There are very many cool Arduino projects and project sites in Internet (make Google search to see). Here are some interesting links to check out:
Arduino Projects at indestructables
Top 40 Arduino Projects of the Web
Arduino Rising: 10 Amazing Projects People Are Doing With The Tiny Microcontroller
Electronics For The Everyman: 25 Kick Ass Arduino-Powered Projects
10 Simple-But-Fun Projects to Make With Arduino
Internet of Thing with Arduino
11 Arduino projects that require major hacking skills—or a bit of insanity
I will be posting more links to more interesting projects as comments to this post, like I did in my Cool uses for the Raspberry Pi posting. Some of the most interesting that spend some more time at can get their entire own postings this blog in Arduino section.
2,952 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Old Chart Recorder becomes Single-Pixel Scanner
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/08/old-chart-recorder-becomes-single-pixel-scanner/
With so many ways to capture images from paper, do we really need another one? Especially one that takes 15 minutes to capture a 128×128 pixel image? Probably not, but building a single-pixel RGB scanner is pretty instructive, and good clean fun to boot.
Building a Single Pixel Scanner
http://www.kerrywong.com/2017/07/01/building-a-single-pixel-scanner/
Now that I have an HP 7044A X-Y recorder I could use it’s X/Y servo mechanism with a suitable sensor to build a single pixel scanner.
The simplest sensor would be just a photodiode or a CdS photocell. For capturing grayscale images, either of these sensors could be used. To capture color images though, we would need a sensor that is capable of discerning the RGB components of each pixel. For that I used an inexpensive TCS34725 based color sensor module.
I used an Arduino Due to control the plotter. Arduino Due is very convenient as it has two 12 bit DAC to control the X and Y movements of the plotter.
I used Adafruit’s TCS34725 library for Arduino. One problem of the TCS34725 sensor is that for higher color resolution the capture time is rather long due to the long integration time.
The captured RGB values at each pixel location is spit out to the serial console and are saved into a text file.
MATLAB code reads in the data captured in the text file, separates out the RGB components into their corresponding matrices and finally combines the three color channels back into a single color image.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Puzzle’s Done When The Electronics Says So
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/10/your-puzzles-done-when-the-electronics-says-so/
We can race against the clock when assembling jigsaw puzzles online but what about competing against each other in the real world? [HomeMadeGarbage] came up with the simplest of solutions with his jigsaw puzzle timer that stops only when the puzzle’s completely assembled.
His simple solution was to attach copper foil tape to the back of the pieces, with overlap. He did this in a serpentine pattern to ensure that all pieces had a strip of the tape.
Jigsaw Puzzle Timer
https://www.hackster.io/H0meMadeGarbage/jigsaw-puzzle-timer-38117b
I made Jigsaw Puzzle Timer using touch panel TFT display.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking Touch Screens to Count Pulses
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/09/hacking-touch-screens-to-count-pulses/
Heart rate sensors available for DIY use employ photoplethysmography which illuminates the skin and measures changes in light absorption. These sensors are cheap, however, the circuitry required to interface them to other devices is not. [Petteri Hyvärinen] is successfully investigating the use of capacitive touchscreens for heart rate sensing among other applications.
Heartbeat sensing with a touchscreen
Heart rate monitors are usually sold as individual devices, or when the functionality is included in another product they at least require dedicated sensors.
https://medium.com/@hyvapetteri/heartbeat-sensing-with-a-touchscreen-c17d43611de4
However, everyone with a smartphone carries with them a 100–200-sensor array, and its capabilities are currently dramatically underused. A regular touchscreen has a grid of sensors that measure capacitance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making Synths out of Audio Cassettes
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/12/making-synths-out-of-audio-cassettes/
8bit Mixtapes are simple Arduino-based sound and beat generators based on ATtiny 84s and 85s and designed fit inside old audio cassettes, or at least be about that size. Founded by [Dusjagr], [Ucok] and [Lyok], and including participants from around the globe, 8bit Mixtapes are small synthesizers that play one-line algorithmic symphonies, simple sound generators that work off of a single line of code.
The project has been going on for a number of years, with several different iterations released over the years–the most recent is the Mixtape NEO, released about a month ago that features audio bootloading and a row of NeoPixel LEDs.
8BitMixtape
https://github.com/8BitMixtape
Tomi Engdahl says:
JPEG Decoding, Arduino Style
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/12/jpeg-decoding-arduino-style/
When you think of image processing, you probably don’t think of the Arduino. [Jan Gromes] did, though. Using a camera and an Arduino Mega, [Jan] was able to decode input from an Arduino-connected camera into raw image data. We aren’t sure about [Jan’s] use case, but we can think of lots of reasons you might want to know what is hiding inside a compressed JPEG from the camera.
