The setup uses 16 pairs of IR emitter and receivers arranged down the length of a bi-color 16×32 matrix to tell when one has inserted a finger or other object into an area. When sensed, it changes the corresponding column on the display from red to green or back again.
An Arduino Mega is used for overall control of the device, along with shift registers and multiplexers/demultiplexers to account for the massive amount of IO needed.
Code for the build is available on GitHub, and you can see it demonstrated in the video below.
Toy piano converted into a self-playing instrument
Arduino Team — August 14th, 2019
Upon obtaining a small toy piano, Måns Jonasson went to work “Arduinoizing” it with 30 solenoids to hammer out tunes.
A MIDI shield is used to pipe commands from a computer to the Arduino Mega that’s used for control, and after experimenting with discreet wiring and electronics for each of the solenoids, he switched to motor shields as outlined here to simplify the setup. This, along with a new version of the solenoid holders he designed, cleaned up the build nicely, allowing it to play a plinky version of the Super Mario Bros. theme song.
Be sure to check out the Mario themed auto-concert in the video below, plus a video outline of its construction, below.
Makerspace i3Detroit was the recent recipient of a free yet non-functioning CNC router. While out of commission when received, the device’s mechanical components and motors appeared to be in operational condition, plus it had a large work surface. The decision was made to get the CNC up and running for now, with the eventual goal of turning it into a plasma cutter.
First, they booted up its (Windows 95) computer and replaced a power supply on the controller. An adapter board for the controller was then built using info from this Arduino Forum post, allowing the router to be controlled with an Arduino Mega running grbl firmware.
Although there is still some work to do, it can be seen happily jogging along in the video below, and appears well on its way to becoming a usable machine!
Track made baskets with this Arduino/smartphone setup
Arduino Team — August 6th, 2019
Marcelo Ávila de Oliveira likes to practice basketball, and while most of us would be content to shoot and hopefully improve, he actually tracks his workouts. While figuring out the number of made baskets, misses, times, etc. is useful, it’s also quite boring and difficult, so he came up with a real-time scoreboard system to take care of this for him.
The device is mounted to an enclosure under the hoop, and uses an IR proximity sensor poking through Jerry West’s head to know when a ball has gone through. It also employs a vibration sensor to detect if the ball has hit the rim, and if the IR sensor isn’t triggered within three seconds, a miss is counted.
The setup’s Arduino Mega communicates with a custom smartphone app over Bluetooth, and displays statistics on the practice session. It even plays notification sounds for scores and misses, as shown in the video below.
In order to produce the proper paint strokes, his device implements full six-axis brush control, moving not only in the X/Y/Z coordinate system, but rotating on three axes. Movement is handled by a modified version of Grbl running on an Arduino Mega.
If Then Paint also features the ability to change painting/art tools automatically, as well as a clever paint management system that turns a carousel of paint syringes.
More info on the build can be found here, and check out a few examples of how it works in the videos below.
As seen in the videos below, Zeus is a metallic humanoid robot capable of moving its head and arms around, featuring a pair of hand grippers that should be quite useful when the time comes. For now, creator Luis appears to be focusing on its vocal skills, with plans to eventually teach it how to walk.
The robot can engage in conversation with its companion, whether it’s answering questions like “What’s your name?” with“My name is Zeus,” or “What’s your favorite movie?” with “I wasn’t that impressed with the special effects, also the plot was not deep.” Zeus even lets Luis know when he “has no idea what to say.”
Zeus’ communication and movement are accomplished through a variety of hardware, including an Arduino Mega and an AAEON UP board, as well as an Intel RealSense Camera SR300 for vision. Luis is also using CMUSphinx for voice recognition, eSpeak for text-to-speech and AIML chatbot for interactive responses.
Perhaps we’ll see this ~1/2-sized humanoid traipsing around on its own in the future, though hopefully its comment about “taking over the world” was just a joke!
