Posts with «arduino» label

A Robotic Arm Made from Recycled Bicycle Parts

Building an 8'-long robotic arm with a chainsaw on the end is no small feat. Here's how it was done.

Read more on MAKE

MAKE » Arduino 23 Jul 19:01
arduino  art & design  power tools  robotics  saw  

Opensourcing imagination and sharing knowledge in Nepal

David Cuartielles held a worshop at Campus Party Berlin introducing  Arduino and the cool things you can do with it. Some months later, on of the students, Sanjeet Raj Pandey, wrote him to reveal that the event was a life changing moment.

After that Sajeet decided  to share his knowledge and experience organising workshops in a rural city called Janakpur in Nepal. In that occasion a 100 participants got introduced to Arduino. They learnt how to blink LEDs, work with a temperature sensor, light sensor, ultrasound sensor and also to make a DIY Arduino:

Most of it was financed by myself and a bit of donation from Telecommunication department -Technical University of Berlin and Berlin Promotion Agency.

I like to make things which are real and can be put to work for society . Making things, one just cannot see but also touch is awesome.

Hope you will share Janakpur (Nepal) as one more place with Arduino. I would be keeping up pace and will be doing more such projects, workshops, seminars, remote sessions, etc for students in Nepal.

These are some pictures from the workshops:

Do you have a similar story to share? Submit it to our blog!

Arduino Blog 23 Jul 17:40
arduino  around the world  education  inspiration  knowledge  workshop  

POV Display Does it on the Cheap

[Sholto] hacked together this ultra low-budget spinning display. He calls it a zoetrope, but we think it’s actually an LED based Persistence Of Vision (POV) affair. We’ve seen plenty of POV devices in the past, but this one proves that a hack doesn’t have to be expensive or pretty to work!

The major parts of the POV display were things that [Sholto] had lying around. A couple of candy tins, a simple brushed hobby motor, an Arduino Pro Mini, 7 green LEDs, and an old hall effect sensor were all that were required. Fancy displays might use commercial slip rings to transfer power, but [Sholto] made it work on the cheap!

The two tins provide a base for the display and the negative supply for the Arduino. The tins are soldered together and insulated from the motor, which is hot glued into the lower tin. A paper clip contacts the inside of the lid, making the entire assembly a slip ring for the negative side of the Arduino’s power supply. Some copper braid rubbing on the motor’s metal case forms the positive side.

[Sholto] chose his resistors to slightly overdrive his green LEDs. This makes the display appear brighter in POV use. During normal operation, the LEDs won’t be driven long enough to cause damage. If the software locks up with LEDs on though, all bets are off!

[Sholto] includes software for a pretty darn cool looking “saw wave” demo, and a simple numeric display. With a bit more work this could make a pretty cool POV clock, at least for as long as the motor brushes hold up!

[via Instructables]

 


Filed under: led hacks
Hack a Day 23 Jul 09:00
arduino  arduino pro mini  clock  dc motor  led  led hacks  persistence of vision  pov  spinning  zoetrope  

Two steampunk espresso machines running on Arduino Mega

There’s a team of designers based in Korea who are passionate about coffee machines. Their name is Vidastech and recently shared with us two new hand-assembled machines prototyped  with Arduino Mega called Hexagon and Revolucion.

Take a look at the gallery for more pictures:

 

Arduino Blog 22 Jul 15:50
arduino  arduino mega  coffee  espresso  featured  mega  steampunk  

A new way of learning and transmitting knowledge with Arduino

The training program Creative Technologies in the Classroom (CTC) is a 3-month  educative program designed by David Cuartielles and Arduino Verkstad in collaboration with Fundación Telefónica, Fundación la Caixa and Ultra-lab.

It’s a toolbox comprised of more than 20 hands-on, easily assembled electronic experiments; an online source for course materials and documentation tools; and a collaborative space where teachers can meet with a moderator to share their findings and ask technical questions.

It aims to train teachers of Technology and students to creative technologies, which means technologies empowering young students to make devices, machines, art-works, experiments etc., enable them to learn doing things and to express themselves as creators.

Teachers are trained in programming with Processing and prototyping with Arduino, in order to become a mentor and help all along the program the students, following the different step-by-step experiments of the program.

The beneficial aspect of this program is not only about acquiring new skills and technical knowledge but mainly on experimenting a different methodology of learning and transmitting knowledge, based on sharing information,  questions,  doubts, and resolving them together by experimenting.

This project has been successfully implemented in the Region of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid involving 50 enthusiastic teachers,  around 1200 youngsters who were able to invent, create and exhibit their project made with Arduino.

