The Arduino-powered Iron Man suit

Thomas Lemieux was turning heads as he showcased his rather impressive Iron Man suit at the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC this past weekend.

“Everything is Arduino powered. There are four Arduino UNOs (ATmega328) in the suit; one for each bionic replusor, one for the sound board, and one for the arc reactor, All of the components are powered by ten 2600 mAh batteries that had to be ordered from Hong Kong,” Lemieux told Electronic Design.

“The sound components for each repulsor and the sound board are wave shields from Adafruit. The SD cards with all of the sound files are located there.”

According to Lemieux, the project actually began with the arc reactor.

“I wanted one to sit on my desk at home and thought it would be cool to build one myself. So I walked the aisles at Home Depot and found any part that would seem to work,” he explained.

“The fins are cut from a solid sheet of metal and I used copper coils to bend around them. I used a sink tap as the center piece. And the rest is washers, rubber tubing and erector set pieces all J-B welded together. I got all of the electronics and LEDs from Radio Shack.”

Lemieux also told Electronic Design that the biggest challenge in designing the suit was fitting all the electronics into such a constrained space.

“It was very much trial and error… I started building on May 2nd, spending about four hours a day plus many all-nighters.”

Lemieux says his next suit will be more streamlined and easier to assemble.

“I also want to make Ultron. I have some great ideas on lighting his face up,” he added.

Interested in learning more about the the Arduino-powered Iron Man suit? You can check out Lemieux’s website here.

Atmel @ 2013 World Maker Faire: Day 2

On day one of the 2013 World Maker Faire in NYC, Atmel showcased a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos, including Hexbugs, the wildly popular Makerbot 2 3D printer, Pensa, ArduLab and Fuzzbots.

Atmel’s booth in the Arduino pavilion continued to draw large crowds on day two of the Faire, with 12-year-old Maker and CEO Quin Etnyre proudly showing off the Educator’s Choice award and open source maven Eric Weddington displaying his Editor’s Award for a slick bunny suit demo of how Atmel AVR MCUs are made, from start to finish.

Meanwhile, Andreas Eieland (aka Atmel’s “MCU Guy”) talked a little SAM4N with attendees, while Atmel’s Bob Martin offered up some more Hexbug hacking to eager booth visitors.

Martin later took a break from the Atmel booth to give an electronics presentation titled “Prototyping is as Easy as Uno, Due, Tres.”

Although the 2013 World Maker Faire may be drawing to a close, Atmel continues to challenge Makers, designers and engineers to develop new AVR-powered gadgets and gizmos with commercial potential.

So do you think you have what it takes to be a Master Maker?

If you do, be sure to check out Atmel’s ongoing AVR Hero Maker Faire Contest. We’ll feature the projects and the people will vote, with the Master Maker receiving a $1,000 cash prize, one-year discount on Atmel products, four tickets to upcoming (local) Maker Faires and some cool Atmel swag!

Prototyping is as easy as Uno, Due, Tres

The long-awaited 2013 World Maker Faire kicks off on September 21st in the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). We’ll be there in the Arduino pavilion, showcasing a number of innovative devices powered by Atmel-based Arduino boards.

Atmel’s Bob Martin will also be taking center stage at the show with a presentation titled “Prototyping is as Easy as Uno, Due, Tres.” According to Martin, the Ardruino Uno is an excellent lab tool for technicians and hardware engineers who have a specific design in mind.

During the presentation, Atmel will demonstrate how our MCU apps lab uses the Uno to test harnesses for LED lighting, SBC reset response and power supply stress-testing for a weather station prototype. So be sure to stop by and see Atmel’s Arduino prototyping demo on Sunday, September 22, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:00PM ET at the electronics stage.

We’ll also be hosting a public media/industry analyst panel on Friday, September 20th, on the Maker Community and education. Members of the panel include Atmel’s Reza Kazerounian, co-founder of Arduino Massimo Banzi, Atmel Maker and Hexbug guru Bob Martin, university engineer professor Annmarie Thomas, EDN’s Executive Editor Suzanne Deffree, 12-year old CEO and maker Quin (Qtechknow), and MAKE Books Senior Editor Brian Jepson. The panel will be moderated by Windell H. Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Tune into our live Twitter feed of the panel starting at 11:30 am ET on September 20th under #Atmelmakes or visit our recently launched microsite for more details. Interested in attending Atmel’s panel? Be sure to email us at pr@atmel.com. For those of you who plan on visiting the Faire, Atmel’s booth is showcasing a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos including:

• Hexbug/hovercraft hacking: Watch Atmel employees hack traditional Hexbugs and hovercrafts using Arduino boards.
• MakerBot: We’ll be showcasing the wildly popular AVR-powered 3D printer and providing 3D samples over the weekend.
• Pensa: This company uses Arduino boards to make their flagship DIWire, a rapid prototyping machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D and 3D shapes.
• Infinity Aerospace: The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Additional exhibitors at the Atmel World Maker Faire booth include Fuzzbot (robots), Evil Mad Scientist and Colorado Micro Devices. We’re looking forward to seeing you, so don’t forget to follow us at @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino!

