Video: Arduino drives this Steampunk “steam” gauge

A Maker by the name of “Murphy’s_Lawyer” has created a retro steam gauge driven by an Atmel-based Arduino board.

According to the HackADay crew, the build kicked off with an old 10″ Ashcroft pressure gauge obtained from eBay. After dissecting the gauge, Murphy’s_Lawyer began constructing a method of generating motion without the need for actual steam.

The solution? Mounting a continuous rotation servo between the Bourdon tube and the case. However, the servo lacked the strength to flex the tube on its own – so a simple brass lever was ultimately designed to assist.

“The electronics consist of an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) and an accompanying homemade PCB. The code for the Uno generates random motion for twirling the servo, [while] three LEDs built into the face reflect values generated for speed, pause and run time,” explained HackADay’s John Marsh.

“The final upgrade came in the form of a new dial face, which provides some updated text as well as a cutout square that lets you see the previously obscured gears in action.”

Interested in learning more about the Arduino-driven Steampunk “steam” gauge? You can check out the project’s official Instructables page here.

Atmel’s ATMega16 powers this hard disk clock

A Maker by the name of Martin Stromer has designed a slick Atmel-powered (ATMega16) Hard Disk Clock.

Mad props to Martin for sharing this nostalgic project with the HackADay crew and the rest of the wider world. Some of us still can’t get over the massive size of the hard drive, which appears to be well over 20 years old with a limited capacity of only a few dozen megabytes. This definitely takes us back to the golden years of ASCII art, bulletin boards (Renegade & Wildcat), door games like Solar Realms Elite, CRTs and headache-inducing CGA displays.

So how does the clock work? Well, according to HackADay’s James Hobson, the platter reads the time by rotating 30 degrees at once, per hour.

“The read-write head inches across the disc to display the minutes. Each of the black lines represents a quarter hour,” writes Hobson.

“The whole thing is controlled by an ATMega16, which maintains almost all of the original hardware. Did we mention it’s also easy to set the time? Simply rotate the disc by hand and slide the read-write head into place, then press the reset button.”

As Hobson notes, the ATMega16-powered hard disk clock illustrates how old electronic equipment such as retired HDDs can be transformed into something useful. Additional examples covered by HackADay include hard disk grinders, hard disk DJ scratch pads and even a cotton candy spinner.

Interested in learning more about the HDD clock? You can check out the project’s page here.

High altitude balloon tracking with the ATmega644

A Maker by the name of Ethan (and team) recently designed a low-cost open hardware/software high altitude balloon tracker with sensors that effectively form a mesh network with a master node.

The above-mentioned platform – powered by Atmel’s ATmega644 microcontroller (MCU) – is equipped with an onboard GPS module (NEO-6M), a micro SD card slot, a 300mW APRS (144.39MHz) transmitter and convenient headers to plug an XBee radio.

As HackADay’s Mathieu Stephan notes, the hardware is tasked with obtaining wireless data from various slave platforms, storing it in the uSD card while transmitting the balloon position via APRS along with other data.

“It’s interesting to note that to keep the design low-cost, they chose a relatively cheap analog radio module ($~40) and hacked together AFSK modulation of their output signal with hardware PWM outputs and a sine-wave lookup table,” Stephan explained. “The slave nodes are composed of ‘slave motherboards’ on which can be plugged several daughter-boards: geiger counters, atmospheric sensors, camera control/accelerometer boards.”

Interested in building your own Atmel-powered modular high altitude balloon tracker with mesh networked sensors? You can check out the project’s official page here.

Video: Building a POV spinner display

A Maker by the (Reddit) name of Martin2550 has designed a sweet spinning disc style POV display powered by an Atmel-based Arduino.

As the HackADay crew notes, the DIY project is a great example of a Maker cheerfully modding whatever material and components happen to be readily available.

“Martin2250 is using an IR LED and photodiode to determine the rotational speed of the disc. He [initially] tried using the Arduino micros() function to delay between the photodiode pulse and turning on his LEDs,” explained HackADay’s Adam Fabio. “[However], he’s since switched over to using the AVR’s native timers.”

The disc is in the above-mentioned build is actually a CD, with Martin2250 diligently sanding away the label, masking out his digits and painting with a black marker. Meanwhile, cardboard, hot glue and visible LEDs were used to create four light boxes for the digits.

“The disc can display any four digits at once – perfect for a POV clock. We [also] love the use of on-hand materials in this hack – bits of hard and balsa wood, liberal use of hot glue, and of course cardboard,” added Fabio.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-Arduino powered POV display? You can check out Martin2550’s Reddit post here.

These lights are activated by longitude and latitude

The activation of garden lights are typically regulated by on/off timers or photosensitive elements. However, as HackADay’s John Marsh notes, each method is somewhat limited by various factors.

“One misplaced leaf obscuring your light-dependent resistor can turn things on unnecessarily,” Marsh explained. “Considering the actual time of sunset fluctuates over the year, mechanical switches require constant adjustment.”

And that is why a Maker by the name of Paulo recently decided to design an automated system that relies on an Atmel-based Arduino Uno board (ATmega328) and algorithms to calculate both sunrise and sunset.

