Q-Bot is an Arduino Mega-driven Rubik’s Cube solver
Arduino Team — March 14th, 2019
Rubik’s Cubes seem to have been most popular in the 1980s, but never really went away. As such, if you have one lying around your house unsolved, why not ‘simply’ construct a machine to do this for you?
One possibility is the Q-Bot, outlined here. While it won’t break any world records, it’s a solid-looking assembly that appears to be relatively easy to build.
The Q-Bot features six NEMA 17 stepper motors, four of which turn one face at a time. When needed, the other two use timing belts to alternatively pull opposed stepper motor pairs back, allowing the other two to rotate the entire assembly. An Arduino Mega is utilized to control the steppers via a custom shield, with a computer running the Kociemba’s Algorithm.
This DIY radio controller resembles one you’d find on the market
Arduino Team — March 13th, 2019
If you’ve ever considered constructing your own wireless RC transmitter, be sure to check out this build by Electronoobs.
The device uses an nRF24L01+ module to transmit inputs from a pair of joysticks and toggle switches, along with an Arduino Nano for interface and control.
What sets this project apart from his previous versions, however, is the very nice 3D-printed enclosure for the electronics and a pair of high-quality joysticks that allow for precise input.
Additionally, Electronoobs’ latest design features tuning buttons to properly center the sticks, and an OLED display to show the actual input value that it’s sending to the receiver (a simple Nano/nRF24 setup for demo purposes).
Yes, I’ve made another radio controller. Why? well, I wanted to have a more commercial look. So, I’ve designed a 3D case, then I’ve used some high quality joysticks in order to have better analog read, It has an OLED screen so we could see the data we send and we could also digitally adjust the data. It also has 2 modes, linear and exponential
When your car door isn’t shut quite correctly, you’ll normally look down at the control panel to see what the problem is. What if, instead of indicator lights or a low-res image of your doors, you had a tiny actuated version of your vehicle on your dashboard?
Mathis Ochsenmeier’s Analogous Door Display is exactly that. It mirrors his VW van’s front and rear doors using an Arduino Nano to take in sensor information and actuate three servo motors to mimic door positions.
Now when the van’s front doors or rear hatch open or close, the little van on the dash’s doors follow suit—both a useful diagnostic tool, and an entertaining model.
Massive wall-mounted skull lights up workshop under Arduino control
Arduino Team — March 8th, 2019
While you may or may not want a gigantic backlit skull cutout haunting the wall of your workshop, this was perfect for Jay and Jamie of the “Wicked Makers” YouTube channel.
Their device is cut of two 30” squares of plywood with a CNC router. This forms a base layer that holds everything off the wall, while an outer layer provides a nice circuit/skull texture.
They affixed WS2812B LED strips to the base layer, controlled by an Arduino Micro. These strips shine off the wall for a glow through the edges, along with circuit board style cutouts inside the skull, diffused using wax paper.
Arduino code and the circuit diagram are found in the project’s write-up if you’d like to construct your own!
While you might see a CRT by the side of the street and think noting of it, Ryan Mason has come up with a novel use for five of them in a row called the Cathode MK1.
This set uses the Unity game engine along with an Arduino board to spread games across five tube TVs arranged side-by-side.
In order to keep project costs down, Mason’s gaming rig is restricted to displaying a game signal on one TV at a time. This makes gameplay even more interesting, especially considering that the way that each TV handles a loss of signal contributing to the experience.
Several games are available for this unique system, including Long Pong AKA Pooooong, where a ball bounces from screen to screen as shown in the clip below.
Omni-wheel robot slides across the paper as a mobile plotter
Arduino Team — March 8th, 2019
Retired maker “lingb” created an omni-bot, with four wheels that allow sliding motion in the X/Y plane courtesy of their perpendicular rollers. While that alone would have been a fun build, he also attached a pen, along with a servo-based lifting mechanism, turning this robot into a free-range plotter!
The device is controlled by an Arduino Uno and Bluetooth module, and takes movement commands via a linked smartphone or tablet. Four 28BYJ-48 stepper motors with ULN2003 drivers move each wheel, though outputs are shared between opposite motors to save on I/O.
This means that rotating the robot isn’t possible, but as shown in the video below, this isn’t needed to plot straight and curved lines with good accuracy.
As hardware hackers, we’re always on the lookout for discarded components that can be re-purposed into something even more awesome. One such class of component that you may find is the controller-less graphics LCD modules, which can be found on old copiers, tape libraries, and the like.
This project by Ivan Kostoski shows how to drive one of these displays with a 320×240 resolution. He’s tested his code using several types of Arduino board, such as the Uno and Leonardo, using minimal external components.
Summary Repository contains code samples for driving 4-bit parallel controllerless graphics LCD (CLGLCD) module with AVR MCU on an Arduino board, using minimal external components and staying within Arduino IDE.