Video: An Android-powered laser maze for wannabe spies

What’s a modern spy-action movie without an intricate laser maze designed to confound the protagonist? And really, how difficult is it to bypass those annoying sensors? Well, the folks at NerdWorking decided to find out by building an Arduino-controlled laser maze, or Laser Room.

“We’ve set a 7.3×2.5×2.5 m modular construction, [enabling us to]  construct the playground in two hours  wherever we want. We made the experience design using 200 mW green lasers,” the NerdWorking crew explained in a recent post.

“We connected the laser network to the circuit managed by [an Atmel-powered] Arduino Uno [ATmega328]. We set security cams and set in some smoke to make the players work easier. Although it is fun for the players to play we’ve set a compelling parcour for them.”

Fortunately, the project features an automatic security system for the 200mW lasers which could potentially scratch the eye retina and burn the skin. Meaning, whenever the player touches the lasers, the system turns off automatically as the alarms sound.

The NerdWorking crew certainly has high expectations for players, as they recommend a “speedy and nimble” three-minute limit for completion.

So, are you up to the challenge? Watch the video above and find out!

Arduino overclocked with liquid nitrogen

A modder named Michail recently snapped up some liquid nitrogen in Moscow and decided to try his hand at overclocking an Arduino with the LIN. As you can see in the video below, the Arduino’s temperature was brought down to a cool -196°C/-320°F as it hit speeds of 65.3MHz.

During the overclocking session, Michail ran several stability tests he designed specifically for the project to gauge if the ATmega was still working correctly, including SRAM read/write, flash read, arithmetic math and program flow test.

“The Arduino was externally clocked by a TTL-logic based square signal generator he designed, which can produce a clock between 16 and 100MHz,” the Hack A Day crew explained in a recent blog post about the project. “[As to] what happens to the different on-board components when cooled with LN2? Electrolytic capacitors becomes virtually non-existent, X7R capacitors’ impedance drop by 2/3, silicon diodes voltage drop increase by 50% and LED’s colors change.”

Michail said he overclocked the Arduino UNO (Atmel ATmega328P) to better understand how electronic equipment operates at cryogenic temperatures.

“[I was also] curious how much juice you can squeeze out of AVR if you push hard enough This also produced some results relevant to desktop processors overclocking with liquid nitrogen cooling,” Michail noted. “[Remember], overclocking microcontrollers with liquid nitrogen cooling promises to be harder, than overclocking desktop processors. Luckily for me, all [the] problems were sorted out at the end.”

Interested in learning more? Additional photos and data are available here on Michail’s official website.

Creating a retro gamebox with Arduino

Darren Yates of APC Mag has designed an Arduino-based retro gamebox for those of us who are nostalgic for blocky graphics, tinny 8-bit sound, stacks of (dusty) cartridges and golden memories.

To complete this project, you’ll need a number of basic components, including an Atmel-powered Arduino Uno R3, 8-way arcade joystick, arcade pushbutton, Dupont wires, red RCA socket, black RCA socket, 900ml kitchen food container, 2 x 470ohm 0.5W metal resistor and a 1 x 1kohm 0.5W metal resistor.

“The inspiration for this project of ours came from the Hackvision system developed by Nootropic Design. It’s a basic cut-down custom Arduino with four direction buttons and a fire button, all built onto a single printed circuit board,” Yates explained.

“You can buy it as a prebuilt device ($44) or a kit you put together yourself ($34). However, since the Arduino code for a number of games — including Space Invaders, Asteroid, Tetris and Sudoku — has been released to open source, we decided a game box with existing Arduino hardware would be a worthy inclusion into our project list. [Plus], by using a standard Arduino in our Retro Gamebox, changing games is as simple as plugging the Gamebox into your PC’s USB port and compiling the new Arduino sketch.”

