Are you (or your kid) curious about the world around you? Google wants to help. It just launched Science Journal, an Android app that helps you perform (and comment on) simple science experiments. The app can record light, motion and sound levels using only your phone's sensors, letting you study everything from a light bulb's brightness to the acceleration in a jump. It's easy to kick things up a notch, though. You can connect Arduino-powered sensors, and Google is partnering with Exploratorium to offer starter kits to help budding scientists. Science Journal is free, so there's no harm in giving it a try -- even if you're a full-fledged adult, you might learn something.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play, Google for Education

Are you (or your kid) curious about the world around you? Google wants to help. It just launched Science Journal, an Android app that helps you perform (and comment on) simple science experiments. The app can record light, motion and sound levels using only your phone's sensors, letting you study everything from a light bulb's brightness to the acceleration in a jump. It's easy to kick things up a notch, though. You can connect Arduino-powered sensors, and Google is partnering with Exploratorium to offer starter kits to help budding scientists. Science Journal is free, so there's no harm in giving it a try -- even if you're a full-fledged adult, you might learn something.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play, Google for Education

Are you (or your kid) curious about the world around you? Google wants to help. It just launched Science Journal, an Android app that helps you perform (and comment on) simple science experiments. The app can record light, motion and sound levels using only your phone's sensors, letting you study everything from a light bulb's brightness to the acceleration in a jump. It's easy to kick things up a notch, though. You can connect Arduino-powered sensors, and Google is partnering with Exploratorium to offer starter kits to help budding scientists. Science Journal is free, so there's no harm in giving it a try -- even if you're a full-fledged adult, you might learn something.

Electrospinning is a fascinating process where a high voltage potential is applied between a conductive emitter nozzle and a collector screen. A polymer solution is then slowly dispensed from the nozzle. The repulsion of negative charges in the solution forces fine fibers emanate from the liquid. Those fibers are then rapidly accelerated towards the collector screen by the electric field while being stretched and thinned down to a few hundred nanometers in diameter. The large surface area of the fine fibers lets them dry during their flight towards the collector screen, where they build up to a fine, fabric-like material. We’ve noticed that electrospinning is hoped to enable fully automated manufacturing of wearable textiles in the future.

[Douglas Miller] already has experience cooking up small batches of microscopic fibers. He’s already made carbon nanotubes in his microwave. The next step is turning those nanotubes into materials and fabrics in a low-cost, open source electrospinning machine, his entry for the Hackaday Prize.

As always in fundamental research projects, a whole lot of parameters have to be tuned just right. To speed up the process of finding suitable values for the electric potential, dosing feed rate, emitter to collector plate distance, temperature, and humidity, [Douglas] build his machine with a CNC controlled vertical axis and syringe pump, that can dispense even the smallest amounts of a given solutions accurately. Temperature and humidity control will be added as the project progresses. A host software and GUI allows for easy control of all parameters and will also save and recall presets for different spinning solutions once everything has been dialed in. [Douglas] already ran a few tests, spraying saline solution from an old 3D printer nozzle, and we can soon expect first tests with polymer solutions from the better-suited syringe nozzles he installed.

To keep the build affordable and easy to reproduce for other makers, [Douglas] uses available materials and came up with a few design tricks that could also be applied to other projects. The belt-driven vertical axis is based on PVC pipes, on which a 3D-printed bushing block slides up and down, adjusting the distance between the nozzle and the collector plate. An acrylic door with a safety switch prevents the polymer spray from escaping from the spinning chamber. In the heart of the machine sits an Arduino Uno with a gShield, controlling the stepper motors and talking to the host computer. The 3D-printed syringe pump, a custom design, swings out from the side of the machine to allow for easy refilling. Submerged in mineral oil, which may have been chosen to reduce the risk of overheating and arcing, lies a half-wave series voltage multiplier, cranking up the voltage from an AC power supply to a maximum of 30 kV DC.

Flying a drone usually leads to–sooner or later–crashing a drone. If you are lucky, you’ll see where it crashes and it won’t be out of reach. If you aren’t lucky, you’ll know where it is, but it will be too high to easily reach. The worst case is when it just falls out of the sky and you aren’t entirely sure where. [Just4funmedia] faced this problem and decided to use some piezo buzzers and an Arduino to solve it.

Yeah, yeah, we know. You don’t really need an Arduino to do this, although it does make it easy to add some flexibility. You can pick two tones that are easy to hear and turn on the buzzers with a spare channel or sense a loss of signal or power.

The device has its own battery so it will work even if the drone’s power depletes. Apparently, the 9V battery will run the whole thing for over 20 hours. Pulsing the audio would probably push that number even higher. Of course, the downside is the drone has to carry the extra weight, but if you recover an otherwise lost drone, that might be a small price to pay.

This might be more practical than a calculus-based approach. Maybe like a tightrope walker, you’d rather use a net.

Arduino Create, which came out of beta today, is a web-based development platform for Arduino that allows you to write, share, and collaborate on sketches.

