Drop a beat with this ATmega328 based drum box

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This box can lay down the track for everything from ‘70s funk to modern-day hip-hop beats.

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As part of a final project, Maker Ole-Birger Neergård recently created an ATmega328 powered DIY drum machine — aptly dubbed 7-BIT BEAT BOXXX — capable of laying the rhythm down for everything from ‘70s funk to modern-day hip-hop tunes.

The retro synth-like box’s built-in metronome activates the 7-bit drum samples with every click. In addition, the drum machine is based on an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), encased in a series of mahogany and white acrylic panels.

“I had to program the Arduino to include the functions I needed. When all that was ready, I started wondering what would be an interesting way of interacting with this drum machine. I then came up with the idea of a metronome that used drum samples instead of the traditional clicking sounds. I added some buttons too, to make it suitable for the more traditional drum machine users as well,” Neergård writes.

The Lo-Fi drum machine is programmed with nine different (and easily replaceable) four-second drum samples, and features four buttons. The top-left button changes the sounds from three different sample banks, while the other three are responsible for activating the sound bites: big drum on the bottom left, snare on the bottom right, and hi-hat on the top right.

What really makes this DIY drum machine stand out is its metronome, or the “tempo selekta” as Neergård has labeled it. Controlling the tempo of the metronome is as simple as adjusting the handle atop that reads both “slow” and “fast.” The metronome then triggers the bass drum and the snare, and creates a drum loop with the two samples.

“This is a very visual and entertaining way of setting the tempo of a track, and I imagine this is ideal if you’re sitting down playing your instrument at home and wish you were accompanied by a drummer,” the Maker adds.

Aesthetically, Neergård elected to give the drum box a vintage look, which he says was inspired by synthesizer producers such as Robert Moog and Dave Smith. Intrigued? You can listen to the box drop a beat below. Meanwhile, you can learn all about the build by reading its step-by-step log here.

This installation lets you play city sounds by stepping

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Sound Steps is a drum kit for your feet!

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Ever since the days of Tom Hanks playing the giant piano inside FAO Schwartz, we’ve all wanted to step on floor keys and make tunes. Now, what if those “keys” could emit city, pow-wow or drum kit sounds? Thanks to a new audio installation designed by Chelsea Stewart and Eden Lew at the School of Visual Arts Products of Design MFA program, you can!

Aptly dubbed “Sound Steps,” the project was designed under the guidance of Adafruit’s Becky Stern as the Maker explored the use of Atmel based Arduino units in rapid prototyping of new product interactions. Inspired from their recent move from to New York, Stewart and Lew decided to collect sounds around the city. Those wishing to recreate the project are encouraged to go out and collect a dozen or so unique sounds from their environment. Simply cut down the sounds using a favorite sound editor, e.g. Audacity, Adobe Audition and Garage Band, and export them to MP3s.

The sounds were then uploaded to its farm, which consisted of four 1.25’ x 0.75’ x 6’ wood boards, a few extra pieces for an interior bracing as well as MDF material to create the platform top. Sound Steps is comprised of a 9 x 9 fabric square matrix, with each square connected to a Bare Conductive Touch Board (ATmega32U4). The project invites bystanders to walk barefoot across the interactive platform to discover the city audibly.

Upon creating their prototype, both Stewart and Lew imagine the Dance Dance Revolution-like platform to be used in a variety of applications from sound paths to gaming mechanisms to a physical foot drum kit. Ready to ‘make’ some noise with this ATmega32U4 powered device? Head on over to the project’s official page here.

Video: #Trend prints out the latest trending topics from Twitter

Typically speaking, a thermal label printer produces fixed size labels for product identification and asset tracking. While these printers are usually designed for logistics, gaming, vehicle rental, pharmaceuticals and retail, a Maker by the name of Jono Sandilands has decided to give the market a little twist with his new creation: #Trend.

The social-savvy device is comprised of a thermal printer and [Atmel based] Arduino board, all encased by a laser cut box. When a user pushes the button located on top, #Trend downloads and prints out the latest trending topics from Twitter. According to Sandilands, the nifty little gadget can be used as inspiration or frustration, depending on your mood.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Arduino and a thermal printer come together to create a social media gizmo. If you recall earlier this year, a group of London-based Makers decided to create a collaborate project entitled “The Eraser” to convey the significance of living in the moment using an interactive analog Snapchat along with a hair straightener, thermal printer and of course, a ‘duino.