Interested? You can find original games at nootropicdesign.com/hackvision/. To make it easier, APC has put together each game as a separate ZIP pack, with all the required libraries included. These can be downloaded from apcmag.com/arduino.htm under Project 07. Additional information, along with a full list of instructions for building the Retro Gamebox, is available here on the APC Mag site.

This biomedical device is going open source

This August, a team of researchers from FabLab Pisa and the University of Pisa’s Center for Bioengineering and Robotics will kick off an exciting new project known as OS4BME, or Open Source for Biomedical Engineering.

The project’s goal? Introducing the medical device world to a DIY & Makers philosophy. Indeed, OS4BME wants to help facilitate the development of simple, low-cost and high-impact biomedical devices such as neonatal baby monitors.

According to the official Arduino blog, the course is slated to take place at Kenyatta University (Nairobi) and will involve a number of staggered tracks, including configuring a 3D printing system, developing a neonatal monitoring device, using open source and designing solar-powered electronics based on the Atmel-powered Arduino platform.

“Participants will play an active role in the identification of components, design, assembling and testing of the device and in the discussion of regulatory issues in its development,” the Arduino blog explained. “Close attention will [especially] be paid to safety, ergonomic aspects and regulatory standards for biomedical devices.”

Arduino has announced its official support for the project, sending the research team a number of UNO boards, along with Wi-Fi and GSM shields to be used during the course. The components will subsequently be donated to the Kenyatta University and Fablab Nairobi.

OS4BME was created by Prof. Arti Ahluwalia (Univ. Pisa), Daniele Mazzei and Carmelo De Maria (Fablab Pisa, Centro E.Piaggio).

Video: Up close and personal with DIY animatronic eyes

Animatronics – originally developed by Walt Disney in the early 1960s – describes the use mechatronics to create devices which appear animate rather than robotic. Such creations typically include animals, plants and even mythical creatures.

Years ago, animatronics was understandably limited to Hollywood studios with seemingly endless wads of cash, but today Makers can design their own animatronic creations using inexpensive electronic components and a pinch of elbow grease.

Case in point? A Maker named Lance Gundersen who brought a pair of animatronic eyes to life with an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), two servos, some plexiglass and a couple of doll eyes.

More information about Lance’s animatronic eye project can be found here on Instructables.

Atmel @ the Silicon Valley Maker Faire – Sarge the home patrolbot

So the 2013 Silicon Valley Maker Faire was held this past weekend in sunny California, with Atmel’s microcontrollers taking center stage in many creations, both big and small.

Although it is practically impossible to list all the devices at the Faire with Atmel microcontrollers under the hood, we’ll be taking the next few days to highlight a number of projects we came across while walking the rather expansive Faire grounds.

In this article, we’ll offer up a closer look at Sarge the home patrolbot, designed by the RoboRadix crew. Sarge’s basic function is to roam around a home or apartment, deftly avoiding pesky obstacles and keeping an electronic eye on things when its owners are out and about.

Currently, the good Sarge is a work in progress, but we were able to get a basic rundown from the folks at the Faire. Unsurprisingly, the ‘bot is built around the versatile Arduino UNO (ATmega328) or MEGA (ATmega1280), both of which are powered by Atmel microcontrollers.

Additional specs include two 12 Volts DC motors from an old lawn mower, a Linksys wireless IP camera, one Piezo Buzzer, two 12 Volts DC motors from an old lawn mower, one Pololu dual VNH5019 motor driver shield, one ultrasonic range sensor, two Sharp IR distance sensors, one Breadboard and power supply, one DC/DC power supply single Output 3A 15W 5-pin, one Power-Sonic 12V SLA battery and two 9V battery holders and 9V battery.

Oh, and yes, a special shout-out to the cool R2D2 unit (courtesy of Camp Peavy and their home-brewed robots) that was sharing the same exhibit table as Sarge. Sorry Sarge, we didn’t mean to make you feel inadequate, but we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to gawk at our favorite Star Wars droids.

AeroQuad is an open source ‘copter

The AeroQuad – which is being showcased this weekend at Silicon Valley Maker Faire 2013 – is an open-source hardware and software project dedicated to helping makers and modders construct their very own remote controlled four-rotor helicopters.

AeroQuad hardware often includes an Arduino microcontroller (Atmel Mega 2560 or Uno) as the flight controller board, along with an AeroQuad shield and various sensors, such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer (heading), barometer (altitude hold) and ultrasonic sensors.

AeroQuad parts can be snapped up here, while AeroQuad software can be downloaded here. Additional information is available here.