Build a smartwatch remote for your car with Arduino

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Maker controls his Honda CR-Z using a Pebble watch, an Android phone and an Arduino. 

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The advent of high-tech, connected vehicles and wearable gadgetry has provided drivers with a new way to remotely unlock their doors, start the ignition and even find parking spots. Take for instance, Hyundai, whose Blue Link app now fully supports Android Wear devices and enables users to do everything from flash its headlights to call roadside assistance.

However, Mika Wee didn’t own the latest and smartest car. And so, he decided to take it upon himself to bring this functionality to his 2013 Honda CR-Z with the help of Arduino and 1Sheeld. Using his Pebble Steel watch, he was able control its hazard lights, flash its high beams and honk the horn, among a number of other things — though he could do it all from his Nexus 5 smartphone as well.

“The idea of this project is to be able to turn on/off lights (or any electrical component) of a car without being inside the car, or physically pressing dashboard buttons/switches,” Wee writes.

The Maker used a bunch of shield-based components to simplify the project, including a DFRduino (ATmega328), a 1Sheeld (ATmega162) as an input receiver to communicate with the phone, and a relay shield as the output to complete the circuit.  Aside from that, he created the watch’s menu with the help of PebbleTasker.

“The next step is to find out which wire in your car does what. Now this is completely dependent on the car that you have, as every car would have a different circuit,” the Maker adds. “I used a multimeter and the help of the car’s service manual to find out which wires/relays conduct electricity when a switch/button is pressed. This tells me which wire/circuit I’m looking for. Then, I tapped relay wires into that circuit to simulate a ‘button press.’ This is not intrusive as I do not go into ECU, OBDII or CAN bus hacking. I merely simulated a ‘button press.’”

Intrigued? Head over to the project’s page on Hackster.io where Wee shares a step-by-step breakdown along with the necessary code and schematics. Watch it in action here.

DIPDuino is Arduino-compatible board in a DIP32 package

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DIPDuino is an Arduino-compatible board that combines a number of useful interfaces in one DIP32 package.

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While the idea of having an entire MCU platform in a DIP format isn’t all that new,  Alex Gornostayev just wasn’t satisfied with some of those on the market today, like the Teensy and Arduino Nano. And so, the Maker decided to create his own Arduino-compatible board that crams many useful interfaces all into one easy-to-use DIP32 package.

The aptly named DIPDuino goes a step further than most of today’s breakout boards. Based an ATmega1284RFR2 along with a 2.4GHz ZigBee transceiver, the unit is equipped with a 128×32-pixel OLED display, a microSD card reader, a serial FTDI port, 1MB of SRAM, a full JTAG debugger port, USB and pin power supply, LEDs, and a stabilized 3V and 3.6V power output.

Looking ahead, Gornostayev is planning on using the board for a number of DIY projects, ranging from an OLED watch to a weather station and a home automation system. Aside from that, one of his friends even wants to build a DIPDuino-based RepRap controller. The possibilities are endless! However, first he would like to improve its software so that the firmware can be programmed and updated from an SD card.

“I want to be able to be able to program DIPDuino from SD card. Just save BIN file on SD card and boot the device. The bootloader must be able to flash the firmware and it does not look too complicated. (I call this project ‘DIPBoot’).”

“I want to implement a simple BASIC translator for DIPDuino to be able to write programs in BASIC using simple text editor, save it on SD card and execute it form file on DIPDuino (which will be DIPBasic in this case),” Gornostayev adds. “This is really cool, because I will be to write programs on any devices, including smartphones or even DIPDuino itself, and execute them without any compilers and connections.”

Intrigued? Read more about the project on its Hackaday.io page here.

This 3D-printed prosthetic hand features a built-in space game

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This Maker duo’s 3D-printed prosthetic hand is out of this world! 

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Perhaps one of, if not, most amazing things to recently come from the 3D printing world has been DIY prosthetics. These artificial limbs have grown by leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. One group helping lead the way has been e-NABLE, a global network of volunteers who are using their 3D printers to create prosthetic hands for those in need. Given the initiative’s open source nature, prostheses can now be made for a fraction of the cost of their commercial counterparts.

