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154 items tagged "arduino"

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March 07, 2010
16:37
Don’t worry occifer, there is no blood in my alcohol!
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Daniel] wrote up a quick tutorial on interfacing with the MQ-3, or better known Breathalyzer from SparkFun with Arduino. While we would have used perhaps an op-amp/comparator based system and kept it in a much smaller package, the idea was so quick and simple and enjoyable we hoped an article might keep some hackers from [...]
February 25, 2010
7:57
Shiftbrite coffee table
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Here’s a project we’ve been wanting to do for a while. Over at macetech.com they’ve posted an LED coffee table that uses a 9×9 RGB LED grid. For the LEDs, they used the shiftbrite modules we’ve seen before. The table is capable of displaying pre written patterns as well as accepting patterns from a computer [...]
February 16, 2010
13:59
Ultimate flame bait: liquid cooled Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We do so many things around here just because “we can”. Though this guy cites this as his reason, we somehow can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it just to troll the Arduino hating crowd. He has decided to overclock his Arduino by replacing the crystal and dropping it in some non conductive liquid [...]
February 11, 2010
7:57
Arduino helps you ski Copper
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Dwight's] been working on a long-term project to add a status board for the ski runs at Copper Mountain ski resort. The board will feature an 8×8 LED module for each run that displays a green O for open trails, a green G for groomed trails, and a red X for closed trails. He’s also [...]
February 10, 2010
8:31
The day after Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

There will come a day in every budding hacker’s life that they realize that plopping an entire arduino in their project and leaving it there is a bit of a waste. [Domiflichi] realized this, and has shared his next steps with us. He takes us through the process of removing the ATMega chip and breadboarding [...]
7:29
CueCat, meet Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Have you ever felt like you needed a portable barcode scanner around the house? No? Well, [Mkanoap] did, so he made one. He has hooked his CueCat up to his Arduino to capture barcode data and store it on an SD card. He is using it as an inventory tool for his personal library. Where [...]
February 07, 2010
12:00
Putting on a show in the rain
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Let’s face it, walking around in the rain sucks. [Matth3w] is trying to add a little whimsy to an unpleasant experience by adding an LED matrix to his umbrella. The array contains 80 LEDs that are individually addressable. This is a mutiplexed array that relies on a MIC2981 source driver for the eight rows (or [...]
February 06, 2010
11:10
Update: Adafruit Eagle library, now with Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Adafruit Industries has just added an Arduino shield footprint to their EagleCAD library. If you don’t know, the Arduino headers use non-standard pin spacing. Learn to deal with it, there’s too many Arduino shields in production to have any hope for a change in the future. This footprint should make it a lot easier to [...]
February 05, 2010
9:33
Arduino to Nintendo DS interface
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Hounjini] was poking around at the Game Boy Advanced bus of his Nintendo DS lite and figured out how to use it to connect an Arduino to the DS. For testing he’s soldered an IDC plug to the cartridge cover pin interface but this only requires four connections. The Arduino can both send and received [...]
February 01, 2010
12:41
Game controllers using USB host shield
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Circuits@Home has put together some libraries that make it easy to use gaming controllers with an Arduino. They interface through the USB host shield. This means that PS3 controllers connect via USB through a cable or a dongle. With the Wii remote things get a little more interesting. A Bluetooth dongle is used to make [...]
January 30, 2010
17:00
Hybrid analog/binary clock, the MK2
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Kieran] let us know about his hybrid analog/binary clock. The circuitry behind the clock is nothing too new. An Arduino combined with a Chronodot to produce an accurate clock. What we really enjoyed however was the creative implementation of an old British Telecom Linesman’s Multimeter as the case. The analog meter acts as the seconds [...]
January 25, 2010
13:00
Foul-mouthed game will get you in trouble
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Fridgehead] modified his Simon Says game to include a dirty word for each lighted button. This is a real good way to teach kids to swear and to get child protective services to pay you a visit all at the same time. The hardware has been modified to use an Arduino in tandem with an [...]
January 23, 2010
7:45
Ideas based on photo frame clock
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Mahto] bought a digital picture frame but the image quality turned out to be terrible. He decided to turn it into a clock in a unique way. He loaded up 720 images, one for each minute in a twelve hour period. He then used an Arduino to simulate a button once a minute, cycling to [...]
January 22, 2010
6:49
Arduino programmer for Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Wow, that title is flamebait… but give us a chance to explain. [George] wrote some code for the Arduino that allows it to program another Arduino. You may be thinking to yourself “this has already been done”. In a way it has, with the AVR ISP programming shield. But once the code has been uploaded [...]
January 21, 2010
15:52
Frustromantic Box, a reverse Geocache
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

One of the best feelings in the world is when one of our posts inspires a fellow hacker to plan, create, and execute his or her own project. [Russ] let us know about his Frustromantic Box which he gained inspiration from the original Reverse Geochache we posted about. For those out of the loop, the box [...]
8:00
Buzzle: a morse code puzzle box
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[lucasfragomeni] built the Buzzle after being inspired by the reverse geocache puzzle. The Buzzle was built as a gift to a friend. It’s a tricky gift too. His friend can’t open it until he decodes the words being displayed in morse code via an LED. A word is chosen at random, so you would have [...]
6:10
Live high altitude balloon launch
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Terry] is planning to launch his high altitude balloon within the next few days. As we’ve seen before he has gone for a general setup – GPS tracking, environment sensors including temperature and humidity and pressure, and 2 on board cameras – all with an expected height of about 100,000 feet. What makes this project [...]
January 18, 2010
11:08
Wii Nunchuk train controls
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

