Subatomic physics is pretty neat stuff, but not generally considered within the reach of the home-gamer. With cavernous labs filled with racks of expensive gears and miles-wide accelerators, playing with the subatomic menagerie has been firmly in the hands of the pros for pretty much as long as the field has been in existence. But that could change with this sub-$100 DIY muon detector.

[Spencer Axani] has been fiddling with the idea of a tiny muon detector since his undergrad days. Now as an MIT doctoral candidate, he’s making that dream a reality. Muons are particles that are similar to electrons but more massive and less likely to be affected by electromagnetic fields. Muons rain down on the Earth’s surface at the rate of 10,000 per square meter every minute after being created by cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere and are capable of penetrating deep into the planet. [Spencer]’s detector is purposely kept as low-budget as possible, using cheap plastic scintillators and solid-state photomultipliers hooked up to an Arduino. The whole project is as much STEM outreach as it is a serious scientific effort; the online paper (PDF link) stresses the mechanical and electronics skills needed to complete the build. At the $100 price point, this build is well within the means of most high school STEM programs and allows for a large, distributed array of muon detectors that has the potential for some exciting science.

We’ve covered quite a few subatomic detection projects before, from the aforementioned large-scale builds to more modest efforts. But we like this project because it has the potential to inspire a lot of citizen scientists.

Thanks for the tip, [deralchemist]

Autonomous cars seem to get all of the attention, but this autonomous trike is hoping to take things in a different direction.

With the support of Amazon’s Catalyst program, as well as from software company Kerika, University of Washington Bothell professor Tyler Folsom’s self-driving tricycle aims to help us lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. It’s a neat platform in its current form based on a recumbent tricycle.

As seen in the video below, it’s taken one of the first steps toward driving itself, taking a command to drive in a circle without direct control by an operator.

Folsom notes that Google is tackling the challenge of driving in traffic. Once driving software is mature and can be integrated into this type of platform, perhaps we will be able to ride to work or the store in a smaller vehicle like this!

“Of course we used the Arduino microprocessor.” – Professor Folsom

You can see more details on this project in the UW Bothell’s writeup.

(Photos: University of Washington Bothell)

For his latest project, Dmitry Morozov (aka ::vtol::) has created a robotic machine that uses a microphone to record sounds from its surrounding environment, selecting only the loudest ones. Then, the aptly named “Collector” pieces these noises together in the order they were recorded to form an algorithmic  composition.

First, the Collector records the sounds until it has gathered 100 samples. From there, it plays the result as a loop through a pair of speakers for one minute, so they can be heard by those nearby. While this mode, the recording stops. After that, it erases everything and begins a new search.

The Collector is also equipped with an Arduino Uno for a brain, a servo motor for rotating the mic, and a flashlight to show detected sounds or indicate the sounds during playback mode.

It is a kind of reality re-mixer–by simply removing the silence and pauses between loud sounds and words, it creates the sense of very rhythmical and organized aural experience, which sounds very musical to me.

Intrigued? You can read more and see other photos of the project on its page here.

If you thought table tennis was hard enough, wait until you see what Mark Wheeler and a team of designers have come up with. Ping Pong FM puts a Guitar Hero-like spin on the classic sport.

However, unlike the actual game, Ping Pong FM is more collaborative than competitive. That’s because players must hit the ball back and forth to keep the music going. Select your paddle, choose your song, and serve. Rally too slowly, or miss the ball, and the music will wind down. Rally at the correct tempo and the party is on. As you can imagine, faster tunes like “Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys or “Milkshake” by Kelis are more challenging.

Although it may resemble an ordinary table tennis setup, Ping Pong FM is much more high-tech. Contact microphones are placed inside each of the paddles to track gameplay, while the microphone audio is processed by an Arduino hidden in a retro radio case that listens for peaks above a threshold. When a hit is registered, the Arduino sends a Player ID via USB to a computer running the game app, which displays the song coming out of two speakers and adjusts its speed accordingly.

You can see Ping Pong FM in action below and read more about the project here.

Using an Arduino and 1Sheeld, Integreight embedded engineer Eslam Ali set his office clock up to preview the traffic going home.

If you work in a traffic-prone area, there’s always a debate at to whether you should go home at the normal time or wait a few minutes to leave and avoid the traffic. To help make that decision, Ali likes to check the traffic before heading out. This might be fairly simply using a computer or smartphone, but doing so autonomously would be even better.

In a clever feat of automation, he embedded 12 RGB LEDs in a simple IKEA clock. These were then controlled by an Arduino Uno, using a 1Sheeld device to access the Internet through his smartphone. If traffic is bad, it displays as red, then blinks green when it’s time to go! A clever application in itself, something like this could be expanded for numerous uses, perhaps even involving animated lights.

Whenever it’s time to get off the office, I always check the traffic status to choose the best time to go home. But I couldn’t find a way to do that autonomously. So then…I was up to make a system that shows me the current traffic status with the help of a simple tool that is used probably in all the offices, a wall clock

In addition to the video below, you can see how to make one on 1Sheeld’s site or check out the discussion about this build on Reddit.

Using an Arduino with an accelerometer, this handy display lets you know how “extreme” your driving really is!

Modern cars tell us all kinds of information about how our vehicles are working and how you are driving. One thing that is generally missing is a display that tells you how many “G’s” (or how much you are pushed back into your seat) your car is pulling. With this clever setup, you can know how much force your tires are putting to the ground (neglecting body-roll factors) in both straight-line acceleration, braking, and even side-to-side turning.

As an automotive enthusiast and a mechanical engineer, I had a poor physical understanding of G’s. Sure, I’m experiencing 1g as I’m standing upright, but how many G’s did I experience as I came to a quick stop in LA traffic? To gain a better physical understanding of G’s, I built this device.

You can see more details of this simple yet very useful build on eadiec’s Imgur page.

Sreyash's simple concepts could be very helpful to those with vision impairments.

Read more on MAKE

The post High Schooler Makes Devices for Visually Impaired Using Arduino and Servos appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

When [krich] switched keyboards he lost his volume control. So he decided to hack one together out of an Arduino, an old floppy disc case, and a Hover Labs Hover board (not the Back to the Future kind). You can see the result in the videos below.

You’ll notice in the video that the device reads a “spin” motion to resemble a round volume control. The program sends simulated keyboard presses to the PC to control the audio. In the write-up, [krich] mentions it may be the first gesture-based volume control. However,we’ve done it before and so have others.

The Hoverboard does all the hard work, of course. It passes data to the Arduino via I2C. The PC side is handled by some Windows on screen display software, 3RVX.

Still, this one seems to work well with the Hover board. Hard to argue against anything that upcycles a floppy disc container.

Building an arcade cabinet seems to be a rite of passage for many hackers and woodworkers. Not that there is anything wrong with that: as this series of posts from [Alessandro] at boxedcnc shows, there is an art to doing it well.

His final build is impressive, with quality buttons, a genuine-looking banner, and even a coin slot so he can charge people to play. His build log covers both the carpentry and electronic aspects of the build, from cutting the panels to his own code for running the coin acceptor that takes your quarter (or, as he is in Italy, Euro coins) and triggers the game to play.

To extract money from his family, he used the Sparkfun COM-1719 coin acceptor, which can be programmed to send different pulses for different coins, connected to an Arduino which is also connected to the joystick and buttons. The Arduino emulates a USB keyboard and is connected to an old PC running MAME with the Attract Mode front end. It’s a quality build, down to the Bubble Bobble banner, and the coin slot means that it might even make some money back eventually.