Schlagwort: Uno

  • This small scorekeeping air hockey game brings the arcade classic to your tabletop

    This small scorekeeping air hockey game brings the arcade classic to your tabletop

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Go to any arcade and the air hockey table will probably be one of the most popular games they have. Everyone loves air hockey, but a lot of people don’t want to go to an arcade just to play. If you fall into that category, then you can follow LloydB’s Instructables guide to make your own scorekeeping air hockey table.

    The key to air hockey is right there in the name: air. All of those little holes in the table’s surface allow air flow. That creates an air cushion for the puck and paddles to float on, reducing friction and enabling knuckle-shattering gameplay. For that to work, the table needs something pushing at least as much air as escapes through the holes. This table isn’t very big, so it doesn’t need a high volume of air. Three 12V PC fans are enough. They push air into a chamber beneath the hole-filled top board. Power for the fans comes from a battery holder with 8 AA batteries.

    Those batteries also power the Arduino UNO Rev3 that handles the scorekeeping, which is the other important part of air hockey. Each goal chute has a laser break-beam sensor to detect when the puck comes shooting in. The Arduino then updates the scores shown on a 16×2 LCD screen. The Arduino will also emit a tone through a buzzer. That increases in pitch with each point, so players get audible cues as the game progresses. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVPHKXhAPF4?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This small scorekeeping air hockey game brings the arcade classic to your tabletop appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Ceiling fan becomes a “spaceship” SCARA robot arm

    Ceiling fan becomes a “spaceship” SCARA robot arm

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We all know how annoying a ceiling fan can be when it isn’t balanced well and that annoyance perfectly demonstrates the necessity of a good, sturdy bearing. A ceiling fan’s bearing needs to allow for smooth rotational motion with as little friction as possible, while completely constraining movement in every other axis. Those properties make a ceiling base a surprisingly good starting point for a SCARA, as demonstrated in tuenhidiy’s recent Instructables write-up.

    In their tutorial, tuenhidiy refers to this as a “Spaceship Scara Arm.” It isn’t exactly clear why they chose the “spaceship” terminology, but it is similar to a conventional SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) — just one with only two degrees of freedom (DOF).

    The entire point of a SCARA is that it is fully constrained, except for rotation around the Z axis at each joint. After their ceiling fan broke, tuenhidiy noticed that the fan’s base with its beefy bearing would be perfect for this application. They took that, added a couple of stepper motors and belts, some aluminum extrusion, and a couple more bearings to create this simple SCARA.

    An Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls those motors through a CNC Shield V3. Grbl firmware makes it easy to control the positions of the motors using just about any software a user could possibly want. Some simple calculations regarding the arm’s geometry and gear ratios should let appropriate software determine exactly where it is in space. For a demonstration, tuenhidiy added a DC solenoid for its magnetic capabilities. But anyone replicating this project can add their own end effector to suit their needs.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3zL910CVBw?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Ceiling fan becomes a “spaceship” SCARA robot arm appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • A delightful Chandrayaan-3 rocket launch model

    A delightful Chandrayaan-3 rocket launch model

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    It may not get as much attention as NASA, Roscosmos, or even CNSA (China National Space Administration), but India’s space program has achieved some impressive goals. Just last year, in August of 2023, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) completed their first soft landing on a celestial object with the Chandrayaan-3’s moon landing. That understandably inspired pride among Indians and the YouTube channel Science 4 U celebrated by building this model of the Chandrayaan-3 launch.

    This project can be completed with some everyday materials and a few inexpensive components. When ready, it counts down from 10. At zero, the rocket climbs the launch pad’s structure. That rocket is a small model that makers can fabricate on any 3D printer. The launch pad and structure is mostly foam packing material.

    The electronics consist of a low-speed geared DC motor, a relay module, an OLED screen, a battery holder, and an Arduino UNO Rev3 board. The Arduino starts by displaying the numerical countdown on the OLED screen. After the countdown completes, the Arduino switches on the relay. That completes the motor circuit, allowing current to flow from the AA batteries to the motor. The running motor winds in a string that pulls the rocket up the structure.

