Michael Newman, VP of Technology at Pomp Productions, was invited to participate at the TEDxUCLA 2011 event to talk about “Making things”. Following a trip to Maker Faire and taking inspiration from mind controlled Nerf guns, Michael built a special project using Arduino, a Nerf Gun and Twilio.
[Via:Twilio]
My robot is a hacked RC car controled by an Arduino Duemilanove. It has no sensors, but I have left room on my chasis so I can add some more later when I feel more comfortable around Arduino. Most of the time on this project was spent dealing with Arduino code and the motor shield.
Continue reading TextSpresso machine brews caffeinated goodness via text messaging (video)
TextSpresso machine brews caffeinated goodness via text messaging (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Larry Ogrodnek, creator of the LED NameTag kit, figured out a great way to use an RGB backlight LCD to display temperature data.
This is a really simple ambient display for temperature using an Arduino, an RGB backlight LCD, and a temperature sensor.
The LCD displays the temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius and adjusts the color of the backlight depending on the reading. An ideal range is set at 61F to 67F. If the temperature is in this range the backlight will change green. Above this range and the color will change red, below the range it will change blue.
The great thing about these kinds of displays is that you can immediately get some rough information from across the room.
This is just a quick project. An obvious improvement is to have more variations in color depending on how far you are from your ideal range. I.e. as the temperature increases out of the ideal range, move along the color wheel and use shades of yellow, then orange before hitting red. There’s also a lot of empty room on that LCD. Possibly room for data from other sensors, or maybe just a larger (2-line) font.
This is perfect for someone like me who only needs 5 different temperature increments; really cold, cold, nice, hot, and really hot. Most of these parts and (Larry’s NameTag kit) are available in the Maker Shed.
[via Analog Machines]
NTRODUCTION
The GOduino II is a self-contained
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]
In case you have been following MBTweetFleet and availing awesome parking spaces, you would be happy to know that the service was made using an Arduino and GPS/GPRS shield.
The cars automatically generated a tweet with GPS data out of every empty parking space they passed. Via Arduino the onboard electronics were connected to a GPS/GPRS-Shield. Tweets were generated with a PHP Relay which sent the GPS-Data. This is how people could find empty parking spaces near them on twitter and even be navigated there by a linked Google map
[Via: http://awards.jvm-neckar.de]
Continue reading Gaming classic Snake gets charmed by geeks with flutes and Arduino (video)
Gaming classic Snake gets charmed by geeks with flutes and Arduino (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GuitarExtended is a multi-effects system that can digitally alter the sound of a guitar using PD. The user has a box with multiple switches on it that change the alteration to the sound, and the variables of that sound are controlled using a homemade expression pedal with the help of Arduino.
One of the differences in this setup as opposed to other similar examples, is that the resulting tone is sweet and lyrical, as opposed to gritty and bit-smashed. Check out GuitarExtended’s site for more info and documentation.
More:
I really dig SiliconFarmer’s detailed instructions on how to automate a chicken coop door. It uses a windshield wiper motor and a custom-designed Arduino shield to control it.
Schematics and lots of deets on the project page. [thanks, Akiba!]
