Arduino-Lego DIY book hits Amazon

Jon Lazar has penned an instructional book for Makers that describes how to use various Atmel-powered Arduino boards in a wide variety of LEGO projects.

“Once the list of projects was decided, some needed to get approval. [So] I began work on the non-licensed projects while reaching out to the IP holders of other projects,” Lazar explained. “While some turned down the inclusion of the book, the most exciting email I received was from the BBC allowing me to include the TARDIS in the book.”

According to the author, featured projects include:

• The Android – Turning its head in response to Ultrasonic sensors.
• Ultimate Machine – A machine that turns itself off.
• Twitter Pet – A Karotz inspired LEGO sculpture that reacts to Twitter.
• Crystal Ball – An RFID activated crystal ball that reacts when a wand is waved in front of it.
• TARDIS – Lights and sounds animate the LEGO TARDIS.
• Train Controller – Control LEGO trains with the Arduino.
• Light Sensitive Box – A music box inspired box that will react when exposed to light.

All the projects are described in-depth, says Lazar, providing technical information in terms that are easy to understand.

“It starts from the beginning, teaching the basics and moving on to more advanced techniques, so that anyone can build them. It also includes a list of all parts necessary, so that all the necessary parts can be easily ordered to build them,” he added.

“Arduino and Lego Projects” can be ordered from Amazon for $15.39 in e-format.

Open source hardware sees increased use by hobbyists, engineers

Analysts at Premier Farnell expect the use of open source hardware and software to increase among professional engineers and the growing Maker community in 2013.

According to the results of a recent survey commissioned by element14, 56% of professional engineers are more likely to use open source hardware such as Arduino (powered by Atmel MCUs) and other devices, with Maker hobbyists weighing in at a rather impressive 82%.

Similarly, 52% of professional engineers and 81% of hobbyists report being more likely to use open source software in 2013 – while 54% of hobbyists have confirmed using dev kits at least once per quarter for personal projects.

“The numbers paint a very clear picture that open source hardware is showing strong traction among professional engineers and hobbyists as well as educators and students,” said Andrea Koritala, global head of technology integration at Premier Farnell.

“With a high level of crossover between professionals and hobbyists, this increase in adoption extends to the workplace. An engineer on the job is looking for access to many of the same tools and resources accessible to the hobbyist community.”

As Koritala notes, professional engineers rated reference designs as the resource that weighs most heavily in the decision to select a dev kit. Among hobbyists, the most important factor was the availability of online tutorials, webinars and videos.

“This trend also speaks to the importance of ease of access and use, as a strong community can help bring ideas and designs to life,” she explained.

“Engineers have historically been hesitant to fully embrace open source, but the sheer availability of open-source tools and resources has mitigated many of the risks associated with designing in open source for commercial use.”

The above-mentioned survey, conducted in April 2013, included responses from a mix of professional engineers, hobbyists and students. All respondents had purchased one or more dev kits or related products in the year prior to taking the survey.

Modding a wireless rover ‘bot with Atmel’s ATmega128 MCU

Maker Radu Motisan has created a wireless rover ‘bot powered by Atmel’s ATmega128 MCU. As the folks at Hack A Day note, the latest ‘bot is actually the successor to an autonomous follower project started by Motisan a few years back.

“The final goal [was] to have to robot following its user. Putting the rover together was easy except for the tires,” Motisan explained in an article posted on PocketMagic.

“[Atmel’s] Atmega128 wins here with its 128KB flash memory, 16MHz max operating frequency and a multitude of IO ports.”

Radu kicked off his latest project by purchasing the chassis, which included the gear-head motors, tires and control board. He then removed the default chassis control board in favor of an AVR ATmega128 development board and his own motor controller.

Additional key hardware components installed by Radu include a metal bracket system to secure the battery pack, Bluetooth and GPS modules, five ultrasonic sensors, a character display, as well as head and tail lights.

“For the autonomous, human following software I improved the ultrasonic detection algorithm and the movement logic. Now the robot will follow a user more precisely and the speed will vary with the detected signal. [Meaning], if the robots sees the user at a greater distance, [it] will engage with a greater speed. If closer to the user, [the ‘bot] will proceed with smaller steps,” Radu added.