Devising the ultimate Ding Dong Ditch hack

Admit it: As a child, you all have played some good ol’ Ding Dong Ditch. The practical prank — whose name has a number of variances from knock down ginger to knock knock run — dates all the way back to 19th century England. It involves knocking on the front door (or ringing the bell) of a neighbor, then running away before the door can be answered. Now in the 21st century, a Maker by the name of Samy Kamkar is ushering the vintage game into the digital-savvy era.

Kamkar recently hacked into his friend’s wireless doorbell (using less than $100 in equipment) in such a manner that whenever he sent a text message to the device, it would ring. Even better, it’s also a surefire way to know that the unknowing victim will come outside to an empty doorstep.

To bring this idea out of the 19th century simply called for a $14 software defined radio, a GSM breakout board and an RF transmitter to transmit custom signals. With just a little extra hardware and software support from an Arduino Nano (ATmega328) and some reverse engineering of a proprietary radio signal, he was well on his way to the ultimate prank.

In order to accomplish this feat, Kamkar first needed to know the frequency, the modulation scheme, as well as what the doorbell was sending. Though some of the information could be revealed by just finding the FCC ID, the Maker discovered a much better way. While his friend was out of house, Kamkar rang the doorbell several times while watching the waterfall view with an RTL-SDR TV tuner. In his efforts to capture and demodulate the signal, he observed that the bell was transmitting at around 433.8 MHz.

From there, the Maker examined the audio waveform in Audacity, which revealed that the doorbell used On-Off Keying — or just turning the radio on for a binary “1″ (high signal at 750us) and off for a binary “0” (lows/no signal also appear to be in blocks of 750us). And, with just 434MHz ASK RF Transmitter from SparkFun, Kamkar was able replicate the output of the doorbell.

The Maker says that creating the code to trigger this is pretty simply once you’ve created an array with all the times the ‘1’ (or high) signal begins.

“You do need to power the Arduino (easy by connecting USB to it), as well as connecting USB to the FONA and a 3.7v Lion/LiPo battery to the FONA and leave it outside the location of the doorbell. Don’t worry as the FONA USB connection simply charges the battery. It’s silly, I know, but it’s necessary. If just running temporary, USB batteries work great too,” Kamkar writes.

For this project, he used a mini GSM cellular breakout board from Adafruit. The module enables him to simply send a text message with the word “doorbell” to the device, which relays a signal to the ATmega328 based Arduino and transmits the created signal to ring the doorbell.

Not only can you watch the ingenious hack in action below, you can read the Maker’s entire step-by-step breakdown here.

Deck the halls with this hacked dot-matrix printer

Now, what would ’tis season be without its fair share of Christmas carols? Well, MIDIDesaster has decided to give the traditional sing-a-longs a bit of a Maker twist using his MIDI compatible dot-matrix printer.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the rigged DMP is equipped with an ATmega8 MCU that interprets the inbound MIDI data, which then feeds the information to an FPGA and drives the stepper motors for the print head and paper feed. The machine can play up to 21 different notes simultaneously, communicating to the printer through some custom circuitry.

In an effort to spread holiday cheer, MIDIDesaster has unveiled a pair of new mods that complement his growing lists of dot-matrix remakes — which all can be found here.

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This wireless iPhone charger is also a work of art

Developed as part of a diploma project by a University of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (ECAL) student, Spira is a magnetic docking station that wirelessly restores power to an iPhone while turning the device into a decorative wall clock.

Described by its creator Alica Robbiani as an interactive picture, charger and clock, Spira was built around an [Atmel based] Arduino board and the principle of inductive charging. Utilizing a blend of wood, metal and plastic, the Maker sought to devise an ambient frame that would enable a magnetized iPhone case to hang decoratively on the wall thereby giving it a “place of honor in the home atmosphere.”

When attached in the upright position, the iPhone displays a set of animated white circles on the screen, each representing 10% of its battery level until fully charged. Users can also manually shift the position of the phone on the frame to display a wall clock. By rotating the phone, clock hands are revealed, projecting the current time.

