Most people don’t consume poetry in the same way that they do novels. Instead of reading a book of poetry from cover-to-cover over the course of a few sessions, the majority of people seem to prefer enjoying poetry in occasional little chunks. And unlike the epic poems of Greek antiquity, those tend to be short and sweet. Leaning into those tendencies, Roni Bandini built this RFID device to read micropoetry.
“Micropoetry,” in this context, is a style of short poem consisting of three lines. Each of those lines can contain up to 16 characters. That is roughly similar in overall length to a haiku, but doesn’t have any rules regarding syllables. In fact, some haikus couldn’t fit in this micropoem structure, as the lines would contain too many characters.
If these rules seem awfully specific, that’s because they aren’t arbitrary. Bandini created them so that the poems can fit within the limited storage of MIFARE Classic 1k RFID chips. MIFARE didn’t design those to store any significant amount of data, but rather for saving critical attributes like IDs. These rules ensure that MIFARE Classic 1k RFID tags can contain micropoems. Bandini even created a handy utility to write the poem’s lines into a card’s memory.
With that structure defined, Bandini built a device to let users read the stored poetry. When someone is in the mood for some poetry, they can simply place a micropoem RFID card on the device. An Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board will then scan the RFID chip using an MFRC522 module, read the stored data, and display the poem’s lines on a 1.3” 128×64 OLED screen.
As an added dramatic bonus, one datum in the RFID chip’s memory is a counter. On each read, the device increments that counter. When it reaches three, the device deletes the poem from the chip’s memory forever.
The Project Hub is where Arduino users share their achievements to inspire, help others, and maybe show off a little. With thousands of projects already uploaded, in categories that run the gamut from “flying things” to “smart lighting,” we are proud to celebrate this community-boosting initiative by selecting three highlights every month for a special mention and gift card to spend on our Store.
If you are new to the portal and think you’d never be picked, think again! All three top users from September stood out with the very first project they uploaded.
This advanced project allows you to successfully build an Arduino-based power meter system with internal PLC, able to accurately collect and calculate data to monitor energy consumption, improve efficiency, and add value to home automation solutions. Follow the instructions to display voltage, power factor, current, power and frequency instantly, with a handful of commonly available components and a compact Arduino Nano.
Syncing up different props – from different manufacturers and retailers – to create a cohesive overall installation is no easy feat! This project was specifically intended for Halloween, to get skeletal animatronics to play the same music together thanks to the UNO R3 and some ingenious wiring… but we think it would work great also with more festive characters, for a truly unforgettable holiday display.
A fan of Arduino since graduating with a dissertation on smart homes in 2022, kela910512 has successfully used an Arduino Micro to devise a secure tool to log in and out of Windows 10 using an RFID card. Instead of manually typing passwords, the solution leverages an Android application to send the user’s password to the Arduino via Bluetooth, with a range of additional security mechanisms. To find out more and perhaps try this yourself, head to Project Hub!
For your chance to be selected for a $100, $300 or even $500 gift card to spend on the Arduino Store, submit your best project on Project Hub! We will be awarding three new entries every month, as detailed in the complete terms and conditions. Good luck!
By Maria Nikoli, Interaction Designer, MSc., Malmö University
Smelling is crucial to our everyday living. But how well do we really understand the role that smells play in our day-to-day? Ask someone who temporarily lost their sense of smell because of COVID-19. They’ll probably tell you about how incredibly boring eating became all of a sudden, and how their roomies saved them from eating a foul-smelling, spoiled block of cheese that had zero mold on it.
The sense of smell is super important, as it makes life pleasurable, and helps us detect danger. It’s also intrinsically connected to memory and emotion. You probably know what it’s like to smell something and get an instant flashback – it almost feels like time travel.
Yet, olfaction (a fancy word for the sense of smell) is often overlooked in both HCI and art education. Building on that, “Art Class Stinks!” is an interactive system for learning with smell in art class while helping the students become more aware of their sense of smell.
The prototype consists of two components. The first component is a mobile app that guides the user through processes of learning and being creative with smell, gives instructions for creative tasks and smell awareness tasks, and archives the users’ art. The second component is an olfactory display (OD). The OD consists of a scent kit and an Arduino-powered interactive board equipped with LED lights and RFID tag readers. Navigating the app, the user gets prompted to do several creative tasks using the scents for inspiration. They also get prompted to do smell identification tasks to raise their own awareness of their sense of smell. The interactive board links each scent note to the software and also indicates the ways in which the user can sniff the scent notes.