While we’ve been told all of our lives Wiis and trains just don’t mix, they never said anything about Wii Nunchuks. One terribly abused joke later, [Ken] tipped us off about his Wii Nunchuk controlled train set. By utilizing Digital Command Control (think pulse-width modulation) with an Arduino, he is able to have full control over [...]
6:56
Multichannel music generation for Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Drew] wrote a library for playing multichannel music on an Arduino. The project connects multiple piezo buzzers to the popular prototyping platform and handles the dirty work involved in modulating multiple buzzers at the same time. The video above starts with an explanation for the first three minutes but if you’re impatient you can jump [...]
January 16, 2010
16:00
Developing physical controllers for the uninitiated
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Dave] hosted a one day seminar at the Illinois Institute of Technology which focused on rapid electronics prototyping for those with little prior experience blinking those LEDs. As the defacto standard for novice prototypers it’s no surprise that he gave an Arduino to each team to use as the controller-computer interface. He started the day [...]
January 15, 2010
8:00
A day at the lake for the disabled
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We do a lot of useless hacks just for the fun of it so when we see something with purpose it’s pretty exciting. This hack turns any kayak into a motorized vessel that can be controlled by a quadriplegic person using a sip & puff interface. After the break you can see some clips of [...]
January 12, 2010
5:35
Arduinome with many pots
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Aggaz] added 16 potentiometers to his Arduinome.The Arduinome is a monome clone based around the Arduino as a microprocessor. We seen some Arduinome builds in the past but [Aggaz's] work augments the physical interface. Potentiometers used in circuit bending allow for manipulation of the sounds coming out of the circuits. In this case the pots are [...]
January 11, 2010
16:35
Weather clock
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Sean_Carney] build this clock that tells the weather instead of the time. The two hands display the current conditions and the temperature. Forty below zero seems amazingly cold if you’re on the Fahrenheit scale but [Sean's] from Winnipeg so he’s operating on the Celsius side of things. Two servos move the hands to match the data [...]
January 07, 2010
13:00
Spy on your office
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Garagedeveloper] sent us his custom surveillance system, part 1, part 2, and part 3 after needing a way to find out why some cables at work were becoming unplugged (spoiler, the cleaners were messing up the wiring). At the base of the system is a web cam glued to a stepper motor. However, it gets [...]
8:08
Max/MSP accelerometer beat control
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

let us know about his Max/MSP Controller. Inside the device is an ADXL 335 accelerometer and 6 push buttons wired to an Arduino. The input data is sent to Max MSP, a sequencer controlling 5 audio tracks, correlating to 5 of the buttons. The 6th button controls delay. What we really liked was how [...]
January 06, 2010
7:32
Arduino I/O Speed Breakdown
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jee Labs] has worked out how long it takes for an Arduino to perform various I/O operations. Predictably, analogRead() takes the longest, followed by analogWrite(). Arduino really falls behind when it comes to digital pin I/O: digitalWrite() takes a whopping fifty times longer than a direct bit write to a port register! This is something [...]
January 03, 2010
9:00
Arduino security with frickin’ laser
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[over9k] used his Arduino to set up a laser trip wire. The laser is mounted along side the Arduino, reflects off of a mirror, and shines on a photoresistor that interfaces via a voltage divider. The signal from the voltage divider is monitored for a change when the laser beam is broken. [over9k] set things [...]
January 02, 2010
11:00
Arduino Headed for One Point Oh
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

In a recent blog post, [Massimo] stated that there will be some stabilizing changes coming for the Arduino platform. The API, IDE, and even the website are targets for the Arduino team’s New Year’s resolutions to bring Arduino to 1.0. This platform is often seen at the core of projects we cover and many that [...]
December 31, 2009
10:00
Twitter based Christmas ornaments update
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

When we introduced you to the Twitter Christmas tree ornaments, sadly we had very little information about the project. Luckily [Rob] made contact and clued us in on the inner workings. It even turns out we were wrong about the usage of Arduinos! We invite you to check out all the juicy inner workings after [...]
December 30, 2009
14:00
TF2 kill counter, binary style
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

After getting some fun new toys for Christmas, [IceColdFreezie] set up this kill counter for Team Fortress 2. At first glance, we weren’t that impressed. It’s an Arduino and a few LEDs. Then we saw that it was counting the kills in binary. We’re not sure if it gets much geekier than that. You can [...]
December 28, 2009
13:00
Moolodeon electric accordion
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Lee] wanted an electric Melodeon to use with his band. A Melodeon is a chromatic accordion and there are people who already make electric versions but they are a little too expensive for him. Instead, he bought a toy accordion and added electronics to it. After being thwarted by forgotten PIC skills of yore, he went [...]
December 27, 2009
16:17
MakerBotWatch
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

If you didn’t get the geeky watch you wanted for Christmas you should consider building yourself a MakerBotWatch. The watch is an Arduino, using an ATmega328 microcontroller running the bootloader. The watch has two concentric circles of LEDs for minutes and hours. A vertical row of four LEDs adds in the additional resolution needed to [...]
9:49
(Yet another) Twitter this controlling Arduino that
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Christmas may be over, but we still have a couple of cool holiday related hacks for you. One being [Alpay's] Twitter based interactive Christmas tree ornaments. We tried to dig up some more information, but it thus far appears a laptop running Processing searches Twitter for specific Christmas related words (like 1337, that’s Christmas-y), sends a [...]
December 26, 2009
12:00
VFD clock (ends the world)
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We honestly thought [Jason's] VFD clock was some form of new terrorist attack when we came across the RSS. Thank goodness our relations with Russia aren’t as MAD as they used to be. The main components are an IV-18 VFD with a MAX6921 driver, which to an untrained ear do sound surprisingly threatening. However an Arduino [...]
11:00
Replacement refrigerator controller
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Michael] got his hands on a refrigerator that he intended to store beer in but found that it ran constantly. Instead of buying a new thermostat he and his friend [Doug] set out to build an Arduino-based controller for the fridge. The finished project will switch 240v so they’ve used a transformer to power the logic [...]
December 25, 2009
11:08
You’re not seeing double: RGB Christmas trees
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[mrpackethead], created this monster of a tree. As shown in the video, it’s capable of showing animations, patterns, and potentially video. The 6m tall creation is studded with 2000 waterproof RGB LED modules. Software for the tree was written in Apple’s own Quartz Composer and integrated into Madrix, a piece of software designed with the purpose of controlling LEDs. [...]
December 24, 2009
9:09
Spreading christmas cheer w/ auto parts
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