“For the remote control software, where the user controls the robot using a phone, the rover now reports its frontal sensor readings (that show the proximity in centimeters to any detected obstacle) to the smartphone. So the movement commands go from phone to robot – [while] the sensor readings go the opposite way, from robot to phone. [Plus], the software allows the user to turn the lights on/off. Using the frontal distance sensor, a red line is drawn, showing the proximity to an obstacle.”

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel’s high-performance, low-power 8-bit AVR RISC-based ATmega128 microcontroller combines 128KB of programmable flash memory, 4KB SRAM, a 4KB EEPROM, an 8-channel 10-bit A/D converter and a JTAG interface for on-chip debugging. The device supports throughput of 16 MIPS at 16 MHz and operates between 4.5-5.5 volts. By executing instructions in a single clock cycle, the ATmega 128 achieves throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, balancing power consumption and processing speed.

Additional data about Atmel’s ATmega128 can be found here, while more information on Radu’s ‘bot project is available here.

Arduino making a mark at Maker Faire

I don’t usually make a big deal of my upcoming weekends, but when I get the chance to hang out in a human-size mouse trap, buzz around a giant Hand of Man robot, or get my code on competitively in a variety of hacker races, it’s worth talking up a bit.

Before you wonder whether I’ve managed to contract an unhealthy dose of hallucinogenic corporate cube fever, don’t panic! I’m referring to the upcoming Maker Faire, to be held at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds on the 18/19 of May.

Maker Faire, created by Make magazine back in 2006, stitches together the arts and crafts with engineering and science.

It’s a huge science fair for the general public, where Do-It-Yourselfers are free to roam around unleashed (usually on their segways) wearing propeller beanies and flashy LED pins without anybody judging them. Much.

Tinkerers little and large take center stage at Maker Faire, showing the world their zany contraptions and electrifying experiments, while trading tips and tricks for others who want to follow in their low power footsteps.

And Atmel, I’m proud to say, is all over it.

Why? Because in many ways, Atmel powers the maker movement, with its tech at the heart of so many maker designs. It helps, of course, that Atmel microprocessors are the chips of choice for the Arduino platform, both in their AVR flavor and ARM varieties.

Arduino has democratized hardware in a way that allows anyone – young or old, engineer or not, rich or poor – to scratch their own itch and create anything they can imagine.

As Arduino’s founder, Massimo Banzi, puts it, “You don’t need anyone’s permission to create something great.”

Indeed, with Arduino even finding its way into every single MakerBot 3D printer, creativity now really knows no bounds.

At Maker Faire, Atmel will be right across from our friends and partners at Arduino (Booth #625 and #619 for the location sticklers) and along with a pretty slick booth design made up entirely of cardboard furniture (Chairigami!!), we’ll have quite a bit going on.

For starters, we’ll have some MakerBot demos and an “IoTorium” (which I’m assuming is an emporium of awesome Internet of Things devices).

Speaking of awesome “things”, the folks from PuzzleBox will be pitching up in Atmel’s booth with their brain-controlled helicopters, alongside the cool riders from Faraday Bikes who will be peddling their electric bicycle wares.

We’ll also have some cute hackable Hexbugs crawling around and for those keeping an eye on the time, some smart watches from Secret Labs (shhhh!).

The Maker movement is a passionate one, and Atmel’s pretty passionate about being a part of it. If you can’t make it to Maker Faire, no sweat. You can follow all the goings on via Twitter. Just look for the hashtags @makerfaire, @atmel, @arduino.

Hope to see you there!

 

Housekeeping? Nope!!! A DIY Breach That Can Be Easily Prevented with Encryption

In an attempt to expose the vulnerability of a hotel room lock manufactured by certain big lock company, a hacker has posted his hack of it online.  There are more than 4 million hotel rooms in the world that could potentially be affected.  And the most disturbing part? It doesn’t take any sophisticated equipment to carry out such a breach: simply an Arduino kit (a mini computer for tinkerers that costs less than $50) and some basic coding skills!  The hacker “found that he could simply read this 32-bit key out of the lock’s memory. No authentication is required”.  It’s a scary incident but also one that can be prevented quite easily. By integrating one of today’s turnkey security chips into the design of the lock, the lock manufacturer can prevent hacking and other security breaches.