One of the more popular e-NABLE models has been what’s called the “Cyborg Beast.” Using this as the base for their project, Maker duo Debbie and Danny Leung decided to develop an intergalactic-looking version of their own that boasts some additional functionality. Though it may work like other 3D-printed limbs, thanks to some modifications, an Arduino Nano (ATmega328) and a few other electronics, the Cosmogony brings an entertainment console right to the palm of a user’s hand.

The Cosmogony hand has two modes: display mode and play mode. In display mode, three rainbow diffused LED lights on the palm and four RGB LED lights in the fingertips repeatedly change colors. There’s also an Adafruit 8×8 dot matrix display connected to an accelerometer, which alters images as the wearer moves their hand. Aside from that, the prosthetic can be converted into a virtual video game that employs its embedded accelerometer.

In order to play “Expand Your Universe,” a user simply moves his or her hand in the direction that they’d like the characters to go. For this game, the main characters are actually four planets moving together at the center. As the wearer advances to each stage, an asteroid from a random direction comes closer. To avoid a collision, the user must try move their hand accordingly to dodge the asteroid in an X or Y direction sensed by the accelerometer.

“The blue lights blink in the fingertips, a smiley face appears, and they spread farther apart. To proceed to the next stage a player must successfully dodge asteroids sweeping across from random directions. If a player fails to dodge an asteroid, the red lights blink in the fingertips, a sad face appears, and the player has to start over at that last stage,” its creators explain.

The hand itself is comprised of flexible NinjaFlex filament, while springs were used for the finger joints. Six strings of fiber optic lights make up spiral shaped “galaxy” on the palm, which has a compartment for the LED dot matrix on top. Housed inside the gauntlet of the hand lies the Arduino, a 9V battery and a dual-axis accelerometer.

Pretty amazing, right? Watch it in action below!

[h/t 3DPrint.com]

A look at the 2015 Hackaday Prize semi-finalists

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Hackaday reveals the 100 semi-finalists who are one step closer to a trip into space. 

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After nine months of tinkering, developing and building, submissions for the 2015 Hackaday Prize have come to a close. In total, there were just shy of 1,000 entries from Makers all across the world, each sharing the common goal of moving humanity forward.

And now, Hackaday has narrowed the pool down to 100 projects who will be moving on to the next round — one step closer to the grand prize of a trip into space (or $196,883). These designs will continue to be refined by the contestants through the September 21st deadline, where 10 finalists will be selected.

Congratulations to all of the 2015 Hackaday Prize semi-finalists, but especially those using our chips! With approximately 60% of the entries below embedded with an AVR or Atmel | SMART MCU, it looks like there’s a good chance that this year’s winner will once again be powered by Atmel! (You can find them highlighted in bold.)

• #T_H_S

• 100$ Xray desktop CT scanner
• 3D Printable Robot Arm
• Affordable, Programmable Robot Arm
• Aleph
• analog.io
• Arduino MPPT Solar Charge Controller

• Artificial Muscles and Ultra-Capacitors
• Asteria Network
• Bench Power Supply
• Bikair
• Binary Fuel Tank
• biohand – Low Cost 3D-Printed Hand Prosthesis
• BowlerStudio: A Robotics Development Platform
• Bringing Cool Relief to Multiple Sclerosis
• C⁴Derpillar: Open CE-C⁴D
• CANcrusher Car Hack /Development Platform
• Crazy Clock

• Crunchtrack
• Dekoboko 凸凹
• DNA-LAMP Diagnostic Device
• DOLPi – RasPi Polarization Camera
• Dual Channel Battery Charger/Analyzer
• DyIO (Dynamic Input Output) Controller
• Easy Pulse Plugin
• Elderly Asset Tracker
• ElectricEye
• EM-Drive
• Entropy Wheel Heat Recovery Ventilator
• ESPLux – Smarts for Your Downlights
• Eye Controlled Wheelchair!

