As part of their final project at EDN – Navàs, robotics students Rafart Jordi and Marc Thomas recently built an impressive Arduino simulator that captures video from a camera-equipped RC vehicle and displays it on a TV screen, making it feel as though you’re in the driver’s seat of a shrunken-down car.

The simulator is driven by an Arduino Uno along with an IBT-2 H-Bridge to control the 24V motors, and wirelessly communicates with the modified toy car via an XBee module.

You have to see it in action below!

While this recent project may look like something straight out of Simone Giertz’s notebook, it’s actually the brainchild of James Cochrane. The engineer, who admittedly loves building all sorts of crazy machines, has developed an apparatus he calls the IoT Robot People/Pet Affectionator.

As its name would suggest, the Affectionator is an Arduino Nano-driven device that automatically gives his dog T-Bone a pat on the head along with a spoon-fed treat at the touch of an arcade button. That’s not all, though. It even allows the pup to reciprocate by pressing his own button and sending over a token of his appreciation on a fork–which in Cochrane’s case is a gummy worm.

Aside from the Arduino, the Affectionator is equipped with two H-Bridge motor drivers, two geared Pittman motors, and two geared hobby motors.

These days people are more connected with each other, however we are experiencing fewer physical interactions. This device will allow you to provide affection either locally or remotely to your pet without any physical contact. If your pet decides you are also worthy of their affection they can also reciprocate with a pat on the head and a tasty treat.

One day while giving my dog T-Bone a scratch behind the ears I came up with this silly idea. A robot which gives you a pet on the head and feeds you a treat. With the IoT, you can also build two of these and network them across the Internet.

Intrigued? Watch the hilarious idea in action below!

A big thanks to everyone who already submitted their projects, performances, and workshops for Maker Faire Rome. However, due to such an incredible demand, the  Call for Makers submission deadline has been extended to Thursday, June 30th. That means you have one more week to send your applications to participate in the 4th edition of Europe’s biggest innovation event, held October 14-16,2016 at Fiera di Roma.

Want to join us in celebrating Maker culture this fall? With more than 100,000 square meters of exhibition space available, the time to submit your project is now!

Prizes and contests
All the projects selected within the Call for Makers are automatically eligible for the following prizes and contests if they match the requirements specified in each regulation.

• R.O.M.E. Prize –  Rome Outstanding Maker of Europe – 100,000 euro!
• Make to Care – Projects about health and disability
• Startup Contest – Projects related to Internet of Things (IoT)

The LEDmePlay is an open-source DIY gaming console powered by an Arduino Mega. Games are displayed on a 32 x 32 RGB LED matrix housed inside an IKEA picture frame, and played using any C64-compatible joystick from the ‘80s. LEDmePlay supports several games, each of which are downloadable for free online, and Makers are encouraged to develop their own as well.

Its creator Mithotronic has also built a handheld variant for on-the-go fun, LEDmePlayBoy. This device is based on the same Arduino Mega, powered by eight AA batteries, and uses an analog thumb joystick and two fire buttons for control.

Interested? You can check out the LEDmePlay’s construction manual, and find all of the games’ source codes here.

Announced back at Maker Faire Bay Area, the Arduino Web Editor is a new online tool that enables users to write code and upload sketches to any Arduino or Genuino board directly from the browser. 

Over the last couple of months, we have been gathering feedback from beta testers on the Editor’s overall experience, its features, and what they’d like to see in the future. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can gain access to the Web Editor right away and try it out firsthand!

Wondering what makes the new platform more useful and feature-rich than its previous version? The most interesting upgrade is surely the ability to share what you make. Every sketch you create has a unique URL, similarly to Google Docs. If you give the URL to someone, they will be able to see your code, add it to their Sketchbook in the Cloud or download it. If you write a tutorial on Project Hub and add the link in the Software section, your code will be embedded and will always be up-to-date.

We envision the Arduino Sketch as the unit that includes everything you need to bring an idea to life. When someone shares a sketch with you, you’ll now have access both to the code, the layout for the electronics, and the full tutorial (when available). This will allow you to have all the necessary information to build on top of the original project, making it your own.

Arduino Web Editor is designed to take the headache out of the development process: your Sketchbook is in the Cloud, available from any device and backed up. Simply save a .ZIP file of your local one and import it in a click.Meaning, you don’t need to install any additional cores for Arduino and Genuino boards, just install a simple agent, plug your board in and we’ll set it up for you.