    There doesn’t seem to be any switch or sensor to turn off the motor, so the user will have to program a timer to switch the relay. There also isn’t any hardware to reverse the motor polarity, so the user has to lower the rocket manually after a launch. But this is an inexpensive and fun project that should be perfect for students in India who are excited by Chandrayaan-3.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oftwbO1LwpA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post A delightful Chandrayaan-3 rocket launch model appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • An easy way to add a gear indicator for your stick shift

    An easy way to add a gear indicator for your stick shift

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The objective benefits may be almost nonexistent today, but there is still something satisfying about rowing through the gears in a car with a manual transmission. If that car was made in the past couple of decades, there is a good chance that it has an indicator on the dash to tell you what gear you’re in. But older cars usually don’t have an indicator, which is why you might want to follow Vaclav Krejci’s guide to add one.

    The great thing about this project is that it is easy to perform — even for beginners. Gearheads that don’t typically touch electronics can complete this build with some patience. Once done, it will display the current gear and a visual diagram on a small OLED screen, which the user can then mount anywhere in their car. 

    This works using an arrangement of four Hall effect sensors that detect the strength of the magnetic field coming from a permanent magnet attached to the gear shift lever. The principle is similar to triangulation, because the values detected by the four sensors can be used to calculate the position of the magnet. That isn’t very precise, but it doesn’t need to be for an application like this.

    The four Hall effect sensors mount onto a custom PCB. That connects to an Arduino UNO Rev3, which the user can tuck away inside of a center console. The Arduino performs the calculations, then updates the OLED screen with the results. Krejci even demonstrates how the user can simulate the entire circuit using WOKWI, which is very useful for ironing out kinks before building a hardware prototype. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QixtxaAda18?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post An easy way to add a gear indicator for your stick shift appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Autochef-9000 can cook an entire breakfast automatically

    Autochef-9000 can cook an entire breakfast automatically

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Fans off Wallace and Gromit will all remember two things about the franchise: the sort of creepy — but mostly delightful — stop-motion animation and Wallace’s Rube Goldberg-esque inventions. YouTuber Gregulations was inspired by Wallace’s Autochef breakfast-cooking contraption and decided to build his own robot to prepare morning meals.

    Gregulations wanted his Autochef-9000 to churn out traditional full British breakfasts consisted of buttered toast, eggs, beans, and sausage. That was an ambitious goal, because each of those foods requires several steps to prepare. Gregulations’ solution was to, essentially, create one large machine that contains several smaller CNC machines. Each one is distinct and tailored to suit a particular food. In total — if you add up all of the different sections — this is a 12-axis CNC machine.

    The Autochef-9000’s central controller is an Arduino Mega 2560 board. But even with the power and number of pins available, that wouldn’t have been able to handle everything. So it divvies out some tasks to Arduino UNO Rev3 boards.

    As you would expect, this takes quite a lot of heat to cook everything. That’s why the Autochef-9000 contains several electric heating elements, which the Arduinos control via relays.

    Users can order food using a touchscreen menu system or a smartphone interface. Autochef-9000 will then whir to life. It will open and heat a tin of beans, grab and heat a sausage, hard boil an egg, and toast and then butter bread fed from a magazine. Finally, it will deposit all of those items onto a plate.

    There is a lot going on inside of this machine and Gregulations breezes past a lot of the technical details, but it is a joy to see in action. And unlike Wallace’s inventions, this one hasn’t caused any serious disasters (yet).

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMoHLUd81P8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Autochef-9000 can cook an entire breakfast automatically appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This new game engine runs Manic Miner on an Arduino UNO

    This new game engine runs Manic Miner on an Arduino UNO

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    For owners of Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers in the ‘80s, few games were more desirable than Matthew Smith’s Manic Miner. It is very much a classic and has official and unofficial ports available for just about every console and computer released since. There was even a port made for Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player. And now you can play it on an Arduino UNO thanks to Scott Porter’s custom game engine and port.

