[Steve] is often host to all sorts of guests, and he was looking for an easy way to let his friends come and go as they please. After discovering that his front door came equipped with an electronic strike, he decided that an RFID reader would be a great means of controlling who was let in, and when.

Giving all your friends RFID cards and actually expecting that they carry them is a bit of a stretch, but lucky for [Steve] he lives near Boston, so the MBTA has him covered. Just about everyone in town has an RFID subway pass, which pretty much guarantees that [Steve’s] cohorts will be carrying one when they swing by.

He crafted a stylish set of wooden boxes to contain both the RFID reader and the Arduino that controls the system, matching them to the Victorian styling of his home. A single button can control the setup, allowing him to add and remove cards from access lists without much fuss. For more granular control however, [Steve] can always tweak settings from the Arduino serial console.

The card system is both stylish and useful – a combination that’s hard to beat.

So [RobB] wanted to take out all the light switches in his house. His plan was to replace them with a system that could be operated from his smart phone. But his wife insisted that there still must be some way to control the lighting directly — we have to agree with her on that one. The solution was to develop a system that switches the lights via a touch sensor or by Bluetooth.

The touch part of the project is pretty easy. He coated the back of a blank outlet plate with tin foil and hooked it to a microcontroller with a couple of resistors. He’s using an ATtiny85, which can be programmed using Arduino sketches, so the software side is made easy by the CapSense Library. The chip also uses the software serial library to communicate with a Bluetooth module. You can see the result of both in the demo video after the break.

Of course you need to throw a relay in there to switch mains, and find a way to power the uC and Bluetooth module. [RobB] went with a tiny plug-in USB power converter and managed to fit everything in a single-gang switch.

Don’t want dogs pooping on the front lawn? You could put up a sign, your could chase them away like a crotchety old miser, or you could build a motion detecting sprinkler system. It’s pretty hard to line up for a doody when you’re getting sprayed in the face (or worse) with cold water.

The setup is pretty simple. The bump-in image above shows the view from a webcam. The server monitoring the video is running software that detects motion between one frame and the next. When it sees something in the right position it signals an Arduino to trigger the solenoid which has been holding back the water. Check out the movie after the break which shows [Phil Tucker] tramping across the grass to trigger the  trap.

Sprinkler hacks are always a lot of fun. This variable-range sprinkler is still one of our favorites.

En este nuevo tutorial Arduino by ARDUTEKA, estudiamos a fondo los módulos GPS, en concreto los módulos diseñados por LIBELIUM, para aprender a extraer y comprender todas las tramadas de datos que recibimos de los GPS y posteriormente, tratar esa información para mostrar en un display con bus i2C datos como la latitud, longitud, altura y hora UTC…

[Via: Arduteka]

Not using an Arduino, yet a very useful must-have on every maker’s table. Of course not as awesome as a real safety glass, but then, it is a nice start.

Materials required: An empty, washed 2 liter soda bottle, an elastic band, a pair of scissors, a permanent marker.

All you have to do is cut off the top and bottom of the soda bottle, then cut through the remaining plastic to turn it into a single plastic sheet. Then hold the plastic sheet around your face and draw the goggles with a plastic marker. Cut them out, attach the elastic band to both sides, and you’re done!

For detailed instructions, please proceed to the original post at Make.

Via:[Make, Lifehacker]

Arduteka lanza su último tutorial!

En él nos descubre el nuevo módulo 3G para Arduino de Cooking Hacks con el que podremos construir una divertida alarma que nos enviará la foto de nuestro intruso directamente a nuestro correo, además de avisarnos por un mensaje sms a nuestro teléfono móvil sin necesidad de tener conectado nuestro Arduino a internet constantemente, pues lo hace todo a través de la red móvil.

Vamos a construirnos una alarma totalmente casera, a través del sensor de ultrasonidos, escanearemos continuamente el espacio situado enfrente suyo con un radio aproximado de 30º, cuando algún objeto o persona se sitúe en su campo de actuación a una distancia inferior a la que establezcamos, haremos sonar una alarma, tomaremos una fotografía, el Led RGB que antes estaba verde, pasará a color azul y daremos 10 segundos para poder desactivar la alarma a través de nuestro teclado matricial, si la desactivamos, volverá de nuevo a escanear el campo, pero si no!! Reproducirá un sonido contundente y se dispondrá a mandarnos un sms a nuestro teléfono móvil y la fotografía a nuestro correo electrónico.

Via:[Arduteka]

Ella Smith, age 10, is an interesting young lady. At an age when most girls are fussing over the new dresses for the dolls, Ella actually started tinkering. She made Zeverino – a timely cat feeding device alongwith her father. With a passion for animals and an ambition to become a veterinarian, this young techie is a combination to watch out for.

An interesting interview with her had her naming soldering iron as her favorite tool to work with.

Kudos to the young lady and her father!

[Via: Makezine]