Archive for the ‘ physical computing ’ Category

motorNet – proof of concept

quick video of a potentiometer controlling a servo motor over the interwebs. arduino -> processing -> PHP [serverside] -> .txt file [serverside] and all the way back on the other computer. i'll put up code when it's all ready to go. as it is, this is ready to go both ways, but for clarity i just filmed it going one way. these two computers could be thousands of miles apart, just need to be online. [ READ MORE ]

5-volt USB Breakout board

I actually made this back in February (you can see the date etched next to my initials on the board), and never got around to posting about it. It's a super simple breakout footprint for a USB mini type-B port. I wanted to make a really simple way to power my breadboard, and since my computer is usually on my work table, this seemed like a great idea. I made about 60 of these tiny boards which measure about 2cm x 3cm and hope to sell them as a really cheap, tiny kit one day.

Other than the board itself, the only components necessary are a USB mini type-B port, a 22uF SMT capacitor, and two header pins, which can plug directly into the power rails of your breadboard. My friend Jen asked me to help her put together a glowing LED circuit inside some ceramic pottery, and part of the concept was that the organic piece would need to plugged into to your computer to 'live'. Here are some images of the Arduino Pro Mini powered by my breakout board.

USB 5v Breakout board [ READ MORE ]

bootloading an ATMega328 with an Arduino

Awesome! Arduino finally released a tutorial on how to bootload a chip using an Arduino board.

There have been several hacks to do this, but now they have released code to do it legit style!

The tutorial can be found here. I played around with the setup, and successfully did it by inserting my blank chip into another an Arduino, and used a second Arduino with their code uploaded to bootload the firmware. I discovered: 1. This is a feature available only with Arduino0018 (the latest version of the IDE). and 2.you cannot use an ATMega168 as the chip performing the bootload. It must be a Duemilanove with a 328 on board.

I then did it with a blank chip in a breadboard with a barebones circuit around it, and an Arduino board uploading to it. Here's a really blurry, really anticlimactic video of the breadboard setup doing it's thing. You can see once the bootloading has completed, the chip is no longer blank and begins flashing LED13.

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Perfboard Hackduino Instructable!

Finally completed an instructable on how to assume your own $8 Arduino-compatible circuit. I started hackduino.org last year to spread the word of using ATMega chips outside of the standard blue Arduino board. There are so many benefits to this including cost and size/shape, but the ability to create entire circuits including other analog or digital parts (opAmps, relays, LED drivers, anything!) is the biggest reason any serious pcomper should know how to do this. I've been busy, and so the hackduino blog has just been pretty much my projects (and a few of Nick Hardeman's!) that use ATMega chips programmed with the Arduino IDE in completely custom circuits. No more having to take apart a project just to reuse that bulky $30 Arduino board!! Hackduino 4-eva ---

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prototyping solar robots!

Amber Krishan, Justin Blinder, and I have begun prototyping solar robots in phys comp. The current goal to is to create a kinetic object, powered using solar energy. The only problem is, solar cells are not the most efficient, reliable, or consistent power source, so it is quite a challenge. Walking/rolling robots have been done sooo many times in so many ways, that we decided a flying robot was the way to go. solar flying fail #1

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Heartbeat Game of Life Hoodie @ NYC Resistor!

I am honored to have been invited to exhibit my Hoodie at an Arduino restrospective show happening at NYC Resistor this Saturday. Check out event info here: http://www.nycresistor.com/2010/03/21/art-design-and-the-arduino-a-lineage/

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augmented facemask

This was a project I made in June 2009 in Beijing, China. The facemask had green, yellow, and red LEDs that would indicate safe, medium, and dangerous levels of proximity. The project was inspired by the crowded streets of Beijing, and how physical walking down the street could be. The lights would color your face depending on how close something or someone might be to you, emphasizing personal space and public interaction. facemask1[ READ MORE ]

EKG-controlled Game of Life Hoodie

First Wear! The concept is a wearable version of Conway's Game of Life, that is controlled by the current state of your life. Essentially, a wearable extension of your heart, externalized in the form of Conway's Life. A custom circuit includes an infrared EKG monitor that resets the Game each time a heartbeat is detected. Heartbeat data is analyzed by a hackduino which resets an ATMega48 chip, part of Adafruit's kit controlling Life, which is embedded in the chest of a hoodie. Conductive thread is used to connect the 16 LED matrix to the circuit board which is kept in a pocket towards the bottom of the hoodie. [ READ MORE ]

3 segmented LED display

j-murph made us do something that i still believe is an enormous waste of time. nonetheless, i'm going to make something with it.



code for a simple counter ( 0 - 999 ) can be downloaded here[ READ MORE ]

instructable: prototyping a PCB with a laser cutter

my first instructable was received warmly and got featured on instructables.com! Custom PCB Prototyping using a Laser Cutter - More DIY How To Projects[ READ MORE ]