Schlagwort: Uno

  • Linear movement with Arduino and 3D printing

    Linear movement with Arduino and 3D printing

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    Linear movement with Arduino and 3D printing

    Arduino Team — October 29th, 2018

    Arduino boards are great for controlling small servo motors, but what if you need something to provide linear travel? As spotted on Reddit, while the answer here is a little less straightforward, YouTuber Potent Printables has a great solution. It uses 3D-printed components, along with a dab of epoxy and fastener hardware to convert either a micro or standard continuous rotation servo into a rack-and-pinion mechanism.

    The project can be seen in the video below with an Arduino Uno and motor shield, though any Arduino capable of PWM output should have no problem with this setup. Since the servos used here are meant for continuous rotation, travel distance is based only on timing. Depending on the application, you may want add a simple microswitch or other sensing mechanism for feedback.

    This is a general purpose linear servo actuator (pusher style). Two sizes have been designed, for different space constraints and force outputs.

    These use continuous rotation servos which helps keep the cost very low. Off the shelf actuators of this type can cost around $70 USD.

    The “mini” version will fit in smaller spacers, but has a much lower force output. The “large” version has a higher force output, but is…larger in size than the “mini.”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vAoOYF3m8U?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Create shapes over and over with the Dynablock 3D Printer

    Create shapes over and over with the Dynablock 3D Printer

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    Create shapes over and over with the Dynablock 3D Printer

    Arduino Team — October 22nd, 2018

    3D printing, while revolutionary in many aspects, generally means you’re stuck with what you print. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Tokyo, however, have created a printing system called Dynablock, which attaches specialized magnetic blocks together that can used over and over.

    The system uses an array of 24 x 16 motors to push the blocks into position one layer at a time, giving a possible “print” resolution of 384 blocks per layer. An Arduino Uno, along with shift registers and motor drivers are used to directly control the block placement motors, and user interface is handled by a JavaScript-based application.

    Dynamic 3D Printing combines the capabilities of 3D printers and shape displays: Like conventional 3D printing, it can generate arbitrary and graspable three-dimensional shapes, while allowing shapes to be rapidly formed and reformed as in a shape display. To demonstrate the idea, we describe the design and implementation of Dynablock, a working prototype of a dynamic 3D printer. Dynablock can form a three-dimensional shape in seconds by assembling 3,000 9 mm blocks, leveraging a 24 x 16 pin-based shape display as a parallel assembler. Dynamic 3D printing is a step toward achieving our long-term vision in which 3D printing becomes an interactive medium, rather than the means for fabrication that it is today. In this paper, we explore possibilities for this vision by illustrating application scenarios that are difficult to achieve with conventional 3D printing or shape display systems.

    More info can be found in the project’s research paper here, or check it out in action in the video below:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nPlr3O9xu8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • A linear actuator that won’t break the bank

    A linear actuator that won’t break the bank

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    A linear actuator that won’t break the bank

    Arduino Team — October 19th, 2018

    Extremely good linear actuators can be expensive and heavy, but what if you need something for relatively light applications? In the video below, James Bruton explains how you can make one using parts including a DC motor with a quadrature encoder, 3D-printed mounting, and a lead screw assembly.

    His device uses an Arduino Uno for control, using pins 2 and 3 as interrupts to ensure correct rotation—and thus linear travel—sensing. Proper movement is facilitated with a pair of PID loops to regulate both the position and velocity, even under differing load and battery conditions. 

    Arduino code and CAD information can be found on GitHub, while an explanation of the project is seen in the video below. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJkf264yxTU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Arduino Uno controls a trio of singing pumpkins

    Arduino Uno controls a trio of singing pumpkins

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    Arduino Uno controls a trio of singing pumpkins

    Arduino Team — October 16th, 2018

    Halloween is just around the corner, and to celebrate, fadecomic decided to set up a trio of singing animatronic pumpkins to belt out scary songs. 

    The project uses a Raspberry Pi for high level control and browser interface, and sends animation commands to an Arduino Uno via USB serial.

    The Uno takes this data and translates it into actual pumpkin movements coordinated with music. The resulting trio of pumpkins each use their own servo to lift the top of the foam gourd up like a gigantic mouth, and also feature PWM-driven LED eyes. A light show controlled by SSRs completes the spooky musical effect. 

