Primary image

Homemade delta robot. It uses an Arduino as a servo/relay controller. Data is transferred over serial port from a homebrewed Qt application to the Arduino.

It was made as a high school project.

Components Required for this project:

• Arduino UNO
• Breadboard
• 9 LEDs
• 9 x 330 ohm resistors
• Wires to connect the circuit
• USB connection cable: to connect the computer to the Arduino
• A computer: to run the processing sketch, and to compile / upload the Arduino sketch
• Processing Program installed on computer
• Arduino Program installed on the computer

Arduino Sketch

Arduino Code

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/* This program was created by ScottC on 9/5/2012 to receive serial 
signals from a computer to turn on/off  1-9 LEDs */

void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pins as an output.
  pinMode(2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(7, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(10, OUTPUT);
// Turn the Serial Protocol ON
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  byte byteRead;

   /*  check if data has been sent from the computer: */
  if (Serial.available()) {
  
    /* read the most recent byte */
    byteRead = Serial.read();
    //You have to subtract '0' from the read Byte to convert from text to a number.
    byteRead=byteRead-'0';
    
    //Turn off all LEDS
    for(int i=2; i<11; i++){
      digitalWrite(i, LOW);
    }
    
    if(byteRead>0){
      //Turn on the relevant LEDs
      for(int i=1; i<(byteRead+1); i++){
        digitalWrite(i+1, HIGH);
      }
    }
  }
}

Processing Code

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//Created by ScottC on 12/05/2012 to send mouse coordinates to Arduino

import processing.serial.*;

// Global variables
int new_sX, old_sX;
int nX, nY;
Serial myPort;

// Setup the Processing Canvas
void setup(){
  size( 800, 400 );
  strokeWeight( 10 );
 
  //Open the serial port for communication with the Arduino
  //Make sure the COM port is correct
  myPort = new Serial(this, "COM6", 9600);
  myPort.bufferUntil('\n'); 
}

// Draw the Window on the computer screen
void draw(){
  
  // Fill canvas grey
  background( 100 );
    
  // Set the stroke colour to white
  stroke(255); 
  
  // Draw a circle at the mouse location
  ellipse( nX, nY, 10, 10 );

  //Draw Line from the top of the page to the bottom of the page
  //in line with the mouse.
  line(nX,0,nX,height);  
}


// Get the new mouse location and send it to the arduino
void mouseMoved(){
  nX = mouseX;
  nY = mouseY; 
  
  //map the mouse x coordinates to the LEDs on the Arduino.
  new_sX=(int)map(nX,0,800,0,10);

  if(new_sX==old_sX){
    //do nothing
  } else {
    //only send values to the Arduino when the new X coordinates are different.
    old_sX = new_sX;
    myPort.write(""+new_sX);
  }
}

Arduino boards have smoothed the creation of lots of eccentric thingamajigs, but robotics and controllers are still not for the faint of heart. Luckily, RoboMatter is coming to the rescue of would-be roboticists with a public beta version of its C-based RobotC language for Arduino. Joining Lego Mindstorm and other bots, Arduino will get RobotC's straightforward sensor and motor controls, along with a debugger and sample program library, while still keeping its native Wiring language. So, if you want to be a Kickstarter magnate , or just out-weird everyone else, rolling your own droid is now a bit easier.

Arduino mechs learn RobotC, plot assimilation with Lego Mindstorms originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 May 2012 03:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

An instructable by Andrew Wright would make this pseudo-pet come alive.

Via:[Treehugger]

Take an e-ink smartwatch that's got plenty of willing customers, throw in a WiFi-connected sensor box and well, imagine the possibilities. The founders behind Pebble and Twine hope you are, because they have announced that the pair will be connectable through the latter's web-based interface. This means you'll be able to setup text notifications to your wrist when your laundry's done, when someone's at your door and plenty more mundane real-world tasks. A brief video explains how it should all go down, but try not to get too excited -- pre-orders are sadly sold out.

