Hacking Keepons with an Arduino Board

Keepon Pro – originally designed by scientists studying social development – is a “friendly” mini-robot that interacts with children. BeatBots and UK-based toy company Wow! Stuff offers a low-cost version of the Pro, although it lacks the ability to be teleoperated.

Recently, BeatBots co-founder Marek Michalowski co-authored an article in Makezine describing how to connect an Atmel-powered Arduino Nano board to My Keepon’s electronics, allowing users to control the ‘bot using just about any sensor, device or interface.

“The basic principle of this hack is to send commands to the microcontrollers inside My Keepon over the I2C bus. I2C is a two-wire serial interface commonly used for communication between embedded systems and peripherals (wikipedia.org/wiki/I2C),” Michalowski explained.

“We’ve provided access to all commands for setting motor speeds and positions, playing sounds, and retrieving information about audio perception, motor EMF and encoder positions. It’s a straightforward procedure, and you’ll easily be able to impress other Keepon fans with your new dance choreographies, Kinect mash-ups and Wiimote-control demos.”

Michalowski also noted that Makers can choose to mod the ‘bot in a basic fashion (with only a single additional hole drilled into the cylindrical base) or go with a more advanced option by installing the Arduino Nano board (ATmega328) inside the battery compartment, running the USB cable directly into the base and powering My Keepon with an adapter.

“[However], if you want to continue powering the My Keepon with batteries, or if you plan to use Arduino Uno/Mega shields (for wireless communication, additional sensors or actuators, etc.), you’ll probably want to “backpack” the components on the base,” he added.

Interested in learning more about hacking Keepons with an Arduino Board? You can check out the original Makezine article here.

Video: Designing a trainable robotic arm

A YouTube user by the name of navic209 has designed a trainable robotic arm built around Adafruit’s Analog Feedback Micro Servo and an Atmel-powered Arduino board that can be easily “taught” to move in a specific pattern.

Once the “train” button is pressed, users simply move the arm and gripper in a specific pattern, while an Atmel-powered Arduino board stores the relevant positions in EEPROM. The arm is then fully capable of precisely replaying the various motions.

According to navic209, the trainable robotic arm was inspired by Baxter, an entirely new robot targeted at manufacturing environments. Indeed, Baxter performs a variety of repetitive production tasks – all while safely and intelligently working next to people.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered trainable robotic arm? The Arduino sketch is available on Github, while Adafruit’s Analog Feedback Micro Servo can be purchased here. The micro servo robotic arm is available on Thingiverse, along with the micro servo gripper (also on Thingiverse).

Atmel introduces next-gen ZigBit wireless modules

Atmel has introduced its second-gen lineup of ZigBit wireless modules. Based on the company’s latest wireless transceivers and wireless microcontrollers (MCUs), the new ZigBits offer a wider range of features and reduced power consumption.

According to an Atmel engineering rep, the ZigBit modules – equipped with an integrated chip antenna – can be easily installed in a variety of devices without the need for any RF design or RF layout expertise.

“Simply put, the wireless modules offer customers a complete out of the box wireless system, pretested and certified for FCC (North America), ETSI (Europe) and IC (Canada),” the engineering rep explained. “This is because the second-gen ZigBits facilitate an optimized design path from evaluation to development, testing and certification, up to the final wireless end-product.”

As noted above, Atmel’s ZigBit modules can be easily integrated in a wide variety of devices including wireless sensor and control applications; lighting control; home automation; thermostats; occupancy sensors and home displays; environmental monitoring and proprietary wireless systems up to 2000kb/s.

In addition, support for the second-gen ZigBit wireless modules has been added to the Wireless Composer, which is available via Atmel’s Gallery. Essentially, the Wireless Composer provides devs with a performance analyzer application – complete with intuitive displays to configure, command and monitor test data originating from the target device.

“The GUI is used to configure and execute packet error rate testing, perform energy density scans on the available channels and perform FCC testing for setting the device in continuous transmission mode,” the Atmel engineering rep continued. “The Wireless Composer supports all Atmel RF devices and can be easily adapted to execute performance measurements on the customer’s board.”

ZigBit wireless modules are available at Atmel’s official store and via local distributors, while samples can be ordered using the “Free Atmel Tools” service.The modules ship in single quantities and tape & reel of 200.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel also offers developers a lineup of ZigBit Xplained PRO extensions and USB sticks for evaluation and application development using ZigBit wireless modules.