• Eye of Horus, Open Source Eye Tracking Assistance
• FarmBot – CNC Farming and Gardening
• Firefly — A Low-Cost Flying Robot to Save Lives
• FlexSEA: Wearable robotics toolkit
• Fly Wars : A Hackers Solution To World Hunger
• Gas Sensor For Emergency Workers
• GroBots – OpenGrow
• Hand Drive
• Health Maintenance Robot
• Household Electrically Enhanced Wet Scrubber
• HydroPWNics
• Improve the Haber Process
• Individualized Nasal CPAP Cannula for Preterm Kids

• IoTgreen – no-battery IoT sensors of the future
• Lazy Cleaner 9000
• libresmartphone
• Light Electric Utility Vehicle
• Low Cost Hydrogen Fuel Cell
• Low Cost Weather Station
• Low Cost X-Ray Systems for Developing Nations
• LPS Mini
• Luka EV
• MeArm – Your Robot
• Medical Tricorder
• MobileNode

• Neucuff: A soft orthotic exoskeleton
• Open Source Bulldozer
• OpenBionics Affordable Prosthetic Hands
• OpenCT2
• OSCAR: Omni Service Cooperative Assistant Robot
• PASS: Pollution Analytics Shared Socially
• Pathfinder – Haptic Navigation
• Pick and Place Machine
• PixeeBel
• Portable Environmental Monitor
• Power Monitor
• Project EDEN
• Project ICARUS 3.0: Solar Anti-Poaching UAS
• Project R

• Rapidly Deployable Automation System
• Reagent Robot
• SAB3T – PID Loop Educational Tool
• SD Card-Sized “SDuino”
• SentriFarm
• Shower Metronome
• Sit.Up
• Smart Battery makes a smarter Power Pack
• Smart Desktop Medicine Organizer
• Smart Dew-Point Water Harvester
• SmartEE the Smart Plug

• Soft Propeller
• Sol BLE Tracker
• Sonar for the visually impaired
• SPI and TTL Serial VGA Graphics Card – VGATonic
• Squidpad
• SubPos – Positioning System
• Tact-Tiles
• Team TAHMO
• The FireVolt Project
• the HOT project
• The Kasei Initiative
• TheSixthSense
• Timstock Slim 
• Unconventional Instrument Ochestra
• Urban Kitchen Garden
• UV-badge
• Vinduino, A Wine Grower’s Water Saving Project

• WatchDuino2
• Zerowatch

Building a barebones Arduino Zero

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One Maker has created a minimalist Arduino Zero-like board with an OLED display and LEDs.

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Looking to migrate from the world of 8- to 32-bit Atmel MCUs, Maker “kodera2t” — who you may recall from his SD card-sized Arduino — decided to build a barebones version of the popular Arduino Zero. His goal? To design a board that packed the punch of the Cortex-M0+ using nothing more than a few key components.

First, he created a minimalist MCU with only a USB interface — no output. With an Atmel SAMD21G18 at its core, the board included zener diodes, an XTAL for the clock, a 3.3V regulator and some supplemental capacitors. According to the Maker, this helped him “learn the difference between AVR and the SAM D [family].”

From there, kodera2t proceeded to develop another one, this time with a little more functionality. For this iteration, the Maker once again included a SAM D21 along with a I2C OLED, three LEDs for operation check, and a USB connector for uploading code. The Arduino Zero-like device is also powered by a 3.3V battery pack.

Intrigued? Head over to the project’s Hackaday.io page here, or watch kodera2t provide an overview of the two boards in the video below.

Maker creates a Tron and Star Wars-inspired control panel for his computer

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This fully-functional, overhead control panel will be the most awesome thing you see today.

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Most of us rely on a keyboard and mouse to perform tasks on our computers. Not Redditor user “smashcuts.” Instead, the Maker has built a fully-functional overhead control panel for his PC, complete with 100 programmable buttons and switches that trigger all kinds of actions, from the useful to the absurd.

