Max Carter likes to experiment with Picaxe microcontrollers. He was looking for a way to take readings of the outdoor temperature and make the data available on the internet. He devised a project requiring minimal hardware, consisting of a Picaxe-08M, LM34 temperature sensor and a few discrete components. He programmed the Picaxe to take readings […]
Category Archives: measurement
Arduino shower time analyzer
Paul Asselin says: I wanted to know how much time I was spending under the shower each day, especially in these environmentally conscious times. The benefits of that are that I can perhaps save some money on the water bills and also study the effect of temperature on my showering time. So Paul designed this […]
NimbleSig III RF analyzer using Renesas RX62N
Va7sa designed this RF analyzer as his entry in the Renesas RX design contest. He writes: The NimbleSig III RF Analyzer is a compact, relatively inexpensive instrumentation cluster intended for analyzing the transmission characteristics of RF circuits designed to operate within the frequency range of 200 KHz to 200 MHz. The analyzer is capable of […]
MAKE Oscilloscope tutorial
Here’s a short video tutorial posted recently by MAKE explaining the functions and uses of the the oscilloscope.
Solar powered Arduino sun tracker
Solar panels, hot glue, old CDs, an Arduino, a servo, resistors and LDRs, that’s what luwe1 used to build this solar tracker. He had some little solar panels laying around and wanted to see if they would power the Arduino. They did. So, I wanted to see if I could make a sun tracking circuit […]
Android as a user interface to hardware projects
Mario Böhmer at Dev-O-Rama wanted to access data from his web enabled embedded HTLPSensorNode Arduino project using his Android phone. He decided to use the Barcode Scanner app instead of a more traditional approach in order to add an artistic angle. Mario describes the theory he employed to build an Android app which takes the […]
Hard and soft iron magnetic compensation explained
Developers frequently use magnetic sensors in consumer products, such as to provide compass and navigation services in portable devices. In theory these sensors can be read directly to provide direction data. In practice, however, it’s not always that easy to obtain accurate information. In this article, Mike Stanley explains the scientific theory relating to hard […]
Anger detector using PIC16F877
Technobits presents notes on a developing student project designed to detect the anger level of an individual based on their pulse. The idea behind the project is to detect pulse levels and then display user feedback messages on an LCD readout. Elevated pulse = anger, slower pulse=calm. (References in the notes regarding blood pressure are […]
OpenCV: Open source Computer Vision
Open source Computer Vision (OpenCV) is a library of programming functions for real time computer vision. It is released under a BSD license and is free for both academic and commercial use on the Linux, Mac and Windows platforms. The OpenCV library has 500+ optimized algorithms. Example applications of the OpenCV library are Human-Computer Interaction […]
Arduino Cyclocomputer
Here’s a project which unifies art and tech: a LilyPad Cyclocomputer. Mark Fickett designed this bicycle computer which uses a magnet and reed switch as a cyclocomputer wheel sensor. This sensor is read by the Arduino/LilyPad (Atmega328) which processes the data and stores two trip meters and a speed histogram; the trip meters are reported […]
Monitor snow depth with microcontroller
The snow pummeling many regions this week makes one think about a snow depth measurement project. Here’s an idea abstract from Preetika S. Sapra and Gaurav Sapra for their design of a Microcontroller Based Snow Depth Sensor for Measuring the Depth of Snow Avalanche. This concept paper discusses the design and construction of a device […]
Model rocket GPS altimeter using Picaxe 18X
For his USC Rocket Propulsion Lab, Chris Fenton designed this project using a Picaxe 18X microcontroller which accepts a GPS NMEA data stream, pulls out the altitude and logs it to a 24LC512 external EEPROM. Upon recovery the data is then read from the EEPROM. Source code for the Picaxe and hand drawn schematic for […]
Brain wave monitor with Arduino + Processing
Frontier Nerds have been experimenting with brain wave tech as part of their Mental Block project. In this well documented project they take the headset from Mattel’s Mind Flex game and hack it to communicate with an Arduino board to measure brain waves and display their levels graphically on a PC via Processing. They chose […]
Capacity tester for rechargeable batteries
BrianH has posted a useful Instructables project that tests the capacity of rechargeable NiMh and NiCd batteries. The circuit is based on an Atmega168, and functions by draining the AA batteries (from 1 to 3 batteries) then computes and reports the capacity in mAh. It uses a Nokia 5510 graphic LCD to report battery condition […]
PIC 12F675 battery monitor using a diode/LED and resistor
Here’s a circuit by Joe Desbonnet’s Random Tech Stuff that’s designed to monitor battery voltage. It uses one resistor, one diode (or LED), one microcontroller ADC input and one digital output. A practical application using a PIC 12F675 is presented. This allows you to monitor battery voltage under load, allowing sufficient time to replace the […]
Measure liquid flow rate with Arduino
The Makers Workbench shares this project which measures the rate of liquid flow using a Seeedstudio Water Flow Sensor and Seeeduino. This is part of their Arduino Controlled PC Liquid Cooling project. The flow sensor uses a simple rotating wheel that pulses a hall effect sensor. By reading these pulses the Arduino mathematically calculates the […]
Implantable RFID temperature sensors
Implantable RFID chips have been around for years. Since at least 2004 these devices have been capable of including GPS data, and manufacturers have been researching other measurement capabilities. Implantable health sensors may soon be a real option with the launch by PositiveID of its ‘Wireless Body Platform’. Initially the health sensor system was designed […]
One Hand time telling
If you have ever broken a watch or clock, you should check out Gizmology. Put some usefulness back into that broken watch or clock.
Seeed’s DSO Quad available for preorders
After the successful DSO Nano Seeed is finishing development of new pocket scope called DSO Quad. Engineering samples started shipping in late December 2010, now the beta testing run is available for preorders at $159. Be aware that the actual shipping is scheduled for March. DSO Quad has two analog inputs up to 36 Msps, […]
OBDuino: car diagnostics with Arduino
The OBDuino is an in-car real-time display of various information, like speed, RPM, instant fuel consumption or average trip fuel consumption as well as others PIDs supported by the car. It reads the data from the car’s OBD-II connector, interfacing it via a MC33290 chip to the Arduino which processes the CAN data and outputs […]