    Build info is available here and the Arduino code can be found on GitHub.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlFKTc7b4Gs?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • FacePush adds extra realism to your VR experience

    FacePush adds extra realism to your VR experience

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    FacePush adds extra realism to your VR experience

    Arduino Team — October 16th, 2018

    Haptic feedback is something commonly used with handheld controllers and the like. However, in a virtual reality environment, it could also be used with the other interface surface attached to your body: the VR headset itself.

    That’s the idea behind FacePush, which employs an Arduino Uno-powered pulley system to place tension on the straps of an HTC Vive headset. A corresponding pushing force is felt by the wearer through the headset in response to this action, creating yet another way to help immerse users in a virtual world. 

    Applications tried so far include a boxing game, dive simulator, and 360-degree guidance You can check it out in a short demo below, and read more about it in the full research paper here.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPLVCdbvWyI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • CasioKeyBot plays electronic keyboard with automated fingers

    CasioKeyBot plays electronic keyboard with automated fingers

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    CasioKeyBot plays electronic keyboard with automated fingers

    Arduino Team — October 8th, 2018

    Electronic keyboards have been around for many years, taking human input and translating it into a variety of sounds. In a strange twist on this technology, Igor Angst has decided to substitute a robot in to push the synthesizer’s keys, using a laser-cut finger setup controlled by an Arduino Uno.

    The MIDI sequence/notes to be played are supplied by a computer running ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), and interpreted by a C program that translates it into USB serial signals that the Uno can use. It then actuates its wooden fingers, producing a pleasing tune along with apparently keyboard-provided accompaniment in the video below.

    I really like the crappy sound of those ‘80s toy keyboards. Unfortunately, I am a lousy live keyboarder and I only have so many hands. So I thought about adding MIDI capability to my good old Casio SA-21. The simplest way to do this is obviously building a robotized hand with 8 servo motors controlled by an Arduino microcontroller, which in turn receives its commands through the serial-over-USB interface sent by a tiny C application that connects to the ALSA sequencer world of my Linux live music setup.

    Laser cutter files are available on the project’s write-up and code can be found on GitHub.

    KeyBot playing on a CASIO SA-21 from Das Grind on Vimeo.

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    Website: LINK

  • Talking Baymax inflatable robot greets kids at the pediatrician’s office

    Talking Baymax inflatable robot greets kids at the pediatrician’s office

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    Talking Baymax inflatable robot greets kids at the pediatrician’s office

    Arduino Team — October 2nd, 2018

    At Jason Poel Smith’s local pediatrician’s office, they have a variety of movie posters and displays to help make the environment more welcoming to kids. The most popular of them all is a huge inflatable Baymax robot character from the Disney movie Big Hero 6. 

    While a beautiful display, Smith decided that what would make it even better is if it could talk, and went to work adding this functionality with an Arduino Uno, an MP3 shield, and a very large button. 

    Now when kids arrive, they can hit the button to hear Baymax welcome them to the office as their “personal healthcare companion” via a pair of powered speakers. 

    Arduino code and more info is available here, if you’d like to build something similar!

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    Website: LINK

  • Vintage ham radio transformed into epic party game prop

    Vintage ham radio transformed into epic party game prop

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    Vintage ham radio transformed into epic party game prop

    Arduino Team — October 2nd, 2018

    Maker Thomas Meston needed a “mysterious looking device” that allows players to enter codes obtained via an original party game. What he came up with is entitled “Dr. Hallard’s Dream Transmission Box,” and consists of an Arduino, a party light, a smoke machine, and other components stuffed into a broken National NC-33 ham radio.

    This radio makes a really excellent enclosure for the electronics inside, and when the device is properly activated the winning team hears a special message via an Arduino Uno-controlled MP3 shield, accompanied by laser lights and smoke. 

    How it works:

    • When the box is switched on you hear static and see a yellow light. The device is ready for the codes to be entered.
    • Once all three dials have been set, the player switches the bottom toggle to “send” state, the box will message back whether team blue or team red has entered any codes with a quick flash of either a red or blue led.
    • If all three dials are set to red codes, the red team wins and hears a special message through the speaker just for them. The laser lights and smoke machine will be activated at the same time.
    • If all three dials are set to blue, a different message will play as well as activating the smoke machine and laser lights.

