Writing articles for Hackaday, we see funny projects, and we see dangerous projects. It’s rare to find a project which combines the two. This one somehow manages to pull it off. [Outaspaceman] is familiar with LittleBits, but he’s just starting to learn Arduino programming. He completed the blink tutorial, but blinking an LED just wasn’t enough fanfare for the success of his first Arduino program. He connected the Arduino Mega’s LED output to a pair of LittleBits which then switch a servo between two positions. A bare servo wouldn’t be much fun, so [Outaspaceman] connected a tentacle and a small Swiss army knife. Yes, a knife.

The tentacle in question is designed to be a finger puppet. There’s something about a tentacle waving a knife around that is so hilarious and absurd that we couldn’t help but laugh. We’re not alone apparently, as this video has gone viral with over 1 million views. It’s almost like a violent revenge of the most useless machine. For the technically curious, the tentacle’s seemingly random motion is analogous to that of the double pendulum.

Our readers will be happy to know that [Outaspaceman] has made it to the Arduino servo tutorial, and is now controlling the servo directly, no LittleBits needed. We just hope he has a good way to turn his creation off – without the need for stitches.

It’s cute, it’s fun and easy to assemble, it’s mBot by Makebloc, the new educational robot joining Arduino AtHeart program!

mBot it’s an all-in-one solution for kids and beginners to enjoy the hands-on experience about robotics, programming, and electronics.

You can program it with drag-and-drop graphical programming software based on Scratch 2.0 and the magic happens: the robots can follow lines, kick balls and push objects, avoid walls and more. You can also switch from graphical to text-based programming in Arduino mode as it can be coded with Arduino IDE environment.

Watch the video of their successful Kickstarter campaign:

mBot supports wireless communication, standard Arduino boards like Arduino Uno, Leonardo boards, Arduino Nano, Arduino Mega 2560, Makeblock mCore (based on Arduino Uno).

The main control board’s design, mCore of mBot, is based on Arduino UNO: with intuitional color labels and easy-to-use RJ25 connectors, the board can get wired easily so students can then get more time to focus on creating all kinds of interactive stories and projects.

To help teachers, parents, and kids get started easier and faster the robot kit has two free tutorial e-books and online manuals are provided and increasing continually.

Take a look at mBot on Makeblock website and discover how to use 2.4GHz wireless module and Bluetooth module with mBot:

read more

It’s been over 4 years since Portal 2 launched, but Wheatley, the AI character with a British accent, remains a captivating character. [Evie Bee] built a Wheatley replica complete with sound, movement, and one glowing eye.

The body of Wheatley is made out of blue insulation foam, also called XPS foam, laminated together with UHU Polyurethane glue. This formed a sphere, which was then cut into a detailed body. Papier mache clay was used to strengthen the thin foam.

The electronics for this build provide light, motion, and sound. The eye is moved by a total of 3 Arduino controlled servos: two for the movement of the eye, and one to allow it to open and close. Movement is controlled by two joysticks. Sound is provided by the Adafruit Sound Board, which connects to a speaker and a Velleman Sound to Light Kit. This kit controls the LEDs that light the eye, making it react to the voice of Wheatley.

You can watch this Wheatley rant at you after the break. Of course if you’re going to have a Wheatley you need a GLaDOS potato as well.

If you want your kid to be really great at something, you have to start them out early. [Phil Tucker] must want his kid to be a video gamer pretty badly. [Phil’s] build starts with a $20 IKEA high chair. He likes these chairs because at that price point, tearing into them isn’t a big risk. What’s more is you can buy extra trays so you can use it as a modular project with different trays serving different purposes.

The chair has two joysticks and two buttons, looking suspiciously like a video game controller. The current incarnation (see video, below) uses an Arduino Uno to trigger an Akai MPC1000 synthesizer via the MIDI interface.

Of course, you could control other MIDI devices or even program the Arduino to do other things (like act as a game controller). We’ve seen lots of IKEA hacks, including a laser cutter, a camera slide, and even a printer (not a 3D printer, although we covered that, too).

Now you can recreate the infamous dance scene from Ex Machina with some cardboard, LEDs, and Arduino.

Read more on MAKE

The post Party Like a Sci-Fi Billionaire with the Music-Sensing Light from Ex Machina appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

Hi;

I am building and testing a telepresence wheeled rover bot that has two methods of control:

1. Web Interface (Manual Mode): This consists of a control panel on a web page served using WebIOPi on a Raspberry Pi which, when activated, sends commands to an Arduino Nano AT Mega328P via a two wire i2c interface (Forward, Back etc). 

read more

Laying hands on the supplies for most hacks we cover is getting easier by the day. A few pecks at the keyboard and half a dozen boards or chips are on an ePacket from China to your doorstep for next to nothing. But if hacking life is what you’re into, you’ll spend a lot of time and money gathering the necessary instrumentation. Unless you roll your own mini genetic engineering lab from scratch, that is.

Taking the form of an Arduino mega-shield that supports a pH meter, a spectrophotometer, and a PID-controlled hot plate, [M. Bindhammer]’s design has a nice cross-section of the instruments needed to start biohacking in your basement. Since the piggybacks on an Arduino, all the data can be logged, and decisions can be made based on the data as it is collected. One example is changing the temperature of the hot plate when a certain pH is reached. Not having to babysit your experiments could be a huge boon to the basement biohacker.

Biohacking is poised to be the next big thing in the hacking movement, and [M. Bindhammer]’s design is far from the only player in the space. From incubators to peristaltic pumps to complete labs in a box, the tools to tweak life are starting to reach critical mass. We can’t wait to see where these tools lead.

