Fresh hacks every day
This little box not only plays tunes, but it lets you control several aspects of playback without touching a thing. [Thomas Clauser] calls it the LighTouch and we like it because it uses inaudible sound to control audible sound. We think the pair of cylinders sticking up through the top of this project enclosure will be recognized by most readers as the business end of an ultrasonic … [Read more...]
Here's a pair of LayerOne Badge hacks that actually included the RC as intended by the badge designers. First up, we have the autonomous RC car built by [Arko]. He calls it Stanley Jr. as an homage to the Stanford DARPA Grand Challenge vehicle. It uses an Arduino shield to add a servo with an ultrasonic rangefinder on it. The lets the vehicle drive a bit, stop and scan the horizon, then drive … [Read more...]
This wildlife camera is really easy to put together. You should keep it in mind if you're ever tying to figure out what's eating the heads off of all of your tulips. [Revoltlab] put it together, and although there's one fatal flaw in this particular system, the concept is quite sound. The build uses a camera, paired with an ultrasonic range finder. When something passes within the pre-set … [Read more...]
[John Boxall] took a different route for a single-input combination lock. This unit uses a Ping ultrasonic range finder to input a four digit code. It's a hardware upgrade, but uses the same basic concept as his button-based combo lock. That design used an Arduino to measure how long you hold down a single button, with a one second pause between inputs, to enter the code. This one also uses timing … [Read more...]
When you need a mechanism to detect the water level within a container or tank, you have several different options. Most people opt for a simple float or probe that sits in the water, while others use optics to sense when the water is reaching an undesired level. This device built by [Danilo Abbasciano] uses a Parallax Ping sensor instead. If the sensor is placed at the top of a well, cistern, … [Read more...]
[PJ Allen] has been working on a little robot which he calls Cypherbot. The control circuitry is quite familiar; a Board of Education which features the Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller. This is an older and slower microprocessor, but it works quite well for this application since there's no need for speed or heavy number crunching. The wheels of the bot are made out of plastic lids (we're thinking … [Read more...]
[Rob] built this hexapod one day when he had some free time after work. Just like the last hexapod we saw, he based the build on the Pololu design which uses three servo motors for surprisingly reliable movement. The hardware is very straight forward. A Dorkboard serves as the brain. It's a PCB that is wider on each side by the width of one female pin-header than a standard AVR … [Read more...]
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