The term “mmWave” refers to radio waves with wavelengths on the millimeter scale. When it comes to wireless communications technology, like 5G, mmWave allows for very fast data transfer — though that comes at the expense of range. But mmWave technology also has some very useful sensing and scanning applications, which you may have experienced for yourself while going through airport security. The fellas at Concept Bytes employed mmWave sensing to make their coffee table track people.
Eight months ago, Concept Bytes posted a video showcasing their walking coffee table. It could move around on strandbeest-inspired legs, which looks pretty amazing. They redesigned that coffee table in their most recent video and made it a lot more sophisticated. Part of that sophistication is the ability to locate people in the room and walk to them when called.
At first glance, the new table looks similar to the original. But it was engineered to be easier to build using 3D-printed parts, to contain hidden coolers, to operate by remote control, and to come when called.
The leg mechanisms are based on Giliam de Carpentier’s Carpentopod geometry, which resembles the work of Theo Jansen. But that mechanism was algorithmically optimized for very smooth motion with input from electric motors.
The coffee table has two sets of those legs to enable tank-style steering. An Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board controls their motors through H-bridge drives. Another Nano RP2040 Connect housed in the remote allows for control via Wi-Fi. The coffee table’s Arduino is able to detect the sound of clapping hands through its onboard microphone. That is a command to come to the clapper.
It finds the clapper using an AI-Thinker RD-03D mmWave sensor that works a bit like radar, but at relatively short distances (0.5 to 8 meters) and with very good precision. It is so precise that, upon hearing a clap, the table will walk directly to the clapper and stop immediately in front of them.
Team Ikaro is a vibrant group of high school students from the Pacinotti Archimede Institute in Rome, sharing a strong passion for electronics and turning heads in the world of robotics! Specializing in Soccer Lightweight games (where robot-soccer players compete to score goals on a miniature field), they clinched the first place at the Romecup 2024 and won Italy’s national Robocup in Verbania earlier this year – earning the right to compete in the world championships in Eindhoven, where they placed third in the SuperTeam competition.
The brains behind the bots
Utilizing the versatile Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, the team has crafted highly efficient robots that feature ultrasound sensors, PCB boards, a camera, four motors, a solenoid kicker and omni-directional wheels, all meticulously assembled in the school’s FabLab.
Mentored by professor Paolo Torda, Team Ikaro exemplifies the spirit of innovation and teamwork bringing together three talented students: Francesco D’Angelo, the team leader, focuses on system design and mechanics; Flavio Crocicchia, the software developer, ensures the robots’ brains are as sharp as possible; Lorenzo Addario specializes in camera software, making sure the robots can “see” and react swiftly on the field. Their combined efforts have led to a seamless integration of hardware and software, and established a foundation of passion and ambition for future success in their careers.
Future goals
After their first taste of global competition, Team Ikaro is determined to continue refining their robots, leveraging every bit of knowledge and experience they gain – whether in the classroom, lab, or live challenges. At Arduino, we are proud to sponsor such brilliant young minds and look forward to seeing what they will accomplish next!
Robotics kits like the Screwless/Screwed Modular Assemblable Robotic System (SMARS) are great tools for learning more about how electronics, mechanics, and software can combine to perform useful tasks in the physical world. And in his latest project, Edge Impulse’s senior embedded software engineer Dmitry Maslov shows how he was able to take this platform and give it both speech recognition and Wi-Fi control capabilities using an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect.
Constructed from an array of 3D-printed parts and eight servo motors, the SMARS Quad Mod robot is a small, blocky quadruped that uses two LiPo battery cells, a step-down converter, and an IO expansion board to move based on simple directional commands such as “forward” and “left,” among others. Normally, these would come from an IR remote or a preprogrammed sequence, but by leveraging AI at the edge, it can respond in real-time to audible commands. And to achieve this, Maslov imported a dataset containing many samples of people saying directions along with background noise before training a keyword spotting model on it.
Once exported as a C++ library, the model was embedded into the robot’s sketch. Thanks to the RP2040’s dual-core architecture, the first core continuously reads new data from the microphone, performs inferencing, and sends the result to the second core when available. Then when the value is received, the other core maps the direction to a sequence of leg movements.
When playing golf, few things are as important as using the correct form when swinging, since even small deviations can be the difference between a hole-in-one and additional strokes. To improve his game, Concept Bytes has designed a small clip-on device called the “Club Master.” With it, he can get a live display of various data points which help track power, distance, and acceleration.
