When you pick up a book, the text inside is normally the point, but what if the book itself was the story? That’s the idea behind Alistair Aichison’s Alt.Ctrl.GDC exhibition called “The Book Ritual.”

Aichison’s work is told through an interactive computer installation, where an onscreen book talks about loss and change, but also encourages you to add your story by creatively modifying a real book.

The process involves cutting and marking the book, and even requires the user to tear out pages to put it through an actual shredder—this is meant to evoke feelings of loss and regret, ultimately leading to the formation of new memories.  

Control is accomplished using infrared sensors that verify page destruction, along with an Arduino that interfaces with the computer running this Unity-based game.

The Book Ritual is a narrative game played using a real book and a real shredder. Your book becomes a character talking to you through the screen. It has a story to tell, but it wants you know your own story too. It asks you to write in its pages and deface it in creative ways to reflect your feelings. The book also needs you to tear out its pages and put them through a shredder.

This is where the custom hardware comes in: the shredder is attached to the computer by a USB cable and detects when paper’s going through it. So, you actually need to shred pages in order to progress.

The shredder itself is dressed up as a character, with big cartoon eyes and teeth. Because the subject matter is quite melancholic, I want the player to feel welcomed in by something innocent, childlike and friendly.

More details on the project can be found in Gamasutra’s recent article and on Aichison’s website here.

Back in June 2017, Sam Battle (aka LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER) released the Synth Bike 3.0, a stationary bike with handlebars adorned with a functional synthesizer. This was promptly put on display at the Science Gallery Dublin, where it was ridden by approximately 130,000 people over six to eight months. 

In his latest video, Battle decides to open up the control panel to revive it for an upcoming tour. The good news is that the system is still mostly functional, though a couple of the device’s Arduino—it’s run by a dozen Nanos along with four frequency central boards, a SparkFun WAV trigger, and a bunch of stripboard circuits—are missing. 

After deciphering what he was thinking well over a year ago, considering what he might do differently today, reattaching wires, and tinkering, he’s able to get things functional. This is, of course, followed by the requisite solo synth-bike performance.

More details on how Battle’s beat-banging bike can be found here. 

For busy people with unpredictable schedules, keeping one’s feline friend fed in a timely manner can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are automatic cat food dispensers available, or you can even build one yourself.

Open Electronics’ 3D-printed device, called “FelixMatic,” claims to be more complex and complete than average off-the-shelf solutions. Not only can it be programmed to supply up to nine meals a day using a spiral-action rotary feeder, but it also measures food levels with a load cell for dispensing feedback. 

Control is via an Arduino Uno along with an RTC shield for meal timing, while the user interface consists of an LCD display and five buttons.

Having a pet involves big responsibilities, first of all granting them food; unfortunately, a hectic lifestyle and imposed work hours do not go hand-in-hand with the needs of our four-legged friends, and surely anyone living on their own will have a hard time providing the pets meals on schedule. In order to solve a problem that is surely dear to any pet owner, and especially cat and dog owners, we have designed a device we called FelixMatic: it is a practical automatic dispenser of dry food for cats (or small dogs) equipped with a high-capacity container that can easily be opened from the top and a bowl to collect the kibble when it is supplied. We know we can already find automatic dispensers on the market, however, our example is unique because it can be programmed with 9 meals a day in order to supply very precise quantities of dry food.

The way the dispenser works is more complex and complete than the average available product on the market, in fact, it does not only supply food but it also gives exact doses as decided by us; basically, at a preset time, a cochlea at the base of the container will turn, and drop a certain amount of kibble in the bowl, regulated by a dedicated weight sensor.

If you ever wondered how thread could be wound on spools without human intervention, this build by Mr. Innovative will show you one option. 

The YouTuber’s DIY machine features a motor to rotate a small roller, pulling thread off a larger “feeder” spool. An encoder disk and photoelectric sensor are used to measure how much thread has been dispensed, and a servo-powered arm swings back and forth to allow the thread to feed evenly.

The device is controlled by an Arduino Uno and custom PCB shield, while an encoder and OLED display serve as the user interface.

I have made a thread coil winding machine, using Arduino and 3D-printed parts. For GUI I have used 0.96 OLED display, and for user input I have used a rotary encoder knob. A photoelectric speed sensor is used to measure the length of thread.

