Halloween is coming soon. It is time to prepare scary hacks. Different web pages show Halloween hacking ideas. Here are links to so ideas picked from different sources: Halloween Knock Box. So what is it anyway? Well, as the name implies, when you knock on it, it knocks back. And if you knock on it →
Build your own metal detector article mentions a pretty interesting Diy Arduino based metal detector. The article starts with with an explanation of how most oscillator based metal detectors work. Most metal detectors uses a search coil that act as part of an oscillator circuit. When metal is put in proximity of the search coil →
Serialchart is an open source application for charting data sent via RS-232 port in real time. It runs on Windows. It is very suitable for a microcontroller (Arduino) project to graph the incoming data to screen. The incoming data should be in CSV format, with each point on a separate line. After some short tests →
Hopelessly addicted to email, social networking, or other online distractions? Robert R. Morris and Dan McDuff created Pavlov Poke to wean themselves off Facebook and finish their dissertations. While this project is intended to be a joke, the project creators believe a serious discussion is needed about how communication technologies are designed. In the technical →
Beagle Board has a long history of making reasonably ARM development boards. Recently they come up with interesting BeagleBone series of boards. BeagleBone is an $89 MSRP, credit-card-sized Linux computer that connects to the Internet and runs software such as Android 4.0 and Ubuntu. The board is based on AM335x 720MHz ARM® processor. BeagleBone Black →
I own Fujifilm HS20EXR digital camera that use to take photos for this blog. One day I thought I wanted to have a wired external trigger. The ready made cables seemed to be expensive and/or hard to find. So I used the DIY approach: search for needed details from Internet and then build my own →
There seems to be a push for all kinds of ARM based development boards. pcDuino looks to be another interesting ARM platform that runs Linux. The name comes from Mini PC + Arduino. pcDuino is a mini PC platform that runs PC like OS such as Ubuntu and Android ICS. It outputs screen to HDMI. →
I needed one more Arduino board, so I planned to check out this cheap (US$14.30) Duemilanove 2009 Atmega 328P SCM Board with USB Cable board. This is a clone of the Arduino Duemilanove with several enhancements not available in the original Arduino. The most important that is on board 2.54 grid male pin headers an →
Freeduino is a collaborative open-source project to replicate and publish Arduino-compatible hardware files. The Freeduino Eagle SCH, BRD and Gerber production files allow users to create boards that are 100% functionally, electrically and physically compatible with Arduino hardware. →
A standard hobby RC servo motor is designed to rotate through only 180 degrees. They are most often used in RC applications (like steering). The servo motor controlling is done with servo control pulses (1-2 ms pulse at around 50 Hz rate). More details on the control signals can be found at Servo protocol web →