Build your own coffee roaster out of a hot air popcorn popper

Reading Time: 2 minutesGreen (unroasted) coffee beans cost about half as much as their roasted counterparts. By purchasing green coffee beans, you can save quite a bit of money in the long term. Roasting your own coffee beans also gives you much greater control over the flavor profile and caffeine content of your coffee (caffeine content is a […]

DIY vacuum gauge controller saves big money

Reading Time: 2 minutesMeasuring vacuum works in the same way as measuring any other gas pressure, because a perfect vacuum is unachievable and so it is a measure of how close to zero the air pressure inside a container becomes. But typical pressure gauges aren’t meant to measure pressures below ambient atmospheric pressure (vacuums). That requires special sensors […]

Use light painting to visualize magnetic fields

Reading Time: 2 minutesLight painting is a photography trick that exploits a camera’s shutter. To ensure proper exposure in different lighting conditions, cameras have variable shutter speeds. If the subject is well-lit, then the shutter may only remain open for ten or so milliseconds. But if the subject is very dark, then a photographer may choose to leave […]

Digitize your old slides with a modern DSLR camera

Reading Time: 2 minutesUntil the proliferation of digital photography, film slides were a common way to share photos. After a nice vacation in the ‘70s, you might take your film rolls for development and would have the option to receive a set of slides. You could then gather all of your friends in your living room, pop those […]

This strange exoskeleton glove enables VR force feedback

Reading Time: 2 minutesWe’re currently seeing something of a technological blitzkrieg as corporations and engineers attempt to solve the problem of tactility in virtual reality (VR). Modern VR headsets provide quite realistic visual and auditory immersion, but that immersion falls apart when users find themselves unable to physically interact with virtual objects. Developed by a team of National […]

This wearable cough monitor can help improve respiratory disease detection

Reading Time: 2 minutesA large number of diseases involve coughing as one of their primary symptoms, but none are quite as concerning as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which causes airflow blockages and other breathing problems in those afflicted by it. Consistently monitoring the frequency and intensity of coughing is vital for tracking how well the disease is […]

Host the best BBQs ever with home automation

Reading Time: 3 minutesEverybody loves a good BBQ. Getting your family and friends together on a long summer day and evening, cooking delicious food and having a great time as smoke drifts through the air — it’s the perfect weekend activity. BBQs can also be stressful, however. Anyone who has ever tried to host one will know the […]

Handy machine cuts and strips wires so you don’t have to

Reading Time: 2 minutesIf you only need a couple of wires, it isn’t a big deal to just cut them and strip them yourself. But if you need dozens or even hundreds of wires, that becomes a very laborious task. That’s especially true if those wires need to be a precise length, which is ideal for clean wiring […]

Using the Arduino IoT Cloud to dispense pet treats

Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently, one of Instructables user mikerobertgodfrey’s friends adopted a senior dog who experiences frequent separation anxiety, thus causing him to panic when left on his own. As an attempt to help, Mike decided to build an Internet-connected wireless treat dispenser that would accompany a pet camera for remote training. The device was constructed by first taking various […]

MicroPython officially becomes part of the Arduino ecosystem

Reading Time: 2 minutesAt Arduino we like to experiment with new technologies to figure out if we can use them to improve the tools we make for our users. We’ve recently been experimenting with the Python language as a possible extension for our programming platforms, considering how it has become the number one language for many types of […]

Woody brings class to the world of RPN calculators

Reading Time: 2 minutesRPN (Reverse Polish notation) is a method for writing or entering mathematical calculations wherein operators come after operands. For instance, to calculate the product of 3 and 4, you would type: 3, enter, 4, enter, multiplication. This is unfamiliar to most of us, but was common for Hewlett-Packard’s early digital calculators and is still used in some […]

Computer vision and project mapping enable AR PCB debugging bliss

Reading Time: 2 minutesImagine if you could identify a component and its schematic label by simply touching that component on your PCB. Imagine if you selected a pin in KiCAD and it started glowing on your real, physical PCB so you can find it easily. Imagine if you could see through your PCB’s solder mask to view the […]

Humidify the air around you with home automation

Reading Time: 3 minutesKeeping the air in your home in the right condition is incredibly important. Your home is your safe haven from the outside world, a place where you can control your environment and enjoy the comfort and peace of a secure space. Humidifiers are an excellent way to keep the atmosphere of your home in exactly […]

Increase a robot arm’s payload capacity by relocating its wrist motors

Reading Time: 2 minutesTo give an electric car more range, you need a bigger battery pack. But that adds weight, so you need bigger motors and more battery capacity to compensate. This creates a vicious cycle and robot arms are susceptible to a similar problem. A robot arm needs to lift its own weight in addition to whatever […]

Welcome Opta, our first-ever micro PLC with Industrial IoT capabilities

Reading Time: 2 minutesWe can finally tell you all about the new product we had announced for SPS! Today, we are excited to expand the Arduino Pro range with Opta, our first micro PLC with Industrial IoT capabilities. We designed it specifically with PLC engineers in mind: supporting standard languages including LD (Ladder Logic Diagram) and FBD (Function […]

Keep your packages safe with Clem Mayer’s secure parcel pickup box

Reading Time: 2 minutesAs a part of his business, element14 Presents’ Clem Mayer sells physical goods online and has people retrieve them near his house. But for the times he is not able to be home, Mayer was inspired by his post office’s pickup lockboxes to create his own version that could be accessed with just a code at any […]

The Great Resistor lamp makes color codes readable

Reading Time: 2 minutesResistor color codes are great, because they make it easy to identify a resistor’s value by referencing a simple chart (or memorizing that chart). But resistors are also very small and their color bands are hard for many of us to see clearly. Instead of buying a magnifying glass, J built the Great Resistor lamp […]

Mole crab robot burrows into sand using flexible legs

Reading Time: 2 minutesRevolutionary new technologies tend to require small, incremental developments. For example, physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a transistor way back in 1925. But it wasn’t possible to actually build transistors until semiconductor production caught up in 1947 — something that took decades of “boring” materials research. Such research may seem trivial, but […]

Are you ready to go back to the future?

Reading Time: 3 minutesArduino Make Your UNO Kit is finally here The first Arduino UNO was launched back in 2005, with a clear purpose to allow everyone who had an idea to make it possible through a simple and open interface. Many years have passed, technology has evolved, but we never forgot that initial thrill that came from […]

Preventing excessive water consumption with tinyML

Reading Time: 2 minutesAs the frequency and intensity of droughts around the world continues to increase, being able to reduce our water usage is vital for maintaining already strained freshwater resources. And according to the EPA, leaving a faucet running, whether intentionally or by accident for just five minutes can consume over ten gallons of water. However, Naveen has leveraged […]

Grow a beautiful garden with home automation

Reading Time: 4 minutesA beautiful, lush garden is a wonderful thing. Not only does it look good year-round and impress the neighbours, but it’s also a great place to spend time in the summer months and entertain guests. However, a good garden is not an easy thing to maintain. It takes many hours of hard work and toil […]

Arduino brings Ghost Rider costume to life

Reading Time: 2 minutesLong before Nicolas Cage ever portrayed the character on the silver screen, Ghost Rider appealed to an edgier subsect of Marvel’s audience. We won’t do a deep dive into the character(s) and their Faustian deals, but suffice it to say that Ghost Rider is a human man who turns into a flaming skeleton that rides […]