CNC Hardware: Stream G-code To An Arduino

July 21, 2010 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

[Reza Naima] has been using an Arduino as the center of his CNC setup for quite some time now. It handles three stepper motors, limiting switches, e-stop, and spindle control. The sketch he’s using allows him to stream g-code to the popular prototyping platform, freeing him from needing a dedicated PC. It’s worked so well that he’s decided to clean up the code and develop a shield to help others get up and running. If you want to see his progress or lend a hand, check out the google group he started for the schematics, code, and forum discussions. There is already a CNC project for Arduino called Grbl but [Reza’s] approach uses the Arduino libraries in an effort to make the sketch more customizable for the average user.

WiMax Antenna With Auto-positioning System

June 8, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

[Andrew] certainly brings a bit of a James Bond feel to connecting to your WiMax base station. He built this antenna along with an auto-positioning system to get the strongest signal possible. The device, which appears a bit fragile, breaks down into a nice little case. When you get to your next checkpoint you can set it up and the stepper motor along with an ATtiny2313 will rescan to get you on with your mission as fast as possible. This is one of our favorite antenna builds so far, and we’ve seen a lot of hacked antennas. Don’t miss the action-packed trailer after the break. Continue reading “WiMax Antenna With Auto-positioning System” →

Drawbot Produces Portraits… Very Slowly

June 6, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

This robot artist, the Drawbot, produces images using an Arduino and Processing. A piece of paper is attached to a wall as a stylus connected to a couple of stepper motors scribbles out patterns that gradually become the image seen above. Each drawing is different and can take several weeks of constant operation to finish. That must have made debugging a real problem for [Harvey] during development. We wonder if this would work with homemade pencils?

9 Digit Pulse Counter

April 30, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 11 Comments

At roughly $20 to build, this 9 digit pulse counter is an excellent example of home built tools. The builder, [Josh] found himself repairing a device and in need of a pulse counter. With the components cheaply available, he just built his own. He says that it has a few limitations, like display brightness, but overall it seems to do the job well. You can download the PCB from his site.

[via MakeZine]

Ask HackADay: Network Security Camera

April 10, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 75 Comments

Today we received the question,

“How to control a web cam via internet,
i want to use it for security reasons, always out of the house and my PC connected want to open the cam from time to time to checkout if something wrong!!”

– [Mohamed Saleh]

What a fun project we thought! And so many different ways of tackling it. Find out what we suggested to [Mohamed] after the break. Continue reading “Ask HackADay: Network Security Camera” →

Propeller Takes Step-a-Sketch To A New Level

February 4, 2010 by Mike Szczys 25 Comments

[Mpark’s] propeller controlled Etch-a-Sketch is well built and very accurate. He was inspired by the Step-a-Sketch project and he’s carried that design through to a stunning conclusion. The driver board was built around a Parallax Propeller P8X32A microcontroller. But this isn’t just a serial controller board for connecting the hardware to a PC running CNC software. He’s included TV out and a keyboard port so that programming can be done on the chip itself.

In the video after the break you can see how precise the plotting is on the Etch-a-Sketch. It is well mounted but also benefits from some software compensation for the toy’s imprecise controls. [Mpark] has also included an erase function that tilts the frame upside-down a few times. This is used not only to erase a drawing but to hide the line created when moving the stylus into its starting position.

Continue reading “Propeller Takes Step-a-Sketch To A New Level” →

Rotary Encoding With Your Soundcard

January 25, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

[Stefan] sent in this project writeup to show us how he used a stepper motor as a rotary encoder. Using a stepper motor as an encoder isn’t really that new, as [Stefan] points out, we’ve seen it several times before. He wanted to use this in the quickest simplest way with his computer though. Instead of doing any decoding on a separate microprocessor, he’s connected the stepper directly to his sound card and written code to do the rest. You can download that code and see a video of some practical applications on his site.