The folks over at [Soup], a British marketing agency, thought up this cool project. It’s a set of handbells hooked up to an Arduino, actuated by central locking motors found in car doors. By the look of some pictures, there was also a Lego version. Songs written by users (through the online interface) are placed in the que [...]
December 23, 2009
14:00
Laser harp
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jared] had a bunch of lasers left over from a previous project that he put to use by producing this laser harp. The look of it reminds us of a very small Koto or perhaps an Autoharp (although the chords can’t be changed on this model). We’re so glad that [Jared] spent the time to produce [...]
13:00
Open source artillery
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Thanks to [Josh, Kyle, and Mike], it is now possible to wage (Nerf) war with an Arduino. The turret designed around it is capable of shooting 6 foam projectiles in close succession, between reloads. The faux weapon interfaces with a computer through the Arduino’s onboard serial link (via USB). Software on the PC sends commands to the Arduino, which [...]
11:00
Atmolight clone of an Ambilight clone
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Fun3] wasn’t satisfied with current methods for duplicating Philips Ambilight. He wanted a completely plug and play solution without soldering so he could expand upon it in the future. This meant Arduino, ShiftBright, and (it pains us to say this) pre-made cables. Some of you are cringing at the thought of no real ‘work’ being [...]
10:00
Arduino now controlling – the crop harvest?
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve seen the Arduino board in charge of some pretty unique tasks in the past. Harvesting locally grown soybeans was not one of them. [Lance] rigged this beast up in order to automate the monotonous task of driving up and down the vast soybean fields of Iowa. The 15 ton farm combine’s hydraulic steering pump is at the mercy of [...]
9:00
Temperature and electricity monitoring
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Willem] has been using an Arduino to monitor temperatures and electricity usage. For the temperature monitoring he picked up some 1-wire temperature sensors similar to those we’ve featured in the past. To pick up on electricity usage he’s not using an amp sensors, but because he’s in the UK he does have a flashing LED [...]
December 21, 2009
8:00
Fake snow from an Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

The team at [Sosolimited] was contracted to create an interesting holiday window dispay for the HBO retail store in NYC. The Times Square display encorporates a board of LEDs and a machine for blowing the artificial snow particles around the enclosure. The code for controlling the LED array was written on top of the open source C++ toolkit, openFrameworks [...]
6:48
A random USB… hourglass
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Peter] thought of a creative, way to generate random entropy for under $100. The USB Hourglass combines a sand timer with a rotating mechanism and an optical beam through the center of the timer to observe the falling sand. The amount of light reaching a detector is digitized at frequent intervals and processed by a microcontroller to [...]
December 19, 2009
11:31
Peggy2 x2, with video
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Being avid fanatics of flashing lights, we always love to see the peggy2 in action. The video above shows another improvement, which is two peggy2 units working together as one. [iservice2000] chained the two together and wrote new code for the display. Using an Arduino to drive it all, he has gotten them to act [...]
10:09
Capturing that (light field) moment
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Yes, your eyes do not lie, that is 12 cameras rigged to take a picture at the exact same moment. The idea is a single camera loses data (namely depth) when it takes a 3D image and transposes it onto a 2D medium. FuturePicture somewhat circumvents this loss by taking several pictures with different focus [...]
8:09
Cheap toy yields good parts
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve spent some serious time building robot chassis and motor controllers. [Whamodyne] does the smart thing and scavenges what he needs form cheap sources. He picked up an RC car from the local pharmacy for just $10, tore the body off and behold, a bounty of robot-friendly parts. We’re not talking precision parts here, but we [...]
December 18, 2009
13:52
Giving an old arm new life
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jarek] found a non-functional robotic arm sitting around and wanted to get it working again. By adding a few custom boards to an Arduino he managed to do just that. The arm is driven by six stepper motors, each having four control wires. To handle all of these [Jarek] used TIP120 transistors to protect the controller. [...]
December 16, 2009
10:55
Light up your limbs
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Here’s a Christmas tree project we can get behind. The “tree” itself is made of twisted pairs of insulated copper wire. At the end of each pair a surface mount LED has been soldered between the two conductors. All of the wire limbs converge into a 4×4 matrix. One tree uses a prototyping shield and [...]
December 15, 2009
14:25
Interactive beer pong table
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Do you find that beer pong is too dull on its own to keep your attention? Do you require flashing lights to accentuate your imbibing? Here’s the perfect solution. Make an interactive beer pong table. It didn’t take much to sell us on the idea. We think everything needs a few more lights. The idea is that [...]
9:30
Social Media HUD
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

After [Gregg Benjamin] read our story about a simple physical email notifier, he decided to test his skills and add some touches of his own. Rather than limiting his notifier to just email, he has added support for displaying Pandora Radio songs, Facebook notifications, and email all to a LCD. He even has included code [...]
December 14, 2009
13:59
Monitor Keg volume, CO2, and temp
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jean-Michel] tipped us off about his beer keg monitoring setup. It can tell you how much beer is left in each keg, how much carbon dioxide remains in the canister, and it can monitor and regulate temperature. An Arduino mega is the brain of the system. A shield was built to interface force sensors, measuring the [...]
December 11, 2009
13:36
Remote bike mountain
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

The Remote Bike project, caught our eye today. Inspired by “cliff hangers” on the tv show “The Price Is Right”, [atduskgreg] has built his own version. In this version, the bike on the mountain makes progress, or slides back down the mountain based on the speed you pedal. If you maintain your target speed long [...]
7:29
Word Clock redux
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[drj113] wrote back to let us know his latest version of the infamous Word Clock, now in Arduino flavor. You may remember when we originally showed you the Word Clock back in September, while much hasn’t changed, he’s added and modified a few things to make it more user-friendly. Most notably is the use of [...]
December 08, 2009
10:36
Overly complicated gas guage
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

While this is most likely overkill for a gas gauge, we do thank [VadimS] for sharing the information. He shows us how to build a capacitive liquid sensor using an Arduino, some foil and some wire. He’s basically detecting the difference in capacitance between the foil sheets. As he gets more water in the bottle, [...]
December 06, 2009
8:03
Nunk on Droise
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Nunk on Droise is an art installation where noise is made depending on how drunk you are. In a configuration that could be called a cthoilet, the sensors shown above are alcohol sensors. Though we initially thought this would be testing urine, the description states that it tests the breath of the participant. Unfortunately there [...]
December 03, 2009
12:43
Crushtoberfest – can you pwn Tom Selleck?
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

On rare occasion, the celestial bodies that control engineering and design awesomeness move into alignment and cast their blessed star dust upon a hacker. Today, we can witness the glorious outcome of such an alignment. Although almost unheard of, it’s a good omen that such a blessed hacker also be adorned with a wickedly furry [...]
9:00
Phone controlled solar charged tank
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

