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.

More Ambient Lighting Monitor Hacks

February 17, 2011 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

[Christian Pigeon’s] first big project was to build this ambient light system for his computer monitor. This is based on the same concept as the Phillips Ambilight system which illuminates the area behind a television to match the color on the edges of the screen. We’ve seen clones before, but this is the first one we’ve come across based on Amblone.

With Amblone as a starting point [Christian] modified the code to work with the Arduino Duemilanove which has fewer PWM channels than its bigger brother, the Arduino Mega. No word on where he acquired the RGB LED strips that provide the illumination, but the driver boards are just protoboard with groups of resistors and transistors to switch the diodes on and off. Check out the video after the break to see effects he achieves with this setup.

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Arduino-Fart-O-Meter

February 16, 2011 by Kevin Dady 24 Comments

[robomaniac] shows us some serious application of modern technology with his recent Instructable, (the) Arduino-Fart-O-Meter. The wireless device uses a “perfboard Arduino” to read a remote wired methane sensor, and send data over a nRF2401A radio transceiver.

“The data” is picked up by another Arduino / transceiver combo, which then drives a servo motor connected to the pointer. The meter itself consists of 6 ranges from “Fresh Air” to “Liquid” so there is no doubt in your standing.

The wireless and remote sensor setup makes this an easy device to include into your loved ones chairs while having the meter far enough away (just in case you have to make a run for it). If you want some more accuracy check out the Fart intensity detector we posted about, which adds in temperature and sound to the equation, or how about a chair that twitters your toots?

Join us after the break for a quick video, its a real gas.

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DOTKLOK

February 15, 2011 by Kevin Dady 27 Comments

[Andrew] is showing off his latest creation, an LED matrix clock, which he is calling “DOTKLOK”. The clock is powered by an atmega328 micro controller with a real time clock module keeping the time. The display is made out of a grid of 8×8 LED matrices giving it a resolution of 24×16, and is all housed in an attractive acrylic housing.

The clock animations are inspired by classic video games such as Pong, Tetris, Pacman, and Space Invaders. Since the software is open, it is easy to jump into the Arduino source and add or modify animations to suit your taste, or even use the clock as a custom display for non clock related applications.

Available as a kit or fully assembled if youre needing a gift for that special nerdy someone. If you would like to go it alone, source, schematics, pcb, and enclosure files are available along with a bill of materials.

Join us after the break to see a short video of this fun clock in action

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Nimbus, The Wall-following Robot

February 15, 2011 by Mike Nathan 4 Comments

nimbus_wall_following_robot

[Johannes] sent in the latest iteration of an ongoing project – Nimbus, the wall-follwing robot. Originally operating on a cardboard frame, the robot has undergone several revisions as you can see by reading through his blog. Nimbus started out as a simple, Arduino-powered robot, but the project has progressed nicely over time. The last revision simply avoided walls, using a Sharp IR proximity sensor to detect, then avoid obstacles. The most recent model sports a nice polycarbonate frame as well as two additional IR proximity sensors, allowing Nimbus to navigate quite well, following walls and avoiding obstacles with ease. It does get caught up from time to time on carpets and wires, but overall Nimbus is a great little robot. [Johannes] even added a small RGB status LED for the bottom of the bot, communicating its navigation status to the operator at all times. This is done by flashing various colors when objects have been discovered or have moved out of sight – it’s a really novel addition.

Keep reading for a video of Nimbus navigating his way around, and don’t forget to check out the Nimbus photo stream.

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WWII’s Top Cryptography Comes To A Child’s Toy

February 15, 2011 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

This toy has some upgraded internals that turn it into an Enigma machine. We absolutely love the idea, as it takes a toy that your child may have grown out of, and uses it to provide teachable moments dealing with both history and mathematics. But who are we kidding? We want to make one just because it’s a fun project.

[Sketch] grabbed this toy from a thrift store because it has a full keyboard that he can use to make his own machine. It’s powered by an Arduino, with a four-line character LCD display taking the place of the original. His post covers the methods he used to figure out the keyboard wiring, and also contains a cursory overview of how the Enigma Machine functions. See a video of the finished project after the break.

If this wet your appetite, also check out the paper Enigma Machine we covered during Hackaday’s first year.

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