We made the Serial Monitor pretty robust, and of course, you can finally enjoy a dark theme for your IDE.

We are currently working on the Library Manager (as you have on the Desktop IDE), and a ‘secret tab’ where you will be able to store all your sensitive data and share them safely. At the moment, all the sketches you create on the Arduino Web Editor are public–anyone with the link can access them. We are also developing a private sketch feature–more on that soon.

Interested in learning more? Sign up today and participate in shaping the next generation of Arduino tools!

For a recent column in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, Rolf Hut built a slick longboard with LED strips that respond to speed. If you think that sounds awesome, wait until you see it in action.

As the Maker explains, four magnets and a Hall effect sensor are used to measure the longboard’s speed so the Adafruit NeoPixels can react at the same pace. To achieve this, the magnets are glued to the inside of each wheel, while a Hall sensor counts the number of revolutions and sends that information over to one of two Arduino Micros. The first Arduino translates that into a speed, while the second Micro converts that speed into a signal for the LEDs. Everything is powered by a power bank.

Intrigued? Head over to the Hut’s project page, where you will find a detailed breakdown of his build along with its code.

The Da Vinci system is one of the most popular surgical robots around, which allows surgeons to perform operations through only a few small incisions. The device works by translating a doctor’s hand movements into smaller, precise movements of tiny instruments inside the patient’s body. As ubiquitous as they may be in hospitals, chances are it’s never been operated quite like this before.

That’s because Julien Schuermans has managed to connect the robotic surgical tool’s hardware up to a LeapMotion controller, making its small forceps gesture-controlled. You can see how it all works in the video below.

As The Verge explains, four Arduino Uno-controlled servos are fitted to the pulleys and cables that handle the rotation, angle and gripping mechanism. Gesture input is captured by the Leap Motion’s infrared cameras, which is then converted into instructions for these servos, enabling the user to command the endoscopic device with just a wave of the hand.

Richard Garsthagen recently became the proud owner of a Razor Crazy Cart. Seeing as though he only had one, racing against others was a bit out of the question for now. Being the Maker that he is, he came up with a solution instead: an Arduino Uno-based lap timer.

The lap timer uses an infrared light bridge to detect when something crosses the line, an Adafruit 7-segment display to show the time and lap count, as well as a SparkFun thermal printer that spits out the final results. The frame itself is constructed out of MakerBeam components, while power is supplied through an 11.2V LiPo battery.

Meanwhile, the Arduino software has two modes:

Race mode: This is started by clicking the left “race” button. This will start the laptimer. It uses a “flying start” principle. So there is no count down, just start racing, when the first time you cross the line, the timer will start. It will display the amount of laps still to go on the top 7-segment display and the time on the second 7-segment display.

Setup mode: When you click on the “menu,” 2nd button, you can setup how many laps you want to race. By turning the pot-meter you can select between one and nine laps.

While he may be using his timer for Crazy Cart, the system can come in handy whenever you’re unable to directly race someone else — whether that’s running or cycling around the house. Want one of your own? Race on over to its project page. In the meantime, check it out in the video below. (We gotta say, the 8-bit chiptunes were a nice touch!)

Did you know that if you take a head of romaine lettuce and eat all but the bottom, then place it in a bowl of water, it will regrow? This fun fact actually inspired Instructables user Evandromiami to develop a deep water culture hydroponic system that would optimize the process for him.

The lettuce is grown on top of a five-gallon plastic bucket filled with water under full spectrum lights, while an Arduino 101 monitors the light, humidity, temperature, water, and pH levels measured by a set of sensors. The system is controlled over Bluetooth, which enables the Maker to adjust settings and receive notifications on an LCD screen. All the electronics, including the Curie-based board, are tucked away inside a power strip and the entire hydroponic farm lives inside an A/C closet. 

The Arduino 101-driven project continues to be a work in progress, but Evandromiami has already begun to expand into other veggies like tomatoes. Ready to get into the world of hydroponics? Check out the Maker’s entire write-up here.

You know that rotating hourglass that indicates when a Windows application is busy performing an operation? Well, interaction designer Wolfgang Huther decided to bring the iconic cursor into the real world with an Arduino-driven project he calls “The Microsoft Hourglass Machine.”

The wall-mounted display was brought to life using laser-cut acrylic parts, black sand, and some electronics.