As you can imagine, constructing such a complex device was no easy task. To make this a reality, the Maker employed the combination of a USB hub and controllers, LEDs for the backlighting, an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) for the blinking lights and a HAL unit from Think Geek. These electronics are all housed inside an enclosure made from a metal junction box and laser-etched acrylic panels.

While the project itself was a pretty elaborate endeavor with some serious functionality, it was all done in good humor. There’s a green ‘Main Systems’ section which turns on his most frequently used programs, such as Chrome, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and iTunes. Meanwhile, a central unit controls all of his main OS shortcuts like open, save and close.

He’s also included a category that he calls ‘Panic Control,’ with three toggles for stress management. According to smashcuts, ‘Don’t Panic’ cues a hitchhiker’s guide YouTube video, ‘Serenity Now’ cues a Firefly clip, and ‘Hold Steady’ plays songs from his favorite band. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a ‘Wave Collider’ panel that allows him to activate various iTune playlists and choose ‘More Rock’ or ‘Less Rock’ depending on his mood.

Beyond that, buttons in the bottom left-hand corner type a variety of laughter into open chat windows, including the common ‘HA,’ ‘HAHA,’ or ‘HAHAHA’ for extremely funny moments. There’s even a ‘Weapons System,’ which emits humorous sound effects. Despite some of its comedic features, this was surely an impressive build!

If you’ve ever dreamt of using a Star Wars/Tron-like control panel, you’ll want to check out the Maker’s project in its entirety here.

The Beast is a big 3D printer for big ideas

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The Beast lets Makers 3D print four identical objects at the same time.

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Typically speaking, bigger 3D printers mean bigger prices. However, thanks to one Australian startup, that may no longer be the case. Cultivate3D has developed a gigantic desktop 3D printer that rivals the cost of most existing desktop devices on the market.

Called The Beast, and rightfully so, the 3D printer boasts a number of new and innovative features compared to most others available today. Impressively, the machine is capable of printing four identical objects during a single print in completely different colors and materials, as well as constructing a single object within its massive 470mm x 435mm x 690mm build volume. At this size, Cultivate3D says that’s large enough to print two full-size basketballs, four radio-control transmitters or a small child — all at the same time.

From the looks of things, The Beast has the potential of becoming a go-to piece of equipment for anyone looking to pump out giant prints or speed up production of repeatedly printed parts. According to its creators Dan and Josh Herlihy, the machine is capable of achieving resolutions that are significantly smaller than existing desktop FDM 3D printers — 0.00125 millimeters on the Z axis and 0.00625 on the X and Y axes.

What’s more, the printer can spit out objects 10 times quicker than previous gadgets and can be made yet even faster by throwing on its optional larger nozzle. The Beast was designed with flexibility in mind, and will come with a range of add-ons to help transform its functionality.

As incredible as these specs are, perhaps the most eye-opening thing about The Beast is its price. Starting at just $1,850 for its DIY kit and $3,299 for a fully-assembled unit, Cultivate3D’s cost is dramatically less than other printers of similar size and quality.

“The Beast’s enormous build area allows users to print objects that have never before been possible on a printer with such a low price point,” the startup explains. “Our hope is for ‘The Beast’ to make many previously unattainable projects and prints possible and to make it accessible to as many makers, inventors, DIY enthusiasts and artists as we can.”

• Printer size: 690mm x 715mm x 1110mm
• Build volume
  • Single extruder configuration: 470mm x 435mm x 690m
  • Two-extruder configuration 230mm x 435mm x 690mm
  • Four-extruder configuration: 230mm x 214mm x 690mm
• Printer weight: 66 lbs. (30kg)
• Nozzle diameter: 0.25mm-1mm
• Filament: PLA, ABS (J-head model); all types available (E3D model)
• Connectivity: USB, SD card
• Power supply: 110-240V
• Software: Repetier Host and Slic3r
• Operating system: Windows, OSX, Linux

Have a big idea you’d like to print? Head over to The Beast’s Kickstarter page, where the team has already surpassed its $7,129 goal. Delivery is set for January 2016.

