Arduino Hacks

3048 Articles

Piano Gets An Arduino Implant

February 16, 2025 by 18 Comments

[Paul] likes his piano, but he doesn’t know how to play it. The obvious answer: program an Arduino to do it. Some aluminum extrusion and solenoids later, and it was working. Well, perhaps not quite that easy — making music on a piano is more than just pushing the keys. You have to push multiple keys together and control the power behind each strike to make the music sound natural.

The project is massive since he chose to put solenoids over each key. Honestly, we might have been tempted to model ten fingers and move the solenoids around in two groups of five. True, the way it is, it can play things that would not be humanly possible, but ten solenoids, ten drivers, and two motors might have been a little easier and cheaper.

The results, however, speak for themselves. He did have one problem with the first play, though. The solenoids have a noticeable click when they actuate. The answer turned out to be orthodontic rubber bands installed on the solenoids. We aren’t sure we would have thought of that.

Player pianos, of course, are nothing new. And, yes, you can even make one with a 555. If a piano isn’t your thing, maybe try a xylophone instead.

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Blinds Automated With Offline Voice Recognition

February 10, 2025 by 7 Comments

Blinds are great for keeping light out or letting light in on demand, but few of us appreciate having to walk over and wind them open and shut on the regular. [DIY Builder] resented this very task, so set about creating an automated system to do the job for him.

The blinds in question use a ball chain to open and close, which made them relatively easy to interface with mechanically. [DIY Builder] set up a NEMA 17 stepper motor with an appropriate 3D-printed gear to interface with the chain, allowing it to move the blinds accurately. The motor is controlled via an Arduino Nano and an A4988 stepper motor driver.

However, that only covered the mechanical side of things. [DIY Builder] wanted to take the build a step further by making the blinds voice activated. To achieve this, the Arduino Nano was kitted out with a DFRobot Gravity voice recognition module. It’s a super simple way to do voice recognition—it’s an entirely offline solution with no cloud computing or internet connection required. You just set it up to respond to simple commands and it does the rest.

The result is a voice activated blind that works reliably whether your internet is up or not. We’ve seen some other great projects in this space, too. Video after the break.

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Trinteract, a small space mouse, operating in Blender.

Trinteract Mini Space Mouse Does It In 3D

January 17, 2025 by 17 Comments

We’re not sure how we managed to miss this one, but better late than never, right? This is Trinteract, a 3-DOF input device that’s both open-source and Arduino compatible. There’s even a neat 3D-printed clip to add it to the side of your laptop.

Imagine navigating 2D and 3D environments, or flying around in Minecraft with ease. [Görkem]’s custom PCB features a Hall effect sensor which picks up readings from the magnet embedded in the bottom of the joystick. You can use any magnetic object as input. In the video below the break, [Görkem] shows a 3D-printed sphere with a disc magnet trapped inside as an alternative. The super-neat part is that the thing moves around entirely on flexures. You know how much we love flexures around here.

[Görkem] has written up a fantastic guide for those who must have one of their own. As a bonus, the guide details the background and thought process behind the design, which we love to see.

Don’t like magnets? This space mouse uses an accelerometer and a spring.

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Building A 3D-Printed Strandbeest

January 16, 2025 by 16 Comments

The Strandbeest is a walking machine, a creation of the celebrated artist Theo Jansen. They can look intimidating in their complexity, but it’s quite possible to build your own. In fact, if you’ve got a 3D-printer, it can be remarkably straightforward, as [Maker 101] demonstrates.

The build relies on an Arduino Uno as the brains. It’s equipped with an L293D motor driver shield to run two DC gear motors which drive the walking assemblies. Power is courtesy of a 3-cell lithium-polymer battery. The chassis, legs, and joints are all 3D-printed, and rather attractively in complimentary colors, we might add.

Controlling this little Strandbeest is simple. [Maker 101] gave the Arduino an infrared sensor which can pick up signals from a simple IR remote control. It can be driven backwards and forwards or turned left and right. What’s more, it looks particularly elegant as it walks—a hallmark of a good Strandbeest design.