4-bit Controllerless Graphics LCD modules Controllerless graphics LCD modules are antiques that can be salvaged from old copiers, tape libraries, etc… They commonly are missing, well, the controller chip, the one with the memory. Don’t go buying one of these, for Arduino usage, even if you find them on sale. They are usually industrial, have poor viewing angles, generally slow response time, and pain to work-with. There, I said my peace… But if you already have one, their size (i.e. 5.7in) or simplicity can have its uses and beauty.
I have tested this code with 320×240 STN LCD monochrome module marked as F-51543NFU-LW-ADN / PWB51543C-2-V0, salvaged some time ago from retired tape library, without the controller module (which it appears is based on FPGA and wouldn’t be of much use anyway).
The same type of interface (4-bit data) with various signal names is present on many industrial modules based on multiplexed column and common row LCD drivers, like LC79401/LC79431. Or this is what is behind the controller IC. They all have some variations like LCD drive voltage (positive or negative, depending on temperature and size of the module), backlight (LED/CCFL), some logic quirks (i.e. CL2 is ignored while CL1 is up, etc…), so maybe this code can be adapted to other controllerless modules. Module’s datasheet is necessity for the connector pinouts and timing requirements. Some modules may even generate LCD drive voltage internally, and outputting it on a pin so actual V0 driving voltage can be adjusted.
More info on the build/technique is found on GitHub, where you can also download project code and find more background on how interfacing with these devices works.
Remote control cars are interesting, but as Leon van den Beukel shows in the video below, an RC forklift can be even more challenging and fun to create.
His project was constructed using a variety of hand and automated techniques, resulting in a build that can easily manipulate tiny pallets. Forks are lifted into the air via a motor and belt assembly, and tilted with a small servo.
The device uses an Arduino Mega for control, and is linked to an Android phone over Bluetooth for user interface. Code, along with STL files and drawings, are available on GitHub and the custom Android control app can be found here.
This faux candle lights, flickers, smokes, and smells like the real thing
Arduino Team — March 6th, 2019
Keith of “Keith’s Test Garage” wanted an LED candle. While somewhat realistic flicking units are easy to find, he was in search of something much more like the actual thing, and after several years of work has come up with a rather amazing replica.
The device’s wax-embedded glass enclosure houses an Arduino, along with a series of six RGBW LEDs inside that randomly flicker away to simulate a flame. This effect is triggered via a real match, which is sensed by an IR module. To stop the effect, one literally blows out the candle through a microphone input that picks up on this action.
Most impressively however, upon putting out the faux flame, a length of resistive wire heats up glycerin and smelling oil on a wick, producing a puff of smoke to end the light performance.
Maker Jeremy S. Cook has experimented with both CNC machinery and light painting in the past, and decided to combine these two skills into a new artistic device.
His setup uses a web app found here to program a CNC router as a sort of dot matrix printer. But instead of a pen, pencil, brush or other marking utensil, it uses a button as an input to the onboard Arduino Nano when pressed to the router’s surface.
From this input, the Arduino then commands a diffused RGB LED to “mark” the surface with light, painting an image on the camera’s exposed sensor.
Code and print files are are available on GitHub if you’d like to try your own light art experiments!
Electronic dummy load is a work of readily-available art
Arduino Team — March 5th, 2019
As seen here, Juan had some problems with his power supply, and while he wanted to “simply” build another one, he didn’t let the power supply go to waste. Instead he converted it into an adjustable dummy load based on the design by Dave Jones’ shown below.
This device, however, is no mere duplication of Jones’ and adds an Arduino for control, allowing for voltage, current, power, and temperature monitoring. The enclosure was designed in Fusion 360 and 3D-printed, and the front panel overlay in Inkscape.
Other interesting tricks include using a readily available DC motor for input instead of an encoder, along with an array of 7-segment displays that don’t quite all match, but act as functional outputs nonetheless.
If you’ve ever considered building your own RC hovercraft, be sure to check out the latest project from “How To Mechatronics.”
The build shows how to assemble one using a variety of 3D-printed parts, a pair of brushless DC motors for hover airflow and forward motion, and a servo for steering.
An Arduino Uno along with an nRF24L01 module are employed for control, and as demonstrated in the video below, it slides across a basketball court with the greatest of ease!
More info is available on How To Mechatronics’ write-up, including CAD/3D printing files, a parts list, and Arduino code.
Ultrasonic sensors, which emit a high frequency sound wave then listen for its return to determine an object’s distance, are useful in a wide variety of robotics projects. If you’d like a visualization of how the sensor views an area, this “radar” from Mr Innovative presents a fun option.