In the early 1200s, Fibonacci introduced a series of numbers that now bear his name, starting with 0, then 1, and continuing on as the sum of the two preceding numbers. This gives values of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on, and after being prompted by a friend, “TecnoProfesor” decided to turn this numerical pattern into a clock.
The concept here is that instead of using the conventional 1-12 to display the time, this device uses blocks corresponding to Fibonacci numbers 1-5, with circular icons adding increments of 12 for minute and second values.
It’s an interesting concept, somewhat akin to the world of binary or even word clocks. The build consists of an Arduino Mega and a DS3231 RTC module for control, a wood and methacrylate housing, and a number of programmable RGB LEDs to indicate numbers.
This machine creates images using Skittles as pixels
Arduino Team — July 9th, 2019
Skittles candies come in various vibrant colors. While they may be a tasty treat, JohnO3 had another idea: to create an amazing automated display for the little circles.
His device, dubbed the “Skittle Pixel8r,” uses an Arduino Mega to pull a dispensing funnel between one of 46 channels, covered on one side with a piece of glass.
On top of the shuttle mechanism, eight boxes release the correct flavor/color into an intermediate tube via individual metal gear servos. The Arduino then commands the linear axis to move the funnel to the appropriate bin. This process is repeated 2,760 times until an image, measuring up to 785 x 610mm (31 x 24 inches), is completed.
The Skittle Pixel8r an incredible build, and perhaps we could see it expanded even further to not just dispense, but also sort Skittles as an all-in-one auto art installation! Code and files for the project can be found here.
Store and replay this robot’s movements from your phone
Arduino Team — July 8th, 2019
Robotic arms can be interesting, as are robots that roll around—especially on a semi-exotic Mecanum wheel setup. Dejan Nedelkovski’s latest How To Mechatronics build, however, combines both into one package.
This project actually starts out in a previous post, where he constructs the moving base with Mecanum wheels, enabling it to slide and rotate in any direction.
In this final(?) stage, he adds a five-axis robot arm mounted on top of its boxy frame, or six-axis if you count the gripper. Either way, the arm uses a total of six servos for actuation, and the base of the bot travels around under the power of four stepper motors. Each motor is controlled by an Arduino Mega, using a custom shield, allowing repeatable movements in any direction. These can be stored and replayed via the robot’s custom Android app as desired.
What if you were to neglect a robot’s mechanical design entirely and instead construct it out of unusual materials like random sticks? Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Preferred Networks have done just that. To accomplish this feat, the engineers first scanned and weighed the branches, then used deep reinforcement learning to teach the new contraption to walk.
The branch-bots were then constructed in the real world using generic servos, and controlled via an Arduino Mega tether setup with a motor driver and a separate power supply.
You can see one of these bots moving around in the video below, though this configuration ironically seems to have more trouble when dropped off at its native forest habitat. Be sure to read more about this research in IEEE Spectrum‘s article here.
This project aims at creating bricolages of robots out of tree branches found at hand. Through the process in which natural objects learn how to walk by themselves, the artwork portrays the perspectives of objects. Unlike the top-down process where functions of mechanical systems are explicitly defined by designers, this project puts an emphasis on the emergence of functions, which is a bottom-up process where found objects seek for the function as a whole.
This electric soapbox car can reach a top speed of 35 km/h
Arduino Team — July 2nd, 2019
If Elon Musk was to design a soapbox car, the prototype might look something like this by David Traum.
Traum’s project is powered by a 500W motor which is fed by a pair of 12V batteries and a 40 W solar cell, allowing it to attain a top speed of 35 km/h and a range of 10 to 15km. Although that might not sound like a huge number, it looks pretty fast at the end of the video below!
But that’s not all. The vehicle features a rather unique control system, with front wheel steering actuated by a stepper and cable assembly. An Arduino Mega is the brains of the operation, while user input is via a small touchscreen, a joystick, and even a steering wheel (equipped with an Uno, a 9V battery, radio module, and gyro sensor) that can work wirelessly as needed—perhaps to park remotely, or simply as a gigantic RC car
This electric soapbox car can reach a top speed of 35 km/h
Arduino Team — July 2nd, 2019
If Elon Musk was to design a soapbox car, the prototype might look something like this by David Traum.