JPEG Decoding on Arduino Tutorial
http://www.deviceplus.com/how-tos/arduino-guide/jpeg-decoding-on-arduino-tutorial/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tinkercad does Arduino
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/11/tinkercad-does-arduino/
If you’ve done 3D printing, you’ve probably at least heard of Tinkercad. This popular CAD package runs in your browser and was rescued from oblivion by Autodesk a few years ago. [Chuck] recently did a video about a new Tinkercad feature: building and simulating virtual Arduino circuits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOCRlmnMGRE
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reflective Sensor Becomes Kart Racing Lap Counter
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/15/reflective-sensor-becomes-kart-racing-lap-counter/
Once you have a track and a kart to race on it, what’s missing? A lap counter that can give your lap times in hardcopy, obviously! That’s what led [the_anykey] to create the Arduino-based Lap Timer to help him and his kids trim those precious seconds off their runs, complete with thermal printer for the results.
The hardware uses an infrared break-beam sensor module (a Velleman PEM10D) to detect when a kart passes by. This module is similar to a scaled-up IR reflective object sensor; it combines an IR emitter and receiver on one end, and is pointed at a reflector placed across the track, up to 10 meters away. When a kart breaks the beam, the module reports the event to the rest of the hardware. Only needing electronics on one side allows the unit to be self-contained.
Arduino Based Lap Timer
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Based-Lap-Timer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Control The Volume
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/22/control-the-volume/
For anyone who has owned a boombox or an old(er) cassette player, the digital age volume controls feel incredibly awkward. Keep pressing buttons to get the volume just right can get tiresome real quick. The volume knob just makes sense and in a simple project, [Jeremy S Cook] brings us the Custom Computer Volume Control Knob.
The build employs an Adafruit Trinket board coupled with a rotary encoder and a push button as described by the designers themselves.
https://learn.adafruit.com/trinket-usb-volume-knob/overview
The Trinket’s USB port is used for uploading sketches, but you can also use it for some basic USB 1.1 devices.
The easiest and most useful are HID devices. Such as a USB keyboard (link to another tutorial).
Today, keyboards have multimedia keys, such as play/pause or volume control. I will show you how to combine a Trinket and a rotary encoder to create a USB volume control knob.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Play it Again, Arduino
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/23/play-it-again-arduino/
[MrRedBeard] wanted to play a particular song from an Arduino program and got tired of trying to hand transcribe the notes. A little research turned up that there was a project to convert Music XML (MXL) files to the Arduino. However, [MrRedBeard] wasn’t a fan of the language it used, so he created his own means of doing the same thing. He learned a lot along the way and was willing to share it in a tutorial that will help you if you want to do the same thing. You can see a video of his results, below.
Translate Songs to Be Played on Arduino
http://www.instructables.com/id/Translate-Songs-to-Be-Played-on-Arduino/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Make an Electric Dialer with Arduino
https://hackaday.io/project/25965-how-to-make-an-electric-dialer-with-arduino
In this project, use a speaker to make the sound when you’re dialing, via programming on Arduino
Tomi Engdahl says:
QUATTRO – The Arduino Quadruped
Say hello to Quattro, a fully functional,non lethal Arduino quadruped robot!
https://hackaday.io/project/26005-quattro-the-arduino-quadruped
Prototype Modular Humanoid Robotic Arm Mk.1
A remarkably strong and sturdy 3d printed robot arm. With rotating wrist and articulated thumb.
https://hackaday.io/project/25883-prototype-modular-humanoid-robotic-arm-mk1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Four Chords Should Be Enough For Anyone
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/28/four-chords-should-be-enough-for-anyone/
You might be surprised at how many pop songs are exactly the same. Cat Scratch Fever is the exact same song as Smoke on the Water. Even one of Yeezy’s songs is strikingly similar to a weird 90s French electronic group. Musically, though, there are an incredible number of songs that follow a I-V-vi-IV progression. Let it Be is one of them, as is Beast of Burden. aLady Gaga’s Poker Face is another. Now, finally, we have automated most of the pop songs you know and love. [Sven] has created a small MIDI device that only plays a I-V-vi-IV progression, and it’s everything you could ever imagine.
The idea for this build comes from an Axis of Awesome routine demonstrating the fact that hundreds of pop songs follow the same progression.
The 4chord MIDI is a small board with an old Nokia display, four buttons, a single USB port, and an ATMega328 microcontroller. Using MIDI over USB, it plays the I-V-vi-IV progression in any key.