    This isn’t the first time someone has done this, as James Bowman created a Manic Miner port for Gameduino a decade ago. But Porter’s project is a little different. His port runs on a custom engine on an Arduino UNO Rev3 that produces composite video output through a custom shield. That shield also contains a speaker driver circuit, buttons for control, and a port to connect an NES controller for a more comfortable gaming experience.

    Porter’s biggest challenge was generating video, as that requires very accurate timing. For that reason, he recommends using an official UNO and not generic boards that sometimes cut corners with resonators instead of crystals. 

    The game engine is impressive, with a fixed framerate of 50fps at 256×256 and up to nine sprites on screen. One of those sprites can have pixel-perfect collision detection with all of the others, which is ideal for a game like Manic Miner. But the video is monochrome and there do seem to be some glitches evident in the demonstration video. Regardless, this is very impressive and we’re excited to see what else Porter can achieve with his engine. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm_dUSeIqC4?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iUYeZ2Ppnk?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This new game engine runs Manic Miner on an Arduino UNO appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This animatronic CatNap is predictably creepy

    This animatronic CatNap is predictably creepy

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Poppy Playtime is an interesting horror video game — or rather, an episodic series of games — that puts players into the eerie toy factory of fictional company Playtime Co., where they find that the company’s characters are alive and quite aggressive. A big part of the game’s appeal is the creepy character design, with the eponymous Poppy being just one example. But they’re all scary, as Jaimie and Jay of the Wicked Makers proved when they built this life-sized CatNap animatronic.

    The Wicked Makers aren’t strangers to this game, as they previously built an eight-foot-tall Huggy Wuggy. Their CatNap animatronic isn’t quite as tall, but it is still huge. And it is a faithful recreation of the monster seen in-game. It can move its head side-to-side, and its body sort of sways like a real, breathing creature’s would. It even breathes glowing red fog to represent the in-game sleeping gas formulated for children.

    As usual, that vast majority of the work here went into constructing the animatronic’s skeleton, body, and head. It is a masterful mishmash of PVC pipe, wire, foam, clay, and fabric. But the real magic comes from the movement, which is possible thanks to the use of an Arduino UNO Rev3. That controls the torso’s wiper motor via a relay, the servo motor that moves the head, the LEDs for the eyes and smoke, and the smoke machine.

    To simplify the animations, the Wicked Makers turned to Bottango software. That’s free and made specifically for controlling animatronics. It makes programming and uploading animations easy, so the Wicked Makers can alter CatNap’s behavior whenever they want.

    The result is just as terrifying as it is impressive.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh6mimCibhQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This animatronic CatNap is predictably creepy appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Getting more realistic camera movements in VR with an Arduino

    Getting more realistic camera movements in VR with an Arduino

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    In virtual reality, anything is possible, yet being able to accurately model things from the real-world in a digital space remains a huge challenge due to the lack of weight/feedback that would otherwise be present in physical objects. Inspired by working with digital cameras and the inherit imperfection they bring to their videos, Bas van Seeters has developed a rig that translates the feeling of a camera into VR with only a few components.

    The project began as a salvaged Panasonic MS70 VHS camcorder thanks to its spacious interior and easily adjustable wiring. An Arduino UNO Rev3 was then connected to the camera’s start/stop recording button as well as an indicator light and a potentiometer for changing the in-game focus. The UNO is responsible for reading the inputs and writing the data to USB serial so that a Unity plugin can apply the correct effects. Van Seeters even included a two-position switch for selecting between wide and telescopic fields of view.

    With the Arduino now sending data, the last step involved creating a virtual camcorder object in Unity and making it follow the movement of a controller in 3D space, thus allowing the player to track things in-game and capture videos. More details on the project can be found in van Seeters’ write-up here and in the video below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt5l4E0LUpg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Getting more realistic camera movements in VR with an Arduino appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • The Hardware-Oriented Microprocessor Simulator illustrates the inner workings of microcontrollers

    The Hardware-Oriented Microprocessor Simulator illustrates the inner workings of microcontrollers

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Do you really understand what is happening within the mysterious black packaging of a microcontroller or microprocessor? Most people don’t — we just learn how to use them. That’s because they’re wildly complex circuits combining many different subsystems that are all abstracted away from the view of the user. To help students better understand these integrated circuits (ICs), Dr. Panayotis Papazoglou designed the Hardware-Oriented Microprocessor Simulator (HOMS). 