    More info on the project can be found here, and while it might seem like a shame to modify this kind of vintage equipment, Meston notes that he sees this as giving it a nice second life since it was previously non-functional.

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    Website: LINK

  • Three-axis rotary machining with Arduino

    Three-axis rotary machining with Arduino

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    For many years CNC machining was the purview of well-equipped shops and manufacturing facilities. With the availability of inexpensive control hardware, such as Arduino-based GRBL packages, this type of control has come to the (technically inclined) masses, enabling us to create complicated 2D and 3D shapes automatically.

    Normally, this means X, Y, and Z axes that control a cutting head, and if you wanted to much further in complexity and cost, you could add a fourth or even a fifth axis to tilt things as needed. The RotoMill, however, seen at World Maker Faire in New York, puts a different “spin” on things, substituting a stepper-controlled spindle for the Y axis. The result is a machine with unique machining capabilities, driven by an Arduino Uno running custom GRBL firmware.

    As for now, the CNC can easily mill parts out of softer materials like plastic, wood, and foam, although it is designed to cut aluminum as well.

    A three-axis rotary CNC built for the Mechanical Engineering senior design capstone course at Carnegie Mellon University by a team of engineering students. The CNC uses NEMA24 motors for each of the axes, with the X and Z axes actuated by lead screws, and the A (rotary) axis actuated by a worm gear. The spindle is an off-the-shelf Makita hand router, which allows for any router bit to be used.

    Each motor is controlled by a stepper motor driver, which are all coordinated by an Arduino Uno running a customized version of the GRBL firmware. This is in turn controlled by a laptop running open-source GCode sending software.

    To generate the GCode, we would create a 3D model of the part that we wanted to machine. We then “unwrapped” about the A axis. This basically takes the part and converts it from Cartesian coordinates to Cylindrical coordinates.

    To generate the GCode, we would create a 3D model of the part that we wanted to machine. We then “unwrapped” about the A axis. This basically takes the part and converts it from Cartesian coordinates to Cylindrical coordinates.

    At this point, we could take the unwrapped part and load it into Autodesk HSM, a popular industrial CAM package. This allowed us to generate a toolpath for machining the part. We basically “fooled” the CNC into thinking that it was a normal, three-axis Cartesian CNC. The trick, however, is that the Y axis is wrapped around and becomes the A axis.

    Additional information and photos can be found on RotoMill’s page or Hackaday’s recent write-up.

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    Website: LINK

  • Star Wars mouse droid reveals hidden scrolling LED display

    Star Wars mouse droid reveals hidden scrolling LED display

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    Star Wars mouse droid reveals hidden scrolling LED display

    Arduino Team — September 24th, 2018

    In several iterations of the Star Wars saga, small black droids can be seen scurrying around imperial installations. While they tend to fade into the background or provide a fun distraction in the movies, the mouse droid by Potent Printables acts as a sort of physical messaging app. It’s able to travel to the correct location, then pop open to unveil a scrolling LED sign.

    Potent Printables can trigger the side door using a Bluetooth app on his phone. On command, an RC servo pushes it open, and lowers it down using a stepper motor/reel setup. An Arduino Uno along with an Adafruit Motor Shield are used for control, while an HC-05 module enables communication with the system.  

    Check out the latest video in this build series below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw-zLukmlxM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Let this Arduino robotic bartender mix you a drink

    Let this Arduino robotic bartender mix you a drink

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    Let this Arduino robotic bartender mix you a drink

    Arduino Team — September 14th, 2018

    We’ve seen different versions of robotic bartenders over the last few years, but this one by DIY Machines looks quite clean, and because of its battery-powered operation can be taken anywhere.

    The device works like a simple CNC machine, using a stepper and pulley setup to transport a glass between one of six upside down bottles. When it’s in the correct position, two more stepper motors push a lifting assembly into the selected bottle’s dispenser valve, emptying the correct amount of liquid into the glass. An Arduino Uno is used for control, with user interface provided via a Bluetooth module and smartphone app. 