4 Chord USB MIDI Keyboard
http://sgreg.fi/projects/4chord-midi
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tell Time With a Reverse-Sundial Watch
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/27/tell-time-with-a-reverse-sundial-watch/
[Xose Pérez] set out to make a sundial wristwatch by combining a magnetometer a small nylon bolt for the gnomon, but it doesn’t work like you’d think. Instead of using the magnetometer to point the sundial north, you angle the watch until the bolt’s shadow matches the white line on the PCB, and the ATmega328P computes the azimuth of the sun and determines the time thereby. To display the time he used one of those QDSP-6064 bubble displays, because sundials are retro.
http://tinkerman.cat/solr-digital-wrist-watch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: The Arduino Powered LED Persistence Of Vision Rechargeable 3D Printed Fidget Spinner
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/27/hackaday-prize-entry-the-arduino-powered-led-persistence-of-vision-rechargeable-3d-printed-fidget-spinner/
It had to come to this. For his entry into this year’s Hackaday Prize, [Sean Hodgins] created a persistence of vision fidget spinner. This isn’t just any PoV fidget spinner — this is the ultimate in fidget spinner technology. It’s rechargeable, and there’s an Arduino inside. The enclosure is 3D printed. It improves morale. It is everything you ever wanted in a fidget spinner, and it’s the last fidget spinner project [Sean] will ever make.
POV Fidget Spinner
https://hackaday.io/project/25538-pov-fidget-spinner
This is the obvious next step to the Fidget Spinner, and the last project involving one. I promise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gimmick on Barebones Arduino 16MHz
https://www.hackster.io/rayburne/gimmick-on-barebones-arduino-16mhz-861099
Barebones ATmega328P-PU with tunable crystal load capacitors and it is all a gimmick!
The 8MHz version conserves power, is Arduino IDE friendly, and is as cheap as the raw Atmel chip.
But what if you need a 16MHz Crystal Stabilized barebones?
Silly me … there must be a thousand projects out on the Internet about building your own Arduino from bare parts.
Two capacitors formed by the tape and common ground plane will provides our two load capacitors for the 16 MHz crystal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spice Up Your Bench With 3D Printed Dancing Springs
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/29/spice-up-your-bench-with-3d-printed-dancing-springs/
Not all projects are made equal. Some are designed to solve a problem while others are just for fun. Entering the ranks of the most useless machines is a project by [Vladimir Mariano] who created the 3D Printed Dancing Springs. It is a step up from 3D printing a custom slinky and will make a fine edition to any maker bench.
The project uses 3D printed coils made of transparent material that is mounted atop geared platforms and attached to a fixed frame. The gears are driven by a servo motor. The motor rotates the gears and the result is a distortion in the spring. This distortion is what the dancing is all about. To add to the effect, [Vladimir Mariano] uses RGB LEDs controlled by an ATmega32u4.
Dancing Springs
https://www.desktopmakes.com/single-post/2017/07/20/Dancing-Springs
Tomi Engdahl says:
#9 Arduino Data Logger with Direct Input to Excel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgJegJ30Pj4&feature=youtu.be
I build a Datalogger with keyboard input to Excel. It can measure volt and ampere and two additional analog signals.
I use it to check-out the buck converter of my previous video.
As promised, I use here the prototyping PCB aproach to build it.
I enhance also the precision of the built in analog-to digital converters (ADC) of the Arduinos.
The coding is on Github:
https://github.com/SensorsIot/Data-Logger-with-Excel-connection
Tomi Engdahl says:
Easy Arduino Data Logging and Telemetry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ26gD7OIE
Here’s a program that I wrote to make it easy to visualize data from an Arduino or other microcontroller. The microcontroller sends data to the PC as CSV text. The software can visualize that data in the form of line charts, histograms, Fourier transforms and statistical calculations.
http://www.farrellf.com/TelemetryViewer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to log data from the arduino board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqdC__jZILk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino Oscilloscope Under 5 $ – 3 Channel
http://www.instructables.com/id/3-Channel-Arduino-Oscilloscope-Under-5-/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44XWCoWICEg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino mini-oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHDNXXhg3Hg
http://www.iforce2d.net/arduinoOscilloscope.txt
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dead Bug Soldered LED Ring of Awesome
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/02/dead-bug-soldered-led-ring-of-awesome/
Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most beautiful. [The Tweaker] has soldered an LED circle on the top of an ATmega328P chip, and it looks great.
Using nothing more than some solder, wire, 20 x Pico 0402 (1mm x 0.5mm) blue LEDs and an ATmega328P (7mm x 7mm), [The Tweaker] managed to cram 20 LEDs into a circle on the top of the chip soldered in dead bug style. The chip is running some Arduino code and is operating on the 8 MHz internal crystal oscillator, so that manages to keep the part count low. The soldering is done in a spiral so the LED terminals are hooked up to the right pins, but it seems to add to the aesthetics of the project and looks like it would take a really steady hand. Once you connect a power source it displays chasing lights as well as other light patterns.
