Looking for a DIY solution to do Home Automation on a budget? Have a look at this Home Automation system that uses a cheap router to interface your in home items with the outside world using your network. Of course by outside world this includes you using your cell phone while sitting on the couch to turn on the porch light for your wife who is coming home with the groceries. Now of course there are the more conventional Home Automation Systems that you can just buy and use but where is the fun in that. Plus if you want to add some new functionality guess what, there is no way to do it…

“This project is based on SmartLinc.
http://www.smarthome.com/2412N/SmartLinc-INSTEON-Central-Controller/p.aspx
http://wiki.smarthome.com/index.php?title=2412_Manual_rev_2.0

Components
• OpenWRT compatible router, with serial header
• AVR microcontroller Development Board (like Arduino)
• Actuators like: RF switched outlets (433.92Mhz) with a remote”

Hack a Day is running a cool contest where you need to hack apart any dancing santa you can find and create a cool walking santa project.

“The challenge:
Acquire a dancing Santa. We don’t care which one it is, how much you spend, how big it is etc. We know there are tons of models out there ranging from dancing Christmas [Homer Simpson] to giant life sized Santa.  It might be a good idea to do some patent searches first to figure out what is inside. Here’s an example of what you can find (pdf).

Tear the Santa apart and use the pieces to build a multi legged walking thing. There are tons of ways to pull this off. Try to use only the pieces that came from the Santa. You may add tape/glue and solder (as well as batteries). We realize that you may absolutely have to add some stuff to get your plan working. Please document exactly what you added as this will be one of the judging points.

Photograph and document the entire process and submit it to us by November 30th.”

We had some feedback about the IR Jammer and how the button snap was not the best way to attach the 9 volt battery to the IR Jammer. The IR Jammer version 2 now has a plastic 9 volt battery box that holds the battery and with the included double stick foam it is now a much better looking evil device.  It also has much better feel in the hand.

If you haven’t seen the jammer before, it is very simple. Press the button and have fun while people around you are wondering why their remote control doesn’t work anymore. We are also happy to say that it is now also available in the Make online store called Maker Shed so be sure to add one to your cart next time you are getting some swag in the Maker Shed.

Alan’s Electronic Projects Location

Maker Shed IR Jammer Location

IR Jammer Assembly Manual (PDF)

If you are wanting to play with a bank of LEDs have a look at the TLC5947, it outputs 24 channels of constant current LED outputs. This RGB LED Circuit uses the TLC5947 and demonstrates how capable it is. If you want to have a look at the code for some ideas you can see the project page here.

“It uses one TLC5947 per 24 channels, which does 12-bit PWM on each individual channel. All the MCU has to do is shift in 12 bits per channel, and send a latch signal. The PWM clock signal is generated by the TLC5947′s, which makes it a lot easier to use than the TLC5940′s.”

It is sometimes fun to think of a cool problem and come up with an electronic solution. Have a look at this project that Matt Meerian from Home Brew Electronics put together, it is a way to Shoot a Bullet through a Spinning Propeller Blade. This was a common problem years ago when planes needed to have a forward mounted gun shoot through a center propeller. Matt thought it would be a cool challenge to complete with a microcontroller and a handful of electronics. If you are wanting to give this project a try Matt has the project code in his writeup.

“The software isn’t too complicated. When the user presses a button, the analog comparator interrupt counts the time (using Timer 1) between the propeller blades passing the infrared sensor mounted under the gun. Once we know how fast the propeller is going, the software then looks for analog comparator interrupt and counts 1.5 times the time between the blades, minus the time it takes the pellet to come out of the gun.“

Check out the latest Ben Heck Show where Ben makes converts a cheap laptop into an airplane friendly laptop. This is to prevent the guy sitting in front of you from tilting your screen when they lean their chair back. After the hack the screen is able to be tilted up and over the keyboard giving you tons of clearance between you and the objects in front of you. Only thing is you better be a good at touch typing since you won’t be able to do any hunt and peck typing when in airplane mode. I ma not crazy about the fake wood grain finish that was selected for the build, I think I would have gone with flat black or even a crazy bold solid color like vivid blue but the effect is still very cool. Ben sure does have some steady soldering hands!

Stanislav Ponomarev has been working hard with his NerdKit Microcontroller. He developed an impressive RGB LED Tetris Game. I think this version is probably more fun than the original version. I could just imagine scaling this up and playing it on the side of an apartment building with each window acting as a pixel of the game. Stanislav will send in the code and schematics as soon as they are complete.

UPDATE: The code is now available here.

“In image file MainBoard.jpg in top there are ICs from left to right respectively:
3 of “74ACT04PC” – HEX Inverter
“SN74154N” – 4-to-16 decoder
“CD4520BE” – 4-bit up counter
“ATmega168P” – AVR’s microcontroller that came in the NerdKits package, “LM34″ a temperature sensor, is connected to Analog-to-digital converter of the microcontroller. On the bottom row are 6 of “M74HC4094B1R” – 8-bit shift registers with latches connected through SPI interface of the microcontroller.

Principle of operation is quite simple. Up-counter is responsible for keeping track of which row is currently being shown, 4-to-16 decoder converts 4-bit binary number from up-counter into 16 different lines. The decoder I have outputs LOW for the current input value, so I had to pass all 16 lines from decoder through the inverters to
transistors, which just allow a higher current get to the LEDs. Without transistors LEDs show much dimmer and the whole row can not show white.

The shift registers are used to sink the current from LEDs, so I need a logical 0 to turn LED on, or 1 to turn it off. To eliminate the need of remembering 0 is on, 1 is off, I simply pass the SPI output from microcontroller through the inverter to the shift register. That solves the problem well and in my code, 1 becomes on, and 0 – off.

The rest is up to the code that I will post in a few days. In it I have a timer that updates the whole image 60 times a second, a double-buffered output with a vertical sync function, and I use temperature sensor reading, and a circuit noise to generate the seed for pseudo-random number generator, which is a must for most games.

I had the screen done a while before I decided to write tetris for it. The hardware + basic code for image output proved to be very useful. I was able to output current temperature reading, Images downloaded through the UART from the computer, and a output of a current time in analog format.”