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Jon Wise demonstrates his Raspberry Pi 3D Printer, he is using a pen in the demo but it can use an extrude to print items. The mechanical movements leek very complex when compared to a standard XY table that is controlled using 2 stepper motors. The Pi has enough number crunching ability to get the job done though. I can’t wait to see this printing a complex shape, the movements are interesting to watch, it reminds me of the robot hands that use angular joints to move around. |
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While watching the video I was wondering why there was so much complex electronics for the AZIZ – LED Microscope Illuminator Project. I was thinking that a simple dial to vary the intensity would be all you would need. If you are thinking the same thing have a look at the video starting around the 4 minute mark. By having modes that allow you to spin lighting patterns and vary the light between the diffused and bright white LEDs you can enhance chip markings tremendously. The system controls 64 LED using a Texas Instruments TLC59116 constant-current PWM LED driver chip, and an Atmel ATTiny1634 8-bit microcontroller. Code and schematics are available if you would like to make your own. Thanks for the tip Stephan.
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These Rave Shade – LED Glasses look like a ton of fun. They are Arduino based and use 74HC595 shift registers to light all the LEDs. At first I though it was a silly design since with a PCB sitting on your face you would not be able to see anything. But later I saw the small circles that are cut into the board which allows you to presumable see most things in front of you. To program new pattern some computer software is used which generates the pattern code to be downloaded to the Arduino. eXtremeSomething is selling kits but he is waiting till 10 people pays for a kit before pulls the trigger on the order. Sort of like a mini Kickstarter (he lives in the UK and Kickstarter doesn’t operate there). Be sure to follow the project Facebook page if this interests you!
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Want to annoy IronJungle? Tweet a bunch of commands to his Twitter Robot Hand! His hand is monitoring the Twitter stream using a Raspberry PI and will act on your commands (seen below). ”A Raspberry PI monitors the tweets to @OurCatDoor. The PI’s GPIO acts as inputs to a PICAXE 18M2 which controls five servos on a robot hand. You can control the “The Hand of PI” by sending a tweet to @OurCatDoor. Ifyour tweet includes any of the text below, the “Hand of PI” obeys your command. |
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Gregor “G-Man” Hanuschak sent in a tip about a fun looking project called the Smack Attack, which is a Steering Wheel Drum Kit (might be a product soon). You can now play along with the tunes in your car! The Kickstarter will go live very soon and has a goal of $200,000. With a product price of $150 and a early bird Kickstarter price of $99 I am thinking there might be enough interest to make this thing a go? “The tag line is, “Smack Attack: The drum set for your steering wheel”. Fight highway hypnosis and hit your steering wheel to add drum sounds to the music you’re listening to in your car. Music and your drumming can be wirelessly sent to your stereo and played over your existing car speakers. The product that lets you do this is called “Re-Inventing The Wheel” (or RITW for short) and is being presented by the company “Smack Attack Corporation”. A feature-rich product, you can play drums with any song in your iPhone’s music library, play along with drum karaoke (music with no drums, hence you become the only drummer), change the 8 drum sounds produced by your steering wheel to any sounds you want (including the sound of Chewbacca or homemade sounds like the sound of your pet dog: http://ritwsmackattack.com/dog_sounds.html), record your drum performances and post to the web, or even let other passengers in the car drum along with you by hitting touchscreen buttons on the iPhone app. There’s no installation required, the cover fits on any steering wheel, and operation is completely wireless. RITW currently only works with iPhones, but an Android version will likely be forthcoming (as will be one for non-smart phone users). Kickstarter funding is being requested to make the shift from working prototypes to mass production and actual products are being offered as rewards to Kickstarter backers.”
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It sucks when you have a perfectly good piece of hardware that mechanically functions but the controller dies. This is exactly what happened to Davide Gironi from Milan Italia when his dehumidifier stop working. Instead of placing it next to the curb for garbage pickup he investigated what the issue was. Turns out the humidity switch was no longer working. He installed an AVR Atmega8 microcontroller system that now operates the dehumidifier and all is well. If you would like to see how he wrote the code and wired it up you can see both here. “AVR dehumidifier is an alternative electronic board for your dehumidifier based upon AVR Atmega8 micro.
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Ben Rothschild wrote in about an interesting project that he is working on. Watch the video above for more details, if you would like your own Chipper – ATtiny Programming and Prototyping Shield please support his Kickstarter. “As a high school senior and electronic enthusiast, I recently built a programming shield for 10 different types of ATtiny chips that can be used with either an AVR programmer or Arduino Board. Some of the features on the PCB that 100% Arduino compatible
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