Charging Timer For R/C Batteries

February 4, 2011 by Mike Nathan 27 Comments

arduino_controlled_socket

Santa brought [Quinten’s] son a shiny R/C truck for Christmas, but this new toy had one drawback – its batteries could only be connected to the charger for a maximum of 6 hours, lest he turn his house into a pile of smoldering ash. With grave warnings from the manufacturer dancing in his head, he searched around for a timer that would allow him to cut power to the battery after charging for its allotted time. Coming up empty, he decided to create his own timed electric socket regulated by an Arduino he had sitting around. He grabbed a project box and wired up a nice looking socket timer, complete with an LCD status display. To make things easy for his son, he added two buttons to the front of the controller – one for selecting the amount of charging time, and one to set the timer in motion. As with his previous hacks, [Quinten] has provided plenty of documentation in the form of pictures, code, and even a video of the timer in action.

USB Controller For Multiple Servos

February 4, 2011 by Mike Nathan 12 Comments

USB_controller_for_6_servos

[dunk] constructed an easy to use AVR-based USB controller with the ability to drive up to six R/C hobby servos at once. While the USB-powered Atmega8 he used supplies the necessary PWM signaling for all of the servos, an external power supply rated up to 30v at 3A is necessary to provide the 5v of power each servo requires. His project is an extension of the USB servo controller built by [Ronald Schaten] and includes several significant upgrades. The addition of 5 more servos aside, [dunk] switched to AVRlib routines for multi-servo control and PWM management, as well as added the aforementioned power supply to prevent an excessive current draw on the USB port. His tutorial includes a complete parts list, Eagle PCB schematic, the required USB servo source code, as well as a sampling of commands that can be issued to the servo controller.

Remote Camera Trigger Built From Air Freshener Parts

February 4, 2011 by Mike Nathan 11 Comments

Remote camera trigger assembled front view

[jcopro] took a look at a Glade automatic air freshener he had sitting around and couldn’t help but open it up to determine how the mechanism worked. After taking it apart, he found that the automated system was comprised of a 3v motor, a series of gears, and a mechanical arm. When actuated, this arm simply pressed the spray nozzle of the air freshener canister contained within the device. After some consideration, he decided that the components would make a great remote trigger for his Casio point and shoot camera. He fabricated a small plywood rig including both the camera and air freshener components, which was able to be mounted on a tripod. [jcporo] also mentions that the air freshener has the ability to be triggered by a built-in timer. Although the presets are locked at 9, 18, and 36 minutes, he suggests that a 555 timer could easily be used to add some custom timing intervals when wired to the manual trigger. Be sure to check out his video of the remote trigger in action.