The 3D-printed console features a small SG90 servo to pan the sensor over a space, picking up obstacles in its path. The readings are then transmitted to an Arduino Nano, which displays object info on a TFT screen set up to look reminiscent of a radar screen.
I have made a mini compact radar with display for that I have used HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, this sensor emit ultrasonic sound which came back to sensor after reflecting from an object, all the data visualization is displayed on 1.8″ ST7735 display, if any object detect by radar it’ll show in display in red line.
The build could function either as a great teaching tool, or perhaps the basis for a panning robot sensor. Print files can be found here, and code is available on GitHub.
While channel surfing might increasingly seem to be a thing of the past, Kevin Darrah demonstrates that it’s possible to control your streaming computer with a traditional TV remote.
His simple solution reads IR signals with an IR detector module, which can then be passed along and translated into USB keypresses for computer control.
You can see his experimental Arduino Leonardo setup in the video below, which takes advantage of the board’s ATmega32U4 chip to emulate USD keyboard functions directly.
Fun project here that could have a lot of uses – basically a TV remote to USB translator, so could think of a lot of ways to use something like this. For me, I just wanted an easy way to channel surf using the same TV remote that came with the TV. For this, I just read in the IR codes form the remote, then map them to key-strokes to do different things. I could see the up/down left/right keys being used to drive the mouse around… lol, that might be my next project!
The bulk of the clip, however, is around a discussion on decoding IR signals and the programming involved (code available here), starting at about 6:00 in.
Have some geometric fun with a 3D-printed, light-up icosahedron
Arduino Team — February 28th, 2019
Regular icosahedrons are 20-sided polyhedrons formed out of equilateral triangles. As such, the geometry behind making one is slightly complicated, but the results in the case of this light-up device appear to have been well worth it.
The project’s write-up does go over how to actually model these faces in CAD but also provides the 3D print files if you’d like to skip to building your own. Two versions were made, including a super-sized playable die that illuminates RGBW LEDs under Arduino Nano control, and a second icosahedron large enough to be used as a lamp shade!
A demo/explanation is seen in the first clip below, along with a better look at the electronics in the breadboard video.
Depending on your personality, you may tend to dominate a discussion, or metaphorically slink back into the corner, waiting for a turn to speak that never comes. MIT Tangible Media Group’s SociaBowl, however, aims to change this as “a dynamic table centerpiece to mediate group conversations.”
SociaBowl takes the form of a circular standing table, with a rather curious servo-actuated bowl in the center. Copper wires embedded in the table’s acrylic surface, along with a capacitive touch shield pick up user inputs.
An Arduino Uno then translates into bowl motion, which can mean a reward for thoughtful speakers when the bowl is filled with candy, or in another implementation, the possibility of water inside spilling if one chats for too long.
Interactive video games take many forms, but for the most part, each player has a separate controller that manipulates an onscreen character, vehicle, or other singular element. What if, as in real life, multiple players have to work together with physical objects to control a sailing ship?
That’s the idea behind HOT SWAP: All Hands On Deck by Peter Gyory and Celment Zheng. In it, two players guide various parts of a ship using five different control elements. What makes this really interesting is that each player’s input device has room for two of these control elements, which must be swapped for actions such as steering and to load cannons. Input information is passed to the game via an Arduino Micro.
It’s like if we took a regular game controller, popped off all of the inputs, and made it so you could only use a couple of them at a time. There are two controllers, with each consisting of two input slots. Each controller controls one side of the ship, port or starboard. There are five actions total in the game, each executed with a dedicated physical input: a crank to raise and lower the sails, a wheel for turning the rudder, a hatch for loading the cannons, a wick for firing the cannons, and a flame button for dousing the fire.
There is only one of each input, which makes them a shared resource that players must trade back and forth as they play. There is this old Milton Bradley kids board game from the ’90s called Perfection where players must fit shapes into holes before a timer is up and the board shakes to make everything pop out. HOT SWAP is like if Perfection had a screen attached and had a goal outside of putting shapes into slots.
All of the code is done with JavaScript and the library Three.js, which we bundle into a desktop application using Github’s Electron. The brain of the controller is an Arduino Micro, which mostly just passes data along.
The inputs are created with the Mechamagnets technique that Clement has been developing through his research; all 3D-printed in PLA with neodymium magnets embedded in them. The actual “hot swapping” is facilitated by pogo pins that line up with our custom PCBs for each input. Also, lots of chocolate croissants.
More details on the build are available via this interview as well as in the video below.
If you want a DC power supply that works well, there are a number of places to buy such a device. If, however, you want to learn how one operates, and perhaps build your own, the video below by YouTuber Electronoobs will show you how to accomplish this feat.