    More videos and build instructions can be found in the project’s write-up, while Arduino code is available here.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvXknwVfaI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • The Airdrum plays music with Arduino and six sensor PCBs

    The Airdrum plays music with Arduino and six sensor PCBs

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    The Airdrum plays music with Arduino and six sensor PCBs

    Arduino Team — September 13th, 2018

    Playing music well can be difficult for anyone, especially those with certain disabilities. To make this form of self-expression easier for everyone,  Alessandro Verdiesen and Luuk van Kuijk built the Airdrum—an IR sensor-based instrument that is played simply by the wave of a hand.

    The Airdrum uses six individual sensor boards to detect when a hand is present. This input is then processed via an Arduino Uno and passed along to a Raspberry Pi to produce individual tones.

    People with multiple severe disabilities often encounter the difficulties of playing a music instrument due to their mental and physical deficits.

    Health care institutions which facilitate housing, learning opportunities and day care for these people often encounter the difficulties of communicating with their clients. These institutions experienced that making music together is a great way of communicating and therefore many institutions offer music therapy. According to music therapists, the main goal is having fun. It is proven that people learn more when having fun. When playing an instrument, clients can share emotions and practice their motor skills.

    We have designed a musical instrument which is easy and fun to play, not just for people with severe disabilities, but for everyone: the Airdrum. The Airdrum is a small device containing panels with motion sensors and colored lights. When somebody moves their hand or head above the panels, they light up and they play sound.

    The device, as shown in the demo video, appears to still be a work-in-progress, but has all the functionality needed to play a simple tune with RGB LED feedback.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPtlGFwY3M?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Shy robotic sculpture imitates nature

    Shy robotic sculpture imitates nature

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    Shy robotic sculpture imitates nature

    Arduino Team — August 28th, 2018

    In nature, animals often are sensitive to the outside environment, retreating into a hole, shell, or other protective structure upon sensing sudden movements. If you were to envision this kind of behavior in robot form, you might come up with something like “The Shy Machine” from Daric Gill Studios.

    When it detects motion via a PIR sensor, the shell-like robot takes a reading of the ambient sound level using an internal microphone. If things are sufficiently quiet, it opens up using a stepper motor and lead screw, revealing a rainbow of colors provided by an array of RGB LEDs inside.

    Its construction and a demo video are shown below, and you can see more about how this Arduino-powered robot was built and the results on Gill’s website.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsOVbV1oEfg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6BIDxh3jnA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Wheatley from Portal 2 comes to life with Arduino

    Wheatley from Portal 2 comes to life with Arduino

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    Wheatley from Portal 2 comes to life with Arduino

    Arduino Team — August 27th, 2018

    If you’re a fan of Portal games, you’d probably like nothing more than to have your own Wheatley Personality Core to accompany you on real-life adventures. While that would be a passing thought for most, Luke Albertson has created his own amazing replica of the Portal 2 character. 

    The device not only can say over 40 phrases from the game via an Adafruit soundboard, but contains a glowing blue eyeball that can pan, tilt, twist, and blink to help express what it’s thinking. It even has handles that move up and down, adding a kind of “flailing arms” effect to convey its emotions. 

    Albertson’s animatronic project is controlled by an Arduino Uno, along with a Bluetooth shield and PS3 controller for user interface. It’s shown off quite nicely in the video below, and more info and clips are available here.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6__rQSXZcFM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Blow out this Arduino LED candle!

    Blow out this Arduino LED candle!

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    Blow out this Arduino LED candle!

    Arduino Team — August 21st, 2018

    LED candles can provide a nice sense of ambiance, without the inherent associated risk of fire. For better or worse, however, they don’t normally respond to air currents. 

    Paul Dietz, however, shows that this kind of response is actually possible, as an LED’s forward voltage drop is affected by how well it dissipates heat due to ambient air conditions.

    This means that when you puff on an LED, the resulting voltage changes can be picked up by an Arduino Uno.

    LEDs are designed to emit light, but they also make surprisingly capable sensors. Using only an Arduino UNO, an LED and a resistor, we will build a hot LED anemometer that measures wind speed, and turns off the LED for two seconds when it detects you are blowing on it. You can use this to make breath controlled interfaces, or even an electronic candle that you can blow out!

    How Does This Work? 

    When you run current through an LED, its temperature rises. The amount of rise depends on how effectively you are cooling it. When you blow on a hot LED, the extra cooling lowers the running temperature. We can detect this because the forward voltage drop of an LED increases as it gets cooler.

    The circuit is very simple and looks much like driving an LED. The only difference is that we will add an extra wire to measure the voltage drop of the LED while it is on. To work well, you want to use a very small LED (I suggest using an 0402 surface mount LED) connected by the thinnest possible wires. This will allow the LED to heat and cool very quickly, and minimize the heat lost through the wires. The voltage changes we are looking for are just millivolts – at the very edge of what can be reliably detected via the UNOs analog pins. If the LED is resting on something that conducts heat away, it may not be able to get hot enough, so it works best if it is up in the air.

    As shown in the video below, he turned this concept into a novel “candle” setup, blowing his tiny 0402 SMD-format LED out over and over—like a trick birthday candle!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6A_tvbKT0?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • DeepWay helps the visually impaired navigate with a tap

    DeepWay helps the visually impaired navigate with a tap

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    DeepWay helps the visually impaired navigate with a tap

    Arduino Team — August 20th, 2018

    In order to help those with visual impairments navigate streets, college student Satinder Singh has come up with an innovative solution that literally pokes the user in the right direction. 

    Singh’s system, called DeepWay, uses a chest-mounted camera to take images of the road that a wearer is walking down, then feeds this information to a laptop for processing. 

    If the deep learning algorithm determines that the user needs to move left or right to stay on the path, a serial signal is sent to an Arduino Uno, which in turn commands one of two servos mounted to a pair of glasses to tap the person to indicate which way to walk. Additional environmental feedback is provided through a pair of earphones.

    This project is an aid to the blind. Till date there has been no technological advancement in the way the blind navigate. So I have used deep learning particularly convolutional neural networks so that they can navigate through the streets.

    My project is an implementation of CNNs, and we all know that they require a large amount of training data. So the first obstruction in my way was a correclty labeled dataset of images. So I went around my college and recorded a lot of videos (of all types of roads and also off-roads). Then I wrote a basic Python script to save images from the video (I saved 1 image out of every 5 frames, because the consecutive frame are almost identical). I collected almost 10,000 such images almost 3,300 for each class (i.e. left right and center).

    I made a collection of CNN architectures and trained the model. Then I evaluated the performance of all the models and chose the one with the best accuracy. I got a training accuracy of about 97%. I got roughly same accuracy for all the trained model but I realized that the model in which implemented regularization performed better on the test set.

    The next problem was how can I tell the blind people in which direction to move. So I connected my Python program to an Arduino. I connected the servo motors to Arduino and fixed the servo motors to the sides of a spectacle. Using serial communication I can tell the Arduino which servo motor to move which would then press to one side of the blind person’s head and would indicate him in which direction to move.

    A demo of DeepWay can be seen in the video below, while code for this open source project is available on GitHub.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkmU8mN0LwE?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • An Arduino-controlled turntable for 3D scanning

    An Arduino-controlled turntable for 3D scanning

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    An Arduino-controlled turntable for 3D scanning

    Arduino Team — August 16th, 2018

    Many DSLR cameras can be operated with a simple infrared signal, making them perfect targets for Arduino control. Travis Antoniello took advantage of this with his brilliantly simple 3D scanning rig.

    Electronics are handled by an Arduino Uno, which commands a stepper motor to rotate a scanning platform 10 degrees per photo. After rotation, it stops for a set amount of time to let scanned objects settle, and triggers the camera, a Nikon D3200, via an infrared LED. It then repeats this process over and over until a full set of photos is taken. 

    Code for the build can be found on GitHub, and the device’s 3D-printed components are available on Thingiverse. The project video seen here gives a good overview of how it works, and the scanned object on display just after 2:30 looks absolutely brilliant.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mI0JuVWBc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Monopoly transformed into the world of Skyrim with LEDs and Arduino

    Monopoly transformed into the world of Skyrim with LEDs and Arduino

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    Monopoly transformed into the world of Skyrim with LEDs and Arduino

    Arduino Team — August 14th, 2018

    While “Boardwalk” and “Park Place” may not mean anything to you outside of the game of Monopoly, there is a plethora of custom versions to suit your particular interest. If you enjoy the world of Skyrim, then you need to check out this board by Charles Ledford. 

    The build features an anodized aluminum playfield coated in epoxy, along with a wooden frame that conceals electronics including an Arduino Uno inside. This enables a set of programmable LED strips to light up a dragon and lettering in the middle, as well as properties in the correct Monopoly color. 

    Custom coins, playing cards, characters, and even farms and castles (houses and hotels) complete the project, allowing for fully Skyrim-themed gameplay!

    You can find more details in Ledford’s write-up, and see a quick demo of it below! 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nw06nXSIbM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]

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    Website: LINK

  • Notable Board Books are an Arduino-powered way to enjoy music

    Notable Board Books are an Arduino-powered way to enjoy music

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    Notable Board Books are an Arduino-powered way to enjoy music

    Arduino Team — August 6th, 2018

    Annelle Rigsby found that her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, is delighted to hear familiar songs. While Annelle can’t always be there to help her enjoy music, she and her husband Mike came up with what they call the Notable Board Book that automatically plays tunes.

    The book itself is well laid-out, with song text and familiar photos printed on the pages. Electronics for the book are in a prototype state using an Arduino Uno and an Adafruit Sound Board to store and replay the audio bits.

    Page detection is handled by an array of photocells, and it is meant to turn on automatically when picked up via a series of tilt switches. When a switch is triggered, a relay can then hold the book on until the song that is playing is done, or for a predetermined amount of time.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jSBl_UZE-c?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07F2prjPebc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtVReDjoA2M?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK

  • Ingenious marble clock runs on Arduino

    Ingenious marble clock runs on Arduino

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    Ingenious marble clock runs on Arduino

    Arduino Team — August 1st, 2018

    Arduino boards and custom clock builds seem to be a great match, as illustrated by Görkem Bozkurt’s recent project. 

    His 3D-printed marble clock uses a stepper-driven gear mechanism to lift 11mm steel spheres to the device’s top chute. The spheres then roll down to a five-minute rail, which empties when filled and transfers a single marble to another minute rail, graduated in five-minute increments up to 60. This then fills the hour rail in a similar process, letting you tell the time of day, or simply be mesmerized by its movement.

    The main gear mechanism is powered by a small stepper motor, controlled by an Arduino Uno for timekeeping.

    If you’d like to build your own, code is available on Bozkurt’s write-up, as well as the needed print files.

    [embedded content]

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    Website: LINK

  • DolphinView headset lets you see the world like Flipper!

    DolphinView headset lets you see the world like Flipper!

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    DolphinView headset lets you see the world like Flipper!

    Arduino Team — July 26th, 2018

    Dolphins are not only amazing swimmers and extremely intelligent, but can also navigate their surroundings using echolocation. While extremely useful in murky water, Andrew Thaler decided to make a device that would enable him to observe his (normally dry) environment with a similar distance-indicating audio setup.

    While he first considered using an ultrasonic sensor, he eventually settled on LiDAR for its increased range, and uses an Arduino to translate distance into a series of audio clicks. Sound is transferred to Thaler through bone conduction speakers, mimicking the way dolphins hear without external ears. 

    He notes that while using the “DolphinView” headset is initially disorienting, he was eventually able correlate his surroundings with the system’s audio feedback. Arduino code and parts list is available on GitHub, and the mechanical frame design can be found on Thingiverse if you’d like to build your own!

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    Website: LINK

  • Two CD-ROM drives combined into fledging drawbot

    Two CD-ROM drives combined into fledging drawbot

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    Two CD-ROM drives combined into fledging drawbot

    Arduino Team — July 26th, 2018

    Even if you don’t have access to fancy tools like a 3D printer or CNC router, that doesn’t mean you can’t make something interesting. James, using only a “hot glue gun, some scissors, and a screwdriver,” was able to construct a rudimentary drawing robot that marks paper with a sharpie.

    Two CD drives were creatively modified to form X, Y, and Z axes, letting him lower his writing instrument and draw. An Arduino Uno along with an Adafruit Motor Shield forms the controls for the device, and the structure is built out of LEGO bricks. 

    As of now it’s described as more of an “Etch A Sketch type thing,” but it looks like a great starting point for more advanced drawbots in the future! Code for the build is available on GitHub.

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    Website: LINK