See the video below for details (in spanish):

Thanks to the support of Fundación La Caixa, the same program will be held in 50 colleges of Barcelona and a new edition, with the renewed support of Fundación Telefónica, will begin again in Madrid in 2015.

Arduino Blog 21 Jul 15:35
arduino  education  exhibition  students  teachers  

Printing Text with a Chart Recorder

Chart recorders are vintage devices that were used to plot analog values on paper. They’re similar to old seismometers which plot seismic waves from earthquakes. The device has a heated pen which moves across a piece of thermally sensitive paper. This paper is fed through the machine at a specified rate, which gives two dimensions of plotting.

[Marv] ended up getting a couple of discontinued chart recorders and figured out the interface. Five parallel signals control the feed rate of the paper, and an analog voltage controls the pen location. The next logical step was to hook up an Arduino to control the plotter.

However, once the device could plot analog values, [Marv] quickly looked for a new challenge. He wanted to write characters and bitmaps using the device, but this would require non-continuous lines. By adding a solenoid to lift the pen, he built a chart recorder printer.

After the break, check out a video of the chart recorder doing something it was never intended to do. If you happen to have one of these chart recorders, [Marv] included all of the code in his writeup to help you build your own.


Filed under: classic hacks
Hack a Day 20 Jul 15:00
analog  arduino  chart recorder  classic hacks  printer  seismometer  

Long Range Wireless Sensors for the Home-Area-Network

In the near future, we will all reside in households that contain hundreds of little devices intertwingled together with an easily connectable and controllable network of sensors. For years, projects have been appearing all around the world, like this wireless sensor system that anyone can build.

[Eric] hopes his work will help bring the truly expansive Home-Area-Network (HAN) into fruition by letting developers build cheap, battery-powered, long-range wireless sensors. His method integrates with the pluggable OSGI architecture and home automation platform openHAB along with using an Arduino as the lower power, sensor node that is capable of utilizing many types of cheap sensors found online.

[Eric]’s tutorial depicts a few examples of the possibilities of these open-source platforms. For instance, he shows what he calls a ‘Mailbox Sentinel’ which is a battery-powered mail monitoring device that uses a Raspberry Pi to play the infamous, and ancient AOL sound bite “you’ve got mail.” It will also send an email once the postman cometh.

In addition, he lists other ideas such as a baby monitoring sentinel, a washer/dryer notification system, water leak detectors, and security implementations that blast a loud alarm if someone tries to break in. All of this potential for just around $20.

The key to making this project work, as [Eric] states, is the MQTT binding that ties together the Ardiuno and openHAB platform. This allows for simple messages to be sent over the Ethernet connection which is often found in IoT devices.

So all you developers out there go home and start thinking of what could be connected next! Because with this system, all you need is a couple of ten-spots and an internet plug, and you have yourself a strong foundation to build on top of. The rest is up to you.

This open, connected device is [Eric's] entry for The Hackaday Prize. You can see his video demo after the break. We hope this inspires you to submit your own project to the contest!


Filed under: home hacks, The Hackaday Prize
Hack a Day 20 Jul 03:01
arduino  home automation  home hacks  mqtt  openhab  osgi  the hackaday prize  

433 MHz RF module with Arduino Tutorial 3



 
There are 4 parts to this tutorial:
To get the most out of this tutorial - it is best to start at tutorial Part 1, and then progress to Part 2 then Part 3 and then do Part 4 last. Doing the RF tutorials in this order will help you to understand the process better.

Project 3: RF Remote Control Emulation

In the first tutorial, I introduced the 433 MHz Transmitter and Receiver with a simple sketch to test their functionality. In the second tutorial, the 433MHz receiver was used to receive a signal from an RF remote. The RF remote signal was coded based on the pattern and length of its HIGH and LOW signals. The signals received by the remote can be described by the code below:

 
Code comparison table



The RF remote that I am using transmits the same signal 6 times in a row. The signal to turn the light on is different from that used to turn the light off. In tutorial 2, we were able to "listen to" or receive the signal from the RF remote using the RF receiver. I thought it would be possible to just play back the signal received on the Arduino's analogPin, but the time it takes to perform a digital write is different to the time it takes to do an AnalogRead. Therefore it won't work. You need to slow down the digitalWrite speed.
I would like to find out if it is possible to apply this delay to all 433 MHz signal projects, however, I only have one 433 MHz remote.

If the delay in your project is the same as mine (or different) I would be keen to know - please leave a comment at the end of the tutorial.

We are going to use trial and error to find the optimal digitalWrite delay time. We will do this by slowly incrementing the delay until the transmission is successful. The transmission is considered successful if the fan-light turns on/off. All we have to do is count the number of transmissions until it is successful, then we should be able to calculate the delay.