Basically, the ZigBit Xplained PRO extensions are designed to interface with any Atmel Xplained PRO series of evaluation boards using the standard 20pin connector. Of course, the boards can also act as a standalone wireless node using an external battery case.

It should be noted that ZigBit Xplained PRO extensions ship preprogrammed with a bootloader and Atmel’s Radio Performance Analyzer application for easy evaluation of key features and RF performance. The same goes for ZigBit USB sticks, which are ideal for use with the Wireshark packet sniffer available in Atmel Studio 6.

The ZigBit Xplained PRO extensions and ZigBit USB sticks are available at Atmel’s official store and via local distributors.

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.

Theater of Lost Species with the Makerbot Replicator 2

To many, the exterior of the Lost Species prototype resembles a hybrid spaceship-sea urchin. However, the unique mixture of organism and machine goes far beyond the surface, thanks to advanced design techniques and an Atmel-powered MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer.

While the Lost Species prototype may look like a spaceship, it’s actually a time machine of sorts. Created by the Future Cities Lab, the Theater of Lost Species is a virtual aquarium populated by marine species that have been extinct for millions of years.

“The idea is to create a real-time digital archive of every instance of every species that has ever lived,” Jason Kelly Johnson told MakerBot’s Ben Millstein. Indeed, Jason and his fabrication team initially planned to create the curved modules that covered the Theater of Lost Species out of thin plastic shells.

“[However], they realized the panels could be strengthened with the hexagonal infill automatically generated in MakerBot MakerWare,” Millstein explained in a recent company blog post.

“So the team thickened the modules’ cavities, creating a strong, lightweight structure that leaves space for electronics and wiring. They then fitted the modules like puzzle pieces into a complex structural chassis constructed out of 3D printed connectors and small laser-cut cross beams.”

The small-scale prototype of the Theater of Lost Species will be on exhibit at the YBCA in San Francisco until February 2nd, 2014 in an effort to raise awareness and funding for a full-scale prototype.

ATmega328 powers high-G accel sensor

Kelsec Systems has debuted the TellmeG, a high (and low) G acceleration sensor designed for measuring just about anything that quickly accelerates or decelerates including running shoes, baseball bats, tennis rackets and bikes.

The TellmeG – which provides immediate feedback via an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display – is capable of measuring acceleration up to 200 G, or 4400 mph acceleration in one second.

And although Kelsec offers ready to use software applications, users can easily reprogram the unlocked platform, which is powered by Atmel’s versatile ATmega328 microcontroller (MCU).

Additional key specs and features include:

• On-board 16Mbit Flash.
• OLED Display (128X32 pixels).
• Three-Axis (X,Y,Z) on board accelerometers (+/-200G and +/- 16G).
• Accelerometer (200G) data rate: 1kHz.
• MCU flashing via ISP programmer (external port provided) and custom cable.
• Data-logging capabilities for review and analysis.
• Rechargeable lithium-polymer battery (via USB cable).
• Sleep mode to conserve power.
• Battery monitoring IC for maintaining the LIPO battery.

“The TellmeG is unlike any existing measuring instrument and the potential applications are endless. The range of this sensor goes far beyond typical accelerometers found in popular smartphones (usually 2G to 8G at most),” Kelsec founder Gerald Plamondon explained in a recent Kickstarter post.

“Currently, five versions of application code for the TellmeG sensor have been developed and tested for: baseball, running, tennis, mountain biking and impact/landing. All five are available to choose from, depending on your needs. We plan on developing more applications in the near future.”

On the software side, devs and Maker can use a custom ISP cable and ISP programmer tool such as Atmel’s ATAVRISP2 to install new software for TellmeG sensor. Users can also write their own code for the TellmeG sensor with Arduino or C++ programming.

“We will publish all code so you will have a head start in developing custom code. All you will need is the Advanced Kit or the Super Advanced kit, which includes a custom cable for ISP programming of the microcontroller,” Plamondon added.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered TellmeG? You can check out the project’s official Kickstarter page here.

Getting up close with MYIR’s MYD-SAM9X5 dev board

Yesterday, Bits & Pieces took a closer look at at MYIR’s development board series for Atmel’s lineup of SAMA5D3 ARM Cortex-A5 based processors.

Today, we’ll be discussing MYIR’s MYD-SAM9X5 dev board series based on Atmel’s AT91SAM9X5 ARM926 processors which are capable of hitting speeds of up to 400MHz.

