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Archive: Electronics
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February 5, 2008
How to monitor your gas meter
Poul-Henning Kamp wants to track his natural gas usage. He knows that his meter has an impulse output port, but it is hidden inside the sealed meter. I know this wouldn't stop a lot of our readers from figuring out how to use it, but he has a very clever, non-obtrusive solution, to the problem.
A closer examination of the gas meter showed no signs of where the built-in impulse output were located, leading me to conclude that it probably is somewhere inside the sealed section of the meter where it would get me in legal trouble, not to mention potential explosion hazard to fiddle with it.
But I did notice something else: it is implemented optically rather than mechanically because the zero on the least significant digit is a shiny metallic oval rather than a painted white numeral.
How to monitor your gas meter -Link
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Feb 5, 2008 01:00 AM
Electronics |
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February 4, 2008
Ardrumo
Just when you thought the Arduino name permutations would stop - they don't!
Enter the "Ardrumo":
This is a software MIDI interface designed to accept serial data from an Arduino board and convert it into MIDI drum data in OS X. The application acts as a bridge between sensors connected to the Arduino board and applications such as GarageBand or Logic without requiring additional MIDI hardware. All data is transferred directly over the USB connection and no additional power source is needed.
Cool to see a project so fleshed out with interface software and documentation. Hit the link below for detailed info regarding piezo pad assembly as well.
Ardumo on Google Code -Link
Related:
Spooky Arduino Projects #4, and Musical Arduino -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 4, 2008 06:45 PM
Arduino, DIY Projects, Electronics, Music |
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| Comments (1)
BIG 7-segment display
Over at Sparkfun they're selling a relatively massive 7-segment LED display, measuring a highly legible 6"x3.3". Finally, I can see what MIDI channel I'm using from down the hall!
Has anyone put one of these to work in a µcontroller project yet? We'd love to see it in action!
7-Segment RED 6.5" Display @ SparkFun -Link
Of course, you could always make your own.
Related:
Seven-segment big LED display -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 4, 2008 04:30 PM
Electronics |
Permalink
| Comments (3)
Hexateuthis, a robotic hexapod
From the MAKE Flickr pool:
Mr. Tentacle submitted this image of his six-legged robot, Hexateuthis - "the 6-legged land squid".
The design uses 18 Lynxmotion servo motors controlled by a Pololu Orangutan board (with an Atmega168 at the helm). Throw in some sleek cabling/chassis contrast and you've got yourself one fine piece of machine.
Hexateuthis on Flickr -Link
Pololu Orangutan Robot Controller -Link
Linxmotion Robot Kits -Link
Hexateuthis First Steps on YouTube -Link
Related:
The Hexipod 3 -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 4, 2008 02:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Robotics |
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| Comments (5)
Matchbox Synthesizer
From the MAKE Flickr pool:
Ranjit created this tiny synthesizer for the thing-a-day project. Though only about two inches long, this noisemaker has five sliding switches to augment tone and a pitch control on top. Unfortunately, no schematic was made available - but one book was cited as a source:
Handmade Electronic Music takes a loose and playful approach to the subject of electronic sound. This book bypasses many complexities of electronic theory in favor of inexpensive experimentation and discovery akin to circuit bending with a high-art leaning - Great for getting your feet wet, though it will leave the newcomer with many unanswered questions.
Matchbox Synthesizer on Vimeo -Link
Matchbox Synthesizer on Flickr -Link
Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking -Link
Related:
MAKE NYC & Handmade music night! JAM PACKED!! -Link
TV-to-synth interface in MAKE Vol. 8 page 123 -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 4, 2008 01:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music |
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| Comments (2)
TV-B-Gone Gun
Ferry, from the HackedGadgets Forum, writes:
"I took 30 IR LEDs and wired them up, a SMD FET switches them on and off and is wired up with a pinheader connector to the TV-B-Gone. Internally the FET is connected to the output pin of the controller, which is also connected to the transistor driving the normal IR LED.
I took a lens out of a old beamer, and used a PVC tube to fit all the stuff in.
After all I painted it black, paint doesn't hold too well on PVC but whatever.
It's possible to focus the beam by turning on a blue LED and slide the LEDs when loosening the screws on the side."
TV-B-Gone Gun - Link
Related:
- TV-B-Gone coverage on the Make: Blog - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Feb 4, 2008 12:00 PM
Culture jamming, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (4)
BlinkM review - ValenThrowieM + TempM
Ladayada reviewed the BlinkM we featured here on MAKE, she made a LED that blinks like a heartbeat and a temperature sensor that changes color of the LED to blue (cold) or red (hot) - Link.