This looks like a fun little project. [Chris] has built a tank that he is controlling using his iPhone. Constructed mainly of off the shelf parts, like an Arduino and an Xbee wireless unit, the tank is controlled via processing. You can see that it is fairly responsive as he changes the speed of the [...]
December 02, 2009
12:19
X-mas Hack: 8-channel musical show
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve been seeing them appear one house at a time over the last few weeks as Christmas lights are making their annual appearance. Some folks just throw a set of net-style lights on the bushes and call it good but that wouldn’t suit [Noel]. He’s outfitted his house with a show that includes music, 8 [...]
7:07
Arduino shield for Arduino. No, really.
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve been accused on more than one occasion…okay, pretty much every single day…of harboring some kind of creepy Arduino love affair. The topic does come up an awful lot here, we’re not oblivious to that, and had been patiently waiting for April Fool’s Day to post an article lampooning the whole situation, both ourselves and critics alike, so that everybody [...]
November 29, 2009
7:48
Magic clock knows your location
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Straight out of the fiction of Harry Potter is The Magic Clock. Just like in the novel this clock (is it still a clock even thought it doesnt tell time?) shows the current location of family members, from home to the doctor’s office, even to mortal peril (We hear its nice this time of year). The [...]
November 25, 2009
11:13
Voice controlled lock? Almost…
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

If you watched the video before reading the article (like we did) and started shaking in your boots at a voice controlled lock system, prepare to be disappointed. His spoken commands are actually to his son to press the appropriate keys on a keypad off screen, the lock is not actually voice controlled. But still, [Michael [...]
7:14
Digital BMXing through San Francisco
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Alpay] sent in this project he did recently. He was hired to produce a kiosk that would stand out to the kids at the event. He chose to make a bike riding game utilizing open source hardware and software. There was some thought put into what interface to use to make it easiest for people [...]
November 24, 2009
12:06
Commodore SQ1000 twitter wall: the twypper
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Before we begin, let us soothe those first dreaded thoughts. No, the commodore was not destroyed in the process. They can simply clip the 16 wires they added to interface the keyboard and be back to stock. Breathe a sigh of relief, and enjoy the twypper, a twitter wall made from a commodore SQ1000. [Alex] needed [...]
8:18
Hack a Sketch
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Sometimes we miss that old Etch a Sketch we had when we were kids. The challenge of producing a decent image using those two knobs was always fun and frustrating at the same time. This project lets us recreate this interface on our computer. The Hack a Sketch is a combination of an Etch a [...]
November 20, 2009
13:00
Multixylophoniomnibus
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Ania] wrote in to let us know her team had finished the Multixylophoniomnibus and that they have posted an extensive writeup about it. We covered this augmented xylophone when it was still in development at the beginning of this month. Originally they wanted to use mallets wrapped in tinfoil as switches that close when they [...]
November 17, 2009
14:13
DIY mood lamp looks store-bought
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[NeZoomie] built an RGB mood lamp as his first electronics project. He certainly hit it out of the park with this one, ending up with a design so clean it could be a commercial product. The controller is an Arduino board (further proof that this is a fantastic entry-level platform) that interfaces with 8 RGB [...]
7:16
RFID door lock – the right way
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Pcmofo] has shared a well-built, well-explained example of how to implement an RFID key system for a door. We call this the right way because it is well thought out and functional. In the past we’ve seen doors that unlock via a secret knock, keypads, and RFID, but they are all non-permanent solutions capable being [...]
November 16, 2009
17:00
Rotating radar visualization
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We ask, who wouldn’t want a rotating motion and distance tracking radar? Sure in today’s day and age anyone could purchase a wide-angle sonar or IR solution that achieves the same goal, but [LuckyLarry] took it old school and made his own rotating radar. He used an Arduino, servo, and ultrasonic sensor as a base [...]
November 15, 2009
14:00
Radar detector tester
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Blacklight99] made this cool tool. It is a tester for those radar detectors that people keep in their cars. Though this seems like it would rarely be a tool we would need, it’s an interesting project. Some speed guns that the police use have a “stealth” mode that makes them invisible to some detectors. This tool can [...]
November 14, 2009
9:00
R/C Lawnmower
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Johndavid400] built this incredible looking R/C lawnmower. After spending some time repairing broken R/C cars, he wanted to move on to something a little more useful and powerful. He decided to build a mower. He’s using a transceiver set from ebay, with an Arduino interpreting the signal and outputting to his custom motor board. In the video after the [...]
November 13, 2009
17:02
Duino tag
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

During our daily rounds we stumbled upon Duino Tag. Sure it’s not as awesome as a coil gun but it really sparked our imagination. First the base: an Arduino is wired up with IR LEDs and placed inside of a plastic pistol. A second Arduino with an IR receiver is scanning for the first Arduinos [...]
November 12, 2009
9:00
Too much time, not enough pressure
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Audin] got a hold of a pressure gauge and decided to turn it into a clock. We were under the impression that these types of gauges were filled with oil but he didn’t detail cleaning it up for his purposes. Once he gained access to the guts he replaced them with a stepper motor. The [...]
November 11, 2009
10:00
Battery capacity tester
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Moris_zen] built a device to accurately measure the capacity of batteries. He needed to have an accurate measurement for the batteries he uses in a RC airplane. Knowing the discharge time allows him to fly the friendly skies while avoiding crashes from lost communications. He based the tester around the Arduino platform. Instead of using a [...]
November 09, 2009
7:49
Bike brake light senses you slowing down
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Group riding can be a bit dangerous if the pace is fast and riders don’t notice a slowing in the front of the pack. [WyoJustin] designed a brake light system for cyclists to try and remedy this issue. LEDs are mounted in the end caps of the handlebars on a road bike. When an accelerometer [...]
November 08, 2009
9:00
Centipede shield design contest
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Our friend [Garrett Mace] from macetech has finished a prototype of a new shield which allows the Arduino (or any other microcontroller with I2C) to add 64 digital I/O pins using only 2 of the analog pins. Currently he only has a few pre-production boards, and rather than selling them he is throwing a contest to win [...]
November 07, 2009
13:00
Urban Defender: location aware game
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common? No, not that one drunken night you can’t seem to remember, rather a new location aware game called Urban Defender. The concept behind the game is simple. A player hold a ball that knows its current location and can notify you if needed via [...]
November 06, 2009
16:09
Servoelectric guitar is a keytar with strings
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Keith Baxter] has undertaken something of a ‘Mount Everest’ of guitar modifications. He’s developing a Servoelectric guitar that trades frets for a keypad. It is still a guitar in the sense that it has a body, strings, and pickups to sense the strings vibrations and pass them to an amplifier. The left hand, which traditionally [...]
15:00
Physical email notification
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