    Dr. Papazoglou is an associate professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), so he has a stake in creating an educational tool like this one. The goal of HOMS is to provide a visual and tactile demonstration of what happens inside an eight-bit microprocessor. For example, it will show a value moving from a counter to a memory register. That’s something that is difficult to visualize when using a microprocessor, even if you’re working close to “the metal” in assembly. 

    HOMS is a modular system, so students can experiment with blocks that represent different subsystem circuits within a microprocessor. Each module has an Arduino UNO Rev3 board to control its own functions, with all of the modules working under the coordination of a central Arduino Mega 2560 controller. One module may, for instance, represent memory and will show the data “written” to it on a display. Another module may have buttons and switches to allow user input.

    There are software simulation tools that seek to illustrate computing fundamentals in a similar way, but many people learn better through physical interaction. For those people, HOMS could be very helpful.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6FMw1mrSM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post The Hardware-Oriented Microprocessor Simulator illustrates the inner workings of microcontrollers appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Upgrade your shop with voice-controlled smart LED lighting

    Upgrade your shop with voice-controlled smart LED lighting

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Congratulations! You finally have a garage to call your own and you’re ready to turn it into the workshop of your dreams. But before you go on a shopping spree in Home Depot’s tools section, you may want to consider upgrading from that single dim lightbulb to more substantial lighting — otherwise, you’ll never find the screws you drop on the ground. LeMaster Tech can help with his great video on installing DIY voice-controlled smart LED lighting.

    LeMaster Tech’s primary goal was simply to increase the brightness in the garage. He took the route that gives the best bang for the buck: LED tubes. Those are similar in form factor to fluorescent light tubes, but they can put out more lumens with fewer watts and they tend to last a lot longer. They also don’t need expensive and bulky ballasts. LeMaster Tech installed several of those on the ceiling of his garage, then took things to the next level.

    These LED light tubes work with standard household mains AC power, so they can be wired like regular light bulbs. But instead, LeMaster Tech made them smart by wiring them through a relay board controlled by an Arduino UNO Rev3 board. That lets the Arduino safely switch each light tube on and off. LeMaster Tech gave it the ability to do that in response to voice commands by adding a DFRobot Gravity voice recognition module. That handy module works entirely offline and uses a simple AI to recognize spoken words. It has 121 built-in words and supports 17 custom words, so LeMaster Tech was able to tailor it to his needs.

    Now he can switch the lights with a simple voice command and even activate pre-programmed effects, like flashing the lights. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Vg9dT7hsU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Upgrade your shop with voice-controlled smart LED lighting appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Build a better spindle controller for your CNC mill

    Build a better spindle controller for your CNC mill

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Proper spindle speed control is necessary to get good CNC milling results. If your spindle speed is inconsistent, your speed and feed calculations will be wrong. That will lead to poor finishes and even broken end mills (and ruined parts) in extreme cases. But cheap CNC mills and routers often have insufficient spindle speed controllers. That’s why Joekutz’s Workbench built an improved spindle speed controller for his generic CNC 3040.

    This DIY spindle speed controller has two major improvements: more precise adjustment and closed-loop feedback.

    The original controller just had an imprecise potentiometer knob and dot markings, making it impossible to set to a specific speed. The new version lets the user set the spindle to a desired speed with a digital readout.

    It also has closed-loop feedback, so it can adjust power to the motor as necessary to maintain the set speed under load. Without that, even a light load could slow down the spindle and throw off the speed/feed balance. 

