We don’t think we’d want to trust our fire safety to a robot carrying a few ounces of water, but as a demonstration or science project, [Tinker Guru’s] firefighting robot was an entertaining answer to the question: “What do I do with that flame sensor that came in the big box of Arduino sensors I bought from China?” You can see a video of the device below.

You can see, it is a pretty standard two-wheel robot with the drive wheels to the rear and a skid plate up front. There are a flame sensor and a water pump up forward, as well. You can probably guess, the device notices a flame and rushes to squirt water on it.

That got us thinking, though. What would it take to build a real robot fireman? Turns out you don’t have to look hard to find out there are several out there already. The Thermite robot seems to have a lot of traction — in the market, that is, although its oversized treads probably give it good traction in that way, too. Most of the robots don’t carry their own water, and there’s even one — THOR — that looks like a human. Well, as much as a pie looks like a cake, anyway.

Interestingly, none seem to carry any sort of chemical fire extinguisher. Of course, we’ve seen cases where water was the best, anyway. If you want a slightly more practical home build — but only slightly — check out [Ivan’s] robot that holds a liter of water.

The original Star Fox for the SNES was a landmark game. With the Super FX chip built into the cartridge, it presented the first 3D accelerated home console experience. The series has spanned several consoles and over two decades. Now, it’s getting an (albeit unofficial) port to the Arduboy, thanks to [Stephane Hockenhull].

Impressively, the game fits in under 28KB, and [Stephane] hasn’t skimped on the development details. The process begun with setting up a basic 3D engine on the Arduboy, followed by some tests of various gameplay ideas. The final implementation bears a strong similarity to the original SNES gameplay. At this point, work moved out of the Arduino IDE into [Stephane]’s custom development environment to speed things along. A PC port was used to save time programming the flash every iteration.

The tricks used to pull this off are many and varied. There are neat hacks used to optimise the storage of the 3D model data, implement lightweight collision detection, and generate random levels. Everything was done in order to make the game fit into the smallest space possible.

Running smooth 3D graphics on a 16MHz 8-bit microcontroller is an impressive feat, and a testament to [Stephane]’s coding abilities. We can’t wait to see more 3D development on the platform. Meanwhile, if the Arduboy doesn’t quite have the look you want, there’s a solution for that too. Video after the break.

Good science fiction has sound scientific fact behind it and when Tony Stark first made his debut on the big screen with design tools that worked at the wave of a hand, makers and hackers were not far behind with DIY solutions. Over the years the ideas have become much more polished, as we can see with this Gesture Recognition with PIR sensors project.

The project uses the TPA81 8-pixel thermopile array which detects the change in heat levels from 8 adjacent points. An Arduino reads these temperature points over I2C and then a simple thresholding function is used to detect the movement of the fingers. These movements are then used to do a number of things including turn the volume up or down as shown in the image alongside.

The brilliant part is that the TPA81 8-Pixel sensor has been around for a number of years. It is a bit expensive though it has the ability to detect small thermal variations such as candle flames at up to 2 Meters. More recent parts such as the Panasonic AMG8834 that contain a grid of 8×8 such sensors are much more capable for your hacking/making pleasure, but come with an increased price tag.

This technique is not just limited to gestures, and can be used in Heat-Seeking Robots that can very well be trained to follow the cat around just to annoy it.

For busy people with unpredictable schedules, keeping one’s feline friend fed in a timely manner can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are automatic cat food dispensers available, or you can even build one yourself.

Open Electronics’ 3D-printed device, called “FelixMatic,” claims to be more complex and complete than average off-the-shelf solutions. Not only can it be programmed to supply up to nine meals a day using a spiral-action rotary feeder, but it also measures food levels with a load cell for dispensing feedback. 

Control is via an Arduino Uno along with an RTC shield for meal timing, while the user interface consists of an LCD display and five buttons.

Having a pet involves big responsibilities, first of all granting them food; unfortunately, a hectic lifestyle and imposed work hours do not go hand-in-hand with the needs of our four-legged friends, and surely anyone living on their own will have a hard time providing the pets meals on schedule. In order to solve a problem that is surely dear to any pet owner, and especially cat and dog owners, we have designed a device we called FelixMatic: it is a practical automatic dispenser of dry food for cats (or small dogs) equipped with a high-capacity container that can easily be opened from the top and a bowl to collect the kibble when it is supplied. We know we can already find automatic dispensers on the market, however, our example is unique because it can be programmed with 9 meals a day in order to supply very precise quantities of dry food.