One day computers will exist in every part of our lives. You’ll be standing in the shower, lathering up when Chantal, your holographic computer controlled AI partner, informs you in a cool voice you have a new email. How splendid, it must be the office letting you know there is no work today! “Anything else?” [...]
11:58
Didgeridoo modded to include electronic manipulation
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

It’s not a bazooka, but this altered instrument makes it look like the player is toking off of some type of weapon. [Kyle] wanted to take the already mysterious sounds produced by a didgeridoo then capture and alter them electronically. The physical build of this project is nothing short of beautiful. He’s mounted several curved control [...]
November 05, 2009
8:05
Automated coffee bean roaster
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve featured several different ways to roast coffee beans over the years. This is the next logical step. [Nightlife31] shows us how to use an Arduino and a popcorn popper to create a fully automated coffee bean roaster. You’ll have to modify your popcorn machine to be controllable. This means installing your temp sensor and [...]
November 04, 2009
8:00
Knock detecting lock
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Steve] shows us his version of the knock detecting lock system. The idea is pretty simple, knock in a certain pattern and the door unlocks. We’ve seen it before several times. This solution is somewhat cleaner than the others, not only in physical design, but also in how you reprogram it. Simply push the reprogram [...]
November 03, 2009
16:13
Apple Remote Arduino shield
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Computergeek] made an Arduino Shield in order to use it as an Apple remote. We like the construction technique that he used; taking perf-board and soldering the circuit and using stripped wire to interface with the pin sockets on the Arduino. He’s written the code needed to function as an Apple Remote but this shield [...]
November 02, 2009
13:00
Augmented Xylophone
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Ania's] been working on extending a xylophone in a project called Multixylophoniomnibus. She’s fitted a piezo sensor on the bottom of each xylophone key, interfacing it with an Arduino. When when a mallet hits a key the corresponding box augments the sound in one of several ways. It looks like she’s prototyped a box that [...]
12:00
ArduiNIX: Nixie shield for Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Flock of Butterflies has just published their third post in a series about the ArduiNIX, an Arduino shield that drives Nixie tubes.We’ve featured Nixie tube projects such as a single tube clock, free-formed Nixie circuits, and tubes in a bottle. Now the hurdle of handling high voltage tubes while protecting low voltage logic circuitry has [...]
October 31, 2009
11:00
Another mini KeepOn?
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Eustice Scrubb] has posted some videos and pictures of a robotic “eye stalk” that he’s building. It looks like the final version is using 3 servos in an arrangement like tendons through a slinky jr. The ping-pong ball on the top has a BlinkM inside it. You can see a video after the break that [...]
October 30, 2009
13:00
Time-lapse courtesy of Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Ross] put together a small package for use with time-lapse photography. The Nikon camera he’s using can snap a picture when it receives an IR command. [Ross'] solution connects an IR LED to an Arduino to generate this signal. The delay between frames is set with a potentiometer that is read in through the ADC. [...]
10:00
Arduino “python” integration
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Cyberspice] informs us she likes snakes. Hey, who doesn’t? She’ll soon be adopting a lovely ball python and wanted to keep close tabs on the sensitive creature’s environment. To that end she assembled a network-enabled vivarium monitoring system based on Adafruit’s Boarduino (a minimalist Arduino clone), a TMP36 analog temperature sensor, Saelig’s WIZ810MJ Ethernet interface, and a common LCD screen. The [...]
9:00
Single servo robot
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Guilherme Martins] rose to a challenge to build a robot with a single servo. His robot is a puppet controller, called talkie walkie. In real time, it will move its mouth to the sound of what you are saying. For those really curious, he’s speaking Portuguese and he roughly says “Hi, how’s it going”. He’s using an [...]
October 29, 2009
10:00
Halloween props: Techy Jack-o-lanterns
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Halloween is this weekend. If you still have some time and parts available, you might be looking to spice up your Jack-o-lantern. We’ve found a few projects that we thought might be nice to share. None of them would merit a post on their own, so we thought we would just round them up and [...]
October 28, 2009
7:10
Headpiece Jabbing for Smiles
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Lauren] has created a facial conditioning device dubbed the Happiness Hat. The hat measures a sensor at the wearer’s cheek to determine if the wearer is smiling. When the hat does detects the wearer is not smiling, it activates a servo that prods the wearer. This project is fairly unique in that it provides haptic [...]
October 27, 2009
14:00
These midi controllers stink!
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Well, maybe saying it stinks is too harsh. But if you build a midi controller out of an old pair of skate shoes you can be certain that they smell. [Thobson] put odor issues aside and added four force sensitive resistors to his shoes (one in each heel and one under the ball of each [...]
October 26, 2009
17:22
inPulse watch gets BlackBerry data via Bluetooth
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Eric] just told us about the watch he developed that displays info from a BlackBerry via Bluetooth. The watch displays updates, message alerts, incoming call information, and… tells time. Setup and control is handled with the BlackBerry keypad. The device is charged with a micro-USB connection and will last for about four days without a [...]
9:00
Halloween props: Servo eyes
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

If you’re wanting to spice up a Jack-o-lantern, why not give it some spooky eyes that will look around? [todbot] shows us how to set this up using an Arduino and 3 servos. His rig uses a hobby servo to control the entire head’s orientation and a smaller servo for each eye’s movement. Their motion [...]
October 22, 2009
11:44
Driving USB peripherals with Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Circuits@Home have managed to host a USB keyboard with an Arduino and display the keyboard inputs on a character LCD. This uses the USB host shield we covered in August. That host shield includes a MAX3421 which is used here to drive the character LCD. The control code for the keyboard ends up being fairly simple. [...]
October 20, 2009
15:00
well engineered diy Segway
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Mark] wanted a Segway but why buy something if you can have more fun building it? His end product is an amazing homemade version of the self-balancing transportation package. We’ve seen several projects that include auto-balance, but this one is large enough to ride on and has a bit of an advantage in the design. [...]
12:00
Brain control for the Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

