Christopher Armenio writes, “The embdSocial team just finished our 2nd ‘Project Weekend’ and we delivered some pretty awesome projects! Thanks for checking them out.” Check below the fold for project videos, links to details and more!
Category Archives: project logs
Coil gun version of the “High Striker” carnival strength test
Want to test your strength at home, instead of only at carnivals? Well Bertho is designing a updated version of the popular carnival strength test using electro-magnets to propel the ball. You can easily rig the game so you are the only one that can ring the ball. I have been working on a game-idea […]
8×16 ping-pong ball LED matrix display
Exapod built a 8×16 ping-pong ball LED matrix display. The ping-pong balls are used as diffusers for green LEDs. Two MAX7219 8bit serial LED drivers control the lights. A PIC18F2553 drives the MAX chips with text received over a Bluetooth module. I finally finished my 8×16 ping pong ball matrix display, soldering all the boards, […]
Little-Wire entered production at Seeed Studios
The Little-Wire, TinyAVR based multi-tool has entered production at Seeed Studios. After some initial difficulties with production setup, the first run of Little Wires has started production last week. Last Friday they said me that they’ll start the production immediately at that day. I’m waiting … I hope at most at the end of this […]
DIY TV B GONE built into a Nokia phone case
Exapod built the USB IR Toy on a DIY PCB and programmed it with the TV B GONE firmware. To give it a stealth touch he stuck it into an old Nokia phone case. It’s powered by the phone’s battery, which runs 4 IR diodes for extended range and usage time. …found an old nokia […]
Connecting a smart house over the CAN bus update
Rynius is automating his house using the CAN bus. He hit some issues with noise in the cabling, which he identified and documented the fix. I had trouble finding wire for the bus and ended up using security cable. Unfortunately it picked up a 60 Hz wave, so I had to add some caps to […]
MSP430 based wireless temperature sensor
Toxic239 shared his wireless temperature sensor project based on the MSP430 microcontroller. It uses a 14.089 MHz carrier frequency which is modulated using Morse code, outputting “CALLSIGN T<TEMP> 73”. The source files are available in the forum. For an upcoming low altitude party balloon flight :D we had to put together a simple Morse transmitter. […]
Using a Wii Nunchuk as an earthquake sensor
Here is an open source earthquake sensor based on the Wii Nunchuk. A Teensy is used to read the I2C accelerometer output: This article explores the suitability of a Wii nunchuk based USB accelerometer as an earthquake sensor for the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) project. It examines the nunchuk over several metrics: precision and range, frequency response, […]
IV-11 VFD tube clock
Haris built this handsome IV-11 VFD clock and wooden case. VFD tubes are similar to Nixie tubes, but use much lower voltages. Via the forum.
El wire controlled with sound using MIDI
Paul’s El wire controller pulses electroluminescent wire to sound using the MIDI protocol output by many musical instruments. It’s based on SparkFun’s El wire sequencer, with a custom board decoding the MIDI information.
Digital saxophone emulator
Brian built a digital saxophone emulator. A mic is used to detect the pressure blowing onto the mouthpiece, while buttons detect the notes selected. An Atmel breakout board generates the sound based on these two factors. Via Hacked Gadgets.
USBug LPC1343 development board update
A few days ago we wrote about the open source USBbug LPC1343 development board designed by Squonk. He started a GitHub page for his project, and shared the first pic of the built board. Via the forum.
Line following robot based on the dsPIC33
Exapod is building a line following robot based on the dsPIC33 and stuff he won from SparkFun‘s giveaways. Watch the little robot race through Monza in a video below. i’m planning of building a robot with a dspic33fj128mc804 and two encoders for implement some dead reckoning algorithms so for learn something on the dspics i […]
USBug: LPC1343 breakout board
USBug is a LPC1343 breakout board with USB capability. The bootloader appears as a USB flash drive, just drag a new firmware into the drive to update. Basically, my board is a 40-pin LPC1343 breakout board with 12 MHz crystal, USB Connect detection and disconnect, MicroBuilder’s single-button ISP, ISP Header and the standard LPCXpresso user […]
MCHCK – a small ARM Cortex M3 development board
Small form factor board, with a STM32L151 ARM Cortex M3 for around 5 dollars. This is the target of the MCHCK development board. The board was designed to be cheap enough so that you can develop a project with it, and not have to re-purpose it for the next project, but get a new one […]
Carambola controlled quadcopter
Saulius writes: “I have just tested in the air my latest quadcopter telemetry link using low-cost open-source wifi board. This link can be used not only to relay telemetry data but control SU(A)V from joystick and get video back to ground station.” The copter uses the Carambola low cost, open-source WiFi (21.5 dB / 2.4GHz) […]
MSP430 based frequency counter with Nokia 1202 LCD
A while ago we wrote about using cheap Nokia 1202 LCDs for projects. These LCDs come with a solderable connector, and are easy to interface over the I2C bus. Toxic239 made a frequency counter based on the MSP430 Launchpad and this LCD. Source code for his project is available in the forum.
DIY Audio function generator
DIY Audio function generator is a low-distortion function generator which operates in the Audio frequency range. Conventional function generators use a square wave signal to generate the other waveforms like triangle, or sine wave. This approach adds noise to the sine wave output, which is the one waveform Eric wants for his audio development. His […]
Transistor tester powerd from 2 AA batteries
Ferdinand added a dc/dc converter circuit to the transistor tester, allowing it to be powered from 2 AA batteries instead of a single 9volt. This project is similar to our Part Ninja, it’s designed to test various electronic components like transistors, diodes, resistors, etc, and display their pin out and basic specifications. I built my […]
Single-sided Little Wire AVR programmer
MickM build a single layer version of the Little Wire project. He uploaded the source files for the board in the forum. Little wire is am ATtiny-based open source AVR programer that’s packed full of features: An AVR programer Four digital GPIO pins ADC with 10 bit resolution Two parallel hardware PWM outputs An USB […]