 

Parts Required




 

The Transmitter Fritzing Sketch



 
 

RF Calibration - Arduino Sketch


I used an array to hold the RF code for light ON and light OFF. Each number within the code represents a specific sequence of HIGH and LOW lengths. For example, 2 represents a SHORT HIGH and a LONG LOW combination. A short length = 3, a long length = 7, and a very long length = 92. You need to multiply this by the timeDelay variable to identify how much time to transmit the HIGH and LOW signals for.
The short and long lengths were identified from the experiments performed in tutorial 2 (using the RF receiver). Each code is transmitted 6 times. The LED is turned on at the beginning of each transmission, and then turned off at the end of the transmission. The timeDelay variable starts at 5 microseconds, and is incremented by 10 microseconds with every transmission.
In the video, you will notice that there is some flexibility in the timeDelay value. The Mercator Fan/Light will turn on and off when the timeDelay variable is anywhere between 75 and 135 microseconds in length. It also seems to transmit successfully when the timeDelay variable is 175 microseconds.
So in theory, if we want to transmit a signal to the fan/light, we should be able to use any value between 75 and 135, however in future projects, I think I will use a value of 105, which is right about the middle of the range.


Video




  Now that I have the timeDelay variable, I should be able to simplify the steps required to replicate a remote control RF signal. Maybe there is room for one more tutorial on this topic :)

Update: Here it is - tutorial 4
Where you can record and playback an RF signal (without using your computer).


ScottC 19 Jul 19:30
433mhz  arduino  arduinobasics  best arduino blog  fan  light  mercator  project  remote  rf  transmitter  tutorial  

433 MHz RF module with Arduino Tutorial 3



 

Project 3: RF Remote Control Emulation

In the first tutorial, I introduced the 433 MHz Transmitter and Receiver with a simple sketch to test their functionality. In the second tutorial, the 433MHz receiver was used to receive a signal from an RF remote. The RF remote signal was coded based on the pattern and length of its HIGH and LOW signals. The signals received by the remote can be described by the code below:

 
Code comparison table



The RF remote that I am using transmits the same signal 6 times in a row. The signal to turn the light on is different from that used to turn the light off. In tutorial 2, we were able to "listen to" or receive the signal from the RF remote using the RF receiver. I thought it would be possible to just play back the signal received on the Arduino's analogPin, but the time it takes to perform a digital write is different to the time it takes to do an AnalogRead. Therefore it won't work. You need to slow down the digitalWrite speed.
I would like to find out if it is possible to apply this delay to all 433 MHz signal projects, however, I only have one 433 MHz remote.

If the delay in your project is the same as mine (or different) I would be keen to know - please leave a comment at the end of the tutorial.

We are going to use trial and error to find the optimal digitalWrite delay time. We will do this by slowly incrementing the delay until the transmission is successful. The transmission is considered successful if the fan-light turns on/off. All we have to do is count the number of transmissions until it is successful, then we should be able to calculate the delay.

 

Parts Required




 

The Transmitter Fritzing Sketch



 
 

RF Calibration - Arduino Sketch

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/* 
  Transmit sketch - RF Calibration
     Written by ScottC 17 July 2014
     Arduino IDE version 1.0.5
     Website: http://arduinobasics.blogspot.com
     Transmitter: FS1000A/XY-FST
     Description: A simple sketch used to calibrate RF transmission.          
 ------------------------------------------------------------- */

 #define rfTransmitPin 4  //RF Transmitter pin = digital pin 4
 #define ledPin 13        //Onboard LED = digital pin 13
 
 const int codeSize = 25;      //The size of the code to transmit
 int codeToTransmit[codeSize]; //The array used to hold the RF code
 int lightON[]={2,2,2,2,1,4,4,4,4,5,1,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,2,2,1,4,4,4,6}; //The RF code that will turn the light ON
 int lightOFF[]={2,2,2,2,1,4,4,4,4,5,1,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,2,2,2,2,2,2,3}; //The RF code that will turn the light OFF
 int codeToggler = 0;  //Used to switch between turning the light ON and OFF
 int timeDelay=5;      // The variable used to calibrate the RF signal lengths.