Read more on MAKE

The post The New “Arduino Create” Makes for Easier IoT Dev, Better Collaboration appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Primary image

Otto was inspired by another robot instructable BoB the BiPed and programmed using code from another open source biped robot called Zowi.

CC-BY-SA

Otto's differences are in the assembled size (11cm x 7cm x12cm), cleaner integration of components and expressions.

read more

More than 10 years ago, we set out to simplify electronics with easy-to-use, open-source hardware. 10 years later, we’re looking to do the same for Internet of Things development with Arduino Create — an integrated online platform that enables Makers to write code, access content, configure boards, and share projects.

Traditionally speaking, going from an idea to a fully-functional IoT device has been a tedious process even for the most advanced engineers and developers. Until now, they would have to frequently switch back and forth between various tools and screens, from IDEs to cloud services. That’s why Arduino has set out to launch a one stop shop for the Maker experience, which will change the way you create, collaborate and communicate with your projects and the rapidly growing community.

Whereas many companies deliver IDEs, some offer clouds and others curate DIY projects, Arduino Create converges all of that under one roof for an entirely fragmented-free user experience. Designed to provide Makers with a continuous workflow, the new platform connects the dots between every part of a Maker’s journey from inspiration to installation. Ideally, you will now have the ability to manage every aspect of your project right from a single dashboard.

With Arduino Create, you can tap into the power of the community on the Arduino Project Hub by browsing a collection of projects and then making them your own. You can share your creations, along with step-by-step guides, schematics, references, and receive feedback from others.

Despite your skill level, Arduino Create features in-depth guided flows to help easily configure online services like the Web Editor and Cloud. There’ll even be an additional learning component via Arduino’s popular Creative Technologies in the Classroom (CTC) educational program in the near future that will spark collaboration between teachers and their students.

The Arduino Web Editor allows you to write code and upload sketches to any Arduino or Genuino board after installing a simple plug-in — your Sketchbook will be stored in the cloud and accessible from any device. You can even import your Sketchbook via a .zip file! What’s more, sharing a sketch is now as easy as sharing a link.

For Maker Faire Bay Area we are bumping up the number of beta testers for the Arduino Web Editor: the most active contributors will receive 10 invites each! If you’d like to contribute to the development as well, you can sign up on the waiting list to join more than a thousand testers.

It should also be noted that Arduino has partnered with Amazon Web Services to power the new Arduino Create ecosystem. “By adopting AWS IoT and AWS Lambda for our IoT Cloud infrastructure, we provide Arduino Cloud and Arduino Web Editor users with a secure, reliable, and highly scalable environment that will enable Makers to connect their projects to the Internet and manage them through the Cloud,” says Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi.

Interested in learning more? Maker Faire goers can hear all about it from Massimo himself on Saturday, May 21 at 12:30pm in his annual “State of Arduino” address.

Arduino and Genuino Education is a worldwide-leading school initiative bringing technology into the hands of teachers and students to create a more inventive learning experience. It offers multiple platforms, including research-based projects like PELARS and in-class programs such as Creative Technologies in the Classroom (CTC), all of which are present at this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area.

With CTC, students are able to learn basic programming, electronics, and mechanics concepts in an approachable, playful way through a series of coding projects and easy-to-assemble experiments.

Arduino’s one-of-a-kind STEM program has been implemented in nearly 500 schools throughout the globe, resulting in an overwhelming satisfaction rate among both students and teachers alike. 95% of instructors continue to use the curriculum in their classrooms year after year, while more than 13,000 students have already participated.

CTC 101 — running on Arduino 101 — is divided into four distinct stages:

1. Teacher training (one week)
2. Themed modules (five modules, 10 weeks)
3. Student projects (nine weeks)
4. Technology fair (one day)

Each program comes with a CTC 101 Toolbox consisting of:

• Sets of electronics components and pre-cut mechanical parts
• 25+ hands-on projects
• Live training for teachers
• Free online documentation and course materials
• Support forums for teachers and students

Interested? Be sure to come visit us at Maker Faire Bay Area to learn more and fill out this form so we can get in touch!

[S.PiC] has been working on a computer case styled to look like the Vulture mech from Battletech. We’re not sure if his serious faced cat approves or not, but we do.

The case is made from artfully cut plywood. We kind of hope he keeps the wood aesthetic. However, that would be getting dangerously close to steampunk. So perhaps a matching paint job at the end will do. In some of the videos we can how he’s cleverly incorporated the computer’s components into the design of the case. For example, the black mesh on the front actually hides the computer’s power supply intake fan.

The computer inside is a small micro-itx formfactor one. Added as peripherals to it [S.Pic] has pulled out the hacker-electronics-tricks bible. From hand soldered LED grids to repurposed Nokia LCD screens, he has it all. In one video we can even see the turret of the mech rotating under its own power.

It looks like the build still has a few more steps before completion, but it’s already impressive enough to be gladly worth the useful table space consumed on any hacker’s desk. Video after the break.