Brighten Your Day With Motion Controlled Cabinet Light

March 16, 2015 by Will Sweatman 23 Comments

[Thomas Snow] found himself in a bit of a pickle. His kitchen lights didn’t adequately light his counter-tops. So instead of inventing a light bending device that could warp space-time enough to get the light where it needs to go, he decided to take the easy road and installed a motion controlled LED strip under the cabinets.

Now, these aren’t just any ‘ol motion control lights. Not only is [Thomas] able to turn the lights on and off with a wave of his hand, he can control the brightness as well. He’s doing the magic with an ultrasonic range sensor and PIR sensor. An ATTiny85 ties everything together to form the completed system.

The PIR sensor was incorporated because [Thomas] didn’t want to bug his pets with the 40kHz chirp from the ultrasonic sensor. So it only comes on when the PIR sensor sees your hand. Be sure to check out [Thomas’s] project for full source and schematics.

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Adding Motion Control To An RC Transmitter

June 25, 2010 by Mike Szczys 5 Comments

If your soldering skills are up to snuff you can add a motion control feature to your radio controlled transmitter. [Starlino] used a combination accelerometer and gyroscope module as an alternate source of analog control information. He built a filter to dial in the analog voltage range to match that of one of the sticks on the controller. A switch is used to disconnect the signal when motion input is not desired. This would be a nice addition to one of those more creative aerial hacks.

Toyaanisqatsi: Time Lapse Control Using LEGO Parts

September 6, 2009 by Phil Burgess 4 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1fFQfGc9M&feature=player_embedded]
A simple panning motion can add impact to the already-dramatic effect of time lapse photography. To accomplish this, frugal cinematographers sometimes build [Rube Goldberg] contraptions from clock motors, VCR parts or telescope tracking mounts. Hack a Day reader [Stephan Martin] has assembled a clever bargain-basement system using an Arduino-driven stepper motor and a reduction gear system built up from LEGO Technic parts, along with some Processing code on a host PC to direct the show.

While the photography is a bit crude (using just a webcam), [Stephan’s] underlying motion control setup might interest budding filmmakers with [Ron Fricke] aspirations but Top Ramen budgets. What’s more, unlike rigid clock motor approaches, software control of the camera mount has the potential for some interesting non-linear, fluid movements.