Collecting and processing all of this data is an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect due to its fast microcontroller, BLE connectivity, and onboard six-axis IMU, which meant an external accelerometer was not required. Before placing everything into a small, 3D-printed enclosure, Concept Bytes added power to his device with a single LiPo battery cell attached to a step-up voltage converter.
The Club Master’s Arduino sketch continuously reads the latest acceleration data from the board’s IMU before performing a series of calculations to derive metrics including swing speed, the number of strokes, and distance traveled. All of the results are then sent to the Arduino Cloud and shown in a mobile-friendly IoT Remote app dashboard for quick access outdoors on the range.
More details about the Club Master can be found in the TikTok video below, and if you’re curious about how edge ML can improve your putting, check out the Golf Ace project here.
When we think about air quality and pollution, it’s easy to conjure up images of smog-filled cities and power plants churning clouds of poison into the atmosphere.
And while all this is still important, and has massive consequences for our health, it’s all too easy to overlook the air pollution that takes place within our homes.
Indoor air quality is incredibly important for our health and quality of life, and taking steps to improve the air quality in our homes — while also saving energy — is one of the best things we can do. It’s also surprisingly easy and can be achieved even with DIY devices that aren’t difficult to put together.
In this article, we’ll look at the ways we can improve air quality at home, along with a few Arduino examples.
Why does air quality matter?
Air pollution is a massive health problem. In fact, unclean air can lead to issues like strokes, heart disease, lung cancer, and a whole laundry list of terrible respiratory diseases.
Many of these risks come from living in a part of the world with polluted air, which unfortunately isn’t something most of us can do much about. However, the air in our homes — which we do have some control over — is also a risk factor.
In 2020, the World Health Organization found that household air pollution was responsible for around 3.2 million deaths per year – including over 237,000 children under the age of 5.
Enhancing home environment
So what are the concrete steps we can take to improve the air quality in our homes and keep our family members safe? The good news is, there’s a lot we can do:
Ventilate our homes properly, using age-old methods like windows and doors and more modern approaches like ventilation systems.
Use monitors that measure the concentration of harmful substances like carbon monoxide and issue warnings when they reach dangerous levels.
Minimize emissions from things like waste by keeping the home clean.
Manage devices like HVAC units carefully — if not properly maintained these can be harmful to your indoor environment.
Avoid burning objects or using powerful toxic chemicals near the home.
3 ways you can improve air quality with Arduino
With automation and tools like Arduino, it’s more than possible to improve the air quality in your home and build a safer and healthier environment for your loved ones to share. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Detecting HVAC failures early
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems make life much more comfortable, but more than that, in many parts of the world they’re essential for safe living conditions.
This is because HVAC systems don’t just regulate indoor temperature, they also provide a steady supply of fresh, clean air. This is crucial if you live in an area with poor air quality, or have household members with respiratory problems.
When HVACs stop working, problems arise. That’s why Yunior González and Danelis Guillan set out to fix the issue, developing a prototype device that uses machine learning to predict HVAC issues before they arise so you can avoid downtime entirely.
The project uses an Arduino Nicla Sense ME and Edge Impulse’s machine learning tools to create an algorithm that detects anomalous readings and issues warnings to the user when things don’t look right.
Another monitoring solution
In a similar vein to the first project, the medical center network Sangostino developed its own monitoring system using an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, aimed at tracking the performance of their HVAC units across 35 locations in Italy.
They fed the AI extensive amounts of data to help it quickly identify any concerning signs, allowing their teams to keep on top of their HVAC performance and avoid any malfunctions or downtime in an environment where air quality is literally a matter of life and death.
Air quality and education
If you’re interested in teaching young learners about the value of air quality, while simultaneously introducing them to some core STEM concepts, Arduino has you covered.
The Arduino Greenhouse Kit and the Arduino Explore IoT Kit include experiments involving air quality, allowing users to build their own sensors and tracking tools to measure a range of data points like humidity, moisture, and the presence of particles like CO2. These projects both work using the Arduino MKR IoT Carrier Rev2, which has a VOC sensor.
Share your projects
Have you created a project to monitor or improve the air quality inside your home? If so, share it on our Project Hub!
