Reading Sensors with Scratch

Scratch + Arduino

Scratch, a graphical programming language developed by MIT's Media Lab, is an excellent tool for teaching programming. [Daniel] created an Arduino Sensor Shield to interface with Scratch, allowing for real-world input to the language. This board is a derivative of the Picoboard, which is designed for use with Scratch. Fortunately, the communication protocol was well documented, and [Daniel] … [Read more...]

Stellaris Launchpad shield shows good fabrication technique

launchpad-shield-with-great-fabrication

Here's an LED and Button shield for the Stellaris Launchpad (translated) which you can fabricate at home. It gives you access to a 5x5 matrix of LEDs, and adds four more buttons. In order to cut down on the number of I/O pins required to operate the lights [Cosimo] is using the concept of Charlieplexing. This lets him get away with just six driver pins and four button pins. It's not just the … [Read more...]

3d printed hexapod robot

3d-printed-hexapod

This hexapod was made almost entirely via 3d printing (translated). The parts that you need to supply include a few fasteners to make connections, twelve servo motors, and a method of driving them. As you can see in the video after the break, all those parts come together into a little robot that functions quite well. The only thing that we think is missing are some grippy feet to help prevent … [Read more...]

MSP430 Launchpad Game of Life shield

msp430-launchpad-game-of-life-shield

[100uf] built an LED matrix shield for the MSP430 launchpad. His goal with this design was to have it play Conway's Game of Life. It does just that, as you can see in the clip after the break. But it's just waiting to learn some more tricks. After he tires of watching the cellular automaton he can try his hand at making some LED pendant animations. As you can tell, the board was made in his … [Read more...]

Stacking GPS, GSM, and an SD card into an Arduino shield

shield

A few years ago, [Phang Moh] and his compatriots were asked by a client if they could make a vehicle tracking device for oil tankers all around Indonesia. The request of putting thousands of trackers on tanks of explosives was a little beyond [Phang Moh]'s capability, but he did start tinkering around with GPS and GSM on an Arduino. Now that tinkering has finally come to fruition with … [Read more...]

Cellular vehicle information and control

cellular-vehicle-control

This hardware, which was built as a Computer Engineering project by [Bryon] and his classmates, gives you feedback and control of a car though a cellular phone network. It uses text messages to communicate with a control device. This can be pretty much any cellphone, but in the clip after the break they show off an Android app which puts a pretty GUI in front of you and abstracts away the tedium … [Read more...]

Using Arduino shields with the Raspi

aspi

With hundreds of Arduino shields available for any imaginable application, it's a shame they can't be used with the Raspberry Pi. Breaking out the Raspi GPIO pins to Arduino-compatible headers would allow makers and tinkerers to reuse their shields with a far more capable computing platform. The folks over at Cooking Hacks realized a Raspi to Arduino shield bridge would be an awesome device, … [Read more...]