This 3D-printed robot is powered by an ATtiny85

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Canbot is an Ollie-like robot that can autonomously drive itself. 

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Maxmillian Kern has created an adorable, 3D-printed robot that rolls its way across hard surfaces. The Sphero Ollie-like device, aptly named Canbot, is based on an ATtiny85 MCU and comprised of only four 3D-printed parts for the body and wheels, all connected by screws. The “heavier” components, including the servos and 3.7V battery, are embedded in the lower half to to help it remain balanced.

Not only can it autonomously drive itself around via its ultrasonic sensor, the Maker can also use a modified TV remote for control. Commands are received from the infrared signal of the old clicker. As for power, he originally considered adding some kind of plug to program and charge the robot, but settled for a switch due to space constraints.

“There still is a problem with the weight distribution. I put a piece of lead in the front but that didn’t make it much better,” Kern writes. “It needs some kind of stabilization. But that’s difficult with an ATtiny that only has 5 [technically 6] I/O pins. You would have to sacrifice the ultrasonic sensor with a gyro board. There are lots of possible improvements. The first thing would be nice geared motors instead of servos.”

Interested in building your own? You can find all of Canbot’s files on Thingiverse here.

This LED installation mimics the movements of fireflies

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This 2,000-plus LED installation reacts to the movement of its visitors, placing them inside a colorful 3D environment.

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Austrian arts collective Neon Golden recently created an immersive light installation designed to mimic the movements of fireflies. The project, aptly named SWARM, consists of over 2,000 LEDs that are suspended at various heights from an overhead metal grid and arranged in a series of 40 modules throughout a dark room.

The lights use motion-sensing technology, which is controlled by Raspberry Pi and Arduino running Processing, to replicate the motion of lightning bugs. The hanging LEDs change position horizontally in response to the movements of nearby visitors. The team also employed Cinema 4D to generate SWARM’s advanced 3D effects.

“Through the movement of the visitors within the installation the LEDs are lightening up and the static, chaotic structure transforms into a vibrant, three-dimensional swarm one can visually but also acoustically experience,” Neon Golden explains.

According to its creators, SWARM is adaptable to meet different space requirements, as the configuration of light modules can be adjusted to fit smaller or larger areas. The piece made its debut back at the Olympus Photography Playground in Vienna in February 2015.

You can see it for yourself in the video below as dancer Máté Czakó makes his way through the luminescent creatures, revealing the LEDs’ reactivity.

[h/t Dezeen]

This device can help prevent sunburn and predict weather changes

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UV-badge is a keychain-sized, wearable UV index and environmental sensor. 

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A recent entry into the Hackaday Prize contest, the UV-badge is a small, wearable instrument designed to monitor UV index, temperature, humidity and air pressure. The brainchild of Szabolcs Damján, the device collects data to help users avoid sunburn, control indoor humidity, estimate elevation and even predict changes in weather or impending storms.

Built around an ATtiny861A, the UV-badge packs a 96 x 96-pixel LCD screen, a Bosch BME280 integrated environmental sensor, an ML8511 UV sensor, and a coin-cell battery that the Maker claims can last for an extended period of time thanks to its picoPower design.

The keychain-sized unit is tasked with measuring barometric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity and UV index every two seconds, and displaying additional information like battery life and historical values. The electronics are all neatly housed inside a 3D-printed case, along with a 1.5mm thick plexi cover and a simple, white adhesive plastic mask.

Users can switch between measurements by clicking its tactile switch located on its right side. A chart will then appear showing the trend of the selected value. To enter sleep mode, simply hold down the button for eight seconds. To turn back on, just hit the button again.

Looking ahead, Damján says future improvements may include improved memory, enhanced functionality, a fancier display, as well as a rechargeable LiPo battery. Intrigued? Check out the Maker’s entire project on his Hackaday.io page here.