    Joekutz’s Workbench achieved this using an Arduino UNO Rev3 board. It reads input from a rotary encoder to set the motor speed, then shows that speed on a seven-segment display. It controls the motor speed via PWM through a DIY optical isolator, a transistor, and a MOSFET. At the same time, it receives feedback on the real-world motor speed using an LED and photoresistor. That measures the reflectivity of the spinning spindle, which has a piece of aluminum foil tape in one area to increase reflectivity. That lets the Arduino detect a revolution of the motor and calculate the RPM. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ExjwMC0-Nw?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The CNC mill uses an Arduino Mega 2560 with GRBL for controlling the axes’ stepper motors. The Arduino Uno spindle controller can receive g-code speed commands from that, or the user can set the speed using the rotary encoder dial. 

    The post Build a better spindle controller for your CNC mill appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Tabletop device teaches you the basics of sailing before hopping on board a real boat

    Tabletop device teaches you the basics of sailing before hopping on board a real boat

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Sailing is a great way to get outdoors and explore the open waters, yet it can also pose some risks to the pilot and passengers if they are unfamiliar with how the boat handles under different wind conditions. As Kif Scheuer notes in his project write-up, traditional instruction relies on simple 2D illustrations, so he decided to take it a step further and build a highly interactive demonstrator that can affect a model sailboat in a more realistic/physical manner.

    Because this device is meant to simulate sailing, Scheuer needed some sort of wind generator in the form of a 5V PC fan that was powerful enough to move the boat’s sail. It’s mounted onto an aluminum arm that is positioned on the output shaft of a NEMA17 stepper motor, thus allowing the Arduino UNO Rev3 to pivot its direction. Similarly, the boat was also hooked up to another stepper motor so that it could turn according to the fan’s updated position along its arc. The other electronics include a display for showing the current mode, a potentiometer for user interaction, and several buttons that control the mode/fan angle.

    Once assembled, the user is able to switch between the various modes: manual, selective, random, and wind, with this last mode enabling the user to pivot the fan rather than the boat to observe how the sail reacts. You can read more about the sailing demonstrator on Instructables.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KycTKhT0dbs?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Tabletop device teaches you the basics of sailing before hopping on board a real boat appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Affordable fixed-belt CNC plotter runs on Arduino

    Affordable fixed-belt CNC plotter runs on Arduino

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Design paradigms are the norm in every industry and automated machine tools aren’t any different. Most 3D printers, for example, function in a similar way: each axis rides on rails, with belts pulled by fixed motors. Pen plotters tend to utilize similar kinematics. But sometimes we see builds that ignore established paradigms, like this DIY fixed-belt CNC pen plotter.

    Unlike most pen plotters, this machine moves along fixed belts. This layout treats the belts almost like rigid bodies, similar to a rack-and-pinion gear set. Because the belts remain fixed in place, the motors must move. The result is a unique form factor. In this case, creator tuenhidiy made heavy use of PVC pipe for the machine’s structure and enclosures. The materials are very inexpensive, but this machine’s axes ride on hardened steel rods and so it is still capable of drawing very well.

    To keep costs down without sacrificing capability, tuenhidiy chose to use an Arduino UNO Rev3 board for control. That reads GRBL G-code files through a microSD card module and controls the stepper motors through a CNC shield with A4988 stepper drivers. There is also a simple Arduino Nano-based controller interface made with a 16×2 character LCD, button, and rotary encoder.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfODq9p7jYg?start=1&feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    This will work with a variety of different open-source software tools, including popular plugins for Inkscape. 

    The post Affordable fixed-belt CNC plotter runs on Arduino appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This automated machine shuffles and deals cards so you don’t have to

    This automated machine shuffles and deals cards so you don’t have to

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Shuffling and dealing is very serious business when you’re playing any card game that puts money on the line, like poker. Even when the stakes aren’t that high, poor shuffling or dealing can drive a family apart. If you’re tired of being criticized for your card-handling skills, maybe you should build this automatic card dealer and shuffler designed by VUBGROUP1.

    VUBGROUP1 consists of electromechanical engineering students at Bruface (The Brussels Faculty of Engineering) and this machine was a project for a mechatronics course. It is capable of both shuffling and dealing cards. Both of those subsystems work in a similar manner: DC motors spin wheels that grip the top card and push it out.