Continue reading Pebble ties itself up in Twine: sounds so rustic, couldn't be any less (video)

Pebble ties itself up in Twine: sounds so rustic, couldn't be any less (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hi LMR,

I've been working on my new robot, which has a lynxmotion A4WD1 base with an arduino as its microcontroller. I must confess that I am not the best programmer and I am still learning. I have found the follow code online and I was wondering if anyone could help me adjust it to be able to turn left and right. As of right now the program only tells the motors to go foward or reverse at full speed or half speed. The code:

 #include <SoftwareSerial.h>

read more

I’m excited about MAKE’s Hardware Innovation Workshop, May 15-16, at PARC in Palo Alto. The workshop is an opportunity to explore what’s shaping the newly emerging businesses that makers are creating.  Come meet the people who are leading this new wave of hardware innovation and contribute to the discussion about new opportunities in making. You’ll be able to get a “big picture”  understanding of how new technology and new communities are changing product development, collaborative design, and manufacturing.

The makers themselves are part of an open R&D lab that any company can benefit from, if they know how to engage them.  Increasingly, businesses and investors are beginning to pay attention.

Here are some of the headlines:

• Open source hardware and software are providing standardized components on which to build new applications.
• New fabrication tools are creating a rapid-prototyping revolution that makes iteration cheaper, faster, and easier.
• Collaborative design practices are using new tools and tapping new kinds of expertise.
• Options for manufacturing at scale are improving, as more and more of the process becomes automated.
• Crowdfunding is helping launch new projects and providing funding to test out new product ideas.
• Traditional investors are wary of hardware, but hardware-focused incubators hope to soften resistance by helping hardware startups become better prepared for investors.

Check out the full list of  makers who will be speaking at the Hardware Innovation Workshop.    Phil Torrone and Limor Fried of AdaFruit, Massimo Banzi of Arduino, Ayah Bdeir of LittleBits, Tod Kurt of ThingM, Liam Casey of PCH International, Bunnie Huang, Caterina Mota of OpenMaterials, Allan Chochinov of Core77, Nathan Seidle of SparkFun Electronics, Mark Hatch of TechShop and Carl Bass of Autodesk.   In addition, on Tuesday evening, we will open with a showcase of 25 hardware startups along with demos by companies like Autodesk, ShopBot, MakerBot, and more.

The Workshop is a one-and-a-half day intensive introduction to the business of making and the makers who are creating these businesses.  We will be sharing the ideas that come out of this workshop in a variety of ways during and after the event. Watch Makezine for details.

If you need information on the event and to register, go to:  Hardware Innovation Workshop.

With the help from Lindsey French, some houseplants in Chicago have enjoyed a concert generated by the vibrations of a cherry tree in western Massachusetts.

Attached to the cherry tree was a piezo sensor, which measured the tree’s vibrations. These were uploaded to the world wide web using an Ethernet Pro as a server, and a friend’s wireless router, configured to allow port forwarding. On the chicago end, a processing sketch gathered the data and wrote it to the serial port my laptop. An Arduino attached to the laptop output the data to transducers, which were attached to ceramic saucers (and later, a plywood shelf) as the medium for the vibrations. The Arduino and breadboard were housed in a custom laser-cut box, based off of a modified thingverse template.

Read here the full story.

So you want to gift your Mother a box of chocolates for Mother’s day. Spice it up with Arduino. A hack by Dmitriy Abaimov which originally uses an ATTiny13, a very tiny microcontroller, along with 10 LEDS tucked into the heart-shaped Ferrero Rocher box to flash lights inside the plastic. It’s a nice touch that will stand out among the flowers, chocolates and cards.

Get making! The code and instructions can be found here.

Via:[walyou]

In the Maker’s own words:

This is the final project for my Advanced Mechatronics class at Penn State University. The robot is the skeleton of a turret from the game Portal that uses an IP webcam to track a target and fire nerf bullets at them. This is the current state of the robot as of 5/9/12, but I am currently molding a shell for the frame to make it look like the Portal turret, along with improving my code to make the tracking faster. All programming is done with MATLAB and Arduino. Enjoy!

Via:[Youtube]