When we hear about a brain controlled Arduino project we immediately think about a coding nightmare. As always, the simple hacks are the best hacks. [Joel] and [Akshay] used hardware from a kid’s game as a brain interface for an Arduino. We came across the video (embedded after the break) of their work and asked for [...]
October 19, 2009
7:00
Reverse geocache puzzle
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Mikal] wanted to create an awesome electronic wedding gift for his friend who was moving to France. After experimenting with a few things, he settled on creating a puzzle box that would only open in a certain location. Since his friend introduced him to the Arduino, he fittingly used one in the design, along with [...]
October 18, 2009
16:00
3D Magnetometer mouse in processing
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[etgalim] works in Solidworks extensively and wanted a more intuitive way of rotating objects onscreen. To do this, he created a mouse that responds to rotation. He put a 3D compass module inside an old mouse and wired it up to an Arduino. The Arduino then relays the I2C sensor data to the computer. So far, [...]
7:22
1480W scooter motor guarantees head trauma
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jerome's] been working on some improvements to an electric foot scooter he picked up from a friend. He ordered up a powerful brushless motor and some lithium batteries. His system uses a belt drive and at 33 volts it can reach 25 miles per hour. He had some problems with too much torque when the motor [...]
October 16, 2009
8:00
RFID-enabled robot…mood…tail…thingy.
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Furries: is there nothing they cannot do? Well okay, “shower” remains an elusive concept, but wearable technology seems to be in, as evidenced by this robotic mood tail. [Wei-Chieh Tseng]’s adorable Arduino-driven fashion accessory operates either via Wii Nunchuk or a set of RFID cards tagged with specific emotions to depict. Details are scant. It appears to have been a [...]
October 15, 2009
10:01
Turntable sequencer scratches with coins
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[tvst] has an interesting take on a sequencer. His design uses coins on a turn table to trigger midi events in a loop. There are four tracks available, each having its own sensor above the spinning platform. The sensors consist of an IR transmitter and receiver setup as a voltage divider. When something passes below [...]
October 09, 2009
10:00
Metal Race combines operation and calculator game
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Greg] was feeling nostalgic about the game RACE for to TI-83 graphing calculator. In the game, your car is stationary with controls to move the scrolling maze from side to side in order to avoid a crash. He set out to build a physical version of the game with a don’t-touch-the-side concept that reminds us [...]
October 02, 2009
14:00
Growing algae with an Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve seen automated grow boxes of all shapes and sizes, but all were for growing plants. [Jared] over at Inventgeek wanted to do something similar for his algae. He started off with an Arduino-based solution that allows the controlled pulse of LEDs connected to his standard bioreactor as a prototype. Once he determined his proof [...]
10:00
Arduino DMX controller
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

This Arduino powered DMX controller came along at just the right time. We had shown you a project earlier that involved the DMX system and several commenters remarked on the price to get into DMX hardware. If you happen to have an Arduino around, you can build a DMX controller. He found a schematic for [...]
9:00
Clock knock block full of puns
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

This Clock Knock Block has a bit of everything; milling, Arduino, sensing, solenoids, and plenty of dirty puns. Just knock on the box or on the table right next to it and the time of day will be played back to you in a series of crisp, clean knocks. A big part of the fun [...]
October 01, 2009
8:00
Solar tracking, without overkill
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We saw this pretty smooth solar tracker run by an Arduino. There aren’t many details, but we can see that it works well, and is in fact, run by an Arduino. We knew if we posted this that people would be commenting that the Arduino is overkill. We agree. So this post is to ask, [...]
September 30, 2009
9:00
Arduino powered singing table
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Tags: arduino hacks

This musical Lazy Susan, or “Crazy Adam” was brought to us by students from MIT. It basically plays [Soul II Soul]’s “Back to Life” as it turns. In their words: “Through the interaction with the Singing Lazy Susan, we found the eating patterns and behaviors unique to each person, which reflect our personalities and interests. [...]
September 29, 2009
13:00
Noise box synth lays down some beats
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Tim] sent us his Noise Box Synth. The box is a sixteen step synthesizer that can generate sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waves as well as a collection of sound effects (video after the break). The hardware is simple; an Arduino, four potentiometers, four buttons, a switch, a speaker, and some LEDs. This was a [...]
11:00
Make an Arduino talk to you
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Tags: arduino hacks

One of the highlights from the Music Hack Day in Berlin was the Arduino singing “Daisy Bell”. If you don’t know, this is an homage to the HAL 9000 in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; an artificial intelligence that was taught the song in its first steps toward self awareness culminating in an attempt [...]
9:00
Touchscreen picture frame
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Circuit Ideas Design has posted a digital picture frame project based on their 240×320 16-bit color QVGA display. We made our own digital frame from a smaller screen a while back and this is pretty much the same implementation except with a larger screen and built around the AVR family of microcontrollers rather than PIC [...]
September 28, 2009
16:00
Pinch control2: laser drawing
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[atduskgreg] posted this cool looking rig. That’s a batting glove, chopped up and equipped with a flex sensor and a pressure sensor. The end goal was to create a new method of drawing. You can see he’s interfaced with the servos decently. It seems fairly responsive and intuitive. Looking at his results though, make us [...]
7:00
Open Source Weapon Makes You Puke
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Limor] of Adafruit Industries and the Ice Tube Clock has made her own open source non-lethal weapon: The Bedazzler. After attending a conference by the DHS where she saw the big-budget Dazzler, she decided to make her own. Thirty-six LEDs, six switching FETs, a Boarduino, and a former flashlight later, the Bedazzler makes a better [...]
September 25, 2009
15:30
Arduino Thermoscanner
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Steve] sent in a tip to show us his Thermography scanner. Constructed from an Arduino, two servos, a thermal sensor and a little bit of code, it is fairly simple. The results aren’t groundbreaking. You can see his examples are fairly low resolution and took about 30 seconds to capture. It isn’t bad for a [...]
September 23, 2009
11:00
Arduino-human synthesizer
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

(Thanks to [Aaron] for the tip) As a promo for [Calvin Harris], some of the creative minds at Sony Music have put together an Arduino-based sythesizer composed of 15 bikini clad babes. By analyzing which circuits are closed, the Arduino Mega is able to tell a sequencer which sample to play. The only innovation happens to be that the circuits are painted onto [...]
September 21, 2009
15:06
Defocusing LED Clock
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Dennis] has created a well-documented and very beautiful clock in his latest project. This clock stands out from the other clock projects we have covered with its unique display. The seven segment LED displays mounted on a sled that moves them back and forth behind an array of fiber optic lenses, effectively taking the display [...]
14:00
Tweetidor, the tweeting humidor
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