    To shuffle, the user splits the deck and loads the two halves. The machine then pushes the cards together in semi-random order into the pre-deal area. That probably isn’t enough for a true shuffle, so it might be worth running the deck through a few times. From the pre-deal area, the machine spits out a selected number of cards, pivots on a stepper motor, and the repeats until all hands have been dealt. 

    An Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls that entire process according to user parameters set through a simple interface consisting of a 16×2 character LCD and push buttons. The enclosure is laser-cut MDF held together by M3 screws and there are a handful of 3D-printed parts, such as the gears attached to the motors.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8MGI8j-0hs?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    We think it is safe to say that the students received an A+ on this project. 

    The post This automated machine shuffles and deals cards so you don’t have to appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Transform your coffee table into a piece of kinetic sand art

    Transform your coffee table into a piece of kinetic sand art

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Like most furniture, a coffee table should both look good and function well. To function well, a coffee table just needs a flat surface. But looking good is a lot more complicated and depends entirely on owner taste. If kinetic art is your thing, then you might consider building this automatic sand art coffee table.

    This is a coffee table with a large pocket in the center filled with sand. A ball bearing rolls around in the sand, leaving intricate patterns behind. LED lighting highlights those patterns and users can program their own sequences of movements to create whatever art they like.

    The secret to a kinetic sand coffee table like this one is magnetism. There is a two-axis CNC system underneath the table with a strong magnet that pulls the ball bearing through the sand. In this case, the kinematics are straightforward with a linear rail gantry riding on a pair of linear rails. Stepper motors pull the gantry and carriage with GT2 belts.

    An Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls those stepper motors through a CNC Shield V3 with two TMC2209 drivers. The sketch is very simple and doesn’t run G-code directly. Instead, the user must extract a series of coordinates from a G-code file and copy them into the sketch. But because this is a coffee table, most users will only need to do that one time to program a series of patterns to cycle through. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX3F_D5yuN4?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Transform your coffee table into a piece of kinetic sand art appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Desktop elevator provides a positive sensory experience for an autistic child

    Desktop elevator provides a positive sensory experience for an autistic child

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Autism often comes with a unique sensory experience that differs from that of most neurotypical people. That tends to be publicized as a negative thing, as some sensations can cause some autistic people a lot of discomfort. But the opposite can also be true, with positive sensory experiences providing great joy. The latter scenario inspired CapeGeek to build this desktop elevator for a friend’s autistic son.

    Elevators are popular with many people living with autism because they provide a multi-sensory experience that can be quite enjoyable. As such, there is a whole community of people with a shared love of elevators. This desktop model may have been designed for one child in particular, but it should appeal to many others. It has three floors and a car that moves between them in an elevator shaft. The user can send the car to a specific floor by pushing the corresponding button. The car will then move to that floor and the elevator doors will open.

    CapeGeek constructed this using a frame made of aluminum extrusion. The elevator car rides on a lead screw driven by a stepper motor and servo motors open the doors. An Arduino UNO R3 board controls those motors in response to the call buttons, which are standard momentary push buttons. Three micro switches tell the Arduino when the car reaches a floor. Optional upgrades include a small LCD screen reads “Zach’s Elevator” and a prompt to select a floor, sound effects, and LED lighting to illuminate the elevator car.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YmV20TKIGg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Desktop elevator provides a positive sensory experience for an autistic child appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Syncing tunes to Christmas tree lights with the Arduino Opta

    Syncing tunes to Christmas tree lights with the Arduino Opta

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We all know that one neighbor who always goes the extra mile when decorating for the holidays, and after taking inspiration from these large displays of light and sound, Marcelo Arredondo, Andres Sabas, and Andrea ZGuz of the Electronic Cats crew decided to build a smaller version for their Christmas tree using the Arduino Opta micro PLC.

    The team chose to create their music-synchronized light show with the Opta because of its reliability and bank of four built-in relays that could be utilized to switch specific light strings on or off. Lining up and triggering certain lighting effects for the music was all handled through the open-source Vixen Lights software. In here, the Opta was configured as a quad-channel controller that receives its commands over a GPIO connection sent by an Arduino UNO mediator. The PLC is programmed visually to read a programmable input pin for each relay and then leverage a comparator to toggle the relay when the signal is high.