Pico 0402 blue LED dead bug style soldering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oUrwOCdvm4
Tomi Engdahl says:
MappyDot
Micro Auto-Addressable Optical Time of Flight Ranging Sensor
https://hackaday.io/project/25571-mappydot
MappyDot is a tiny and highly accurate optical time-of-flight ranging sensor that can be used for a multitude of different applications, such as distance measurement, gesture recognition, motion sensing and collision avoidance.
Multiple MappyDots can be chained together (up to 112) easily to provide 3D mapping to an endless variety of different moving robotics platforms. It also operates between 2.8-5.5V, so it works natively on most development boards such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino or Teensy.
Each MappyDot provides distance measurements up to 2 meters at a rate of 50Hz with a typical worst case accuracy of +-2.5cm.
Components
1 × VL53L0X Time-of-Flight (ToF) Laser-ranging Module
1 × ATmega328PB-MU Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, DSPs / ARM, RISC-Based Microcontrollers
1 × MIC3565-2.8YC5-TR Power Management ICs / Linear Voltage Regulators and LDOs
1 × ChipLED Fiber Optics / Emitters
1 × Misc Passives 0603 Resistors and Capacitors
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino PCB Ink Plotter CNC Machine
https://www.eeweb.com/project/arduino-pcb-ink-plotter-cnc-machine
The Arduino PCB Ink Plotter CNC Machine is a DIY project that features a arduino running GRBL CNC firmware. In this project, it uses a marker that is suitable for plotting or marking the PCB for board layout.
This project is built using arduino as the main controller that is connected to the stepper motor drivers and a servo. There are two 28BYJ-48 stepper motor that handles the horizontal movement of the board and plotter holder, while the servo motor handles the vertical movement of the marker. The 3D printed parts are used for the prismatic joints assisting the synchronized movement during printing/marking.
Arduino PCB Ink Plotter CNC Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuIylqhrCgc&t=3s
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arduino Goes Hybrid, Flexible
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1332113&
Flexible hybrid electronics are poised to enable the Maker movement with flexible Arduino microcontroller boards.
A new generation of products is emerging based on low cost printed electronics with embedded silicon ICs and sensors. By eliminating the need for rigid enclosures, flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) will reduce system footprints with devices that conform to most 3D surfaces so they can be mounted in difficult-to-access spaces.
FHE attaches bare die to a flexible substrate without the need, cost and size penalty of a standard package. Systems become bendable, using wafer and die thinning techniques already in volume production for 2.5D and 3D chip stacks.
Compare for example at an open source and wildly popular Arduino Mini (inset at half size in the picture below) to its flexible, hybrid equivalent. The conventional 30x18mm double-sided board can be shrunk with FHE to a flexible 26x16mm, that uses single-side component placement.
The most commonly used substrate in FHE systems is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). It has a maximum process temperature of 140°C, below the requirements for typical board assembly and packaging processes. Although FHE also uses polyimide (PI) substrates, this material comes at a significant price premium compared to PET.
Low-cost, flexible and easy-to-deploy sensor platforms like these can bolster the growing Maker movement benefitting entrepreneurs and industrial giants alike.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dedicated Button for Toggling Screens
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/05/dedicated-button-for-toggling-screens/
Anyone who regularly presents to an audience these days has known the pain of getting one’s laptop to work reliably with projection hardware. It’s all the more fraught with pain when you’re hopping around from venue to venue, trying desperately to get everything functioning on a tight schedule. [Seb] found that the magic keystrokes they used to deal with these issues no longer worked on the Macbook Pro Touchbar, and so a workaround was constructed in hardware.
The build itself is simple – an Adafruit Trinket serves as the brains, with a meaty 12mm tactile button used for input. The Trinket emulates a USB keyboard and sends the Cmd-F1 keypress to the computer when the button is pressed. The button’s even mounted in a tidy deadbugged fashion.
Calling all speakers! A hardware button to toggle display mirroring
http://seb.ly/2017/07/calling-all-speakers-a-hardware-button-to-toggle-display-mirroring/
I’ve been really frustrated that my favourite keyboard shortcut to toggle display mirroring doesn’t work on TouchBar MacBooksso I’ve made a button that can emulate it!
Then you’ll need to install the Arduino IDE, and add the Adafruit boards.
Press the reset button on the Trinket and upload the code to it.
It should now work! It uses the Keyboard Trinket code provided by Adafruit, although I had to adapt it – apparently the Mac doesn’t act on the keyboard shortcut unless it thinks it’s made by Apple. That was a day wasted trying to figure that out! I adapted the Keyboard Trinket library to provide an Apple USB device ID to fool your computer into thinking it’s an Apple keyboard.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Know the Load with this Simple Microcontroller CPU Meter
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/05/know-the-load-with-this-simple-microcontroller-cpu-meter/
How do you tell how much load is on a CPU? On a desktop or laptop, the OS usually has some kind of gadget to display the basics. On a microcontroller, though, you’ll have to roll your own CPU load meter with a few parts, some code, and a voltmeter.