Whether you’re passionate about conservation or simply curious about the possibilities, now is your chance to join the community and make a difference.
Don’t miss out — embrace innovation while honoring our planet.
The computer mouse has existed in its current form since the late 1970s. But as musician and software engineer Joren Six points out, it can become boring after a while. His novel reinvention of the mouse eschews moving a physical interface in favor of sound, with different frequencies causing the cursor to move in a predictable manner.
For this project, Six went with an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect because it not only supports USB HID functionality, but is also fast enough to determine frequencies based on the input from the board’s onboard PDM microphone. The program running on the Nano RP2040 Connect works by initializing the microphone and a YIN-based library, which finds the fundamental frequency from an array of samples. From here, the Nano RP2040 continuously reads new samples from the microphone and passes them to the algorithm before getting back the result and a confidence value.
The Nano RP2040 Connect takes each result frequency and maps it to either a horizontal or vertical motion the cursor can execute, and a frequency around 900Hz causes the mouse to send a click event to the host computer. Realizing that not everyone has access to the same hardware, Six also wrote a Chrome extension that replicates this functionality via the browser’s Microphone API.
Solar power is awesome, but it takes a long to recoup the investment on hardware. The more output you can squeeze from a solar panel, the faster you’ll cross that line into actual monetary savings on energy. You can achieve decent output through most of the day with smart placement, but a sun tracker like this single-axis design from Shawn Murphy will dramatically increase your output.
This is a single-axis sun tracker and so it doesn’t increase output quite as much as a tracker that moves on two axes. But if one orients that axis properly, this will still be a significant improvement over a static solar panel.
Murphy has two 300 watt solar panels mounted on the roof of a shed that they use as an art studio. That roof has a slight downward slope, so the panels only receive full sunlight when the sun is low in the sky. To account for that, a pair of powerful linear actuators lift up the entire roof of the shed to keep the solar panels perpendicular to the sun’s rays as much as possible. Gas struts help to lighten the load on the actuators.
An Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board controls the linear actuator motors through a Drok DC motor controller. The Arduino looks at a pair of LDRs (light dependent resistors) and calculates the differential between them to determine if the panels should tilt further. Murphy connected the Nano to the Arduino Cloud to log the readings, which lets him check to see the movement throughout the day.
Static manipulators and mobile robot chassis each have their own advantages, and so by combining the two into a single platform, AadhunikLabs was able to realize both at the same time. The base frame is comprised of four individual wheels, each with their own high-torque geared motor and driven by a pair of VNH3ASP30 DC motor driver boards. All of the arm’s axes are moved via a single high-torque metal servo motor that not only can support its own weight, but also the weight of an object being picked up by the gripper on the end.
Beyond controlling the geared DC and servo motors, an onboard Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect receives commands over Wi-Fi® from a host PC running the control software. In here, the user can view a live camera feed coming from an ESP32 camera module as well as virtually view the robotic arm’s position in 3D space. Similar to a video game, pressing keyboard keys such as ‘WASD’ and sliding the mouse provide general movements for the chassis and arm, respectively. Meanwhile, other keys allow for manipulating the end-effector, moving the arm to default positions, and adjusting the speed.
Humans evolved to sleep and wake according to natural light cycles. So it is strange that we, as a society, have largely chosen to rely on blaring alarms to wake up in the mornings. Wake-up lights have been gaining traction in recent years because they provide a pleasant experience that mirrors the rising sun — but at the time you need it. If you want a DIY option, AWAKE is a very aesthetically pleasing wake-up light.
This seems to be a concept with a prototype that isn’t quite finished yet, but the renders certainly look good. AWAKE uses two bright LED bulbs from flashlights to shine through arc-shaped diffusers, creating an arch. The idea is that the lights will gradually increase in brightness until you wake up. But there is also an integrated speaker, so it can sound an alarm at the last moment if you still haven’t woken up. There also appears to be a stand where you can place your smartphone, and it would be nifty if that included a wireless charger.
The heart of the AWAKE device is an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board. It has built-in Wi-Fi®, which is great for keeping time via the local network. It also has a Bluetooth® and BLE adapter, and those could be useful for setting alarms. The LEDs come from flashlights, so they’re extremely bright. Finally, and MP3 module can store and play audio files for the alarm sounds.
While the prototype doesn’t seem to be complete, the design files are available so you should be able to build an AWAKE wake-up light if you’re interested.