As cigar aficionados will tell you, cigars should be stored in climate controlled humidors to keep them in best condition for smoking. Most of the time a humidor is just a simple air-tight box with a hygrometer attached, which measures the relative humidity inside the box. Feeling as though he needed more control over the [...]
13:00
BlokClok – Abstract time display
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Clocks made from blinking LEDs always make for fun projects. [Earthshine] built a clock that displays time abstractly using an 8×8 RGB LED matrix. The video embedded after the break illustrates how to read the time but here’s the gist of it: One LED is illuminated in the outside box of LEDs and moved in [...]
September 19, 2009
12:00
EDuino – Arduino or AVR breakout?
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve had a lot of requests in the comments for more Arduino centered posts so we were happy when [Njay] told us about his EDuino board. This is a minimal Arduino clone that has a crystal and it’s capacitors, a pull-up resistor and button on the reset pin, and a detachable serial programming connection. He [...]
10:31
RepRap milling machine
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Chris] liked Cartesian RepRap idea so much that he decided to design his master’s diploma project around it. Though it uses most of the same parts as the RepRap (even the PCBs), [Chris] has adapted it so it does milling rather than 3D printing. Most of the parts (such as the stepper motors) were harvested from old inkjet printers and [...]
September 17, 2009
14:00
Arduino command interpreter shell
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

A lot of people like fancy GUIs and nice graphics, but some of us just feel more at home in a command prompt. [nevdull] is one of those people. Instead of just using the Arduino dev tools that are available for download, he wanted the ability to shell into his Arduino, so he created AVR [...]
September 16, 2009
10:00
Router/Twitter/Arduino clock
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Kyle] decided to build the above LED clock for his church. Though it may look impressive enough, it is also hiding loads of features. [Kyle] wanted to make the clock as easy to control as possible, so rather than use buttons or dials to control what is being displayed, he used Twitter. The clock is connected [...]
September 15, 2009
14:41
Using MatchBox cars as a switch
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[atduskgreg] posted this interesting setup to flickr. He’s using two toy cars as a switch. He has wired into their metal undercarriages so when they collide, the circuit closes. We’ve seen some pretty nifty home made interface items, but usually they are posted with a clear purpose or a project. This one is a little [...]
September 14, 2009
16:00
BBox MIDI drum sequencer
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We’ve covered sequencers before, but reader [Johan] sent in his latest project that is much more minimalistic approach. Dubbed the BBox, he based his drum generator on an Arduino and an LCD display. Rather than synthesizing sound, the Arduino just outputs MIDI which is then interpreted by his Roland Juno-D. In building the device he used a [...]
September 12, 2009
15:00
How to build a life-sized electronic game
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Tags: arduino hacks

We’re very impressed with [Steve's] Electronic Snowball Fight game. It consists of two life-sized players standing opposite of each other. Each can throw a snowball or duck, the object is to hit the other person and not get hit yourself. He’s utilized a lot of good building techniques that could be easily adapted to other [...]
September 10, 2009
12:55
SparkFun kegerator goes to eleven
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

It started with a simple need: keep tabs on SparkFun Electronics’ in-house kegerator so the beer won’t run out at inopportune times. But of course SparkFun and “simple need” make strange bedfellows…throw beer in the mix, and you know this can’t end well. The result, as you might imagine, reads like a who’s-who of electronics hackery buzzwords. Arduino? [...]
September 08, 2009
10:00
Arduino as iPod remote control
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[David] had an Arduino in search of a project. He decided to make an Arduino powered iPod remote control using an ipod connector breakout board and a 3.3v to 5v level converter (both from SparkFun). The circuit was built on a mini breadboard, controlled by an Arduino Mini, and housed in an Altoids tin. To [...]
8:17
Arduino crib rocker
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Anyone with children will understand the value of this project immediately. This is an Arduino controlled sound activated crib rocker. [Lars] built a custom suspension system for his baby’s crib which allows a servo, mounted to the floor to rock it gently back and forth. Ok, maybe it’s a vigorous rocking, but that’s what some [...]
September 07, 2009
9:53
Arduino powered delta robot
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We spotted this video of a delta robot today that seems to be powered by an Arduino. We were wondering when we would see this, happen. The source code is available on the project page. We really like the mouse control, its just fun to watch. You may recall that we recently covered some slightly [...]
September 06, 2009
10:00
Toyaanisqatsi: time lapse control using LEGO parts
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

A simple panning motion can add impact to the already-dramatic effect of time lapse photography. To accomplish this, frugal cinematographers sometimes build [Rube Goldberg] contraptions from clock motors, VCR parts or telescope tracking mounts. Hack a Day reader [Stephan Martin] has assembled a clever bargain-basement system using an Arduino-driven stepper motor and a reduction gear system built up [...]
September 05, 2009
8:00
Arduino email alert
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