“The telephone puts aside its usual functions and reinvents itself to become a key: its presence allows energy to spread to make the (heat-sensitive) painting react.”

Thermochromic paint is used as visual feedback, the Maker reveals. The color of the ink changes in correlation with varying temperatures, which enables the wall-mounted device to emit a new image inside the frame. Once the all-in-one structure is unplugged, the paint then returns to its starting color.

“The way of charging changes completely, and in spite of the power of gravity, we are challenged to let the telephone hung up, keeping us informed of the current time and state of the battery,” Robbiani writes. “The telephone puts aside its usual functions and reinvents itself to become a key: its presence allows energy to spread to make the (heat-sensitive) painting react. This is how a new image appears.”

Intrigued by this project? Hurry over to its official page here. In the meantime, you may also want to check out fellow ECAL design student Pauline Saglio’s recent creation: a unique series of three digital/analog hybrid clocks in an effort to meld the digital world with the analog act of winding a clock.

Taste the rainbow one color at a time with this sorting machine

What’s better than a mouthful of Skittles, right? When it comes to various-colored candies, such as Skittles and Starburst, there’s always those one or two flavors you’re secretly wishing are heavily favored inside the pack. It would seem that many of us tend to love the red, tolerate the orange, and simply leave behind the yellow. Well, a group of Cornell engineering students recently devised a final project that will surely solve that quandary.

With their ECE4760 class coming to an end, the Maker trio devised an ATmega1284 powered Skittle-sorting miniature factory that actually bags and seals same-colored candies into little pouches of flavor. Problem solved!

How it works is relatively simple. The Skittles are loaded into a plastic funnel at the top, where they are fed through a color-detection module one candy at a time — either automatically or manually. Red, green, blue and white light are reflected off the Skittle, while the color is deciphered using an RGB LED and OPT101 photodiode driven by an ATmega1284.

“The LED is directed onto the Skittle with a small light block between it and the photodiode. As light hits the Skittle, certain wavelengths are reflected. The wavelength of the Skittle’s color is reflected most strongly. For example, shining a green light onto the green Skittle will reflect more light than shining a green light onto a red Skittle.”

Once a color is detected, a solenoid shoots the Skittle down a cardboard ramp which leads the piece of candy through a hole and into its appropriate bag. The ramp’s position is controlled by a servo and changes depending on the color. Once a bag has reached its preconfigured capacity, the packaging wheel rotates through a heat sealer to seal and cut the pouch.

“We chose this project because we liked the multidisciplinary approach it required. There were challenging elements from both an electrical and manufacturing engineering perspective. We needed accurate color sensing, precise servo control, and repeatable timing to ensure the Skittles would sort correctly. In addition, we had to build a mechanical structure capable of passing a single Skittle within fairly strict tolerances. As an added benefit, we acknowledge that many people have Skittle flavor preferences which our mini-factory caters to,” the team writes.

Watch it in action below!

Candy lovers interested in learning more can hurry over to the team’s official project page here. Meanwhile, you may also enjoy this Atmel | SMART SAM D21 based Skittles sorter which was recently on display this year at Electronica.

This DIY Star Wars tree is perfect for all Christmas (or Life Day) festivities

Starring Harrison Ford and the trilogy’s original cast, the Star Wars Holiday Special premiered back in 1978. One of the first official Star Wars spin-offs to air, the film has never been rebroadcast or officially released on home video; therefore, the special has become something of a cultural legend, due to the “underground” quality of its existence. The premise of the flick centered round Life Day (a Wookiee holiday similar to Christmas), where Chewbacca — accompanied by Han Solo, of course — is headed home to see his family. Along the way, the duo are chased by two Star Destroyers, but they escape into hyperspace.

Well, for those Star Wars fans unable to ever catch the holiday film, you can still celebrate the season with one Maker’s impressive themed Christmas “tree.” Comprised of redwood and plywood shelves mounted to the wall in a tree-like structure, Darbin Orvar’s decorative piece is powered by an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) and several strips of LED lights programmed to play Darth Vader’s infamous theme song.

As Orvar points out, the tree is surely an ideal Christmas centerpiece for any die-hard Star Wars fan in their home, apartment, or even inside their office — where you may not want an actual tree yet still looking for a little holiday cheer.

