 01 to gently guide a typists fingers to the right keys. Beyond that, the Model 01 features a USB interface.

“For a variety of reasons, many USB keyboards limit you to pressing six keys (plus modifiers) at once. Most of us would never notice this limitation, but an intrepid few really, really need to be able to hit more than six keys at once,” Vincent writes. “If you need True N-key rollover (NKRO), we’ve got you covered. The NKRO-over-USB technique we’re using works great on Windows, MacOS X and Linux without any special drivers.”

With its aesthetically-pleasing maple wood exterior, Vincent believes the Model 01 can be the first computer accessory made to “heirloom grade.” While Keyboardio may initially appeal to the enthusiast crowd, the open source nature of the gadget will certainly entice hardware and software fans to offer their own set of modifications as well.

Though it ships with the default QWERTY arrangement, the unit also “speaks” Dvorak, Colemak, Workman and a variant of the Malt layout. What’s more, the Model 01 has an “any” key — whose function is left to the imagination of the beholder. Does it look like an ergonomic keyboard that you’d love to have at home or in the office? Click over to its Kickstarter campaign, where Keyboardio is currently seeking $120,000. Shipment is set to commence in May 2016.

These smart gloves will actually let you feel virtual reality

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Gloveone is a pair of embedded gloves that lets you feel your way around the virtual reality world.

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The relationship between video gamers and gloves hasn’t been all too dandy to say the least. Remember the Nintendo Power Glove from the early ‘90s? The accessory had been designed to provide players with buttons conveniently located on their forearm. Along with the wearable controller, the user was able to perform various hand motions to command a character on-screen. Unfortunately, the trend never really caught on.

Fast forward 25 years, video games have come a long way. Not just with their killer graphics, but more immersive experiences than ever before thanks to virtual reality. Cognizant of this, one Miami-based startup has set out to create a pair of gloves that works alongside a VR headset to offer users a sense of texture and depth. And with the emergence of industry heavyweights like Oculus, Google, Samsung and HTC each debuting simulated googles of their own, this innovation couldn’t have come at a better time.

Surely more exciting than Nintendo’s ill-fated attempt at a body-adorned gaming device, the aptly named Gloveone slips onto a person’s hands while sensation and texture are created through a series of complex vibrations. The wearable, which is based on an ATmega32U4 MCU, features 10 actuators on each fingertip and the palm that translates touch into haptic feedback at various frequencies, times and intensities to accurately reproduce sensations in the VR world.

What’s more, the device is embedded with IMU sensors to track and mimic movement on-screen in a natural manner, a Li-Po battery for four hours worth of power, a microUSB for low-latency mode via cable, Bluetooth for wireless communication (meaning no getting tangled up in wires), and those who work up a sweat during gameplay can take comfort in knowing that the gloves are comprised of breathable and anti-bacterial fabric.

The gadget enables users to perceive texture, sense sound and temperature, as well as distinguish between weight of objects. In other words, this means a wearer can feel heat from touching a fire burning in a game, a raindrop falling from the virtual sky or even tell if one augmented item is heavier than another. Beyond that, four sensors located in the palm, thumb, index and middle fingers communicate with one another, allowing a user to shoot a cannon, grab a flower petal or simply control the main menu. Unlike other gesture recognition systems, contact-triggered commands do not suffer from false positives or negatives, which can often times be very frustrating for users.

Aside from enhancing the gaming industry, Gloveone could surely play an integral role in bringing sci-fi-like technology into the healthcare setting by assisting those with impaired mobility to re-learn movements such as picking up and holding an item or even walking.

Currently available in three sizes (XS-S, M-L, XL-XXL), the system does rely upon auxiliary sensors like Leap Motion or Intel RealSense to track a user’s hands. However, it can also work with other tech including Microsoft Kinect and OpenCV. Sound like something you’d like to use? Head over to its official Kickstarter campaign, where the NeuroDigital Technologies crew is seeking $150,000. Delivery is slated for February 2016.

SmartCap tracks your liquid consumption and reminds you when to take a sip

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By syncing with your FitBit dashboard, this smart cap helps record, remind and rehydrate! 

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Evident by the sheer number of health and fitness trackers on the market today, people are increasingly becoming focused on their general well-being. As fixated on eating right and exercising as they may be, it is often easy to overlook one of the most basic and vital things the human body needs: water. Though everyone is cognizant of the benefits of staying hydrated, a vast majority tend to neglect it with our busy lives. And so, a number of startups have emerged with innovative ways to remind us to sip on some high-quality H2O, including most recently Hidrate Me and Trago. Next on that list is SmartCap, the brainchild of Maker by night and software engineer by day Ben S.