The machine has two modes of operation. 1st is manual mode in which thread starts to wind on coil until stop is not pressed. In 2nd mode, auto mode, the machine will wind the thread as per the user predefined length.

Parts, code, and print files can be found in the video description if you’d like to construct something similar.

If you need a robot to traverse piping systems, what are you to do? You could purchase a (very expensive) inspection robot, or you could instead build your own like the prototype pipe-crawler presented here. 

The device features six spring-loaded wheel assemblies that help it get a grip on different diameters of pipe, with two of the wheels powered for locomotion.

An Arduino Uno controls the uniquely-shaped bot, with an LN298N H-bridge used to regulate the three 9V batteries wired in series that run the motors. 

Pipeline systems deteriorate progressively over time through various means. Pipeline inspection robot are designed to remove the human factor from labour intensive or dangerous work environments and also to act in inaccessible environment. However, if you take a look at the prices of those robots you will find that they are way too expensive.

This project aims to create another kind of pipeline inspection robot. Because we think that It is beneficial to have a robot with an adaptable structure to the pipe diameter, and cheaper at the same time.

Our challenge is to make this robot adaptable to diameters varying from 260mm to 390mm based on two sliding mechanisms.

Be sure to see it in action in the short video below! 

Model trains have been a staple of DIY hobbiysts for generations, and while wireless control options can be purchased, KushagraK7’s hack lets you use your phone instead.

The setup consists of an Arduino Uno, along with a motor driver shield to vary the trains’s peed and direction, as well as flip turnouts to allow for different sections of track to be used.

The system employs a novel interface system, where an off-the-shelf Bluetooth receiver passes DTMF (telephone dial tones) to a decoder board, which then sends this decoded data on to the Arduino. While some might opt for an HC-05 Bluetooth module or similar, this enables control with a standard tone generator app, and the phone could even be physically connected via a stereo cable if convenient.

Last June, Timo Brinschein bought a Qu4tro electric skateboard with hopes of using it for fun and commuting duties. Unfortunately, while the skateboard itself worked well, the remote had many shortcomings.

Since replacing the skateboard’s controls entirely was out of reach, he instead settled on the “small” job of reverse engineering and swapping out the wireless controller for one of his own designs. 

The resulting build uses an Arduino Nano as the brains of the device, along with the well-known nRF24L0+ module for wireless communication. Everything is housed inside a custom 3D-printed enclosure. 

Code for the project is available on GitHub, and print files for the excellent control handle is on Thingiverse.

If you like electronic music, you’ve certainly admired Daft Punk’s glowing electronic helmets. While the originals are amazing, as shown in this Electronoobs tutorial, you can now make a very good replica for around $20 and 30 hours of print time.

Print files for the helmet itself are based on this Thomas Bangalter build by the Ruiz Brothers, and similar to that one, a good amount of sanding and finishing was needed to give it a metallic look. 

Electronoobs’ helmet features seven WS2812 RGB LED strips, all connected to an Arduino Nano. Everything is controlled over Bluetooth by a custom Android app made with the MIT App Inventor, along with a microphone that allows the visor to react to music.

Maker “DJ’s Fantasi” is the technical director at his local high school’s theater arts program, and when the director of their winter production of Disney’s High School Musical requested a scoreboard prop, he excitedly set to work. 

The resulting build consists of four 7-segment displays, lit up by strips of non-programmable LEDs. 

Numbers on the device are shown with the help of an Arduino Mega, which takes input via a single-channel remote. Seven I/O pins are used to indicate each segment to be displayed, and another four multiplex the signal into the required four digits.

While a more general input device could be used, this particular scoreboard was especially set up for this musical, sequencing through numbers that correspond to the performance on command.

More details on this impressive project can be found here.

If you manage to get a small lathe in your home shop, it will likely come with a dial to adjust the speed, but it may not have a tachometer to tell you if it’s actually spinning at your desired setting. Rather than accept this imprecision on his model, hacker Tony Scarpelli designed his own non-contact tachometer using an Arduino Nano.

The build is ingeniously simple, and mounts an infrared proximity sensor near gearing in the back of the lathe’s headstock. White paper is placed on this rotating surface, allowing the sensor to tell between this marker and the otherwise dark surface as it spins. Sensor pulses are recorded by the Arduino, which outputs RPM values on a small 16×2 LCD display.