“The boards have a commonly-used base board and are using MYC-SAM9X5 series CPU modules as core boards,” a MYIR rep explained.

“There are five CPU Modules for selections respectively based on AT91SAM9G15, SAM9G25, SAM9G35, SAM9X25 and SAM9X35.”

All offer the same circuit design – albeit with minor configuration differences. Meanwhile, the CPU modules integrate all  core components, with I/O signals extended through the standard SO-DIMM 200-pin connector.

MYIR has also ported Linux 2.6.39 and Google Android 2.3.5 for the MYD-SAM9X5 series, offering relevant software packages, documents and cable accessories. In addition, optional 4.3-inch and 7-inch LCD touch screens are available for the 9G15, 9G35 and 9X35 devices.

“With a rich peripheral set, the boards can be used for a variety of applications including industrial controls, medical equipment, automation, portable data terminals, biometric security systems, test and measurement instruments,” the MYIR rep added.

The IoT connects a cast of billions

Based on current estimates, the number of “things” predicted to be connected to the Internet by the end of this decade range from a staggering 30bn to 50bn. However, as Clint Witchalls notes in a recent report sponsored by ARM, having connected “things” is the easy part. More difficult will be getting these things to communicate with each other—where human involvement is still necessary.

“With the traditional Internet it was easy to ‘go it alone.’ Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) start-ups did not first sit down with telecommunications operators and work out how they would fit together in the ecosystem,” Witchalls explains. “[In] contrast, the IoT tends to follow Metcalfe’s Law, which says that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users. Thus, a more cooperative approach than that shown in the past by telecoms and Internet companies will be required. Many users are needed to achieve the ‘network effects.'”

Kevin Ashton, who originally coined the term the “Internet of Things” (IoT) in 1999 while working at Proctor & Gamble, draws another clear distinction between the Internet and the IoT. As Ashton points out, the rollout of the traditional Internet happened relatively quickly, with companies granted access to a system that could interoperate before they had invested too heavily in systems that could not.

Since then, companies have built up their own networks, with significant investment. The challenge? To convince corporations to see the benefits in a common network. A simple example of one of these “walled gardens,” says Ashton, is employee office passes or ID badges, many of which are fitted with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. While swiping an ID card will get an employee into his or her workplace, the employee still has to fill out a form or wear an identity sticker when visiting a different office building. A common network between landlords could eliminate this inefficiency, while creating a much richer data set on employee whereabouts.

“What we have right now is a lot of IoT-type technology that is heavy on things and light on Internet,” Ashton confirms. “That’s [really] the bit that needs to change.”

Unsurprisingly, much of the collaboration currently under way within industry verticals is around standards, such as information-exchange protocols. According to Elgar Fleisch, the deputy dean of ETH Zürich, there is an extensive standardization effort going on.

“The main impact of standardization is that every computer can talk to every other computer and everything can talk to every other thing,” he says. “That dramatically reduces the cost of making things smart. The IoT will not fly if we don’t have these standards.”

Clearly, the full potential of the IoT will only be unlocked when small networks of connected things, from cars to employee IDs, become one big network of connected things extending across industries and organizations. Since many of the business models to emerge from the IoT will involve the sale of data, an important element of this will be the free flow of information across the network.

Interested in learning more about the rapidly evolving IoT? Part one of this series can be read here, part two here and part four here.

Arduino’s Yún (ATmega32u4) controls this SmartBoiler

The Arduino Yún – designed in collaboration with Dog Hunter – is based on Atmel’s popular ATMega32u4 microcontroller (MCU) and also features the Atheros AR9331, an SoC running Linino, a customized version of OpenWRT. The Yún is somewhat unique in the Arduino lineup, as it boasts a lightweight Linux distribution to complement the traditional microcontroller (MCU) interface.

Although the Atmel-powered Yún hit the streets just a few short months ago, the board has already been used in a wide variety of Maker projects that we’ve recently covered on Bits & Pieces, including an electricity monitor, mesh extender platform, Foursquare soap bubble machine and the Gmail (alert) lamp. And today we’ll be taking a closer look at how George Koulouris used the Atmel-powered Yún to regulate his water heater.

“I have two small problems in my house. An ever-increasing electricity consumption bill and a girlfriend [who] likes to take hot baths at unpredictable times during the day,” Koulouris wrote in a recent blog post re-published on the official Arduino site. “Until recently, we left our water heater switched on, 24/7. But then we took a look at our electricity counter readings. Needless to say, we switched it off immediately! An old water heater can indeed make the electricity counter wheel spin fast, very fast.”