Add a bit of security to your project or make things selectable by using different cards. In the latest issue of HackSpace magazine, PJ Evans goes contactless.
The HAT is not hard on resources, so you can use many variants of Raspberry Pi
NFC (near-field communication) is based on the RFID (radio-frequency identification) standard. Both allow a device to receive data from a passive token or tag (meaning it doesn’t require external power to work). RFID supports a simple ID message that shouts ‘I exist’, whereas NFC allows for both reading and writing of data.
Most people come into contact with these systems every day, whether it’s using contactless payment, or a card to unlock a hotel or office door. In this tutorial we’ll look at the Waveshare NFC HAT, an add-on for Raspberry Pi computers that allows you to interact with NFC and RFID tokens.
Prepare your Raspberry Pi
We start with the usual step of preparing a Raspberry Pi model for the job. Reading RFID tags is not strenuous work for our diminutive friend, so you can use pretty much any variant of the Raspberry Pi range you like, so long as it has the 40-pin GPIO. We only need Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Buster) for this tutorial; however, you can install any version you wish. Make sure you’ve configured it how you want, have a network connection, and have updated everything by running sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade on the command line.
Enable the serial interface
This NFC HAT is capable of communicating over three different interfaces: I2C, SPI, and UART. We’re going with UART as it’s the simplest to demonstrate, but you may wish to use the others. Start by running sudo raspi-config, going to ‘Interfacing options’, and selecting ‘Serial Interface’. When asked if you want to log into the console, say ‘No’. Then, when asked if you want to enable the serial interface, say ‘Yes’. You’ll need to reboot now. This will allow the HAT to talk to our Raspberry Pi over the serial interface.
Configure and install the HAT
As mentioned in the previous step, we have a choice of interfaces and swapping between them means changing some physical settings on the NFC HAT itself. Do not do this while the HAT is powered up in any way. Our HAT can be configured for UART/Serial by default but do check on the wiki at hsmag.cc/iHj1XA. The jumpers at I1 and I0 should both be shorting ‘L’, D16 and D20 should be shorted and on the DIP switch, everything should be off except RX and TX. Check, double-check, attach the HAT to the GPIO, and boot up.
The Waveshare HAT contains many settings. Make sure to read the instructions!
Download the examples
You can download some examples directly from Waveshare. First, we need to install some dependencies. Run the following at the command line: sudo apt install rpi.gpio p7zip-full python3-pip pip3 install spidev pyserial
Now, download the files and unpack them: cd wget https://www.waveshare.com/w/upload/6/67/Pn532-nfc-hat-code.7z 7z x Pn532-nfc-hat-code.7z
Before you try anything out, you need to edit the example file so that we use UART (see the accompanying code listing). cd ~/raspberrypi/python nano example_get_uid.py
Find the three lines that start pn532 = and add a # to the top one (to comment it out). Now remove the # from the line starting pn532 = PN532_UART. Save, and exit.
Try it out!
Finally, we get to the fun part. Start the example code as follows: python3 example_get_uid.py If all is well, the connection to the HAT will be announced. You can now place your RFID token over the area of the HAT marked ‘NFC’. Hexadecimal numbers will start scrolling up the screen; your token has been detected! Each RFID token has a unique number, so it can be used to uniquely identify someone. However, this HAT is capable of much more than that as it also supports NFC and can communicate with common standards like MIFARE Classic, which allows for 1kB of storage on the card. Check out example_dump_mifare.py in the same directory (but make sure you make the same edits as above to use the serial connection).
Going further
You can now read unique identifiers on RFID and NFC tokens. As we just mentioned, if you’re using the MIFARE or NTAG2 standards, you can also write data back to the card. The examples folder contains some C programs that let you do just that. The ability to read and write small amounts of data onto cards can lead to some fun projects. At the Electromagnetic Field festival in 2018, an entire game was based around finding physical locations and registering your presence with a MIFARE card. Even more is possible with smartphones, where NFC can be used to exchange data in any form.
Get HackSpace magazine 37 – Out Now!
Each month, HackSpace magazine brings you the best projects, tips, tricks and tutorials from the makersphere. You can get it from the Raspberry Pi Press online store, The Raspberry Pi store in Cambridge, or your local newsagents.
Three things we like: Blade Runner, robots, and cocktails. That’s why we LOVE Donald Bell‘s Raspberry Pi–packed ‘VK-01 Off-World Bartender‘ cocktail making machine.
Donald wanted users to get as much interaction and feedback as possible, rather than simply pressing a button and receiving a random drink. So with this machine, the interaction comes in four ways: instructions provided on the screen, using a key card to bypass security, placing and removing a cup on the tray, and entering an order number on the keypad.