The Arduino makes a great platform for alert systems because it doesn’t need additional parts, other than an LED or motor. [Torchris] made email notifier, and used an Ethernet shield to make it standalone. The Arduino polls your POP server seeing if there are unread emails. POP is an incredibly simple protocol, even simpler [...]
September 04, 2009
11:00
Variable Range Sprinkler
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Pete], a musician, and the guy behind SparkFun’s pogobeds and locking footprints has a sprinkler hack. He wanted to keep his dog, Choppy, happy with a green lawn while also keeping his sidewalk water free. To solve this problem, he hacked his sprinkler and hose to adjust the sprinkler’s range. He uses an Arduino to [...]
September 03, 2009
17:50
Arduino muon detector
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Sebastian Tomczak] was borrowing a homeade muon detector from his friend, and managed to hook it up to his computer through an Arduino. The detector itself uses 3 fluorescent tubes to detect radiation. Three separate tubes are used in order to filter out terrestrial radiation; cosmic radiation will fall in-line with the tubes and pass [...]
September 02, 2009
16:43
Simple automatic LED lamps
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[woody1189] put together some automatic lighting for his closet. Nine LEDs are grouped into three lamps and controlled by a hall effect sensor. He prototyped this on an Arduino and then migrated over to an ATtiny85. Although the current implementation could be accomplished without a microcontroller, we’d love to see some firmware improvements such as [...]
September 01, 2009
11:30
Arduino pH meter
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Carlos] sent us his project that uses an Arduino as a pH meter. In order to sense the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, a glass electrode is connected to the ADC of the Arduino through a fairly complicated calibration, amplification, and filtering circuit. Admittedly, it may not be cheaper or as accurate as some [...]
9:30
Arduino + hang man = Hangmanduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We saw this nifty little toy today and thought you guys might get a kick out of it. Its called the Hangmanduino, and as you can probably tell from the name, it plays hang man. This was an exercise in simplicity, you’ll notice there is only a single control for the entire game. We thought [...]
August 31, 2009
13:19
Internet enabled Furby
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[edwindertien] sent us his project to connect a Furby to the internet. The original Furby controller was replaced with an Arduino which in turn was given ethernet connectivity via a LANTRONIX XPort serial ethernet module. This assigns the Furby an IP address which can then be accessed through a script or via a web interface. [...]
August 30, 2009
21:29
Cheap wireless for microcontrollers
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Everybody loves microcontrollers, including the Arduino, allowing you to create whatever you imagine. That is unless you want to hack together something wireless. Originally you had to rely on the expensive XBee protocol or other wireless options, but no longer. Hobby Robotics found an extremely cheap transmitter and receiver and wrote a quick guide for [...]
August 28, 2009
17:45
Tiny light-seeking robots
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Alex] continues to delight us with his projects. His third-generation tiny Braitenberg vehicle, a light seeking robot, is a big improvement over its predecessor, the mini Braitenberg vehicle. He’s moved from an Arduino based design to using the AVR ATtiny25v, replaced the breadboard with a PCB, and reduced the parts count. We think it was [...]
August 27, 2009
8:30
RepRap wedge
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Generation 2.0 of RepRap, the self replicating 3d printer, is approaching realization. Code named “Mendel”, the new design will be wedge shaped rather than a box which offers a few benefits. The overall design is smaller than the original RepRap but the printable area is larger. This means more functionality with less building material. With [...]
August 26, 2009
14:30
Propeller Platform
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[nmcclana] has posted an assembly walkthrough for an Arduino-style prototyping board for the 80 MHz, eight core Parallax Propeller Microcontroller. While not board compatible with Arduino shields like the ARM-based Maple board we covered, it does have that familiar layout, and provides access to all 32 I/O pins, and the 3.8″ x 2.5″ footprint was kept in mind [...]
August 22, 2009
10:30
Maple beats up Arduino, takes its shields
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

The Atmega168 at the heart of every Arduino is an eminently capable chip; its ilk have been seen working as a basic web server, playing back digital audio, even generating TV signals. But as projects continue to grow in sophistication, reality rears its ugly head: Arduino can handle any one of these tasks very well, but it [...]
August 21, 2009
14:00
Passive infrared (PIR) sensor tutorial
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[ladyada] has a freshly-published and amazingly thorough tutorial on passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors. Most often seen in security floodlights and automatic doors, in creative hands these sensors can be put to other uses—cat flaps, camera triggers and purely artistic applications—as you’ll see in several demo projects and videos. For the curious, the tutorial provides a good amount of [...]
10:57
Arduino USB host shield
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Circuits@Home has been journaling their development of a USB host mode shield for Arduino, which could bring a veritable explosion of mass storage, keyboard input and countless other peripherals (and a corresponding raft of new hacks) to the platform. Currently at the prototype stage, a ready-made shield and library are forthcoming, so keep checking back. Meanwhile, for [...]
August 20, 2009
13:00
Interactive LED block wall
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Dave Vondle] from IDEO Labs sent in the large LED pixel wall he built using BlinkM modules, an Arduino, and Flash to control it. The overall result is a blindingly bright, large, public display for people to interact with. The best part about the project is that [Dave Vondle] documents everything; from hardware to schematics [...]
August 19, 2009
10:06
Quick and dirty magnetic card reader
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[nevdull] found himself in possession of a magnetic card reader. What else was he to do but show us all how to read from it using an AVR? He goes through the basics of how the card reader works, as well as how to detect the different card states such as entering, reading, leaving. There [...]
8:46
Moon phase light modification
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

In this project, a moon phase light is modified to show the actual moon phase based off of your computer’s internal clock. From the factory, these moon lights are updated via an infra red remote control. He pulled the brains from the clock and replaced them with an Arduino. He then runs a program that [...]
August 13, 2009
15:20
Sleepy Arduino saves batteries
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

Battery life is often overlooked when building projects, especially for beginners. This tutorial takes you through the setup of power saving modes for the Arduino. Utilizing the watchdog and sleep functions, they put the chip into a hibernation mode between cycles. An optimum configuration could take your battery life from 4 days to about 3 [...]
August 07, 2009
15:04
Droplet
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Andrew Rapp] sent in this project called Droplet. He’s been doing work with Xbees and Arduinos together and built this little toy. He describes it as “sort of like a Chumby”. It has built in services for Twitter, Google Calendar, News, Gmail, etc. You can download the full source code and plans on his site. [...]
August 04, 2009
8:34
Little Walker
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

This little walking robot caught our eye. We’ve seen tons of 4 legged bots, but the design on this probably took more effort than the electronics. The design is radially symmetrical, it can walk in any direction, turn in place, and even walk upside down. The electronics weren’t forgotten though. This little bugger manages to [...]
August 03, 2009
8:24
Defcon status at a hosting company
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Aaron] has been working at iweb hosting for about 5 years. When he started, the number of servers was small enough that managing them was fairly painless and could be done by just manually verifying that everything was operational. As the number of servers grew, this task became more and more difficult. They employed various [...]
July 24, 2009
15:04
Greenhouse guard
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Seth King] sent in his latest hack where he used an Arduino to regulate various aspects of a greenhouse. He has sensors for soil and air temperature as well as light and moisture. He built a custom circuit that uses relays to power fans, lights, and heaters. Using timers and the sensor data, the devices [...]
July 23, 2009
8:04
Touchpad + Arduino
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

[Jani] directed us to his tutorial on making a laptop touchpad work with an Arduino. After seeing the recent post on touch pad and VFD hacking, he couldn’t resist finding one of these to play with. He shows us how to connect it all up and offers two methods of using the data from it. [...]
July 22, 2009
8:13
Ceiling fan POV
» ‎ hack-a-day

Tags: arduino hacks

We know some of you are getting sick of POV projects, but this one was just so cool, we couldn’t resist. [UncleBone] thought POVs were pretty cool, and wondered if he could use one on his ceiling fan. It would have been a breeze just to toss something like the RGBike POV on there and [...]