As such, says Koulouris, he started switching it on and off whenever the two needed to take a bath. However, the duo weren’t always at home and the water took almost an hour to heat. Enter the SmartBoiler, a device housed in a small box and placed on top of the main electricity board.

“A mechanical arm extends out of the box. Its bottom end is clipped to the heater’s switch whereas its top end is attached to a motor in the SmartBoiler,” Koulouris explained. “The box contains a motor and an Arduino Yún. The latter checks, at regular time intervals, a .txt file on a web-server to see whether me (or my girlfriend!) have turned on the heater. If yes, it launches the motor and the switch is turned on.”

Although Koulouris originally created the SmartBoiler to regulate his water heater, he does note that the project can be used as a basis to control any mechanical switch.

“Simply dimension the box correctly and you can control everything via the Internet. Your lights, your main electricity switch… The possibilities are limitless!”

Interested in learning more? You can download the laser cutter files here, the code on Github and the dimensions of the mechanical parts on Thingiverse, while the user interface (UI) can be viewed here.

Taking the IoT to the next level

Over three-quarters of companies are now actively exploring or using the Internet of Things (IoT), with the vast majority of business leaders believing it will have a meaningful impact on how their companies conduct business. Clearly, the the IoT is reaching a tipping point.

Although the concept of an Internet of Things has been around for at least a decade, the IoT is beginning to become an important action point for the global business community. As Clint Witchalls notes in a recent report sponsored by ARM, there is no doubt that IoT-related technology is already having a broad impact across the world. Although the precise effect is likely to vary by country and by company, it is hard to imagine any sector will be left untouched by rapidly evolving Internet of Things.

Kevin Ashton who originally coined the term the “Internet of Things” (IoT) in 1999 while working at Proctor & Gamble, points out that the recent “trickle” of IoT product releases is all part of a larger plan to test market appetite.

“We are trying to understand before we get in too deep, because once you are financially invested and committed you cease to become agile. Then you really have to start building on the thing you’ve already invested in,” Ashton explains. “In the early stages of technology deployment it’s a charitable act really to explore a new technology because the return on investment isn’t there, it’s too expensive and it’s too unknown. That’s where government has a role.”

Looking ahead, investment in the IoT should continue to increase as more and more senior executives move up the IoT learning curve. According to Witchalls, the costs associated with the IoT will continue to fall concurrently – just like any nascent technology. Indeed, a number of early adopters believe that the technology is already mature enough and cheap enough to make IoT products and services viable without the need for a big upfront investment, at least for initial trials.

“You don’t need a lot of R&D, it’s more about integration,” says Honbo Zhou, a director of China’s Haier. “Everyone can build it [into their products]. It’s just a matter of finding a business model that works.”

Meanwhile, Elgar Fleisch, the deputy dean of ETH Zürich, a science and technology university, says he believes IoT adoption will be quite different from what he dubs the “Internet of people revolution.”

During the first phase of the Internet, he maintains, anyone with a good idea and a computer could start an organization with global reach. However, Fleisch sees the initial advantage in the “IoT revolution” going mainly to bricks-and mortar organizations, especially large firms with many assets to track and monitor. Meaning, we are unlikely to see another Facebook, Yahoo or eBay.

“There will be winners and losers, but we are unlikely to see entirely new big players entering the market,” Fleisch opines.

Notwithstanding the significant involvement of the physical world of assets and products, the IoT is still expected to be a less visible revolution than the traditional Internet.

“PayPal, Groupon and YouTube are well-known Internet companies, yet few people are probably aware that the smart meter in their cellar means that their home is a part of the IoT,” writes Witchalls. “As organizations move towards the ‘productization’ of the IoT, there are signs that business leaders recognize that this need not be a major hindrance: undeveloped consumer awareness is not seen as one of the top obstacles to organizations using the IoT. After all, consumers will always want products and services that are better, cheaper, greener and more convenient.”

As Ashton notes, “Consumers are not going to demand the Internet of Things. Nobody is going to demand the underlying infrastructure.”

Rather, says Ashton, consumers will demand some value and benefit.

“They’re going to demand a security system that they can control from their smartphone. You don’t go to the end user and talk about the Internet of Things. You go to the end user to talk about benefits,” he adds.

Want to learn more about how the IoT revolution is gathering pace and reaching a tipping point? Part one is available here, part two here, part three here and part four here.