    Back in the Vixen Light software, the team imported their favorite Christmas song and began the process of charting it. First, they generated markers over the audio waveform to signify the beats and overall tempo. Next, various effects were added to the timeline which trigger the lighting channels in a particular sequence. Lastly, the UNO was flashed with a sketch that allowed it to read the incoming Serial data from Vixen over USB and then toggle its digital outputs for the Opta to register.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES7W_O3CeZk?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    More information about this project can be found in its write-up here on Hackster.io.

    The post Syncing tunes to Christmas tree lights with the Arduino Opta appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This DIY humanoid robot talks back to you

    This DIY humanoid robot talks back to you

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Most people with an interest in robotics probably dream of building android-style humanoid robots. But when they dip their toes into the field, they quickly learn the reality that such robots are incredibly complex and expensive. However, everyone needs to start somewhere. If you want to begin that journey, you can follow these instructions to assemble your own talking humanoid robot.

    This robot, dubbed “CHAD,” is a humanoid torso with moving arms, face tracking, and some voice assistant capabilities. It can understand certain voice commands, provide spoken responses, and even hold chat bot-style conversations. The arms weren’t designed to lift anything, but they are capable of movement similar to human arms up to the wrists and that gives CHAD the ability to gesture. It can also move its head to follow a face that it sees.

    CHAD achieves that on a remarkably small budget of just ?5000 (about $60 USD) with a handful of components: two Arduino UNO R3 boards, several hobby servo motors, simple L298N motor drivers, and a PC power supply. One Arduino board controls most of the servo movement, while the second focuses on the face tracking movement.

    The Arduino boards don’t handle the processing, which is instead outsourced to a PC running Python scripts. Those do the heavy lifting of face recognition, voice recognition, and voice synthesis. The PC then passes movement commands to the Arduino boards through serial.

    CHAD’s body and most of its mechanical components are 3D-printable, with two lengths of wood acting as the primary structure. That helps to keep the cost down, giving everyone the chance to create a humanoid robot.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE7XnjM0FNQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This DIY humanoid robot talks back to you appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • DIY PC case features interchangeable kinetic front panels

    DIY PC case features interchangeable kinetic front panels

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    RGB LEDs are sooooo 2015 and the “it” thing today is kinetic art. If a blinking LED is the “hello world” of the microcontroller industry, then making something move is the equivalent of finally fingering out how pointers work. So Robert of the Ideal Idea YouTube channel had to learn a lot of new skills to design this PC case with interchangeable kinetic front panels.

    Robert was inspired by CyberPower’s Kinetic Series case, which was on display at CES 2022, then CES 2023, and is now beginning to look like vaporware. Robert wanted to upgrade his PC setup and didn’t want to wait on CyberPower, so he built his own custom kinetic case.

    Despite Robert’s claims to the contrary, he certainly appears to be a talented mechanical engineer. He created a pair of kinetic front panels and they’re both mechanical masterpieces. The first consists of three circular windows, each with two spinning wheels rotating in opposite directions. Light shines through from the PC to highlight the effect. The second is an intricate matrix of wood pillars that move in and out in an undulating pattern that entrances us.

    Both kinetic panels operate using input from a single stepper motor controlled by an Arduino UNO Rev3 board. Robert constructed the panels’ complex mechanisms using a combination of 3D-printed plastic, laser-cut acrylic, and laser-cut wood. The two panels required hundreds of moving parts and a mastery of mechanical design, resulting in an amazing final product.

    The best part is the modularity, as Robert can design and swap in a new kinetic panel whenever he wants.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHRPS41m8eU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post DIY PC case features interchangeable kinetic front panels appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This machine automatically fabricates inflatable truss structures

    This machine automatically fabricates inflatable truss structures

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    How does a flat sheet of material, like plastic or an airtight textile, become an inflatable structure with a three-dimensional shape? The traditional process involves creful design with a lot of trial and error in order to place seams between two or more sheets. That involves a lot of labor, so a team of engineers from the Hasso Plattner Institute developed a new machine called AirTied which can automatically fabricate inflatable structures.