Before succumbing to the Whos’ Christmas cheer, the Grinch’s heart was two sizes too small (or three in the text) and that sounds like a medical condition that warrants immediate surgery. What better way to celebrate Christmas this year than by performing that surgery yourself after building this Grinch-themed Operation game.
This project from Hanzlica puts a grumpy green spin on the classic Operation game. The gameplay is the same and there are six maladies to remedy, including a broken heart, butterflies in the stomach, and the ol’ nail in the arm. As in the standard Hasbro game, the goal is to pull those pieces from the patient’s body without touching the sides of the cavities. But this version is enlarged to the point where players don’t need to use special tweezers and can instead pull the pieces using their hands. The cavities have aluminum foil lining and act as capacitive touch sensors to detect contact.
The Instructables tutorial provides detailed instructions on how to build the board using plywood and glue. The removable pieces are 3D-printable and a laser cutter is ideal for the complex board outlines. An Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board handles logic. It detects contact through an Adafruit 12-key capacitive touch sensor breakout board. That knows which cavity the player touches, which allows for the use of different sound effects that play through a small speaker connected directly to the Arduino.
Both kids and adults should get a kick out of this game, which will make it perfect for holiday family gatherings.
Many apartment buildings in urban areas have intercom systems that give residents the ability to unlock the building’s front door when a visitor calls. The visitor selects the resident from a list and the system connects them to that resident’s intercom. The idea is that the resident will recognize their visitor and push a button on the intercom to allow them entry. herzogshandicraft’s handy device utilizes the intercom system to automatically unlock the door when it detects a specific audio pattern.
This device serves two purposes: it lets the resident gain entry to the building without needing a key and it lets the resident give access to visitors when they aren’t home. It listens for a pattern of noise created by the visitor pressing and releasing the “talk” button on the intercom. When they press that button, audible noise comes through—even when nobody is speaking. In this case, it listens for noise above a threshold (the button pressed) for one second, no noise (button released) for one second, and then noise again for another second. If it hears that pattern, it uses a servo to press the door unlock button on the intercom.
An Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect controls the device and was chosen because it has a built-in microphone. It would also be possible to utilize the Arduino’s onboard wireless adapter to log events if the user wants to track them. The only other components are the small hobby servo motor, a mini breadboard, and a USB power supply. Those fit on a custom 3D-printed frame that attaches to the intercom panel. It’s an affordable and simple way to add some intelligence to an apartment intercom and users can always reconfigure the unlock pattern to suit their own security requirements.
Recently, 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 rectangular pieces of plywood an assembling them around a central hub to create a fan-like object with a total of eight compartments for treats. This component was then sandwiched between a solid wooden base and a covering plate of clear acrylic to prevent treats from falling out. Lastly, Mike attached a servo at the back in order to rotate the dispensing mechanism and also embedded an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board into the base.
In terms of wiring, the setup turned out quite simple, as the servo was connected to power pins and a digital pin on the RP2040. All of the “magic” happens in the Arduino IoT Cloud, where Mike configured a dashboard with inputs for dispensing a treat, manually setting the servo position, and even toggling an RGB light. Once the virtual “drop treat” button is pressed, the servo rotates a predetermined amount to drop a morsel below. Meanwhile, a counter keeps track in real-time of how many are left.
To see this project in action, you can watch its build video below and read the project’s full write-up here on Instructables.
If you’re more than 30 years old, then there is a good chance that BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was the first programming language you used. Many early computers shipped with a BASIC interpreter in firmware, so it was the first thing users saw when they booted up their computer. While other languages are more useful for most tasks today, BASIC still has benefits. To take advantage of it, Stefan Lenz used a Nano RP2040 Connect to build a standalone computer that runs BASIC for Internet of Things applications.
The Raspberry Pi RP2040 is a powerful microcontroller that immediately became popular after it hit the market in January 2021. The Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect is one of the newest boards in the Arduino lineup and gives users access to the RP2040 within the friendly Arduino ecosystem. In addition the MCU, this board also contains a u-blox WiFi and Bluetooth® adapter, a six-axis IMU, a microphone, 16MB of flash memory, and even a CryptoAuthentication chip. The u-blox adapter was particularly useful for this project, since it enables IoT control over a wireless network.