Finding the perfect gift for everyone on your list it’s fun and inspiring. Let us help you choose the perfect gift: next to our classic Arduino, Genuino boards and goodies, we created 3 thematic guides to highlight the products in our stores that deserve a spot on your gift list. And to make it even more special, we added a FREE SHIPPING* feature for orders over 150$/100€.

TINKERING
Experience the magic of playing with technology. Your creative confidence is going to boost!

Click and explore all the products of the gift guide dedicated to Tinkering

• Many people around the world had fun tinkering on the 15 projects featured in the Arduino Starter Kit and Genuino Starter Kit. Now you can make someone happy too for XMas! The Starter Kit is available in English and Italian.

• The 3rd edition of Getting Started with Arduino by Massimo Banzi and Michael Shiloh introduces to the UNO board, gives you lots of ideas for projects, and helps you experiment with them right away.

• If you are looking for interacting with your surroundings in experimental ways, Arduino AtHeart Bare Conductive Touch Board and Touch Board Kit can turn almost any material or surface into a sensor. Connect objects to its 12 electrodes, using conductive paint or any conductive material and create amazing musical instruments.

KIDS
Get inspired and make this holiday special for your kids! Get them to experiment with science and technology and the wonderful world of STEAM.

Click and explore all the products of the gift guide dedicated to kids

• You can share your excitement with electronics playing with kids and teenagers on the TV-B-Gone Kit, a universal remote designed to shut off any TV. It’s fun making it and using it.

• Get started with paper circuits and stickers with Chibit Circuit Sticker Start Kit an imaginative and easy way to make fun electronics projects without coding, soldering, or hands-on experience.

• Play with the most hackable tiny synth ever! NS1nanosynth synthesizer is an handeld 220x85mm analog modular synthesizer coupled with an Arduino Leonardo platform. it’s a tool to explore the potential contamination between analog and digital music creation!

IOT & CONNECTIVITY
Create connected devices and master your IoT skills. It’s easier than you think.

Click and explore the product of the gift guide dedicated to IoT

•  Blend Micro is a RedBearLab Arduino AtHeart integrated development board. They “blend”ed Arduino with Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (aka BLE or Bluetooth Smart) into a small single board. You can quickly and easily develop low power IoT projects.

• Making things Talk 2nd edition by Arduino co-founder Tom Igoe, shows you how to get your gadgets to communicate with you and your environment. It’s perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest.In this expanded edition, you’ll learn how to form networks of smart devices that share data and respond to commands

On our stores we are offering FREE SHIPPING for all orders over 150$ (below 3 Lb) in USA via USPS Priority Mail, and for all orders over 100€ (below 3 Kg) via GLS in Europe.

Delivery will take 4-5 working days to reach you. In December, this may take longer due to end-of-the-year seasonality. Should you need delivery by December 24th, we strongly advise you to place the order before December 18th.

Free Shipping is available from November 27th 2015 until January 6th 2016.

Finding the perfect gift for everyone on your list it’s fun and inspiring. Let us help you choose the perfect gift: next to our classic Arduino, Genuino boards and goodies, we created 3 thematic guides to highlight the products in our stores that deserve a spot on your gift list. And to make it even more special, we added a FREE SHIPPING* feature for orders over 150$/100€.

TINKERING
Experience the magic of playing with technology. Your creative confidence is going to boost!

Click and explore all the products of the gift guide dedicated to Tinkering

• Many people around the world had fun tinkering on the 15 projects featured in the Arduino Starter Kit and Genuino Starter Kit. Now you can make someone happy too for XMas! The Starter Kit is available in English and Italian.

• The 3rd edition of Getting Started with Arduino by Massimo Banzi and Michael Shiloh introduces to the UNO board, gives you lots of ideas for projects, and helps you experiment with them right away.

• If you are looking for interacting with your surroundings in experimental ways, Arduino AtHeart Bare Conductive Touch Board and Touch Board Kit can turn almost any material or surface into a sensor. Connect objects to its 12 electrodes, using conductive paint or any conductive material and create amazing musical instruments.

KIDS
Get inspired and make this holiday special for your kids! Get them to experiment with science and technology and the wonderful world of STEAM.

Click and explore all the products of the gift guide dedicated to kids

• You can share your excitement with electronics playing with kids and teenagers on the TV-B-Gone Kit, a universal remote designed to shut off any TV. It’s fun making it and using it.

• Get started with paper circuits and stickers with Chibit Circuit Sticker Start Kit an imaginative and easy way to make fun electronics projects without coding, soldering, or hands-on experience.

• Play with the most hackable tiny synth ever! NS1nanosynth synthesizer is an handeld 220x85mm analog modular synthesizer coupled with an Arduino Leonardo platform. it’s a tool to explore the potential contamination between analog and digital music creation!

IOT & CONNECTIVITY
Create connected devices and master your IoT skills. It’s easier than you think.

Click and explore the product of the gift guide dedicated to IoT

•  Blend Micro is a RedBearLab Arduino AtHeart integrated development board. They “blend”ed Arduino with Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (aka BLE or Bluetooth Smart) into a small single board. You can quickly and easily develop low power IoT projects.

• Making things Talk 2nd edition by Arduino co-founder Tom Igoe, shows you how to get your gadgets to communicate with you and your environment. It’s perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest.In this expanded edition, you’ll learn how to form networks of smart devices that share data and respond to commands

On our stores we are offering FREE SHIPPING for all orders over 150$ (below 3 Lb) in USA via USPS Priority Mail, and for all orders over 100€ (below 3 Kg) via GLS in Europe.

Delivery will take 4-5 working days to reach you. In December, this may take longer due to end-of-the-year seasonality. Should you need delivery by December 24th, we strongly advise you to place the order before December 18th.

Free Shipping is available from November 27th 2015 until January 6th 2016.