Arduino-Flush Less saves more

Amid water concerns growing in his native California, a Maker by the name of TVMiller directed his water saving attention towards the bathroom. TVMiller devised the modest Arduino-Flush Less to provide minimum water levels for bathroom functionality.

The Flush Less gives toilets options it never possessed before. Depending on the user’s restroom needs, the device can provide the minimum amount of water necessary to flush it all away. Choosing between the simplistic “Flush” or “Deuce” can save up to two gallons a day per Flush Less user. If a mere 1,825 hackers installed a Flush Less system, it could lead to over 1 million gallons of water being saved a year! Now that’s what we call ‘making’ a difference!

Over at his initial Hackaday log, TVMiller provides some witty insight into how this project came together. The brains behind the device are based around an Arduino Micro (ATmega32u4) that monitors the water levels and dispenses the necessary amounts to keep the toilet flowing for the user’s current requirements.

For those with sanitary concerns, the lavatory invention even includes a smartphone app, which puts the control of the toilet directly in the hands of the user.

To learn more about how you can join in on TVMiller’s effort to conserve water and change the way we think about the toilet, head over to his entertaining blog.

3D printing your own virtual reality headset

It is without question that Oculus Rift has become the gold standard of the VR headset market; however, for those where a Rift headset is a bit out of reach, you can always devise your own in true Maker fashion. Noa Ruiz over at Adafruit has published a complete tutorial detailing how to do just that — create your own virtual reality headset with the help of some 3D printing and old-fashioned ingenuity.

To complement an instructional video, Ruiz’s comprehensive guide features a full materials list as well as an extensive breakdown of each step throughout the development process. “In this project we’re building a wearable HD monitor. This is great for anyone looking to make their own a personal display,” the Maker wrote in his introduction.

The design of the DIY VR headset is similar to that of the VR2GO mobile viewer, including a 5.6″ display. The main components of the headset consist of a four-piece design that “keeps secured with machine screws.” The Arduino Micro (ATmega32u4) and 9 DOF are mounted to the back frame with four screws, while a pair of aspheric lenses are mounted inside the frame panel. When mounting the monitor to the Arduino board, Noa compels fellow Makers to, “remember you can choose which way the (HDMI + Power) wires will connect into the monitor, either from the top or from the bottom.”

As for the 3D printing portion of the project, Ruiz has made the STLs readily available for download so that you can quickly load them up into the printer and be on your way.

Writing for Hackaday, Matt Terndrup notes that “it would be interesting to see if this design in the future can eliminate the wires and make this into a portable unit. Regardless of which, this project does a fantastic job at showing what it takes to create a homemade virtual reality device. And as you can see from the product list after the break, the price of the project fits under the $350 DK2 amount, helping to save some money while still providing a fun and educational experience.”

If you are interested in following Noa’s guide and creating your own VR headset, you can see the full guide over at Adafruit. For more innovative 3D printed designs, take a look at our archives here at Bits & Pieces.

Playing Timberman with Arduino

While playing addictive (and often times repetitive) video games can be fun for some, for others it can be a downright tedious task. That’s why a Maker by the name of Valentin Heun did just what any other hacker would: create an automated system to play the game for him. Set out to accomplish just that, Valentin designed a Timberman-playing device to help attain the high score using an ATmega328-based Arduino Uno.

“We’re used to seeing mechanical touchscreen hacks but this one is electronic, using a couple of pads of copper foil tape and some relays to make it happen,” explains Hackaday’s Mike Szczys. Unlike other creations, Valentin’s project doesn’t require a player to still be touching something with their hand; rather, the device simply relies upon the relays to switch the connection betwen the pads and your body.

The Maker devised his high score-acheiving contraption using the following components:

• JZC-11F RELAYS attached to TIP120 attached to pins 4 and 8.
• OP580DA PHOTODARLINGTON NPN attached to A0
• SWITCH attached to pin 7
• All resistors are 1K Ohm

For those interested in learning more about the project, you can find the entire code and circuit example for the program here.

 

Building an electric go-kart with Arduino

A 15-year-old Maker going by the name of Gizzmotronics has built an astonishing four-wheeled contraption controlled by an Atmel-based Arduino board. The young Maker detailed the build process of this road-worthy device in a recent Instructables post.

Though the creation utilizes the frame of a gas-powered go-kart, our Maker installed an electronic motor for this project. Upon removing its existing gas engine, Gizzmotronics selected a Hobbywing Xerun 150A brushless electronic speed controller and Savox BSM5065 450Kv motor to control his new whip, which can achieve a top speed of around 30 MPH. 3 LiPo batteries that regularly supply 19-20V power the device. Zipping around at a moderate 15 MPH will yield about 30 minutes of driving before needing to be recharged, Hackaday‘s Rich Bremer reveals.