We like [Dave Marples]’s simple approach to quantifying something as complex as CPU load. His technique relies on the fact that most embedded controllers are just looping endlessly waiting for something to do. By strategically placing commands that latch an output on while the CPU is busy and then turn it off again when idle, a PWM signal with a duty cycle proportional to the CPU load is created. A voltage divider then scales the maximum output to 1.0 volt, and a capacitor smooths out the signal so the load is represented by a value between 0 and 1 volt.
Ghetto CPU busy-meter
Even in the embedded world, you really want to know how busy your CPU is.
http://shadetail.com/blog/ghetto-cpu-busy-meter/
In most embedded design patterns, you’ve got some sort of loop where the application sits, waiting for something to happen. That might be a timer expiring, an interrupt arriving or some other event.
The easiest way to and is just by setting or clearing the state of a spare pin on your device. That also means you’ve got to set up the pin to be an output first of all…so our code now looks like;
Great, we can now see, approximately, how busy our CPU is just by monitoring the pin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB cable tester
I want something usb stick thingy-ish to check a usb cable
https://hackaday.io/project/6858-usb-cable-tester
A little ATtiny45, some LEDs and transistors – battery powered. It scans through the cable with some blinking LEDs, then goes to sleep.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Hypnotizing Interactive Art Piece for Visualizing Color Theory
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/08/a-hypnotizing-interactive-art-piece-for-visualizing-color-theory/
To make RGB color theory more tangible, [Tore Knudsen] set out to build a system for mixing digital colors in a way that reflects physical paint mixing. His creation uses three water-filled containers (one each for red, green, and blue) to adjust the color on the screen. The intensity of each color is increased by pouring more water into the corresponding container, and decreased by removing water with a syringe.
An Arduino is used to detect the water levels, and controls what the user sees on the screen. In one mode, the user can experiment with how the color levels affect the way a picture looks.
Colorwise
http://www.toreknudsen.dk/work/colorwise/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ATMega328 3D!
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/08/atmega328-3d/
Small OLED displays are inexpensive these days–cheap enough that pairing them with an 8-bit micro is economically feasible. But what can you do with a tiny display and not-entirely-powerful processor? If you are [ttsiodras] you can do a real time 3D rendering. You can see the results in the video
Real-time 3D on an ATmega328p and an OLED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqmnkfZtSw
Tomi Engdahl says:
How about using the same chip to do Wolf3d, with texture mapping, on a 5110 monochrome display: http://gamebuino.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3312
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is Visuino?
https://www.visuino.com/
Visuino is the latest innovative software from Mitov Software. A visual programming environment allowing you to program your Arduino boards. It currently supports the official Arduino boards, Teensy, Femto IO, ESP8266, ESP32, Controllino, Goldilocks Analogue, FreeSoC2, chipKIT, Maple Mini, and number of Arduino clones, however it is not restricted to their support alone and requests to support new hardware are welcome.
The components found in the Visuino software represent their hardware components and you will easily be able to create and design your programs using drag and drop. No equipment or hardware is needed to run the software in design mode. Once you have completed the design, you can connect Arduino board upload and run it.
For those people who are not strong on writing code then designing, compiling and creating Arduino programs has never been easier!
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make an office thermometer
https://hackaday.io/project/26309-how-to-make-an-office-thermometer
How could I know environment temperature all the time in such a hot day? I called my absent friend but surprised to find that she got a cold
How could I know environment temperature all the time in such a hot day? I called my absent friend but surprised to find that she got a cold because of cold weather and she had to monitor body temperature with a thermometer. She concerned with my health, advising me to pay attention to room temperature to keep healthy.
How could I know environment temperature all the time in such a hot day?
Thinking about her words, I decide to DIY a small office thermometer with DS18B20 sensor that based on Arduino UNO to know the environment temperature.
DS18B20 is the most common temperature sensor in the market, small, precise, and convenient to connect. After package, it is applicable to different situations. You can change exterior according to situations, such as plastic films, boilers, engine rooms, clean rooms, and even magazines.
Have you been fed up with Black/White LCD screen? Do you want to try a colorful one? DFRobot I2C 16×2 Arduino LCD with RGB Backlight Display module will bring you a new experience about screen. It comes with RGB full color backlight, which has 16 million kinds of color. It is also convenient to connect, this I2C 16×2 LCD Screen is using an I2C communication interface,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Testing Distance Sensors
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/11/testing-distance-sensors/
I’m working on a project involving the need to precisely move a tool based on the measured distance to an object. Okay, yeah, it’s a CNC mill. Anyway, I’d heard of time of fight sensors and decided to get one to test out, but also to be thorough I wanted to include other distance sensors as well: a Sharp digital distance sensor as well as a more sophisticated proximity/light sensor. I plugged them all into a breadboard and ran them through their paces, using a frame built from aluminum beams as a way of holding the target materials at a specific height.
I started with the Sharp GP2Y0D810Z0F digital distance sensor in a Pololu breakout board. It sports sample rate of 400 Hz, which seems more than adequate–I think my project wouldn’t need anything nearly that fast.
Next I checked out the VCN4010 on a breakout board from Adafruit. Like the Sharp it’s more of a proximity sensor than a distance sensor. Adafruit’s testers found it worked best at around 10 mm to around 150 mm, or around 7.5″ and under.
Forget infrared and parallax, the VL53L0X time-of-flight distance sensor uses an actual laser and measures how long it takes the light to bounce back. Adafruit put it on a board with a level shifter and lux sensor, but you can find breakout boards from eBay or build your own.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Smart Composting System
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/14/hackaday-prize-entry-smart-composting-system/
Composting serves an important purpose in our society, reusing our food scraps and yard waste to fertilize gardens rather than fill up landfills. Knowing that most people don’t compost, [Darian Johnson] set out to create a Arduino-controlled composting system to make it as simple as possible. It monitors your bin’s moisture, temperature, and gas emissions to ensure it’s properly watered and aerated.
[Darian]’s project combines a MQ4 gas sensor that detects combustible gas, a soil moisture sensor, and a temperature and humidity probe. The nearby water reservoir is monitored by an ultrasonic sensor that keeps track of the water level; a pump triggered by a TIP120 turns on the water. Meanwhile, a servo-controlled vent keeps the air flowing just right.
Smart Composting System
A set of senors and actuators that make composting simple.
https://hackaday.io/project/24933-smart-composting-system
Per the EPA, food scraps & yard waste currently make up 20-30% of what we throw away, and should be composted instead. Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills, where they release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
I am building a smart system that makes it easier to compost. The system will:
- Monitor temperature, moisture, and methane output to automatically regulate the compost (add water or air)
- Make recommendation on types of products to add to compost (more “green” or “brown” items)
- Provide alerts when the compost is ready or when additional user action is needed
Tomi Engdahl says:
Complete IR Control
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/13/complete-ir-control/
What can you do with an IR remote? How about anything? Maybe not. We’ll settle for issuing arbitrary commands and controlling tasks on our computer.
The first step in [Fungus]’s hack is straightforward: buy an IR receiver for a buck, plug it into an Arduino, and load up some IR-decoding code. If you haven’t done this before, you owe it to yourself to take some time now. Old IR remotes are very useful, and dead simple, to integrate into your projects.
But here comes the computer-control part. Rather than interpret the codes on the Arduino, the micro just sends them across the USB serial to a laptop. A relatively straightforward X11 program on the (Linux) computer listens for codes and does essentially anything a user with a mouse and keyboard could — that is to say, anything. Press keys, run programs, open webpages, anything. This is great for use with a laptop or desktop, but it’d also be a natural for an embedded Raspberry Pi setup as well.
Hack any TV remote control
http://funguscodes.blogspot.fi/2016/04/hacking-with-your-tv-remote-control.html
Hack any TV remote control
http://z3t0.github.io/Arduino-IRremote/
https://github.com/CoolerVoid/arduino_ppt_walk/blob/master/IR_remote.c#L152
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Engine Control Units and Arduinos
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/19/hackaday-prize-entry-engine-control-units-and-arduinos/
The modern internal combustion engine is an engineering marvel. We’re light-years ahead of simple big blocks and carburetors, and now there are very fast, very capable computers sensing adjusting the spark timing, monitoring the throttle position, and providing a specific amount of power to the wheels at any one time. For the last few years [Josh] has been building a fully-featured engine management system, and now he’s entered it in the Hackaday Prize.
The Speeduino project is, as the name would suggest, built around the Arduino platform. In this case, an Arduino Mega. The number of pins and PWMs is important — the Speeduino is capable of running the fuel and ignition for eight cylinder engines.
Speeduino
https://hackaday.io/project/4413-speeduino
The Arduino ECU / EMS Project.
Open, cheap, hacker friendly engine management
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tnduino mini—–The small and small
https://hackaday.io/project/22055-tnduino-mini-the-small-and-small
Tndunio Mini is a similar Arduino function of uno development board, but with the world’s smallest size: 15*18mm, it is only 1/13.5 UNO of t
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This project was created on 05/16/2017 and last updated 3 months ago.
Description
Tndunio Mini is a similar Arduino function of uno development board, but with the world’s smallest size: 15*18mm, it is only 1/13.5 UNO of the volume of plate size, small but perfectly formed, fully compatible with Arduino UNO plate.
Tnduino Mini can extend the IO board, Tnduino_IO_SHIELD, and sensor board Tn_sensor, respectively, MPU9250, SHT20, BMP280, BH1750.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cluephone for Partiers
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/26/cluephone-for-partiers/
[Sam Horne] adapted an old school landline phone to deliver clues to birthday party guests. When guests find a numerical clue, they type it into the keypad to hear the next clue, which involves decoding some Morse code.
The phone consists of an Arduino Pro Mini, a MP3/WAV trigger, and the phone itself, of which the earpiece and keypad have been reused. [Sam] had to map out the keypad and solder leads connecting the various contact points of the phone’s PCB to the Arduino’s digital pins. He used a digitally-generated voice to generate the audio files, and employed the Keypad and Password Arduino libraries to deliver the audio clues.
Scavenger Hunt Clues w/ Telephone Keypad
https://www.hackster.io/samhorne/scavenger-hunt-clues-w-telephone-keypad-51c46c
Type the correct code on the phone’s keypad to hear the clue through the handset, then decode the message to finish before the other team.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Fochica Alerts You
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/26/hackaday-prize-entry-fochica-alerts-you/
It seems like no one should need to be reminded about the importance of not leaving children in cars, but it still happens. The Fochica project is a Hackaday Prize entry that equips the family minivan with car seat monitors—the name comes from FOrgotten CHild in Car Alert.
It’s an Open Source project consisting of a Bluetooth LE-equipped Arduino that monitors whether the seat is empty or occupied. Paired with a phone app, Fochica monitors pressure sensors and the seat belt’s reed switch to determine whether there’s a kid there.
Fochica – Forgotten Child in Car Alert
https://hackaday.io/project/20902-fochica-forgotten-child-in-car-alert
Fochica, forgotten child in car alert, is a no hassle, low cost and extensible system that helps prevent forgetting children in vehicles
Fochica™ is comprised of a Fochica open hardware, open software, Arduino-based device that is installed in a car and a Fochica app that is installed on the driver’s smartphone. Sensors monitor whether the child car seats are occupied or empty and send the data to the device. The device communicates with the app via BLE passing the information to the driver. When the driver’s smartphone goes out of range and a seat is occupied an alarm will sound on the smartphone.
Fochica is an alert, not a reminder. Meaning it will not nag you to “not-forget” your kid when you turn off the car or when you exit the vehicle. It is designed to alert when you have forgotten, which Fochica considers as being out of BLE range while a seat is occupied.
At this time, the prototype uses capacitive sensor and a magnetic reed sensor. You can use different sensors and hack away on the basic design.
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB + μC = Peril?
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/25/usb-%ce%bcc-peril/
A of couple years ago I was working on an innocuous project, a LED status light running off of USB. It ran off USB because I had more complicated hopes for it–some vague notion about some kind of notification thing and also it was cool to have access to 5 V right from the ‘puter. This was about the time that those little RGB LEDs connected to USB were all the rage, like blink(1), which raised $130,000 on Kickstarter. I just wanted to make a status light of some sort and had the parts, so I made it.
My version was a small rectangular PCB from OSHPark packing a Tiny85, with a 10 mm RGB LED providing pretty much all of the functionality — no spare pins broken out.
Honestly, for the amount of code on it, even the Tiny85 was overpowered. I recall thinking at the time, could my creation be misused for evil? Could some wicked programmer include malware alongside my LED-lighting Arduino sketch?
It’s absurd, of course.
If you think I’m the only one who thinks this, go to SparkFun or Adafruit and count all of the boards with microcontrollers and USB A male plugs. Even the tiny boards like the Huzzah and Gemma use USB cables, rather than plugging directly into the computer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SD Card Data Diode System
https://hackaday.io/project/21568-sd-card-data-diode-system
A system to transfer files from an airgapped PC to an non-airgapped PC by dumping files from SD card to serial port back to another SD card.
Using 2 Arduino Uno’s with an SD card shield and the SD card libraries, and a working serial data diode design, I hope to build a system to transfer files from one SD card to another without the possibility for the receiving side to talk back to the transmitting side.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Save Your Thumbs with This Netflix Password Sender
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/29/save-your-thumbs-with-this-netflix-password-sender/
Chances are anyone who has an entry-level to mid-range smart TV knows that setting them up with your streaming account credentials is a royal pain. Akin to the days of texting on a flip phone, using the number pad or arrow keys to compose your user name and password seems to take forever. So why not avoid the issue with this automated Netflix logger-inner?
As if the initial setup wasn’t bad enough, when [krucho5]’s LG smart TV started asking for his Netflix credentials every few days, he knew something needed to be done. An Arduino to send “keystrokes” was the obvious solution, but when initial attempts to spoof the HID on the set proved fruitless, [krucho5] turned to the IR remote interface.
Netflix automated log in
https://hackaday.io/project/26981-netflix-automated-log-in
An Arduino PRO mini makes all the painful work of entering email and password for Netflix login on an LG Smart TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spell Out the Time with Frickin’ Laser Beams
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/29/spell-out-the-time-with-frickin-laser-beams/
Clocks are a never-ending source of fascination to hackers. We get all kinds around here, from Steampunk Nixie clocks to retro cool flip clocks to clocks that don’t even look like clocks. But this is something new — a glow-in-the-dark laser tracing clock.
What [tuckershannon]’s clock lacks in practicality it makes up for in the gee-whiz department. The idea is simple: trace the characters out on a phosphorescent screen using a laser. To accomplish this, [tuckershannon] adapted the design of this whiteboard marker robot clock,
http://imgur.com/a/d2qLI
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mouse Mis-Clicking? We Got You.
http://hackaday.com/2017/08/30/mouse-mis-clicking-we-got-you/
A mouse with malfunctioning buttons can be a frustrating to deal with — and usually a short leap to percussive maintenance. Standard fixes may not always last due to inferior build quality of the components, or when the microswitch won’t close at all. But, for mice that double/triple-click, will release when dragging, or mis-click on release, this Arduino-based hack may be the good medicine you’re after.
Debounce a Mouse the Hard Way.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Debounce-a-Mouse-the-Hard-Way/
Tomi Engdahl says:
See Sound with Audiolux One
https://hackaday.io/project/27058-see-sound-with-audiolux-one
This plug-and-play device was designed by Deaf & Hearing engineers to transform sound into light with LED pixels.
Audiolux One is a plug-and-play device that transforms sound to light. It represents a revolution for the Deaf in particular, as it makes “seeing sound” possible. Designed by a Deaf musician, the technology has drastically altered the way that he, and others like him see and experience music. Audiolux One is now being used to make arts & cultural events inclusive to the Dead & Hard-of-Hearing.
In true Hackaday fashion, you have total freedom to customize the audio analysis, LED layouts and visualization algorithms or modify the functionality of the hardware knobs and footswitch since Audiolux Devices software is fully open-source and Arduino-compatible.
Hardware:
Arduino UNO (or other compatible microcontroller)
MSGEQ7 Spectrum Audio Shield: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13116
Neopixel (WS2811 or WS2812B) Individually Addressable LED Strip
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearable Foxhunt Transmitter for Conventions
https://hackaday.com/2017/08/31/wearable-foxhunt-transmitter-for-conventions/
Amateur radio operator [KE4FOX] wanted to build his own 2M fox hunt transmitter for use at conventions. It would be contained in a 1020 Pelican micro case and attached to a person who would walk around transmitting a signal, leaving the hams to track down the fox. The project uses a DRA818 VHF/UHF transceiver plugged into a low-pass filter combined with a hardware DTMF decoder, all controlled by an ATmega328P and powered by a 11.2 mAh battery.
2M Foxhunt Transmitter
http://www.ke4fox.net/2015/08/14/2m-foxhunt-transmitter/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hack Together A Whack-A-Mole In A Box!
https://hackaday.com/2017/09/02/hack-together-a-whack-a-mole-in-a-box/
Here’s a project that you can throw together in an afternoon, provided you have the parts on hand, and is certain to entertain. Hackaday.io user [SunFounder] walks us through the process of transforming a humble cardboard box into a whack-a-mole game might be just the ticket to pound out some stress or captivate any children in the vicinity.
A multi-control board and nine arcade buttons are the critical pieces of hardware here, with wires and a USB cable rounding out the rest of the electronics.
Place the finished LED+cores into the buttons and connect their ON terminals to their respective buttons on the multi control board. Now for the hard step: use a mini-USB to USB cable to connect the controller to a computer you want to use to run the game’s code in the Arduino IDE. Modify the key-mappings and away you go! Check out the build video after the break.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to DIY a Whack-a-Mole Game with Cardboard Box
Eight Steps to complete an interesting time-killing Whack-a-Mole Game!
https://hackaday.io/project/25973-how-to-diy-a-whack-a-mole-game-with-cardboard-box
Tomi Engdahl says:
Button Switch Module
Simple Button Switch
https://hackaday.io/project/25379-button-switch-module
This is simple button switch module with led diodes that can improve your designs or hack some stuff. It has three pins (VCC, BT and GND). Connect VCC to 5V supply, GND to ground and BT is button pin and you can connect it to any digital pin. When you press the button, BT LED diode will turn off, indicating that you pressed the button. That state, when button is pressed, is LOW state. When button is not pressed on BT pin you will have around 2.5V indicating HIGH state. It is very simple to use, it can clearly show you if you pressed the button or not and you can find a lot of usages for it.
Simple Button Switch Indicator Module
http://blog.tindie.com/2017/06/simple-button-switch/