“You can go simple or complex with the design here, but I chose to go pretty simple with some this redwood shelves for branches and LED strip lights for typical Christmas lights,” the Maker writes.

While this DIY project’s lighting is programmed to sync with Darth Vader’s theme, Makers can go ahead and create any sequence they’d like.

To create each circuit, Orvar used a TIP31 transistor. From the base, she connected a 1k ohm resistor to the pin of the Arduino, grounded the emitter and connected the collector to the negative of the LED, while giving the red lead a 12V power supply. The Maker does note that “the power on the Arduino is not great enough to power the LED alone, so you must use something with more power, like a battery.”

Interested in an ATmega328 based Star Wars tree for yourself? Head over to the project’s official page for a step-by-step breakdown. May the force be with you this holiday season!

Touch Board lets you become a one-man pots and pan band

As you can tell by now, we’re quite fond of the folks over at Bare Conductive. In one of their latest demonstrations of how the ATmega32U4 based Touch Board can be connected to almost anything, the crew has transformed ordinary items found throughout the kitchen — oranges, a pan, a toaster, a coffee maker, a tea kettle and even some silverware — into sound. Put them together and well, food won’t be the only thing you’re making on the counter!

Whether you’re an absolute beginner, a programming pro or looking for a great gift for a tinkerer, you can check out Bare Conductive’s recently-released Inventors Kit, which has all the bits and pieces you need to get started with a project like this! Need some more inspiration? Be sure to browse through our archives here for some impressive creations.

Pixelduino is an Arduino-compatible board with a built-in display

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Give your Arduino-compatible projects an awesome OLED screen. 

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Developed by the Rapid Prototypes team, Pixelduino — which has now been successfully funded on Kickstarter — is an Arduino-compatible microcontroller equipped with a full-color OLED display.

Based on an Atmel ATmega328P, the board features a 1.5-inch, 128×128 pixel color screen and a microSD card reader. According to its creators, the Pixelduino can be used for a wide-range of applications, such as designing wearables, attaching sensors, showing data in text or visual form, displaying debug information, and even creating simple games.

In addition to its embedded megaAVR MCU, other key components include:

• I/O pins: 14 digital, 6 analog
• Memory: 32K flash, 2K RAM
• Voltage regulator: TPS61201 3.3V boost converter
• Input voltage: 1.5 – 5.5V recommended
• Supply current: 100mA @ 0.5V, 1A @ 3V, 1.3A @ 3.7V
• Power connector: JST PH (standard for small LiPo cells)
• Display: 128×128 16-bit color 1.5″ (38mm) OLED w/ SSD1351 driver
• PCB Size: 1.7″ x 1.7″

“The display controller also has some graphics acceleration built-in, and in addition to being able to redraw only specific portions of the screen, the display offset can also be changed. And, if you are familiar with how old-school platform games were written, you will know this is key to achieving high speed scrolling without much processor power,” a company rep writes.

Pixelduino’s display is completely compatible with Adafruit’s GFX, as well as Arduino’s SPI and SD libraries. In addition, the display controller is equipped with some built-in graphics acceleration, allowing users to redraw only specific parts of the screen or change the display offset to scroll vertically.

“Communication with the display and microSD card are both handled with the SPI bus on pins 10-13. Pins 8 and 9 are also used to command the display. Aside from these, the rest of the pins are available for any use. The I2C bus for example is available on pins A4 and A5.”

The team notes that the board is capable of running on alkaline, lithium, NiMh or single-cell LiPo batteries. The on-board boost regulator efficiently steps up the voltage to the 3.3V the Pixelduino requires, and features a built-in linear regulator to step the voltage down when necessary.

Furthermore, in true open-source fashion, all of Pixelduino’s schematics and PCB layouts are readily available so that Makers can create, edit or learn from the design themselves. New firmware can be loaded using the Arduino IDE with the same USB serial programmers boards like the Arduino Pro (ATmega168/ATmega328) use, or with an ISP programmer using a pogo-pin adapter.

Interested? You can head on over to the project’s official Kickstarter page, where the company is currently seeking $7,500. If all goes to plan, Rapid Prototypes hopes to begin shipping Pixelduino boards in May 2015.