To turn the Arduino into a complete computer, Lenz connected an ILI9488-based 480×320 TFT LCD screen with built-in SD card slot, a real-time clock, and a PS2 keyboard. The use of the PS2 keyboard eliminated the need for the Arduino to act as a USB host, but the PS2 connection does require a voltage level converter to go from 5V to 3.3V. Lenz also connected a small thermal printer to output logs of sensor data.
Lenz developed his own BASIC interpreter from scratch specifically for Arduinos and other microcontroller development boards. The cool thing about BASIC is that, like Python, the interpreter allows for interactive programming without compilation. This lets users create IoT programs one piece at a time while seeing the results immediately, instead of compiling and flashing each revision.
The brand new Nano Screw Terminal Adapter turns up the speed on your prototyping efforts by giving you a fast, reliable way to hook up your boards. This awesome add-on is exactly what seasoned makers have been crying out for, and is now available from the Arduino Store.
Let’s take a look at this mini mechanical marvel.
A solderless solution
With a finished project, you’re likely to make permanent connections to your Nano by soldering it. Even if you’re connecting it using a header strip, the wires, components, sensors and accessories will be soldered, crimped or attached in a permanent way to the controller side of your project. It makes perfect sense to do this, when you’re looking for a reliable connection.
The trouble with permanent connections like this is that they’re… well, permanent! Soldering and de-soldering during the design and prototyping stage can become a real chore. And it’s not good for the components or the board itself, either.
The Screw Terminal Adapter is what you need. It’s something we’ve been asked for a lot, giving people a way to make robust, fast, easy connections that can be changed just as easily.
Easy access to all I/Os
The Nano Screw Terminal Adapter features a double row of headers. The Nano drops into the two inner rows, giving you a second, outer set that lets you connecting using jumpers, wires or what have you.
Then you have a third row of connectors on either side of the adapter with a screw terminal for each pin. The perfect way to connect wires or components in a reliable, but easily changeable way. It’s never been easier to develop and design a project that with these connection options.
There’s even a 9×8 prototyping area with through plated holes for adding extra components, connections or accessories.
Of course, this doesn’t have to only be for prototyping. The screw terminal is a long-established, trusted connection option, so there’s no reason it can’t become a permanent fixture in your project. That’s totally up to you, and is quintessentially what this board is all about; giving you lots of reliable options.
Get connected
We can really see this becoming an essential part of any Ardunino lover’s or maker’s tool kit. That’s why they come in packs of three. Once you’ve used one, you’ll realize how vital they are. Being able to assemble, test, change and reassemble a project with the adapter is a time saving, labor saving gift.
You can also pick them up bundled with your favorite Nano board, in which case you get one adapter and one board. A perfect prototyping partnership.
The Nano Screw Terminal Adapter is now available in stock to purchase on the Arduino Store and will be available from our global network of reseller partners in the forthcoming days.
A Smartlock are a highly convenient way to secure a house, and they can have their number of connectivity options expanded even further by connecting them to an IoT home assistant service such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Arduino Team — July 16th, 2022
Jithin Sanal’s project uses Amazon’s Alexa skill to automatically secure a custom door locking mechanism without the need for Bluetooth or a fingerprint.
Other than the Nano, Sanal designed a simple PCB. With pads for a buzzer, voltage regulator, and several LEDs for monitoring.
The circuit also includes a relay that applies power to a solenoid.
Which acts as a deadbolt when power is applied.
After receiving the bare PCB and soldering each component onto it, Sanal moved onto writing the code for his creation. In simple terms, the Arduino Cloud project contains a single variable for getting/setting the value of the lock.
Some of the best projects are the ones that take an already-existing product and recreate it from the ground up using easily accessible components. Jithin Sanal set out to do just this by designing and building a USB controller that can be used for a variety of tasks.
The joystick is based around the Nano RP2040 Connect, which means that it not only contains a powerful dual-core Arm microcontroller, but also an accelerometer, gyroscope, an RGB LED, and a microphone. The ample amounts of memory and flash can enable small machine learning models to run as well for more advanced processing of motion/input data. Apart from the Arduino, the controller houses a pair of potentiometers, a two-axis joystick, and four buttons that act similar to a D-pad.
After laying out the components in CAD and designing a PCB, Sanal was able to have it fabricated and then proceeded to solder it all together. The code driving everything polls each component to check if it’s active, in the case of a button, or its current analog value, in the case of a potentiometer. If a threshold is crossed, the Nano RP2040 Connect outputs the corresponding keypress over USB.
