Beer pong is a fun enough game for those of a certain age, but one thing that it lacks is a way of cranking up the difficulty setting independent of the amount of beer one has consumed. At least, that was the idea [Ty] had when he came up with this automated beer pong table which allows the players to increase the challenge of this game by sliding the cups around the top of the table.

The build uses a belt-driven platform under a clear cover with a set of magnets attached. Each of the cups on the table has a corresponding magnet, which allows them to slide fairly easily back and forth on the table. The contraption is controlled by an Arudino Nano with a small screen and dial that allows the players to select a difficulty level from 1 to 10. The difficulty levels increase the speed that the cups oscillate on the table, which certainly adds another layer of complexity to this already challenging game.

While we hope to eventually see a beer pong table that can automatically arrange the cups as the game is played, we do appreciate the effort to make an already difficult game even more difficult. Of course, if you have problems with the difficulty level you might want to pick up a PongMate CyberCannon Mark III to help with those clutch beer pong shots.

[Apachexmd] wanted to do something fun for his three-year-old son’s birthday party. Knowing how cool race cars are, he opted to build his own Hot Wheels drag race timer. He didn’t take the easy way out either. He put both his electronics and 3D printing skills to the test with this project.

The system has two main components. First, there’s the starting gate. The cars all have to leave the gate at the same time for a fair race, so [Apachexmd] needed a way to make this electronically controlled. His solution was to use a servo connected to a hinge. The hinge has four machine screws, one for each car. When the servo is rotated in one direction, the hinge pushes the screws out through holes in the track. This keeps the cars from moving on the downward slope. When the start button is pressed, the screws are pulled back and the cars are free to let gravity take over.

The second component is the finish line. Underneath the track are four laser diodes. These shine upwards through holes drilled into the track. Four phototransistors are mounted up above. These act as sensors to detect when the laser beam is broken by a car. It works similarly to a laser trip wire alarm system. The sensors are aimed downwards and covered in black tape to block out extra light noise.

Also above the track are eight 7-segment displays; two for each car. The system is able to keep track of the order in which the cars cross the finish line. When the race ends, it displays which place each car came in above the corresponding track. The system also keeps track of the winning car’s time in seconds and displays this on the display as well.

The system runs on an Arduino and is built almost exclusively out of custom designed 3D printed components. Since all of the components are designed to fit perfectly, the end result is a very slick race timer. Maybe next [Apachexmd] can add in a radar gun to clock top speed. Check out the video below to see it in action.

Every night at Disneyland, an Electrical Light Parade illuminates the darkness by featuring vehicles draped in a fantastic array of multicolored lights.  One enthusiastic fan (who had already created a mini replica of Disney’s Main Street) created a replica of the famous light parade using dozens of RGB LEDs.  The result is a stunny array of craftsmanship.  Check out how the entire system was created:

The miniature parade floats are moved along a series of gears.  Using an Arduino, you can easily control the RGB LEDs used in this project.  Obviously, the average DIYer isn’t going to build something of this magnitude, but we hope you find it inspirational nonetheless!  For additional details, check out the artist’s project website.

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Hello,

Greetings from Hong Kong.

This is my first Arduino project. I have worked with the handyboard and NXT few years ago. The Arduino seems popular and easy to get into for people from non-electronic background like me, so I decided to build something simple to get myself familiarize with the Arduino board and interfaces. For the look I decided to make it the Minecraft Creeper, for the non-gamers, it's a iconic mob that appears in the 8-bit inspired 3D game Minecraft. If you havent try it before, grab a copy now! 

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Continue reading Doh uses RFID and Arduino to help you remember your wallet, continues search for the 'Any Key'

Doh uses RFID and Arduino to help you remember your wallet, continues search for the 'Any Key' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.