More specifically, the platform features four 7-segment displays that cycle through indicating the current time, time of sunset and sunrise. The system is also equipped with an RTC (real time clock) and battery backup for timekeeping, as well as an Omron 5V relay tasked with driving the garden lamps themselves. Oh, and yes, the relay is packed with a switch that can be used to manually switch the lights on, just in case.

Interested in learning more about Paulo’s innovative garden lights? You can check out his official project page here for a full write-up, sketches and diagrams.

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.

This sailboat autopilot has Atmel-Arduino under the hood

Recently, Bits & Pieces covered a story about a Maker by the name of Louis who designed an innovative kayak autopilot built around an Atmel-powered Arduino.

Today, we are going to be taking a closer look at an Arduino-based autopilot fitted into a large sailboat that is capable of keeping the vessel on a constant heading. According to the HackADay crew, Mike Holden uses a very cool digital compass equipped with LEDs to keep a steady course.

“Also included is an amazingly professional and very expensive 6 axis IMU. To actually steer the ship, Mike is using a linear actuator attached to the tiller powered by a huge 60 Amp motor controller,” explained HackADay’s Brian Benchoff.

“For control, [Mike] ended up using an [Atmel-powered] Arduino, 16-button keypad, and an LCD display. With this, he can put his autopilot into idle, calibration, and run modes, as well as changing the ship’s heading by 1, 10, and 100 degrees port or starboard. It’s able to keep a constant heading going downwind, and even has enough smarts to tack upwind.”

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-Arduino autopilot for sailboats? You can check out Mike Holden’s official project page here.

These Furbies sing Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody)

A recent Maker Society display hosted under the auspices of the University of Kent featured a group of Furbies “singing” the classic Bohemian Rhapsody performed by the late Freddie Mercury and Queen.

According to HackADay’s Adam Fabio, each of the doll’s functions are run from a single motor and cam system, with a limit switch “telling” the on-board (Atmel ATmega328) microcontroller (MCU) when the cam is at the zero position. Meanwhile, an optical encoder keeps track of the cam as it moves.

“Many classic animatronic systems use an audio recording for motion. Typically a stereo recorder would perform double duty, [with] the first track containing the audio for the animation. A second track would contain audio tones corresponding to movement of each of the degrees of freedom of the doll being animated,” Fabio explained.

“Because the two tracks were on the same strip of magnetic tape, the audio and movement would always be in sync. Multitrack tape record and playback systems added even more flexibility to this type of system.”

However, the Maker Society decided to go with a “computerized twist” on the above-mentioned system for their Bohemian Rhapsody singing Furbies.

More specifically, a set of positions and times are stored in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) format, while a java program plays the song and reads the file – relaying movement commands to the Furbies at appropriate intervals.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered singing Furbies? You can check out the project page here.

Atmel’s SAM4E16C drives “The Beast”

HackADay’s very own Mathieu Stephan has penned an article describing “The Beast,” an ARM Cortex-M4 based platform equipped with a plethora of communication interfaces and on-board peripherals.

“The microcontroller used in the project is the ATSAM4E16C from Atmel, which has 1Mbyte of flash and 128Kbytes of SRAM,” writes Stephan.

“It integrates an Ethernet MAC, a USB 2.0 Full-speed controller, a sophisticated Analog to Digital Converter and a Digital to Analog Converter (among others).”

Additional board components include: a microphone with its amplifier, a capacitive touch sensor, two unipolar stepper motors controllers, two mosfets, a microSD card connector, a Bluetooth to serial bridge, a linear motor controller and battery retainer for backup power.

The firmware was made in C and uses the Atmel Software Framework. And yes, the project is obviously open hardware (Kicad) and open software.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s SAM4E16C is an ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based microcontroller (MCU) that features a floating point unit and high data bandwidth architecture. The MCU – targeted at industrial automation and building control applications – embeds 1MB Flash and boasts multiple networking/connectivity peripherals, including a 2.0A/B compatible CAN interface and an IEEE Std 1588-compatible 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC.

Additional communication interfaces? An FS USB device, HS SDCard/SDIO/MMC interface, USARTs, SPIs and multiple TWIs. Analog features include dual 1Msps; 16-bit ADCs of up to 10 channels with analog front end offering offset and gain error correction; and 2-channel, 1Msps 12-bit DAC.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s ARM-based MCU powering “The Beast?” Additional information about Atmel’s ATSAM4E16C can be found here.

Video: Arduino powers this MIDI Fork-o-Drumbot

A Maker by the name of Vito has created a slick MIDI Drumbot using an Atmel-powered Arduino, 12V solenoid and a MIDI interface. Additional key components include various recycled materials, such as cardboard, elastic and yes, even a plastic fork.

“I wanted to use the MIDI interface and then maybe develop a stand-alone interface,” Vito explained in a blog post.

“Some specific MIDI notes received by the Fork-o-drumbot (sent by the computer sound card or every other external MIDI interface) triggers a specific solenoid. The solenoid drives a specific stick, making it hit one of the percussions.”

As the HackADay crew notes, the MIDI Fork-o-Drumbot was recently featured in a local newspaper after performing a duet with a local singer during an art exhibit called the Singing Balconies of Friedrichshain.

“It´s *SO* satisfying and when something unexpectedly comes to life! You have the feeling that you could build anything with only the stuff you have around,” Vito added.

Sweet!