To see more about this project, you can read Sanal’s excellent project write-up here on Hackster.io.
Prevention is better than cure is pretty much every respect. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning included. The Arduino Pro team has been working with Italy’s Santagostino to deploy an impressive array of predictive maintenance solutions across the region’s medical sector.
Environment Management in Medical Centers
Santagostino operates a network of 35 medical centers across Italy. It’s work includes diagnostic tests, procedures and setting up and maintaining suitable, medical-grade environments within the centers. The HVAC systems played an important part of that even before the COVID pandemic, but is even more essential now.
So if a fault arose in the HVAC system it required the staff to notice it, in the first place. Then they’d need to report it, and wait for a technician to arrive and fix it. The inevitable delays could meant whole departments could potentially be unable to operate until the repairs took place.
But that’s the nature of a breakdown. The fault occurs, it gets reported, it gets fixed. You can’t fix something that isn’t faulty, right?
Well, maybe you can.
Predictive Maintenance Solutions with Arduino
Santagostino set about finding a monitoring solution that was modular, scalable, operated remotely and was adaptable enough to suit whatever HVAC system was in place. Ultimately it was built around a series of Arduino Nano RP2040 Connects. These have been installed in the HVAC units, and sending a constant stream of data back for analysis.
The Nano RP2040 Connect’s built-in accelerometer detects vibrations, and monitors if a system is running or not. By detecting unexpected stoppages, excessive vibrations, errant motion and analyzing that data with machine learning, a network of predictive maintenance systems was built across the facilities.
Not only is it working to alert the maintenance teams of imminent breakdowns, it allows them to schedule timely maintenance schedules before a fault occurs. A welcome side effect is that the system also allows machinery to be reduce operation when it’s not needed, saving budget and extending equipment life cycles in the process.
There’s a case study over on the Arduino Pro website that gives you a lot more details on the system. In it you can see how it can be deployed across different industries, scenarios and sectors. And our own Stefano Implicito spoke with Santagostino’s CTO Andrea Codini about the system, which you can take a look at below.
This maker designed an interactive LED-lit dress inspired by Katniss Everdeen’s
Arduino Team — December 16th, 2021
Inspired by Katniss Everdeen’s burning dress from the Hunger Games series, Cindy Li set out to create her own version that uses fabric-attached LEDs to both simulate fire when movement is detected and illuminate in other ways when a certain button is pressed.
This light-up dress was based around two development boards: a Circuit Playground Bluefruit from Adafruit that handles the lights and an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, which connects to a sensor, some buttons, and a speaker for extra functionality. Li started building this project by sewing the Circuit Playground onto he fabric and then running a strip of individually addressable LEDs in an arch shape, with conductive thread tying it all together. Next, the Nano RP2040 Connect was wired to the speaker, buttons, and APDS-9960 sensor and placed within a custom-cut acrylic enclosure. Finally, another string of LEDs was wrapped around the bottom of the dress to act as the “fire” component.
Once the hardware was finished being sewn onto the dress, licjn moved to the programming step. Her dress has three modes: color matching which uses the APDS-9960 to sense color and recreate it on the LEDs, an “alarm system” that turns the lights red when close to something, and the fiery transformation that senses when the user is spinning and displays an orange glow underneath. As a bonus, a simple tag game was implemented which can be played with flashlights and gives the wearer a certain number of “lives” before they lose.
To see more regarding this interactive wearable project, you can read about it here on Instructables or watch Li’s demo below!
Mixing up perfect, custom cocktails often requires months or even years of training, in addition to having to know a plethora of recipes. But Jithin Sanal wanted to pour his favorite drinks without spending the extra time and effort, so he concocted a robotic cocktail mixer to perform this task for him. It operates by using a series of ingredient reservoirs, pumps, an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, and a few relays to dispense a precise quantity of the desired ingredient into a container. Sanal also designed and fabricated his own PCB to connect each component together in a circuit.
Rather than having a bunch of physical buttons on the front of the robotic cocktail mixer, Sanal instead opted to use the Arduino Cloud with five virtual ones that each correspond to a single drink. When a button is pressed, a function is executed on the Nano RP2040 Connect that activates the correct pumps in the specified order for a certain duration. By utilizing this method, users can be confident their drink is perfectly made every single time. More drinks can be added to the system simply by adding another button within the Cloud and creating the associated function in the RP2040’s code.