Traum’s project is powered by a 500W motor which is fed by a pair of 12V batteries and a 40 W solar cell, allowing it to attain a top speed of 35 km/h and a range of 10 to 15km. Although that might not sound like a huge number, it looks pretty fast at the end of the video below!
But that’s not all. The vehicle features a rather unique control system, with front wheel steering actuated by a stepper and cable assembly. An Arduino Mega is the brains of the operation, while user input is via a small touchscreen, a joystick, and even a steering wheel (equipped with an Uno, a 9V battery, radio module, and gyro sensor) that can work wirelessly as needed—perhaps to park remotely, or simply as a gigantic RC car
Intuitive Arduino clock has seven alarms and three LED displays
Arduino Team — June 19th, 2019
Alarm clocks of old—and certainly many of those today—require several button pushes to set things up properly. Maker Michael Wessel, however, decided to implement his own take on a more intuitive clock, creating a device that features three separate eight-digit seven-segment LED panels. Eight buttons allow for direct manipulation of each of the digits, with their own dedicated LEDs.
The info on display includes time and date, as well as temperature, and it can even show how many days, hours, or minutes have passed since a special pre-programmed day. Up to seven audible alarms are available, which can be silenced by a loud noise (e.g. clapping your hands) via a sound sensor.
The clock is controlled via an Arduino Mega, along with an RTC module to keep things accurate.
I remember I always had to set all digital clocks for my grandparents in the ’80s — these clocks and watches always required some complicated button juggling! So, here it is: a DIY LED alarm clock that my grandparents would have been able to set and use without my help!
An Arduino-based LED clock with 7 individual alarms, highly intuitive user interface, temperature display, and display of days / hours / minutes passed since a special date, e.g., your birthday. An active / ringing alarm can be disabled by making a loud noise, e.g., by clapping your hands. Timer-based PWM sound output for alarm melodies.
The Arduino’s EEPROM is being used to store the alarms of course, and the DS3231 RTC is battery backed up, so it survives a temporary power outage and you won’t be late for work the next morning.
This was put together rather quickly, thanks to off the shelf components, Velcro and existing Arduino libraries for them! The clock can be built for about $30 – 40.
If you’re a fan of novel timepieces, then you’ll want to check out Christine Thompson’s VFD Alarm Clock.
The device features a USSR-manufactured IV-27V 7-segment tube, capable of displaying 13 numbers or letters via a 24V supply, though the MAX6921 chip used here means that only 10 grids are used.
10 characters, however, are plenty to show time, date, humidity, temperature, and pressure, plus the text “WAKE UP!” when an audible alarm sounds.
The clock runs on an Arduino Mega, along with an RTC module, a keypad, and secondary LCD screen on the back to assist with setting it up.
While most 3D printers deposit melted plastic in carefully controlled positions to build up a physical model, a similar process called “bioprinting” can be accomplished with biological materials. Commercial bioprinters can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more, but as shown here you can make your own using the shell an inexpensive desktop machine.
In this example, a Monoprice MP Select Mini V2 is stripped down to its bones and motors, subbing in an Arduino Mega and RAMPS 1.4 stepper driver board.
A syringe-like extruder is added to push out custom bioink, and the Z-axis switch mounting and Marlin firmware is modified to accommodate the new device. The homing sequence is modeled in the video below, giving a short snippet of how it works.
While the hoverboard craze has faded somewhat, the good news is that this means their powerful wheel motors can easily be found on online auction sites. Lukas Kaul took advantage of this component’s availability and created his own “HoverBot,” which as shown in Felix von Drigalski’s video below, acts as something in between a radio-controlled skateboarder and a rather large self-balancing bot.