Aside from throttle control, the Arduino is responsible for other operational aspects of the makeshift vehicle such as controlling the LED lights that serve as headlights, tail lights, turn signals, brake lights and even backup light. There is also an LCD display mounted to the center of the steering wheel, which too is powered by the Arduino and displays the throttle value, status of the lights and the voltage of the battery. There is a potentiometer mounted to the steering wheel for controlling the go-kart’s speed; the value of the potentiometer is read by the Arduino board, which in turn sends the appropriate PWM signal to the ESC. The headlights have 3 brightnesses, each controlled via PWM signal provided by the microcontroller.

To assure against any false starts, the Maker has installed a personal security measure. “The throttle is only functional while the right joystick (2-axis) is held down, as a safety measure,” he noted.

If you want to learn more about Gizzmotronics’ creation, the full Instructables post can be found here. To find more Arduino-powered, you can always browse our archives here at Bits & Pieces.

Send smells to your friends with Senti8

Have you ever been taking a walk on a perfect summer evening and wanted to scent the smell of fresh flowers to your loved one on the other side of the planet? Or, maybe you wanted to share the smell of a 4th of July barbecue with a friend to spark up nostalgia? Well, that dream is now a reality all thanks to Senti8.

The Senti8 team recently won the 2014 NYC NASA Space Apps challenge with their 3D-printed, Arduino-powered smell-sender. The ingenious wearable contraption started out as a hacked e-cigarette vaporizer and has evolved into what you see above.

Taking a trip into space can be an experience of a lifetime for many astronauts, yet giving up the comforts and familiarity of home can be even tougher than dealing with zero gravity  or confined spaces. In comes Senti8. The idea of the project stemmed from a conversation with an astronaut who remarked the thing he missed most about taking up residency in space was his sense of smell. Thanks to the smell-sending bracelet, these astronauts would now be able to bring along their favorite, nostalgic scents to help reminisce the things they miss the most.

By sending a message through an accompanying smartphone application, one Senti8 wearer can send a series of selected smells to another user. The wrist-mounted device utilizes Adafruit’s FLORA (ATmega32U4) to illuminate a series of NeoPixel LEDs that signify each corresponding smell.

Below you can view an interview with Senti8 team member, where she breaks down the specifics of the device.

If you’re heading into space anytime soon or simply interested in learning more, you’ll want to check out the Senti8’s official page here.

 

This 3D-printed wearable is larger than life

Maker Zack Freedman was frustrated by the subtlety of the current wearables on the market. In opposition of current trends, he set out to develop a smartwatch that stood out from the slick wearable crowd, and with the SmarTwatCh he did just that.

His entire wristwatch case was 3D-printed and filled to the brim with high-tech gadgets. Aside from a few basic features, this one-of-a-kind wearable boasts a laser, a flashlight, and a fully-functional Breathalyzer. The device also includes a ‘TV B Gone,’ which in Freedman’s words “sends the ‘off’ command for pretty much every television in North America, one after another.”

The Arduino-compatible unit can also control PowerPoint presentations and Google Glass. As Freedman so nonchalantly told Hackaday, “The only thing better than a wearable, is a wearable that controls a wearable!”

In the future, Freedman contemplates adding a sensor system or a control platform to his SmarTwaCh, but until then, the gadget’s future remains undecided. “What’s the the future of the project? Who knows? The future is a weird place and I can only hope to make it weirder.”

If you want to read more about Zach’s creation, you can see a full breakdown over at his site.

Upgrading a door lock with Arduino Mega

Maker by the name of [HSP] has created an actuator-based locking system to augment his room’s standard lock. Using an Arduino Mega (ATmega1280) and a basic keypad system, this Maker has significantly increased the security of his room with this latest project.

As Hackaday’s James Hobson mentions, the device includes a standard keypad, a 44780 display, as well as a key override “for street cred” as he humorously puts it. The simple locking system is based upon a 12V actuator that was optimized to run off of a mere 7.5V.

After wiring up the device and attaching the keypad, [HSP] furnished a physical housing for his creation out of wood. The Maker notes that this was not a carpentry project and that he “just took some random pieces of wood and made it.”

Once overcoming the initial issues, [HSP] made sure to provide a failsafe for this locking device. He previously learned his lesson by having to climb through his window after he devised and installed “a lock which was locked on power failure, and the machine (Windows) running it, crashed.”