Related:
BlinkM, the smart LED - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Feb 4, 2008 09:00 AM
Electronics |
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Make a Stylophone-style synth controller
Here's another great project PCB from MFOS. The Mini-Controller can be used with any synthesizer with a 1-volt-per-octave input. It uses a stylus probe and PCB keyboard contacts similar to the classic Stylophone synth used by David Bowie.
Just to clarify - this is only an interface and doesn't produce any sound on its own, but it's probably the simplest DIY synth controller project out there.
Stylophones are still made today by the Dubreq company. While they're not the prettiest sounding synths, they are retro-cool and a lot of fun to play.
MFOS Mini-Controller -Link
1969: David Bowie and the Stylophone -Link
Original Stylophone by Dubreq -Link
Related:
MIDI Arduinophone -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 4, 2008 05:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music, Retro |
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| Comments (1)
Harnessing Nature - "The Bug Light"
The Bug Light is a beautiful sculpture created entirely out of 100% recycled parts. What a great use of materials that would have ended up in a landfill. Next time you go to throw away that burnt out bulb, think of the Bug Light. - Link
Related:
Light bulb aquarium - Link
Light bulb vase - Link
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Feb 4, 2008 02:00 AM
Electronics, Retro |
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| Comments (4)
February 3, 2008
Light record
Matt Mets made this "Light Record:"
I am using some photocells to read the intensity of light that shines through a sheet of paper, upon which I have encoded an image using shades of grey. By spinning this paper around and shining a light through it, the image can be viewed on an oscilloscope. The circuit consists of two resistor dividers, one for each channel, made up of a photocell and a fixed resistor. When there is a large amount of light on the photocell, its resistance drops dramatically and the output voltage rises; when there is little light on the photocell, its resistance goes down and the voltage goes down as well. That's it!
It's the first of Matt's ambitious Thing-a-Day efforts. - Link.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Feb 3, 2008 06:00 PM
Arts, DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (4)
Bezel for “Monome-like” button pad
Todbot writes -
This is a laser-cut acrylic bezel for Sparkfun’s Monome-like Button Pad PCB and Button Pad. These 4×4 Button Pads are great: big chunky buttons with a PCB that can take an RGB LED. JMG is making a “monomuino”, a Monome work-alike using this pad and an Arduino. And he’s extending the Monome functionality since his indicator lights can display 3 dimensions of data instead of the normal 1 of Monome.Bezel for “Monome-like” button pad - Link.I’ve had one of these button pads for a long time but was stymied from using it for a variety of reasons, partly due to not having a bezel to stabilize the buttons from canting to one side when pushed. Sparkfun always seemed to not have their bezel in stock. So I decided to try to laser-cut a piece of scrap black 1/8″ acrylic into a nice bezel.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Feb 3, 2008 02:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (0)
February 1, 2008
LED Blaster - complete!
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool
Woah! Steve finished his LED Blaster and it looks incredible, He even posted an instructable for the project. Truly a top notch job.
LED Blaster on Flickr-Link
Make an LED Blaster on Instructables - Link
Related:
Homebrew Toy Blaster -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 10:30 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Toys and Games |
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| Comments (0)
The Kaossilator
So Why would a web store like ThinkGeek stock a Korg synthesizer? Well, the Kaossilator isn't a regular keyboard synth - in fact it's not a keyboard at all, it's a touchpad;
Move your finger from left to right to change the pitch of the note, and up and down to change the sound. But musical sounds are only the beginning, the Kaossilator can also be used like a drum kit with dozens of built in beats and drum sounds. Plus you get some amazing sound effects from laser blasts to Pac Man. You can put everything to good use with the built-in loop recording feature which lets you layer virtually unlimited tracks to create complex songs combining lead instruments, drum beats and sound effects together.
Seems like touch interfaces are very stylish these days and that's a good thing. Touch interfaces are intuitive, and ideally making music always should be.
At $200 it's a pretty affordable "Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer". Unfortunately there's no sign of a USB/MIDI jack, so no data actually exits the box :(
You'd probably have to crack it open to do that . . . So who's first?