The device is built around an Arduino Mega, which takes input from an RC receiver, along with a Bosch BNO055 IMU, and passes appropriate signals to the motors through an ODrive controller.
The HoverBot is a bit unsteady at high speeds, requiring close operator supervision. However, it looks like a lot of fun, especially when attempting tricks—sometimes successfully—at a skate park.
Smart grip system helps cricketers improve their technique
Arduino Team — June 5th, 2019
When batting in cricket, applying the proper amount of force with both hands is critical; however, as a coach, it’s difficult to judge just how much is actually used. To assist with player improvement, researchers at the University of Auckland’s Augmented Human Lab have come up with a bat that senses the force exerted by each hand gripping the handle.
The augmented handle is covered with an array of force sensitive resistors, which push data to an Arduino Mega and then to a PC over Bluetooth. Direct vibrotactile feedback is implemented in a pair of smart wristbands, leading to better accuracy and confidence in swing technique.
CricketCoach is a smart system that creates awareness of the hand-grip force for cricket players. A custom Force-Sensitive Resistor (FSR) matrix was developed and attached to the bat’s handle to sense the gripping. Two wristbands, incorporating vibration motors, provide feedback that helps non-expert users to understand the relative forces exerted by each hand while performing a stroke. A preliminary user study was conducted to collect first insights. The results show that both, binary vibration, as well as vibration patterns, improved the execution of batting strikes significantly.
Newton’s cradles consist of a series of suspended spherical masses, and are normally started by pulling one ball back. The outer balls then click back and forth for an interesting distraction.
To make things even more interesting, “TecnoProfesor” made his own version using ping pong balls and RGB LEDs. As the outer balls sway, they light up in sequence, while the three inner balls stay largely in one place.
Power here isn’t provided by kinetic energy, but everything moves via a pair of servo motors. An Arduino Mega is used to control the light/motion simulator, and a button and potentiometer allow the user to change between two modes and variable swing frequency.
Augmented office chair provides hands-free drone control
Arduino Team — May 29th, 2019
Multi-rotor drones are normally controlled using handheld devices, but what if you wanted to instead operate them with your whole body? Flight Chair, developed by researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada, allows you to do just that, and is envisioned for use with emergency personnel observing a scene.
The chair is augmented with ultrasonic sensors to detect when a user leans forward, backward, left, and right, commanding the drone to do the same, while a gyroscopic sensor detects when the chair is swiveled to adjust its heading.
Altitude adjustment is handled by a T-shaped foot panel, leaving one’s hands free to do other tasks. Sensor values are collected by an Arduino Mega, which passes this to a drone server over a USB connection.
In future, emergency services will increasingly use technology to assist emergency service dispatchers and call taker with information during an emergency situation. One example could be the use of drones for surveying an emergency situation and providing contextual knowledge to emergency service call takers and first responders. The challenge is that drones can be difficult for users to maneuver in order to see specific items. In this paper, we explore the idea of a drone being controlled by an emergency call taker using embodied interaction on a tangible chair. The interactive chair, called Flight Chair, allows call takers to perform hands-free control of a drone through body movements on the chair. These include tilting and turning of one’s body.
RC wheelbarrow racing with James Bruton, Ivan Miranda, and Tom Stanton
Arduino Team — May 28th, 2019
We’ve seen Arduino boards used in a wide variety of situations, but this may be the first time one has been implemented to control an RC wheelbarrow.
In the video below, YouTubers James Bruton, Tom Stanton, and Ivan Miranda have taken on a ‘barrow racing challenge,’ where each competitor must modify a wheelbarrow for remote racing purposes.
Miranda and Stanton went with air-powered designs, while Bruton instead chose differential steering, adding a pair of wheelchair wheels to the main wheel that he modified to swivel on a caster. Bruton’s user interface is provided by a generic RC transmitter, and an Arduino Mega translates these signals into the proper left/right wheel speeds.
‘Race’ results are quite entertaining, and include a variety of wheelies, crashes, and even some improvisation to deal with the day’s rainy conditions!