Design files are available online for the curious. We love a good Strandbeest build, and some can even be useful, too! Video after the break.
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Nottingham Railway departure board in Hackspace

All Aboard The Hack Train: Nottingham’s LED Revival

January 4, 2025 by 4 Comments

Hackerspaces are no strangers to repurposing outdated tech, and Nottingham Hackspace happens to own one of those oddities one rarely gets their hands on: a railway departure board. Left idle for over a decade, it was brought back to life by [asjackson]. Originally salvaged around 2012, it remained unused until mid-2024, when [asjackson] decided to reverse-engineer it. The board now cycles between displaying Discord messages and actual train departures from Nottingham Railway Station every few minutes. The full build story can be found in this blog post.

The technical nitty-gritty is fascinating. Each side of the board contains 4,480 LEDs driven as two parallel chains. [asjackson] dove into its guts, decoding circuits, fixing misaligned logic levels, and designing custom circuit boards in KiCAD. The latest version swaps WiFi for a WizNet W5500 ethernet module and even integrates the Arduino Uno R4 directly into the board’s design. Beyond cool tech, the display connects to MQTT, pulling real-time train data and Discord messages via scripts that bridge APIs and custom Arduino code.

This board is a true gem for any hackerspace, even more so now it’s working. It waited for the exact mix of ingredients why hackerspaces exist in the first place: curiosity, persistence, and problem-solving. Nottingham Hackspace is home to a lot more, as we once wrote in this introductory article.If you don’t have room for the real thing, maybe set your sights a bit smaller.

Do you have a statement piece this cool in your hackerspace or your home? Tip us!

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Puzzle Bobble on a screen with a physical gadget in front

Crafting A Cardboard Tribute To Puzzle Bobble

January 2, 2025 by 2 Comments

What do you get when you cross cardboard, deodorant rollers, and a love for retro gaming? A marvel of DIY engineering that brings the arcade classic Puzzle Bobble to life—once again! Do you remember the original Puzzle Bobble aiming mechanism we featured 12 years ago? Now, creator [TomTilly] has returned with a revamped version, blending ingenuity with a touch of nostalgia. [Tom] truly is a Puzzle Bobble enthusiast. And who could argue that? The game’s simplicty makes for innocent yet addictive gameplay.

[Tom]’s new setup recreates Puzzle Bobble’s signature aiming mechanic using surprising materials: deodorant roller balls filled with hot glue (to diffuse LED colours), bamboo skewers, and rubber bands. At its heart is an Arduino UNO, which syncs the RGB LED ‘bubbles’ and a servo-driven aiming arm to the game’s real-time data. A Lua script monitors MAME’s memory locations to match the bubble colours and aimer position.

But this isn’t just a static display. [Tom] hints at a version 2.0: a fully functional controller complete with a handle. Imagine steering this tactile masterpiece through Puzzle Bobble’s frantic levels!

Need more inspiration? Check out other quirky hacks like [Tom]’s deodorant roller controller we featured in 2023. Whether you’re into cardboard mechanics or retro gaming, there’s no end to what clever hands can create.

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Using A Smartphone As A Touchscreen For Arduino

December 16, 2024 by 22 Comments

If you want a good display and interface device for an embedded project, it’s hard to look past an old smartphone. After all, you’ve got an excellent quality screen and capacitive touch interface all in the same package! [Doctor Volt] explains how to easily set up your old smartphone to work as a touchscreen for your Arduino.

[Doctor Volt] demonstrates the idea with a 2018 Samsung Galaxy A8, though a wide variety of Android phones can be put to use in this way. The phone is connected to the Arduino via a USB-to-serial converter and an OTG cable. Using a USB-C phone with Power Delivery is ideal here, as it allows the phone to be powered while also communicating with the Arduino over USB.

The RemoteXY app is built specifically for this purpose. It can be installed on an Android phone to allow it to communicate effectively with Arduino devices, which run the RemoteXY library in turn. Configuring the app is relatively straightforward, with a point-and-click wizard helping you designate what hardware you’re using and how you’ve got it hooked up. [Doctor Volt] does a great job of explaining how to hook everything up, and how to build some simple graphical interfaces.

There are a ton of display and interface options in the embedded space these days, many of which can be had cheaply off the shelf. Still, few compete with the resolution and quality of even older smartphones. It’s a neat project that could come in very handy for your next embedded build! Video after the break.

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