His project uses a transformer to step power down from the 230VAC available in Spain, along with a rectifier to produce DC current, and a capacitor to keep the output steady. An Arduino Nano produces a PWM signal that controls a MOSFET on the buck converter circuit, tuning the output voltage and current as needed based on user inputs.
Details can be found on Electronoobs’ website here, though you’ll want to use extreme caution when dealing with mains power. Also, the design will need to be modified if your country uses something other than 230VAC.
Woodworking with power tools creates dust. Lots of it. Hooking a vacuum up to your tool helps greatly, but only if it’s actually running. Annoyed with turning on his vacuum system every time he had to make a cut, Zach Hipps decided to automate the process.
What he came up with uses an ACS712 current sensor to detect when power is flowing to his table saw, and an Arduino Nano for control. When current is sensed, it triggers the vacuum using a relay, then holds it on until five seconds after the device is turned off.
If I’m going to be able to automatically turn on the shop vac, I need to be able to detect when the tool is turned on and running. Without modifying the tool, the best way to do this is to get a current sensor like the ACS712 which I also got on eBay for a couple of bucks. This sensor can read alternating or direct current up to 20 Amps which is perfect for what I’m going to be using it for. The sensor outputs an analog voltage between 0 and 5 Volts that is proportional to the current it senses. I can read that analog voltage output with one of the ADC pins on the Arduino. Once I sense that the tool is running, I need to be able to turn on the shop vac. For that I’m going to use the relay module. A simple high or low logic signal from one of the Arduino’s digital pins is all that is needed to turn on the relay.
After I had the two modules soldered to the Arduino, I decided to model and 3D print an enclosure that will secure everything in place. With the enclosure done, I can wire in the AC power receptacles. One receptacle for the tool and one for the shop vac. Having these will make it easy to move this around my garage and plug in various tools. I bought an extension cord to use for this project and cut off about 8 inches of the male end.
The Arduino team is in Barcelona this week for Mobile World Congress! MWC is one of the biggest technology events in the world, so we’re really excited to be invited to participate in the Mobile IoT Experience’s developer expert zone by event organizers GSMA.
Come find us at Hall 4YFN Fira Montjuic Hall M8 Stand 9 — we’ll be showing how create an LTE Cat-M / NB-IoT connected sensor with the new MKR NB 1500. Arduino Senior Engineer Martino Facchin will also be giving the keynote talk on Monday, February 25th in the Training Zone.
Like all MKR boards, the MKR NB 1500 was designed with security in mind, so we’ll discuss how to use certificate-based authentication and TLS to secure data from your device (and make it easier!) via the Arduino IoT Cloud and other clouds like Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
Arduino has helped millions innovate by making IoT technology simple — it started with makers and education, but Arduino is now also used by developers in hundreds of companies across the globe. We’ve been partnering with technology providers like Arm, as well as operators including Telstra, Telefonica, and Vodafone to make cellular IoT even more accessible. We want connecting and securing devices to be as straightforward as possible — so people can focus on making their IoT applications.
As previously announced, the Arduino IoT Cloud is an easy to use Internet of Things application platform that enables developers to go from unboxing their board to a working device in just minutes.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a quick project that’ll walk you through connecting a MKR1000 (or MKR WiFi 1010) to the Arduino IoT Cloud.
By the end of the tutorial, you’ll be able to control and monitor your board over the Internet using the Arduino IoT Cloud site.
First, we’ll add the board to the Arduino IoT Cloud as a Thing — a representation of the board in the cloud. We’ll then give the Thing a set of Properties which represent sensors, LEDs, motors, and many other components in the project that you’ll want to access from the cloud.
Do you enjoy mowing your lawn? No? Well now you can ‘simply’ print a robot to do it for you, based on German mechanical engineer Philip Read’s design. His Roomba-esque device uses a pair of gearmotors for movement, an array of three ultrasonic sensors for obstacle avoidance, and a perimeter wire/sensor to keep it within the designated boundary.
An Arduino Mega is employed as the main processing unit for the robotic mower, however a separate Nano onboard helps measure battery voltage as well as current when charging. Meanwhile, an Arduino Uno along with a motor driver are used to control the perimeter wire setup.
Extensive build info is available on the project’s write-up, and a short demo can be seen in the video below.
Fully autonomous robot lawn mower. The mower project includes the mower itself a boundary wire control station and an optional charging station. The mower navigates within the boundary wire which is positioned (pinned) around the perimeter of the garden. Once the mower senses the perimeter wire, it stops reverses and moves off in a new direction. The mower also has 3 sonar sensors to detect objects in the mowers path. Once the mowers battery is exhausted, the mower uses the boundary wire to navigate itself back to the charging station. All this can be customised in the Arduino software or completely re-written to your personal preferences.
Commercial mowers with this specification cost upwards of 600€ ($680).
Obviously, you’ll want to use such a device in an area devoid of kids or pets
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