Mastermind is a game where one player attempts to guess a secret combination of colored pegs. It normally requires a second player to act as the judge, giving hints in the form of secondary pegs as to whether the other participant is on the right track. Maker “luisdel” decided to put a new spin on things using an Arduino Mega to display RGB LEDs on a Star Wars-themed play field. This automation allows players to directly compete, rather than taking turns.
In action, each player uses a series of buttons to enter light codes, with 10 tries at guessing the correct combination. No human judge is needed, so it’s a race to see who can unlock this critical sequence first and save—or further subjugate—the galaxy!
These are adverse times for rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, the Imperial troops are using free hardware and Arduino as a secret weapon.
That is the advantage of free technologies, any person (either good or bad) can use them.
In a hidden base located on the planet Anoat, they are building a 3D printer capable of replicating Imperial Destroyer.
The only solution to defeat the Empire is that a group of rebels commanded by Luke Skycuartielles and Obi-Wan Banzi, defeat the imperial troops and get the key that will give access to the plans to destroy the secret weapon.
This key consists of 4 colors and you have 10 attempts to get it deciphered. There are only four rules:
1. The colors can be repeated
2. A white light indicates that you have hit the right color and position
3. A violet light indicates that you have hit the color but not the position
4. If there is no light you have not guessed the color or the position.
You must hurry since at the other extreme, the evil Darth Ballmer will try to get the key before you. In that case, you will not be able to find out what it is and you will not have access to the plans of the secret weapon. Your mission will have failed.
Little Padawan, may the force accompany you to decipher the key and thus be able to save the galaxy.
VR environments are meant to be immersive, but if you’ve ever thought what was missing is being actually pummeled by robotic fists, then James Bruton’s newest project could be just the thing.
Bruton recently teamed up with students from Portsmouth University to build a robot that works in the real world, and coordinates its movements with a virtual setting displayed on the human’s headset.
The robot itself is controlled by an Arduino Mega, and features a differential (tank) drive with encoders for feedback. Shoulders can tilt from left to right, and the actual punching motion is handled by pneumatic actuators built from modified bicycle pumps. Robo-fists are covered by boxing gloves to keep humans relatively safe, and flesh-based competitors are given a small shield and sword-bat with which to fight back!
I worked on this project with final year degree students in Computer Games Technology at Portsmouth University CCI faculty. The robot hardware is controlled over a serial interface, the team built an VR game which controls the robot, so when you get hit in VR you get hit in real life! The robot is tracked back into VR with Vive trackers so it stays in sync.
Um dir ein optimales Erlebnis zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn du diesen Technologien zustimmst, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Wenn du deine Einwillligung nicht erteilst oder zurückziehst, können bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigt werden.
Funktional
Immer aktiv
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugang ist unbedingt erforderlich für den rechtmäßigen Zweck, die Nutzung eines bestimmten Dienstes zu ermöglichen, der vom Teilnehmer oder Nutzer ausdrücklich gewünscht wird, oder für den alleinigen Zweck, die Übertragung einer Nachricht über ein elektronisches Kommunikationsnetz durchzuführen.
Vorlieben
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist für den rechtmäßigen Zweck der Speicherung von Präferenzen erforderlich, die nicht vom Abonnenten oder Benutzer angefordert wurden.
Statistiken
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu statistischen Zwecken erfolgt.Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu anonymen statistischen Zwecken verwendet wird. Ohne eine Vorladung, die freiwillige Zustimmung deines Internetdienstanbieters oder zusätzliche Aufzeichnungen von Dritten können die zu diesem Zweck gespeicherten oder abgerufenen Informationen allein in der Regel nicht dazu verwendet werden, dich zu identifizieren.
Marketing
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist erforderlich, um Nutzerprofile zu erstellen, um Werbung zu versenden oder um den Nutzer auf einer Website oder über mehrere Websites hinweg zu ähnlichen Marketingzwecken zu verfolgen.
