Honey, I Shrunk the Maker

I built this 6x larger than real life, fully functional Arduino GRANDE. Why? There was talk among the Make: editors about how Arduino is really big at Maker Faire, and I thought, why not make it even bigger? Literally.

After modeling it in 3D software, drafting it for laser cutting, soldering up all the banana plugs to the real Arduino UNO (this thing is really a shield), etching and painting the graphics, and building some large-scale components to plug in, here we have it. The first time I hoisted it up on my shoulder like a boom box I was pretty darned psyched!

I’m going to be showing the Arduino GRANDE at Maker Faire and doing a two talks about it on Saturday. I’ll use the GRANDE to demonstrate Arduino basics at the Make: Projects Stage in the Maker Shed (Saturday, 3-3:30 pm) and to talk about how I built this beast at the Make: Demo Stage (Saturday, 5:30-6 pm). Come on down and check it out!

It’s all packed up and ready to go.

Arduino GRANDE build photos on Flickr 

Question: Is it possible to control this hobby servo using a PWM signal from Arduino via this optocoupler to the servo?

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Though electronics hobbyists may not have the same resources that the Maker Sheds of the world have to design, package and sell do-it-yourself kits, electronics component distributor Jameco plans to change that. With Club Jameco, enthusiasts can pitch their kit ideas to the electronic component wizards in Belmont, CA and if a project is deemed viable for production, they'll be provided with feedback and have their idea posted for public comment. After the creation of step-by-step kit instructions, a list of materials and undergoing final approval, kits will be sold to the adoring masses. Once projects roll off production lines and into garages, creators will be paid royalties anywhere from five to ten percent based on quarterly sales. Aside from giving DIYers another sales avenue, it's also an opportunity for those who've been wary of piecing together projects to finally dive in sans the added fuss. Hankering to propose a bundle of your own? Per usual, all the particulars can be found in the source link below.

Club Jameco borrows from Etsy and Kickstarter, lets DIYers design, sell and buy project kits originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 03:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Michael of n0m1 Design built this Arduino-controlled night light as a Mother’s Day gift.

A few years back I made a motion sensitive night light as a Mother’s day gift and while it worked pretty well it really chewed out the batteries. And as with all devices that eat batteries it eventually fell out of use. The standby current was around 4 mA due to the common LM324 opamp that was used to amplify the PIR motion sensor signal. The original enclosure was CNC milled from a bit of re-purposed apple which had a former life as a guitar body I built as a child.

Code and schematics on the project page.

Ok I am planning on building a "small" humanoid robot that can has computer vision and can do many tasks. I am planning on using a small onboard computer to do all the processing so that it can be autonomous and reduce the need to have another computer on for it to work. Anyway I am looking for a small, not expensive, and easy to use, some what powerfull small computer or single board computer that has usb ports,can run off a small battery and can run lunix. I am thankful for all suggestions.

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Becky’s latest project over at adafruit shows off some of the possibilities of the cool surplus vending machine coin acceptors they just added to their catalog. It has an Arduino for brains, an LCD shield to report your balance, and an LED that makes piggy squeal glow when you feed him teh monies. The more loot in your hoard, the brighter he glows. And of course it’s done with the usual sparkling clarity and attention to detail that Becky brings to all her videos.

I have to say, looking at those coin acceptor modules has me scheming one of those machines that trains birds to trade coins they find on the ground for food. [Thanks, Becky!]

How-To: Electronic Piggy Bank

JeeLab’s Jean-Claude Wippler has been “rethinking the Arduino interface” since 2008, when he first attached an ISM band radio to a Modern Device Real Bare Bones Board. Three and a half years later he has built quite a library of sensors and breakout “plugs” for the JeeLabs Platform. The heart of the platform is the JeeNode (see below), which adds an inexpensive radio to an RBBB-style development board.

All of the pins of the Atmega328 are reorganized into four ports that have the same pinout: IRQ, Analog In, Regulated Power, GND, Digital In, Power In.

Sensor plugs can be small and all have the same interface; most communicate with the microcontroller using I2C (a common on-board option in a lot of sensor ICs). A set of Arduino libraries provides a consistent interface to the sensor plugs and the wireless module.

Jean Claude’s blog is worth setting aside some time to dig into. The latest posts are about analyzing supercap discharge rates, but some of the previous 1000 odd posts include an Oscilloscope buyer’s guide, the design process behind the various products, and lots of analysis of power usage of Atmega-based microcontroller projects.

JeeLabs will be represented at the 2012 Bay Area Maker Faire by his Stateside collaborator Modern Device.

If you’ve ever been to Times Square in New York City, you’re probably familiar with the tkts booth, which offers discounted Broadway tickets for same-day shows. Using an Arduino with an Ethernet Shield, a Staples Easy Button, and a thermal printer, Chris D’Angelo created a device that prints the current discount for each show. Since tkts doesn’t have a public API, Chris used their iPhone app and a man-in-the-middle proxy called mitmproxy to determine the URL that the app requests to get the latest data. The Arduino requests that URL and parses the response, which is then formatted for output on the serial thermal printer. Nice thinking! I’m definitely adding mitmproxy to my toolset. [via Adafruit]

I'm using Fizikus' design to add audio cues to a project.  The schematic, from Ar-Du, looks like this:

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If you’ve ever wondered how to use the potentiometer on the MakerShield (available in the Maker Shed) to control a servo with an Arduino, wonder no more. Now there is a simple tutorial to show you how on Make: Projects!

Servos are very useful things; they provide precise movement in 180 degrees of motion. This guide will show you how to hook a servo up to your Arduino and use the potentiometer on the MakerShield to control it.

All the parts you need are available in the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack. There’s just something fascinating about seeing a servo rotate to a position dictated by your fingertips!