Thus, when the unit lost power he was forced to climb up 7 meters and break into his own room to avoid “trashing” the door. He now claims to, “have a little respect for the possibility of failure, and design my systems for the expected threat-level.”

This new unit’s locking mechanism is, “only locked with power. This is insecurity by design. This is to keep the casual people out.” While this Maker’s project may not keep Fort Knox secure, it surely demonstrates how a creative individual can use these products to upgrade an object as simple as a door lock.

To learn more about [HSP]’s locking device, you can see its entire image gallery here or watch the project in action below.

An Arduino-controlled LEGO drawing machine

A talented Maker by the name of “Marcel” recently devised a slick Arduino-based LEGO drawing machine.

As HackADay‘s Rich Bremer reports, RC Car Servos are used to drive the pen in the X and Y directions.

“These servos only have a 180 degree range of motion which is not enough to move the pen very far. To increase the pen’s travel distance, [Marcel] attached a large gear to the servo which rotates a much smaller gear that rides on a rack gear attached to the bed. A Lego hinge takes the place of a Z axis and is used to set the height of the pen that is strapped to the machine via rubber band.”

In order to make the machine draw, the user moves an analog joystick. The changing resistance values of the joystick’s potentiometers are measured by an Arduino, which then moves each servo to the appropriate position using PWM.

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

Creating an Arduino-based laser rangefinder

A talented Maker by the name of “Berryjam” recently created a slick Arduino-based laser rangefinder.

As HackADay’s Nicholas Conn reports, the project was originally inspired by a LIDAR system built around the popular board.

“[Berryjam] decided that he wanted to successfully use an affordable Open Source Laser RangeFinder (OSLRF-01) from LightWare. [He] measures the time between an outgoing laser pulse and the reflected return pulse; this time directly relates to the distance of the object,” writes Conn.

“Sounds simple? In practice, it is not as simple as it may seem. [Berryjam] has done a great job doing some real world testing of this device, with nice plots to top it all off. After fiddling with the threshold and some other aspects of the code, the resulting accuracy is quite good.”

In terms of final thoughts for the project, Berryjam notes that even though the OSLRF-01’s $150 price tag may seem a bit steep, it is still “pretty good” for such a device.

“For me it is very hard to imagine all those conversions/ detections and other magic happening at the speed of light [without the OSLRF-01],” he adds. “Imagine how much time light travels 50cm distance. About 1.67 nano seconds, nano – thats one billionth part of second. Amazing, isn’t it?”

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

ATtiny84 powers this DUO Decimal SBC

Jack Eisenmann has created a number of Atmel-based homebrew computers that we’ve covered on Bits & Pieces, including the DUO tiny, DUO portable and DUO Mega.

Recently, Eisenmann debuted the DUO Decimal, an ATtiny84 based SBC.

“[This] ATTiny84 based computer [features a] 7 segment number display and 2 buttons. [You can] use the 512 bytes of EEPROM to store program code,” Eisenmann explained in a recent project post.

 “[Plus, you can] use the 512 bytes of SRAM for program data and as a code editing buffer.”

Additional key project components include:

• 

(x1) 7 segment number display: LA-401VD (SC56-11EWA)
• (x2) Button: 101-TS7311T1602-EV
• (x3) 10K ohm resistor: 291-10K-RC
• (x1) 20K ohm resistor: 291-20K-RC
• (x1) 330 ohm resistor (7 isolated): 4114R-1-331LF
• (x1) 14 pin chip socket: 2-641599-4 (1825093-3)
• (x2) 3 pin male header: 69190-403
• (optional) 5 pin female header: 929870-01-05-RA
• (x1) Larger capacitor: UVR1H100MDD1TA
• (x1) Battery holder: BAT-HLD-001
• (x1) Battery: CR2032
• (x1) Switch: MHSS1104
• (x1) Board
• (x1) Fuse for preserving EEPROM between programming cycles

As HackADay’s Adam Fabio points out, Eisenmann designed an entire language for the new board.

“DUO Decimal is programmed in an interpreted language called DUO Decimal Numeric Code (DDNC),” said Fabio.

”There are 47 DDNC commands, covering everything from basic math to list manipulation. Programs can be entered through the buttons, or save your fingertips by downloading them through the AVR ISP interface. The entire C code for the DUO Decimal, including the DDNC interpreter is available on Jack’s website.”

It should also be noted that Eisenmann coded several example DDNC programs, including 6 function calculator with trigonometry, a Mandelbrot set tester and even a version of the classic of the rock-paper-scissors game.

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