To see how Sanal brought this project to life in greater detail, you can view his write-up here or watch his video below.
Home monitoring is a big part of home automation, but it’s often overshadowed. Our attention tends to get hijacked by cool projects that perform physical actions. Whether it’s turning the lights on, changing their color, running a robot vacuum cleaner, pulling on the blinds or watering the garden. All these actions are very cool and very visible. Which makes it easy to ignore the background tasks that are the backbone of great home automation.
YouTuber and robotics maker RootSaid has been giving this a lot of thought. He’s put together an excellent tutorial on creating a self contained, real-time home monitoring module. It’s built around the excellent Nano RP2040 Connect, and sends everything to Arduino Cloud.
Home Monitoring for You, and Your Family
His objective was to create a compact bundle of sensors to keep an eye on various conditions around the home. This battery powered system can then be positioned anywhere, and monitored from Arduino Cloud. His idea is to install the module in an elderly relative’s home. That way, he can keep an eye on their environment from anywhere.
Of course, this doesn’t have to be used purely as a care system. That’s a great application for his environment monitoring platform, but it’s just as useful for your own home automation system. Too often, sensors (temperature, for example) are physically connected to other automation devices, like Wi-Fi mains switches. But chances are you want to know the temperature over by your sofa. Not down the back of the TV cabinet.
RootSaid to the rescue.
A Compact Home Automation Sensor Module
Let’s take a look at the sensors bundled into this compact package.
He’s got an LDR in there to monitor the light levels. This is perfect for bigger home automation projects, as it can trigger lights all around the house. Even outdoor lighting, if you wanted.
There’s a Bosch BME280 to keep an eye on the environment. This is becoming a popular device among the home automation crowd. It’s small, very low power, cheap, accurate, and gives you temperature, humidity and air pressure data.
Finally we have a gas sensor, which is a really interesting addition. Especially as part of his original brief for monitoring an elderly relative’s environment. It keeps a check on air quality, but being able to get alerts for gas leaks or rising carbon monoxide levels could be life saving.
Home Monitoring in Arduino Cloud, for Free
Finally he takes you through the Arduino Cloud set up, including a monitoring dashboard. Which is more good news, since all this is running from a single Nano RP2040 Connect. That means you’re only adding one Thing (with five variables), so the free tier is a practical option. If you want to begin comparing the data the module collects over time, you can then easily bump up to a subscription for longer data retention options.
Because he’s collecting data through Arduino Cloud, he’s automatically got smartphone access to it, as well. Or, if he wanted to share the data with members of the family or household, it only takes a click.
Although RootSaid is running his module from a 9V battery, there’s nothing to stop you using other power sources. The Nano RP2040 Connect will accept all kinds of voltage inputs. From USB to 12v PSUs, your power options are wide open here.
This is a project that no home automation enthusiast should overlook. It’s small, simple and very easy to build. But it’s also the gateway to creating a great home automation system. If you’re only just getting started, this is the project to begin with. It’s the tiny module where all the important data comes from to make your home truly autonomous. RootSaid’s excellent tutorial also makes it easy to see how you can expand on the project in lots of ways.
Python support for three of the hottest Arduino boards out there is now yours. Through our partnership with OpenMV, the Nano RP2040 Connect, Nano 33 BLE and Nano 33 BLE Sense can now be programmed with the popular MicroPython language. Which means you get OpenMV’s powerful computer vision and machine learning capabilities thrown in.
OpenMV IDE and MicroPython Editor
While you can’t use Python directly with the Arduino IDE, you can use the OpenMV editor, and its version of MicroPython. From the editor, you can install MicroPython and load your scripts directly to the supported Arduino boards.
MicroPython is a great implementation of the full Python programming language, designed to run on microcontrollers. There’s extensive documentation all across the web, which is another huge advantage of learning and using Python for your Arduino projects.
There are so many reasons to get excited about MicroPython for these new Arduino boards. To name a few…
OpenMV’s machine learning and computer vision tools.
Great for computer science education.
Easy for web developers and coders to switch from other platforms to Arduino.
Huge number of MicroPython libraries, tutorials, guides and support online.
Simple to upgrade hardware as project demands increase (eg, upgrade from a Nano RP2040 Connect to a Portenta H7).
