[AndyGadget] built a haunted box as part of his Halloween preparations. This follows in the footsteps of the Knock Block we saw earlier this month but makes several hardware changes. He’s replaced the solenoid with a DC motor that rotates an arm to do the knocking. He’s avoided any CNC work by using a softwood box from a craft store as the enclosure. For control circuitry he’s used an 8-pin PICAXE Microcontroller that ‘listens’ for knocking on the box via a piezo buzzer. It will mimic knocks back to you, and if it hears the right combination The Addams Family theme song is played. This useless machine will make a great office conversation piece and with this simplified design it’s much easier to build than the Knock Block. See it perform after the break.
After reading about cheap wireless for microcontrollers, [Leigh] left a comment about his Marauders map. Much like the Harry Potter version, whoever holds the ‘map’ is able to see the location of the ‘marauders’ within certain bounds. Unlike the magical version however, each person being tracked needs to hold a PICAXE 08M, GPS, and 433.92MHz transmitter: while the map needs a computer running his Python script and a receiver of the same frequency. It has the potential for locating people, but we feel it might be better off in a swarmrobotics setup.
Inspired by the multitudes of other automated window blind projects, [John] decided to build his own simpler design. Knowing his Arduino was massive overkill (yes, we hear you all cheering) he picked up a picaxe 08m starter kit. Looking at his very simple circuit, you’ll notice there are no resistors or capacitors. He designed it to take commands from his PC via IR. The final product is fairly well hidden, and should his girlfriend ever be upgraded to wife, we assume he’ll hide it better. Good job [John]. We’re no strangers to automated blinds, we’ve seen them a few times.
This interesting little sculpture caught our eye. Called the Perpetual Ball Roller, it simply rolls a ball on a track. It has both manual and automatic modes with variations in the automatic mode to keep it amusing. This is very elegant, and would be fun to have sitting around to play with. The only problem is the noise. The servo that he is using is quite loud. What could he do to make it function silently?
The NoiseAXE is a miniature synthesizer based on the Picaxe 08M microcontroller. Its operating principle is fairly simple: a conductive stylus touches the leg of one of eight resistors to play one of eight notes, while a photoresistor controls the amount of modulation, creating a variable vibrato effect. While the synthesizer’s output is rather limited (the NoiseAXE isn’t exactly a Yamaha DX7), it’s still a pretty cool little project; you could use its unique sounds to add that gritty analog touch to your next electro hit. Check out the video clip below to see and hear it in action.
This project provides LED feedback when an email is received. It uses a 4d-micro-USB module from Dontronics to interface serially and provide power to a Picaxe 08M. The PIC can control color and brightness of a RGB LED. The feedback is given by seven colors of the LED. The code is python script and picaxe basic, which he’s posted.