The way the dispenser works is more complex and complete than the average available product on the market, in fact, it does not only supply food but it also gives exact doses as decided by us; basically, at a preset time, a cochlea at the base of the container will turn, and drop a certain amount of kibble in the bowl, regulated by a dedicated weight sensor.

If you ever wondered how thread could be wound on spools without human intervention, this build by Mr. Innovative will show you one option. 

The YouTuber’s DIY machine features a motor to rotate a small roller, pulling thread off a larger “feeder” spool. An encoder disk and photoelectric sensor are used to measure how much thread has been dispensed, and a servo-powered arm swings back and forth to allow the thread to feed evenly.

The device is controlled by an Arduino Uno and custom PCB shield, while an encoder and OLED display serve as the user interface.

I have made a thread coil winding machine, using Arduino and 3D-printed parts. For GUI I have used 0.96 OLED display, and for user input I have used a rotary encoder knob. A photoelectric speed sensor is used to measure the length of thread.

The machine has two modes of operation. 1st is manual mode in which thread starts to wind on coil until stop is not pressed. In 2nd mode, auto mode, the machine will wind the thread as per the user predefined length.

Parts, code, and print files can be found in the video description if you’d like to construct something similar.

If you need a robot to traverse piping systems, what are you to do? You could purchase a (very expensive) inspection robot, or you could instead build your own like the prototype pipe-crawler presented here. 

The device features six spring-loaded wheel assemblies that help it get a grip on different diameters of pipe, with two of the wheels powered for locomotion.

An Arduino Uno controls the uniquely-shaped bot, with an LN298N H-bridge used to regulate the three 9V batteries wired in series that run the motors. 

Pipeline systems deteriorate progressively over time through various means. Pipeline inspection robot are designed to remove the human factor from labour intensive or dangerous work environments and also to act in inaccessible environment. However, if you take a look at the prices of those robots you will find that they are way too expensive.

This project aims to create another kind of pipeline inspection robot. Because we think that It is beneficial to have a robot with an adaptable structure to the pipe diameter, and cheaper at the same time.

Our challenge is to make this robot adaptable to diameters varying from 260mm to 390mm based on two sliding mechanisms.

Be sure to see it in action in the short video below! 

Model trains have been a staple of DIY hobbiysts for generations, and while wireless control options can be purchased, KushagraK7’s hack lets you use your phone instead.

The setup consists of an Arduino Uno, along with a motor driver shield to vary the trains’s peed and direction, as well as flip turnouts to allow for different sections of track to be used.

The system employs a novel interface system, where an off-the-shelf Bluetooth receiver passes DTMF (telephone dial tones) to a decoder board, which then sends this decoded data on to the Arduino. While some might opt for an HC-05 Bluetooth module or similar, this enables control with a standard tone generator app, and the phone could even be physically connected via a stereo cable if convenient.

Last June, Timo Brinschein bought a Qu4tro electric skateboard with hopes of using it for fun and commuting duties. Unfortunately, while the skateboard itself worked well, the remote had many shortcomings.

Since replacing the skateboard’s controls entirely was out of reach, he instead settled on the “small” job of reverse engineering and swapping out the wireless controller for one of his own designs. 

The resulting build uses an Arduino Nano as the brains of the device, along with the well-known nRF24L0+ module for wireless communication. Everything is housed inside a custom 3D-printed enclosure. 

Code for the project is available on GitHub, and print files for the excellent control handle is on Thingiverse.

If you like electronic music, you’ve certainly admired Daft Punk’s glowing electronic helmets. While the originals are amazing, as shown in this Electronoobs tutorial, you can now make a very good replica for around $20 and 30 hours of print time.

Print files for the helmet itself are based on this Thomas Bangalter build by the Ruiz Brothers, and similar to that one, a good amount of sanding and finishing was needed to give it a metallic look. 

Electronoobs’ helmet features seven WS2812 RGB LED strips, all connected to an Arduino Nano. Everything is controlled over Bluetooth by a custom Android app made with the MIT App Inventor, along with a microphone that allows the visor to react to music.

Maker “DJ’s Fantasi” is the technical director at his local high school’s theater arts program, and when the director of their winter production of Disney’s High School Musical requested a scoreboard prop, he excitedly set to work. 

The resulting build consists of four 7-segment displays, lit up by strips of non-programmable LEDs. 

Numbers on the device are shown with the help of an Arduino Mega, which takes input via a single-channel remote. Seven I/O pins are used to indicate each segment to be displayed, and another four multiplex the signal into the required four digits.

While a more general input device could be used, this particular scoreboard was especially set up for this musical, sequencing through numbers that correspond to the performance on command.

More details on this impressive project can be found here.