What began as a mere idea for himself that he designed and continues to use has now transcended into a hopeful product with mainstream appeal. This smart cap, which fits any standard bottle, is capable of tracking water intake and updating a web-based dashboard by syncing with FitBit.

“I didn’t want to burden myself (or you) with yet another smartphone application. The SmartCap application does nothing more than ferry data between FitBit and allow simple configurations such as authentication, notification on/off and frequency,” Ben explains.

Like Hidrate Me, users will be notified to consume some water through an illuminated light, while also be able to choose to receive an alert on their smartphone or their Apple Watch. Sips of both water and Soylent (powdered meal replacement) are accurately tracked with a push of a button and registered into FitBit.

Based on an Arduino Micro (ATmega32U4), the cap features a flow meter and a Bluetooth module tasked with the pairing of devices and wireless communication of the collected data. It also boasts a battery for power, which is rechargeable via a USB port.

“Yes, competition is good. But I have killer features, such as FitBit integration and Soylent mode that others are not offering. I also hold provisional patents on these innovations. A defensive position is my only intention. I want my product to continue serving those who enjoy using it,” Ben shares with regards to the competitive marketplace.

Admittedly, the SmartCap is not market-ready. Currently in prototype form, the Maker is looking to beef up development for the next iteration of the project. This includes shrinking down its form factor, custom PCB etching and CAD design, along with the help of some 3D-printed parts. Intrigued? Head over to SmartCap’s Kickstarter page, where Ben is seeking $45,000 to make this all possible.

This DIY quadcopter is built around an Arduino Yún

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A group of Makers have designed an Arduino-based drone that can be wirelessly controlled from any device. 

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Developed by Makers Simone Castellani, Giovanni Intorre and Andrea Toscano as a Master’s project at the Universita’ degli Studi of Milan, Comelicottero is a quadcopter driven by an Arduino Yún (ATmega32U4) and wirelessly controlled from any PC or mobile device.

Aside from its on-board Arduino, Comelicottero is equipped with an accelerometer and gyroscope tasked with handling its stability through a PID-based command system.

From take off to landing and everything in between, the ground station communicates with the flying apparatus over Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, the user can manage and monitor all incoming data from their drone through a gamepad attached to the laptop running custom software. The Makers decided to swap out the Bridge library for an efficient Python script on OpenWRT-Yun in order to maximize the Yún’s capabilities.

Moving ahead, the Makers are looking to finalize their autonomous navigation system, which is currently undergoing testing due to magnetometer interferences with the motors’ magnetic field. As our friends at Arduino note, the sketch and all of its documentation will be made available on GitHub and released with GNU license in the near future. Until then, watch it in action below!

This littleBits hoodie will turn you into a walking music machine

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This wearable instrument will turn you into a music-making cyborg. 

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When it comes to music and fashion, what’s not to love? During Maker Faire Bay Area, we had a blast jamming away to some Iggy Azalea and Jeremih beats on our pair of DrumPants. With so much excitement around the project, we couldn’t help but browse the web for some other Atmel-based, tune-emitting clothing. And just like that, we stumbled upon a recent DIY hoodie from Liza Stark, who has discovered a pretty awesome (and super easy) way to transform herself into a walking instrument as well. The Maker did so by using nothing more than a Makey Makey bit, a littleBits Synth Kit, some conductive fabric and thread, and a little of her own ingenuity.

In order to create the digital sound interface, Stark devised switches out of conductive fabric and then placed them on different parts of a hoodie that her best friend had lying around. One side of the switch is the Makey Makey (ATmega32U4) input, the other ground. When both are touched simultaneously, it closes the switch and triggers a sound from the synth bits attached to the Makey Makey input.

“Play around with the synth bits to determine what configuration you like best,” Stark adds. “Since there are only three outputs, you can get really creative with the connector bits, the mix bit, and speaker bit if you have extra — we’re talking super fun sound textures here.”

The circuit is held together with gaffers tape on the front and back of the bits, while the Makey Makey module is sewn onto the hoodie using conductive thread. Meanwhile, Stark even added a few custom-designed touch pads of her own to the garment.

Intrigued? Check out the Maker’s step-by-step breakdown of the build here, and be sure to watch it in action below!