There are also lots of Arduino + Python projects that have been posted over the years. Now you can add the Nano devices to those projects and expand on them with their new MicroPython capabilities.
Get Started with Python on Arduino
To help you get cracking, we’ve put together a few guides for each of the supported Arduino boards. The Portanta H7 already supports MicroPython, but we’ve included it below for the sake of completion.
If it’s the first time you’ve used Python on your Arduino board, you’ll need to follow a few steps to get everything working together. Depending on which board you’re using, you might need to update the bootloader to make it compatible with OpenMV. Then you can connect to the board to upload the latest firmware and make it compatible with the editor.
There are guides to take you through the process for each board, and it’s not a complex task. Once completed, your boards will be ready to program them using MicroPython.
These simple tutorials will get you moving quickly.
Furthermore, you can find a few examples of MicroPython scripts you can upload and run on the various boards, too. It’s a great way to test the Python waters with your Arduino boards, and pick up a couple of hints and tips on using the language.
If you’ve got any resources, hints or tips of your own when it comes to learning or using Python, please do share them with the community! We want to hear all about your experiences, and any projects you build using Arduino and Python together.
We’ll keep you updated as we add more documentation and tutorials for MicroPython over on Arduino Docs, so keep an eye out for those.
It was back in January that we first introduced you to the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect. The first Arduino board to include Raspberry Pi silicon. It’s been a roller coaster ride getting it to you, and enthusiasm during the wait has been incredibly encouraging. The wait, you’ll be glad to hear, is over.
The RP2040 Processor
Working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation is nothing short of a pleasure. The teams there make some incredible devices, and their first in-house silicon is no exception. These guys get it.
This system-on-a-chip is a 32-bit dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, clocked at 133MHz and is powerful enough to run TensorFlow Lite. It’s young, but proving to be incredibly popular with makers, as well as electronics manufacturers. It’s going to be incredibly exciting to see how the Arduino community reacts to it. We can only imagine what you guys can achieve with the extra features of the Nano RP2040 Connect board.
Welcome the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
So it was an easy choice for Arduino to put an RP2040 at the core of a new board. We felt so strongly about the excellence of this new chip that we knew it deserved a powerful, premium Nano board that is unrivalled in terms of features.
First and foremost is the inclusion of the u-blox NINA-W102 WiFi and Bluetooth radio module. Nano users are probably quite familiar with this excellent module already.
Coupled with a six-axis machine learning-capable IMU motion sensor, on-board microphone for sound and voice activation, an RGB LED and loads of multi-function GPIO pins, this is the project maker’s dream come true. And all on such a tiny board.
NanoRP2040 Connect in the Cloud
Just like everything Arduino, the hardware of the Nano RP2040 Connect is only half the story.
Right off the bat this device is fully compatible with the Arduino Cloud. It landed at just the right moment, as Arduino Cloud plans were given an overhaul. These offer a lot more on the free tier, while bringing in a new Entry Plan that really unlocks the power of the cloud.
Because the Nano RP2040 Connect is a connected device, this opens up all kinds of possibilities. Not least of all over-the-air updates and programming. This alone can make a Cloud accompaniment to the board worthwhile. It gives you full, incredibly easy access to the hardware. This is true even after it’s been deployed, installed or buried in the guts of a project. If it’s got a WiFi signal, you can do everything as if it was plugged in by USB. Furthermore, it has the added bonus of smartphone control through the Arduino IoT Remote app.
The plug-and-play nature of the Arduino Core means you can use existing sketches you made for, say, a Nano 33 BLE Sense on your brand new Nano RP2040 Connect. So you can have this little workhorse up and running within minutes, if you’ve already been working on some project sketches. Plus, it’s compatible with the entire RP2040 software ecosystem, so if this is an upgrade for an existing RP2040 board, you’re good to go.
If you’re just getting started on sketches for the device, it offers full support for MicroPython. There’s even a free OpenMV license bundled in, for any machine vision projects you might have planned.
Go Get Your Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
Yes, there’s a limited supply at launch. We built as many as possible for the first run. But a lot have been sent out to our reseller partners. So head on over to the store right now if you want to be one of the first to get this premium RP2040 board.
If you want to stay up to date on all things Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, make sure you’re signed up to our email list. From there we’ll keep you advised on restocking, new updates, special offers and everything else to do with this tiny, but mighty, board.
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