Korg Kaossilator on ThinkGeek -Link
Related:
Nintendo DS MIDI -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 09:30 PM
Electronics, Music |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
Tengu remake on a PIC
Here's a good one for those looking to learn more about microcontroller projects and PIC chips more specifically. This clone of the Tengu sound visualizer runs a mini-game upon startup - created as a birthday gift for the author's sister. The project is thoroughly explained even through a language barrier:
its usage is very easy. after connecting pic-tengu to a usb port, it will switch on in a sleep state. blowing on its face he will wake up. then pic-tengu yawns and, if and only if it is the first time we use it, it will start the candles game. the aim of this game is to blow out the candles one by one, so it can become quite boring if the person being honoured is over a certain age, although less painful than pulling his/her ears. fortunately, my sister is only 25 years old. a personalized scrolling message appears when the game is over. next, pic-tengu starts to imitate every noise it hears. there are four sets of faces available: aquiline-nose, snub-nose, no-nose and luciano. the active set of faces changes blowing or with a strong noise. pic-tengu´s auditive acuteness is configurable through the back potentiometer. pressing this button toggles between the imitate mode and the scrolling message mode. if we keep the button pressed more than 2 seconds, pic-tengu will reset, recovering the same state as if it had never been used before; this implies that the candle games will appear again after awakening it.
Related:
DIY Tengu on a breadboard -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 07:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Remake, Toys and Games |
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| Comments (0)
A cuddlier joule thief
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool:
Member Garagemonkeysan brought a more lovable look and feel to the popular joule thief project. The seemingly depleted battery is held in place by 2 magnets - nice technique! He's also got a great instructable up as well.
Cat burglar joule thief on Flickr-Link
Cat burglar joule thief on Instructables -Link
Related:
Make a Joule Thief - Weekend Projects Video Podcast -Link
The Joule Thief -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 02:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics |
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| Comments (3)
The Chronualotor facade
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool
Eric submitted pics of his Chronulator build featuring a recycled circuit board housing - nice way to increase the "What the-?!?" factor.
Remember we love to see your projects, so submit them to the pool!
Chronulator on Flickr - Link
Related:
The Chronulator kit -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 01:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Kits |
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| Comments (0)
Truth Detector
The Truth device, by Sean Montgomery:
By measuring changes in skin resistance (similar to a lie detector test) this device can help the wearer know when he is getting closer to the truth. The baseline or "average truth" is displayed via an RGB spectrum on the side leds. When instantaneous skin conductance exceeds the average, letters of the word truth light up to display the extent of the "relative truth".
Hey, why emphasize the negative by making a "lie" detector anyway?
Also, check out one of Sean's earlier projects - the Produce Consume Robot:
Truth device and more - Link
Related:
Lego Lie Detector -Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 10:10 AM
Electronics, Gadgets, Robotics, Wearables |
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| Comments (0)
Steam battery - breath power calculator
Interesting write up from Mark Valentine on his "steam battery" he writes -
A few months ago, Forrest M. Mims III, the editor of The Citizen Scientist, received an inquiry from an upper-level physics student that led to a brief (or perhaps not so brief) account of how I discovered the "Steam Battery." Essentially, this is an arrangement that produces a voltage across a sample of black ESD (Electro Static Discharge) foam when human breath is applied to one side of it.Steam battery - breath power calculator - Link.After I gave my account, I began thinking about well-documented effects that behave similarly to the steam battery. The most prominent is the "hot-point-probe" effect I suggested previously in the "Backscatter" column, in which a p-type or n-type silicon wafer generates a current between two probes when one is hot, and the other is cold. It's similar to the Seebeck effect, but a bit more complicated, since the current can flow in either direction depending on the type of wafer.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Feb 1, 2008 06:00 AM
Electronics |
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| Comments (0)
Rock Band string mod
It seems Rock Band's plastic strum bar wasn't good enough for this player. He used some professional quality wood fittings to mount an actual guitar string which triggers a spring-switch mechanism. Notice the lovely wood inlay inhabiting the former home of the strum bar. Looks quite "high end"!
Related:
Fixing a Rock Band strat - Link
Rock Band drum dampening tutorial - Link
Posted by Collin Cunningham |
Feb 1, 2008 04:59 AM
Electronics, Gaming, Music |
Permalink
| Comments (0)
Make An Xbox360 Arcade Joystick
Here is a step-by-step tutorial for converting a Street Fighter arcade-style joystick controller to work with your Xbox360. Although they started with a Street Fighter joystick, which you most likely don't have, the pictures of the Xbox controller ripped apart are all labeled. This should definitely help you get a jump start on your own creation. - Link
Related:
Homemade Xbox 360 arcade controller - Link
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
Feb 1, 2008 03:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Toys and Games |
Permalink
| Comments (2)
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