UC Davis students build coffee can radar project inspired by MIT

student-built-coffee-can-radar

Blinking lights is a lot of fun, but if you're getting an EE degree the cool stuff becomes a bit more involved. In this case, building your own radar is the thing to do. Here's a coffee can radar setup being shown off by a group of UC Davis students. Regular readers will recognize the concept as one we looked at in December. The project was inspired by the MIT OpenCourseware project. One of the … [Read more...]

Beginner’s Android/Arduino example shows the power of App Inventor

app-inventor-android-bluetooth-example

This is a simple project. It uses an Android device to switch an LED driven by the Arduino. Connectivity is provided by the Bluetooth module inserted in the breadboard. But one look at the UI on the Android device and you might think this is anything but simple. The truth is that [Kerimil] didn't spend forever learning Java and programming the app. Instead he's showing off the power of  App … [Read more...]

Retrotectacular: Time Sharing

retrotectacular-time-sharing-explained

It's easy to forget the layer upon layer of technological advances that led to the computers we use today. But this look at the state of the art half a century ago does a good job of reminding us. Here [Fernando J. Corbató] explains the concept of Time-Sharing. He is one of the pioneers of the topic which is now used in every computer system in the world. Since processors (read: a single core) … [Read more...]

Autonomous fixed-wing drone threads the needled in a parking garage

autonomous-fixed-wing-drone

We've got something of a love affair going on with quadcopters, but there's still room for a little something on the side. This fixed-wing drone can pull off some pretty amazing navigation. MIT's Robust Robotics Group is showing off the work they've done with the plane, culminating in a death-defying flight through a parking garage (video after the break). This may not sound like a huge … [Read more...]

Building sensors for the Scratch programming language

sensors-for-scratch

[Kevin Osborn] is making it a bit easier for young programmers to write programs that interact with the physical world. The device he's holding in the picture is an Arduino based accelerometer and distance sensor meant for the Scratch language. Scratch is a programming language developed at MIT. It has kids in mind, and focuses on graphical building blocks. This can make it quite a bit easier … [Read more...]

Drop everything and build this go-kart right now!

hub-drive-go-kart

There are awesome projects, and then there are things that make us drool on the keyboard. We just got done wiping up our mess after seeing this go-kart which uses four hub-motors as direct drive wheels. We'll admit, this is more artwork than a hack as these guys are mechanical engineers and know what they're doing. But how could we pass up sharing something like this? The design is smaller than … [Read more...]

DIY cellphone

circuit

Here's an interesting concept. Lets make a kit to build your own super simple cell phone. Thats basically what a group at the MIT media lab is proposing with this prototype. Consisting of an SM5100b GSM module and a 1.8" 160x128 pixel LCD screen on a very basic board holding some buttons, this thing is pretty bare bones. Barely any features aside from sending/receiving calls. It does have caller … [Read more...]