In addition to that, feedback is provided by way of lighting changes, music, video dialogue, pump motors whirring, and even the clicks of relays at each stage of the cocktail making process.
Ordering on the keypad
The keypad allows people to punch in a number to trigger their order, like on a vending machine. The drink order is sent to the Hello Drinkbot software running on the Raspberry Pi 3B that controls the pumps.
Getting your cup filled
The switch under the lid and ring of LEDs on the base
In order for the machine to be able to tell when a vessel is placed under the dispenser spout, and when it’s removed, Donald built in a switch under a 3D-printed tray. Provided the vessel has at least one ice cube in it, even the lightest plastic up is heavy enough to trigger the switch.
The RFID card reader
Cocktail machine customers are asked to scan a special ID card to start. To make this work, Donald adapted a sample script that blinks the card reader’s internal LED when any RFID card is detected.
Interactive video screen
This bit is made possible by MP4Museum, a “bare-bones” kiosk video player software that the second Raspberry Pi inside the machine runs on boot. By connecting a switch to the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO, Donald enabled customers to advance through the videos one by one. And yes, that’s an official Raspberry Pi Touch Display.
Behind the scenes of the screen with the Raspberry Pi A+ running the show
The Hello Drinkbot ‘bartender’
Donald used the Python-based Hello Drinkbot software as the brains of the machine. With it, you can configure which liquors or juices are connected to which pumps, and send instructions on exactly how much to pour of each ingredient. Everything is configured via a web interface.
Via a bank of relays, microcontrollers connect all the signals from the Touch Display, keypad, RFID card reader, and switch under the spout.
Here’s the Fritzing diagram for this beast
Supplies
Donald shared an exhaustive kit list on his original post, but basically, what you’re looking at is…
Donald’s friend Jim Burke‘s beautiful concept sketches
And finally, check out the Raspberry Pi–based Hello Drinkbot project by Rich Gibson, which inspired Donald’s build.
Seating charts at weddings and other formal events are usually handled by small cards at each table, but Gabrielle Martinfortier had other plans.
For her big event, she along with help from her now-husband and friends constructed a seating arrangement on a 3’ x 4’ wood canvas, equipped with a 7” TFT display and an RFID reader. An Arduino Mega serves as the brains of the device, taking advantage of its expanded IO capabilities to control an LED assembly over each table on the chart.
Wedding guests simply had to present the card they received with the invitation, then their proper table was lit. As seen in the video below, this eliminated seating confusion, and provided a bit of extra entertainment for those involved.
I wanted to make something special for my wedding tables chart, and I thought this was a good way of making it personal, as it reflects my love (addiction) for electronic projects.
So the plan was to make a big wood panel with the plan of the room on it, including, of course, the tables and their names (they are plant names, in French). The guests received a card with an RFID sticker on it along with their invitation. On the back of the card was written (in French) something like “This card is of great importance, keep it safe and carry it on you at the wedding.” I didn’t want them to know what it was for until the wedding.
The chart has several elements a TFT display, an RFID reader, a green LED and a red LED, a push button and one strip of 3 LEDs for each table. When the RFID tags are scanned, the green LED turns on if it is recognized, and a personalized message is displayed on the screen, including the name of the table where the guest is seated. In addition, the LED strip associated with the table is turned on, shedding light on the table on the room’s plan. If the card is misread or unrecognized, the red LED is turned on with an “access denied” message on the screen. The button is for those who did not succeed in not losing or forgetting the card. It displays a message on the screen, asking them to go to the bar and say something like “I am not reliable,” in exchange of which they get a backup chart to find their seat.
I changed a few things along the way: I wanted to paint the wood panel but changed my mind because I was scared I’d make a mess and have to start over with a new panel. Since I have a circuit machine I decided to make the writings and drawings with vinyl.
I also had a 20×04 character LCD screen in the beginning, but I upgraded to a 7″ TFT screen because it’s bigger and not as limiting in terms of message length.
An Arduino-based RFID tag system perfect for escape rooms
Arduino Team — May 16th, 2018
As seen here, “Annaane!” has come up with what could form the guts of a very interesting escape room puzzle.
Her build features four RFID card readers, which cause an Arduino Uno to release a door lock or other device via a 5V relay, only when the corresponding tags are arranged correctly.
From the looks of the video below, the design is very much a prototype, but could easily be morphed into an arrangement to frustrate and entertain participants. As noted, the project uses all but the TX and RX pins on the Uno, but this could be expanded by using a Mega or an I2C port expander.
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