WAP Controlled Home Automation

December 22, 2008 by Eliot 8 Comments

homeauto

[Josh] sent in a home automation project he did a little while ago. It has a total of eight switched outlets. The main focus of the project was WAP access for remote control from any cellphone. The control box is based on a design by [Ashley Roll] for controlling eight servos using a PIC microcontroller. A listener app written in Java monitors the control web page and sends signals to the board via serial port. He used opto-isolated 240V solid state relays for each of the outlets. All the pieces are available on the site and he might even do a custom control board design if there is enough interest.

Wiimote Driven Motion Effects

December 22, 2008 by Eliot 5 Comments

[vimeo 2515709]

Check out the video above by [Adrien Mondot] for a extensive demonstration of eMotion being used with a Wiimote. eMotion is a physics based visual tool for the Mac. It’s designed to enhance performances by reacting to real world motion. Its grounding in physics makes the resultant motion appear more natural than if they were arbitrarily generated. The video above combines eMotion with the output of Wiimote Whiteboard, a low-cost interactive white board that uses the Wiimote camera plus IR light pens. While the video takes place in a small area, we can see how this could be scaled to a much larger space with IR lights mounted to performers.

[via CDM]

Digital Clock Building

December 22, 2008 by Eliot 10 Comments

[punkky] has been documenting his adventures building digital clocks. They each use six 7-segment LED displays, but he’s been gradually changing how they are built. The first version used a CMOS BCD-to-7-sement latch on each display, which is tied to a PIC16F627a. For the next run, he added multiplexing, so he could drive all the segments using just thirteen pins. He’s posted a final schematic with code and details of how the clock timing actually works.

Cast Concrete RGB Lamp

December 22, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 1 Comment

lamp

[matthew venn] shows us how to create this cool RGB LED lamp. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but some good information on casting the base out of concrete. The body of the lap is formed by two thin rods folded in half, stuck in holes in the base, with a lycra sleeve slid over them. The final effect is quite nice and can be controlled by 3 knobs recessed in the front of the base. Information on the actual circuit used is very limited, as there are so many tutorials out there for that, but he does show how he mounted it all, and plans on releasing the source code soon.

No Solder EEEPC 701 Upgrades

December 22, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

eeepc_no_solder

[luke] has put together a set of EeePC upgrade instructions for those who suffer from solderphobia. If you have the EeePC 700 or 701, also known as the 4G surf, you can upgrade the storage, add bluetooth, and a touch screen without having to solder a thing. Those models don’t have the built in camera, so they have an unused internal USB port. With some crafty taping and careful placement, you can upgrade as easily as [luke]. We’ve really seen the EeePC mature, the product line has expanded quite a lot. For those who don’t mind a little solder, there have been tons of hacks for the EeePC.