We are happily announcing two new products in the Arduino Store: [E000011] 32×08 Red LED 5mm Matrix and [E000013] 32*16 Green/Red LED 3mm Matrix from Sure Electronics. Both products are coming with tutorials and related projects.
Have a good prototyping!
Kenbak computer (claimed to be one of the first personal computer – 1971) has come back from the shadows of the past.
I’d been thinking for a while that emulating an old-school switches-and-lamps computer would be a fun Arduino project, but had stalled looking at things like the Altair 8800 with its 30+ lights and 20+ switches. However, when I stumbled upon the Kenbak I thought it was something I could pull off as my first real Arduino project. Naturally I called it the KENBAK-uino.
This is the end-product, it can be programmed via the buttons on the front panel and show outputs on the LEDs. It’s a faithful emulation of the original CPU but with a few enhancements thrown in like pre-loaded sample programs and access to a real time clock.
[Pierre] shares an interesting geo-localization project of sound, narration and culture, made in ”plan d’Aou”, a district of Marseilles – France. The project dates back in September 2010, within the framework of the Smala project in order to trace a sound cartography of Islam in the city of Marseilles: the guys at [Echelle Inconnue] took their time to fully document the all project with schematics, codes, fritzing diagrams and so on.
Several mobile systems were distributed to the people to accompany their walk across the district with, by hand, a kind of speaker to be press on the walls which makes it possible to listen to the sound by vibrating the material of the wall.
The materials of urban furniture or buildings become the speakers required for sound diffusion. Each resonant body had its acoustic specificities, the words take shape in metal, wood or glass… Textures of the sound fluctuate from a surface to another and the listener must juggle with these characteristics to obtain a quality of optimal listening, between documentary in the walls and poetic sound creation.
source [echelleinconnue]
[Alex Weber] put together a motorized drawing machine painting 2d Vector Graphics on his office’s glasses.
An automatic scribbling machine sounds less than useful, admittedly, but it’s really just the style of line created by this motorized drawing machine. It’s reminiscent of ASCII art, in which heavier characters are used to create darker tones; in this case, the more jiggle added to the drawing platform, the more ink is put on the drawing surface. It’s kind of mesmerizing.
via [techCrunch] source & assembly [tinkerLog]
David Schneider from [IEEEspectrum] tells and shares his DIY Remotely Operated Vehicle undersea, based on two Arduinos
Last year at about this time, crews in the Gulf of Mexico were working feverishly to bring BP’s blown-out oil well under control. Some of the more spectacular parts of that effort, as you may recall, involved the use of remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. Perhaps you had the same thought as I did—that it would be cool to build one.
And shares all the instructions to build your own [.zip].
via [IEEESpectrum]
Arduino forum user [Blibo] shares its 2.4 Ghz spectrum analyzer project on the forum. The project is based on the CYWM6935 board (wireless), an Atmega 328 and a Nokia 5110 LCD-
I finished the (mostly) permanent version of my 2.4ghz spectrum analyzer, and soldered it up. I included 3 modes for scanning (fast, slow, and ghost – like the long exposure on a camera), plus a function to display the voltage on an analog pin, and graph it (for when the oscilloscope’s not cooperating). These modes are toggled through by hitting the big push button [...] I have already used it to help setup my wireless network, (channel, location, things that cause interference), and it is always interesting to see what uses the 2.4ghz spectrum. So far, the things that I’ve noticed on the spectrum while walking around with the analyzer are:
-microwave ovens (huge disturbance in the middle of the spectrum)
-Wifi
-Cordless phones
-Bluetooth
-Wireless keyboard
-Wireless speakers
The fast mode is ok for seeing EMI, but for digital signals, the slow mode is best. The ghost mode also gives a general idea of spectrum use over a period of time.
via [HackADay] source(code) on [Arduino Forum]
Barcelona-based IAAC school is hosting a summer school (in Barcelona and Mumbay). The theme of this year’s course is creating an urban tool of a networked city based on a new informational layer.
What happens if we think Urbanism and Energy through a new informational layer added in our cities?
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Wonderful Arduino video sampler from [giekes.nl] (At the moment in its 1 bit / 1 and half bit stage) . The project is based over [TVout] library, [Video in on TVout] and [Ram library and 23k256 circuit]. Amazing job.
If you dig the 8-bit style colourful site you’ll discover several other video oddities based on Arduino (or at least Atmega328), well explained and referenced by the [Gijs Gieskes].
via [giekes.nl]
Nice (mis)use of a Ultimaker 3D printer to act as a pick & place machine.
Assembling medium quantities of PCBs was never within the reach of a home based manufacturer. It requires expensive equipment, but most of these parts can actually be 3D printed, and you can use your existing 3D printer, such as the Ultimaker, to do pick-and-place operations.
[pabloxid] shared an Hexapod project on the forum based on an Arduino MEGA 1280 and 18 Dynamixel AX-12 motors:
SAMSA is based on the Wiring board, with an ATmega128 microcontroller, and SAMSA II on the Arduino Mega, with an ATmega1280. Both are pretty similar, tough the ATmega1280 has 8 KB SRAM, twice the ATmega128. For SAMSA II the Arduino IDE was not used. The software was written directly in C++, using some libraries from both Arduino and Wiring.
SAMSA II has also two additional microcontrollers. One is an old Arduino Mini (ATmega168) located in the head, tasked with handling the sensors. The other is an ATmega8 and is integrated in the display. The firmware in the display was replaced with another one, freeing the main microcontroller from handling the display pixel by pixel, storing the frame buffer, etc.
The head’s microcontroller is responsible for sampling, filtering and processing sensor’s data. The data from the Sharp distance sensor and the lateral IR sensors are combined in a single “super smart distance sensor”. This microcontroller also decodes the data coming from the 38 KHz IR receiver, used for the Remote Control.
These two additional microcontrollers further reduce the load on the main microcontroller, allowing for more sophisticated behaviours.