Easy DIY Stroboscope

February 23, 2011 by Mike Nathan 12 Comments

stroboscope_output

Looking for something to do in his downtime, [Mista Sparkle] decided that building a simple stroboscope was in order. He already had a set of six LEDs connected to his Arduino from a previous project, so he added a potentiometer to control the rate at which the LEDs flashed, and dug into the IDE.

During his build he discovered that using the Arduino millis() function at high speeds provides terrible resolution, while using the micros() function exclusively limits his low end measuring capabilities. He desired a better range of measurement, so his program was broken into main functions: One which measures the LED flashing frequency in milliseconds and another that measures the LED flashing frequency in microseconds. This allowed him to gauge rotational frequencies from 577 to 30,000 RPM.

[Mista Sparkle] admits that he is not yet well-versed in driving displays with the Arduino, so he views his readings over a serial connection on his PC. Hopefully we’ll see an updated version with those features in the near future.

MIDI Controller Fit For An Arcade

February 23, 2011 by Mike Nathan 6 Comments

arcade_midi_controller

MIDI controllers can be relatively expensive depending on feature sets and requirements, so Instructables user [fraganator] went about building one on his own for just under $100. He originally wanted to replicate a commercially available MIDI controller, which used arcade buttons in lieu of the more common rubberized buttons, since they are large and have a better feel when pressed. Once he drew up plans for his MIDI clone, he realized he wanted more features in his controller than were available in the commercial version, so he started revising.

His final plan included three rows of four arcade buttons as well as four rotary and two sliding potentiometers. All of the components were mounted in a small keyboard enclosure, then wired to an Arduino clone, which manages all of the controller’s functions. The controller is connected to a PC via USB and can perform any number of operations once the buttons are mapped in MIDI-compatible software.

There are no videos of the controller in action just yet, though [fraganator] says one is forthcoming.

Interfacing An Arduino With A TFT LCD

February 21, 2011 by Mike Nathan 8 Comments

tft_lcd

Seven-segment displays and monochrome LCDs are fine for most projects, but some things simply look better in color. [John] over at the Little Bird Electronics blog recently wrote up a tutorial demonstrating the use of a TFT LCD panel with an Arduino. The specific panel he chose was a 4D Systems 1.44” TFT LCD that happened to feature a dedicated graphics processor, which should allow for some fantastic visuals when used to its fullest potential.

The LCD takes its commands over a serial interface, making it a simple five-wire display solution for your projects. The display can be programmed manually by sending hex commands over the serial interface, but there are also some user-developed libraries available that will allow you to use the majority of the most popular functions without the learning curve. One thing to note is that the LCD must be flashed with a particular flavor of firmware before it can communicate over the serial interface, a process for which [John] provides a walk through.

The LCD panel can be used with any Arduino-compatible board, so it can be useful in a whole host of projects.

Stick around to see a simple demo of the board in use.

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Ultrasmall Arduino

February 21, 2011 by Kevin Dady 31 Comments

[Fabio Varesano’s] new Arduino compatible board packs a full power punch in a ultra compact layout, measuring at 20.7×15.2 mm, the Femtoduino is probably the smallest 328 based Arduino compatible board around. Most of the staples are present, an QFN atmega328, an MIC5205 low dropout regulator good for a couple hundred milli amps, 16MHz ceramic resonator, reset, power indicator and pin 13 LEDs, but you will need to provide your own serial connection (FTDI, MAX232 etc) and another AVR programmer to get the Arduino boot loader onto the chip.

Since the board is small (smaller than a pro mini) it is not directly breadboard friendly. Even though the hole spacing is 0.05 inch, the size is large enough for “normal” wire to fit into fine, if you wish to use 0.1 inch spacing there is a handy break out board you can make where the Femtoduino just snaps in.

Everything needed to make one of your own is provided on the website, schematics, kicad files, bill of materials, Gerbers for both the board and the breakout board, though we would like to see this as a pre-made board soon, join us after the break for a video and see why.

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Arduino Levitation

February 21, 2011 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

Here’s the proof that Arduino is a tool for serious prototyping and not just a toy. [Norbert Požár] built a magnetic levitation device that combines an Arduino with an electromagnetic driver circuit and a magnetic field sensing circuit. Unlike other other levitation setups that use optical sensing, this implementation uses a hall effect sensor on the electromagnet to maintain the distance between it, and the permanent magnet it is holding in midair. Check out the embedded video after the break and browse through the overview page so see how pleasing it is to do away with a frame around the floating object. This makes us wonder if it could be inverted in a way similar to that magnetic scale.

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Valentine’s Gift Counts The Days Spent Together

February 18, 2011 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

[Vegard Paulsen] dug deep down to the romantic geek at his core and built this box that counts the days he’s spent together with his Valentine. As you can see, it uses a four-digit seven segment display installed in the lid of a wooden box. An Arduino mini is responsible for driving the display, but as you might already know, to keep accurate time you’re going to need a reliable clock source. Instead of using a temperature compensated crystal oscillator like the ChronoDot he decided to pull time data from the Internet via a pair of RF modules.

His closing comments mention that this display will only work for around 27 years but he figures he can always build a bigger display. We’d keep this around, physically unaltered for sentimental value, but switch to a hexadecimal readout to track just over 179 years. Maybe that’s a bit too geeky.

Model Rocket Radio Telemetry

February 17, 2011 by Mike Nathan 8 Comments

rocket_telemetry_data-analysis

[Ken] sent us his Instructable in which he used radio telemetry to monitor the status of his air-powered model rocket through a series of launches. His setup is centered around an Arduino IDE-compatible board that looks to be about the size of a Boarduino, but has the benefit of an embedded 915 MHz radio module. The vendor he used also sells a good handful of add-on modules which he used for his in-flight recording, including a barometric pressure monitor and a 3-axis accelerometer. During flight, the rocket constantly sends data to a base station, provided it stays within radio operating range.

For is initial tests, [Ken] launched his rocket four times, getting usable data on half of them. He found out some interesting things about his model rocket, including the fact that it creates a maximum launch force of 60 Gs. He has plans to revise his setup in the future, such as lightening the battery load as well as adding a high-G analog sensor for recording the forces at take off. This kit, or a more reasonably priced clone, would make for a great addition to any rocket buff’s inventory.