Spring Rocket » Hacks

Make your own programmable electronic watch

JohnBoxall — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:42:08 +0000

The folks from Makerbot have published details on how to make your own electronic watch based around the Arduino platform. The benefit of this is that you can easily write your own sketch (code) and modify the behaviour of the watch quite easily. The face consists of two rings of surface-mount LEDS, to indicate the hours and five-minute intervals, plus another four LEDs to make up the minutes display.

Although the watch isn’t available in kit form, the designers have published all the PCB schematic and design files so you can have your own PCBs made up, and the Arduino sketch is available to get the watch operational. Here is an example in action:

From a quick observation this isn’t a project for the absolute beginner, however it is an excellent exercise in product manufacturing on a tiny scale – as you work through having the PCB made, part sourcing, assembly and programming. For more information visit the watch project page: http://wiki.makerbot.com/makerbot-watch.

Bring Back Your Old Apple Mouse With A Wireless Heart Transplant!

JohnBoxall — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:11:24 +0000

Remember when mice were a new and awesome invention? Then a few years later we tired of them as new, wireless mice were brought to the market? After retiring the wired mice, there is a whole generation of them hiding out in our collective drawers, cupboards, back sheds and second-hand stores. Well now it’s time to round them up and give them a wireless heart-transplant!

By following the tutorial by Instructables user ‘Uncoventionalhacker’ you can transplant the hardware from almost any donor wireless mouse to bring that old mouse back to a second useful life. If possible, use a Bluetooth mouse as this will allow use with a greater variety of PCs without needing specific dongles at the computer end.

Nevertheless the modification is quite simple and involves carefully removing the old mechanical ball-reading circuitry from the original mouse, then moving the same assembly from the new, laser mouse. Be sure to heed the instructions with regards to preparing the donor board and especially holding down the laser tracking lens – otherwise it won’t work correctly once transplanted.

With some older mice such as the Apple one shown below – there is only one button. However with Windows-based PCs there is software you can download to emulate a second button, or with some very careful drilling and modification – you could split the large button into two. So to get started, check out the project page here:

Reginald – The surveillance robot controlled via the Internet

JohnBoxall — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:10:14 +0000

In what can be considered a fascinating, multi-function robot that can be controlled via the Internet – or a chilling imitation of a toy Terminator, this project is extremely fascinating and one of the best we’ve seen for quite some time. Instructables user “n.fletch” has combined a typical robot platform with an Arduino, as well as a wireless router for network communication. On top of this is a live webcam for real-time vision from Reginald, as well as an infra-red illuminator for night vision, motorised toy turrets (his weapons!) and enough hardware to allow free movement.

The beauty of this project is that Reginald can be complete controlled using the one interface via a processing-based GUI on a PC. Furthermore the communications are encrypted which blocks anyone from logging into Reginald’s IP address and taking over. Here is an example of controlling Reginald from the PC:

Finally, although this project doesn’t fall in the arena for beginners – the creator has documented absolutely everything you need to know to make your own version. From the hardware, code for various platforms, circuit schematics and networking know-how, it’s all available at:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Reginald-a-UDP-surveillance-bot-control-via-the-/?ALLSTEPS

Make Your Own Temperature-Sensing Mushroom Light

JohnBoxall — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:52:48 +0000

For something completely different, the folks at the PsychicOrigami blog have modified an interesting lamp, one that is shaped as a mushroom growing out of a piece of log – and converted it into a temperature-sensing RGB lamp. Embedded in the mushroom is an RGB LED which can create almost any colour in the spectrum, and in the base is the small Arduino board and circuitry to control the lamp.

The temperature is measured using an LM35 temperature sensor, which has a range of -40 and 150 degrees Celsuis. The reading from the sensor is interpreted by the Arduino board, and converted into signals which are relative to the temperature and then displayed using the RGB LED. Here is an example lamp at work:

Once a suitable enclosure has been found, this project would be very easy to recreate and ideal for beginners or something to do on the weekend. As the Arduino board can easily work other types of sensors, the lamp could also respond to humidity, gas levels, motion, and even with the right code alert you to new emails. If you are new to the world of Arduino, you can find plenty of guides and tutorials to get started with here: http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage

And for complete details on making your own lamp, including the circuit and Arduino sketch, visit here: http://www.psychicorigami.com/2012/09/04/arduino-powered-temperature-sensing-rgb-led-nightlight/

Play retro LCD games using a PC and an Arduino board

JohnBoxall — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:42:47 +0000

If you grew up in the early 1980s, you would probably be familiar with the Nintendo “Game and Watch” simple game units, or one of the knock-offs used in the former Soviet Union. Tobie Nortjie was tasked to create a way of playing computer-simulated versions of these games on a large television. (Yes – computer simulations of a computer game).

The system works with games that had the basic left and right controls, such as “Parachute” and “Merry Cook”. A simple circuit with the required number of buttons is controlled by an Arduino board, which then sends the data back to a PC running a python script which then interprets the commands for the emulated video game. For a quick demonstration of a game running on a PC, watch the following video:

By enclosing the large television inside a wooden frame with the same design as the handheld game a huge waiting room device can be constructed. Just add arcade-size buttons and you’d be set with a gigantic video game. And Tobie also did just that for his client in the following video:

There are many PC emulations of the old games available, and for those and more information about the project, visit here: https://github.com/Tooblippe/retrogame And in the meanwhile if you want to play some old emulated games and relive the past, click here: http://www.pica-pic.com/

A tribute to seven-segment numeric displays

JohnBoxall — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 08:01:41 +0000

We see them countless times during the day, in clocks, car dashboards, video games, timers, stopwatches, service station price boards and more. Some people see beauty in the simplicity of the seven-segment display, and technologist Simon Schoar celebrated this with his own mechatronic tribue.

Using a lot of laser-cut acrylic, an Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller, real-time clock circuitry and a lot of servos, Simon has created a four-digit, seven-segment display with a colon which acts as a digital clock. When all the segments are off – the display is smooth, and to create the numbers a small block is pushed out by a servo to give the appearance of a segment. So when more than one are used, the numbers can be formed. Watch the clock in action during the following video:

It truly is poetry in motion, and one of those displays that truly mesmerise. However like anything else, it is not unobtainable. Simon has included all the design files required to create your own. So get yourself a lot of acrylic and a friend with a laser-cutter, then click here: http://www.schoar.de/tinkering/sevenblocks/