    AirTied structures consist of tubular inflatable trusses, which are just flat sheets folded over with the edges welded. Without the machine’s intervention, that material would produce one very long cylinder when inflated. But the AirTied machine can form those tubes into 3D structures by placing knot-like nodes in specific locations, like a clown making balloon animals for kids at a party.

    The material comes from a single spool, but AirTied can produce up to five parallel trusses at any time. It accomplishes that by rotating the spool to one of five slots that can either fold the tube or crimp it with a wire tie to create a node. It can, for example, crimp two trusses together in their middles to create an X-shaped structure. The machine controls the lengths of the trusses between nodes by folding each truss over until they’re all ready for crimping.

    An Arduino UNO Rev3 board manages that process and the coordination of the motors using a modified version the popular GRBL CNC firmware. That lets it run G-code generated by the AirTied software, which helps users easily and quickly design structures by specifying the lengths of trusses and positions of nodes. The software even estimates the total cost of materials required for a particular structure.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=old54MtTius?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    That cost is quite low and the demonstrates the primary advantage of AirTied: its ability to automatically fabricate affordable structures at speed unmatched by other techniques.

    The post This machine automatically fabricates inflatable truss structures appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This robot turns old bottles into a musical instrument

    This robot turns old bottles into a musical instrument

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Percussion instruments are likely the first kind that humanity invented, because they’re quite simple: hit a thing and a noise happens. Different things produce different frequencies with different timbres, and glass bottles have a nice xylophonic sound to them. Because glass bottles are easy to find among discarded garbage, Jens of the Jens Maker Adventures YouTube channel took advantage of them to build this awesome robotic instrument.

    Jens started by collecting a bunch of different bottles. He tapped each to while searching to get a sense of the notes they produced, which he could then lower by adding some water to fine tune the pitch. Once he had enough bottles to cover a range of notes, he set out to construct a robot to play them.

    Solenoid actuators tap each bottle and an Arduino UNO Rev3 board controls that tapping. It does so according to MIDI files created in the popular Ableton software. Jens matched the available notes in Ableton to those produced by the glass bottles, so he could simply compose melodies using those notes knowing that the robot could play them. The Arduino reads the MIDI files output by Ableton and strikes the corresponding bottles.

    Finally, Jens laser-cut a plywood frame and enclosure that holds the bottles, the Arduino, and the solenoids. It works with seven bottles, which is the number of notes this machine can play.

    Jens demonstrated that by playing a guitar along with the robotic instrument and the result sounds very pleasant — especially for something made with garbage.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQRLnc6e8Y?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This robot turns old bottles into a musical instrument appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Brew virtual potions by mixing ingredients in this interactive cauldron

    Brew virtual potions by mixing ingredients in this interactive cauldron

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The large, bubbling cauldron is a classic mainstay in our Halloween decorations as it evokes imagery of devious witches and their mysterious concoctions. Fed up with this being a mere display piece, element14 Presents’ Katie Dumont created an enchanted cauldron that allows visitors to brew their own digital potions from an array of distinct ingredients using a whimsical “wand” and NFC-tagged bottles.

    To test her idea of mixing ingredients, Dumont began by connecting an Adafruit NFC reader to an Arduino UNO Rev3 along with a strip of RGB LEDs. The code she wrote checks which NFC tag is present every second, and depending on the color, will either add another color or increase/decrease the overall brightness. After the special wand tag has been detected, each pixel along the strip is mixed into a shared, uniform color across all of them.

    Upon the heels of this successful experiment, Dumont included another layer of interactivity in the form of a small game where players are presented with a certain color and must try to use the potion bottles to replicate it as close as possible with only red, green, and blue inputs. After selecting a sequence of three colors, tapping the wand will display the result and either flash red or white to indicate failure or success, respectively.

    To see more about how Dumont designed her cauldron, you can read the build log here and watch her demo video below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVR5gGOTfvs?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Brew virtual potions by mixing ingredients in this interactive cauldron appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK