Going to buy a new Wireless Controller for your next Robotics project. Why buy a new one when you can Do-It-Yourself? All you need is an Arduino, an old Joystick with a Gameport (15-pin connector) and a pair of Series 1 xBee Modules.
The explanation of the xBee Configuration and the xBee Packet Description is very well done at the blog.
Transmitter: Joystick + xBee [No additional hardware needed] Receiver: xBee + Arduino + [your amazing Robot, Car or a Plane!]
Brian Schiffer and Sima Mitra, from Cornell University, propose a very nice wristwatch that allows you to keep track of your time perception, using a method known as duration production: TicTocTrac.
Human perception of time is typically distorted, due to the different amount of information and experiences acquired everyday. TicTocTrac lets you to estimate your own perception, first by signaling the perceived duration of a given event and, then, by comparing it with the actual event duration. Finally, all the information can easily be saved to a micro SD card.
The hardware is based on a Atmega32u4, a DS3234S real-time clock and several leds to display time, while the software part is mostly based on Arduino’s DS3234S RTC library.
BetterNouveau is organizing a promising workshop about circuit milling with Roland iModela in Turin. Massimo is going to walk you around milling your own shield.
[...] you’ll learn to design and create your very own Arduino shield (‘shields’ are boards that can be plugged on top of the Arduino extending its capabilities). We’ll start from schematics, create the layout and make real prototypes on-site: become a pro Arduino user and learn to design circuits with the Eagle PCB software and make your own Arduino Shields using the Roland iModela desktop milling machine. D.I.Y shields are the best way to move your project from a breadboard-based approach into a professional prototype.
[Carlo Denaro] is sharing a smart solution to save digital pins while controlling an LCD, using Shift Register 74HC595. A simple yet useful project with skecth&libraries, datasheets and Fritzing schematics.
[Enrico Bassi] from FablabTorino brought to the extent the use of the Roland iModela, using the little (and inexpensive) desktop milling machine for pcb milling. (in the picture we milled the overexposedFritzing Parking Assistant).
Like with many projects similar to this, an Arduino board controls pretty much everything. The floor is dominated by powerful LED lights, which respond to a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). A small computer is also inside (complete with Wi-fi), along with a car radio hooked up to speakers. Oh, and thanks to additional wheelchair motors, the floor can be wheeled away to wherever it’s needed.
Chris managed to build the dance floor in just one month, and documented how to do it on Instructables for anyone who wants to make their own. And now you’ve seen this, would you really want to throw a party without one?
TriggerTrap, is a very interesting product developed by Ziah Fogel & Haje Jan Kamps. Arduino-based & open-source, is now on preorder. What does it do? (Watch Video)
(With TriggerTrap) your camera will be easily controlled in a number of ways either by sound, by breaking a laser beam, time or any other method you can think of using its built in a Aux port.
TriggerTrap comes in the well designed, finished product and with the TT Shield (75$). More info soon.
Il prossimo week-end a Torino si terrà un workshop gratuito di Arduino (un kit opzionale potrà essere comprato per partecipare qualora non disponeste dei materiali elencati) sul circuit bending e la generazione di suoni con la scheda.
Un workshop di tre giorni per smontare riciclare e far suonare vecchi strumenti elettronici, creare una digital toys orchesta e sfilare in parata a Paratissima.
Il circuit Bending è una pratica molto diffusa tra gli sperimentatori musicali. Soprattutto sulla scena della musica elettronica sono sempre più frequenti gli artisti che si creano controller o addirittura strumenti musicali personalizzati.
Nel workshop saranno coinvolte diverse discipline: toy hacking, riciclo elettronico, elettronica di base, sintesi sonora, programmazione ad oggetti e faremo largo uso di Arduino per comandare i nuovi strumenti.
Il workshop è gratuito, a carico dei partecipanti il costo dei materiali e l’acquisto del kit-workshop. maggiori informazioni quì!
Accelerometer to Renoise via OSC to control trippy and dubby sounds.
[Lizzie] from LustLab sent in her Ball of Dub that turns a few accelerometer and a digital audio workstation and turns everything into an aural experience of wubs and dubs. The Ball of Dub can turn just about anything into dubstep, and does so with a fairly interesting user interface.
There isn’t a build log for the Ball of Dub, but the folks at LustLab did send in a basic overview of her project. Inside the ball, there’s a Razor IMU from Sparkfun that is attached to the ever-popular XBee wireless transceiver. A tiny program on an Arduino calibrates the gyroscope and accelerometer and sends that data to the DAW at 50Hz.
The host computer is running Renoise, a very popular tracker that can accept MIDI and OSC input. A Processing app parses the ball spin, free fall and impact, averages them over a period of time, and pipes that into the OSC input of Renoise. In [Lizzie]‘s video, the ball spin is sent to a low-pass filter on the baseline track, and the average impact is applied to the vocal track.
via [HackADay] source [LustLab Tumblr] special demo video for the few skeptical comments on HackADay
New fellows in the TinkerKit! family: [T000060] and [T000062] are two versions of the same gyroscope module (1x / 4x sensitivity) based on the LPR5150AL from ST Microelectronics. We are sharing example codes and a visual UI in Processing (hosted on Scuola)
Arduino counts with two twitter accounts: @arduinoteam is the one used by the team to report about things we think matter to the community. @arduinoblog is twitting for every blog post, and allows us handling answers on our blog.