 
 
 void setup(){
   Serial.begin(9600);        // Turn the Serial Protocol ON
   pinMode(rfTransmitPin, OUTPUT);   //Transmit pin is an output  
   pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);          
  
 //LED initialisation sequence - gives us some time to get ready
  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); 
  delay(3000);
  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); 
  delay(1000);
 }
 
 
 
  void loop(){
    toggleCode();    // switch between light ON and light OFF
    transmitCode();  // transmit the code to RF receiver on the Fan/Light
    
    timeDelay+=10;    //Increment the timeDelay by 10 microseconds with every transmission
    delay(2000);      //Each transmission will be about 2 seconds apart.
  }
  
  
  
  
  /*---------------------------------------------------------------- 
     toggleCode(): This is used to toggle the code for turning 
                   the light ON and OFF 
  -----------------------------------------------------------------*/
  void toggleCode(){
    if(codeToggler){
       for(int i = 0; i<codeSize; i++){
         codeToTransmit[i]=lightON[i];
       } 
      
    } else{
      for(int i = 0; i<codeSize; i++){
         codeToTransmit[i]=lightOFF[i];
       } 
    }
    codeToggler=!codeToggler;
  }
   
   
   
   
  /*-----------------------------------------------------------------
    transmitCode(): Used to transmit the signal to the RF receiver on
                    the fan/light. There are 6 different HIGH-LOW signal combinations. 
                    
                    SH = short high   or  LH = long high   
                                     PLUS
         SL = short low    or    LL = long low    or    VLL = very long low
                    
  -------------------------------------------------------------------*/
   void transmitCode(){
    // The LED will be turned on to create a visual signal transmission indicator.
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
   
   //initialise the variables 
    int highLength = 0;
    int lowLength = 0;
    
    //The signal is transmitted 6 times in succession - this may vary with your remote.       
    for(int j = 0; j<6; j++){
      for(int i = 0; i<codeSize; i++){ 
        switch(codeToTransmit[i]){
          case 1: // SH + SL
            highLength=3;
            lowLength=3;
          break;
          case 2: // SH + LL
            highLength=3;
            lowLength=7;
          break;
          case 3: // SH + VLL
            highLength=3;
            lowLength=92;
          break;
          case 4: // LH + SL
            highLength=7;
            lowLength=3;
          break;
          case 5: // LH + LL
            highLength=7;
            lowLength=7;
          break;
          case 6: // LH + VLL
            highLength=7;
            lowLength=92;
          break;
        }
           
         /* Transmit a HIGH signal - the duration of transmission will be determined 
            by the highLength and timeDelay variables */
         digitalWrite(rfTransmitPin, HIGH);     
         delayMicroseconds(highLength*timeDelay); 
         
         /* Transmit a LOW signal - the duration of transmission will be determined 
            by the lowLength and timeDelay variables */
         digitalWrite(rfTransmitPin,LOW);     
         delayMicroseconds(lowLength*timeDelay);  
      }
    }
    //Turn the LED off after the code has been transmitted.
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); 
 }
I used an array to hold the RF code for light ON and light OFF. Each number within the code represents a specific sequence of HIGH and LOW lengths. For example, 2 represents a SHORT HIGH and a LONG LOW combination. A short length = 3, a long length = 7, and a very long length = 92. You need to multiply this by the timeDelay variable to identify how much time to transmit the HIGH and LOW signals for.
The short and long lengths were identified from the experiments performed in tutorial 2 (using the RF receiver). Each code is transmitted 6 times. The LED is turned on at the beginning of each transmission, and then turned off at the end of the transmission. The timeDelay variable starts at 5 microseconds, and is incremented by 10 microseconds with every transmission.
In the video, you will notice that there is some flexibility in the timeDelay value. The Mercator Fan/Light will turn on and off when the timeDelay variable is anywhere between 75 and 135 microseconds in length. It also seems to transmit successfully when the timeDelay variable is 175 microseconds.
So in theory, if we want to transmit a signal to the fan/light, we should be able to use any value between 75 and 135, however in future projects, I think I will use a value of 105, which is right about the middle of the range.


Video




  Now that I have the timeDelay variable, I should be able to simplify the steps required to replicate a remote control RF signal. Maybe there is room for one more tutorial on this topic :)

Update: Here it is - tutorial 4
Where you can record and playback an RF signal (without using your computer).
 


ScottC 19 Jul 19:30
433mhz  arduino  arduinobasics  best arduino blog  fan  light  mercator  project  remote  rf  transmitter  tutorial  

Hacking the Macetech RGB Shades

Some of the more in-your-face pieces of wearable technology are macetech’s RGB Shades and LED Matrix Shades. They’re shutter shade sunglasses with a twist: the front surface is crammed with individually controllable LEDs. It’s an attention-grabbing effect, and the person wearing the Shades can see through the LED array just […]

Read more on MAKE

MAKE » Arduino 18 Jul 22:02
arduino  general  led  macetech  music  rgb  shades