Cooking Hacks Blog

 

Gal Sasson from ITP entered this “Make a Play” video and project in Engadget’s Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. It gets my vote for its combination of craft and electronics to create fun and engaging puppets, simple box theater construction complete with a spooky backdrop and lighting effects, and of course that laser-etched wooden control box.

Via: Make, Source: Engadget

 

 

This glove controller let you play a musical game. The challenge is to perform the correct wrist motions at the right tempo to play the intro to the song Where is my Mind by the Pixies. This is demonstrated in the video.

We often see flex sensors used on the fingers of glove projects, but this one does it all with an accelerometer. That module, along with the Piezo buzzer used for playback are affixed to the small breadboard on the back side of his hand. Rubber bands connect the Arduino to his third and forth fingers. The tempo and rhythm are pre-programmed but the tone generated is based on the gravity reading at the start of each note. If you don’t have your hand positioned correctly the wrong tone will be played.

The code was published in Instructables. It would be fun to see this altered as a hacked Simon Says game.

Via: Hack a Day, Source: Instructables

 

 

[Christian] wrote in to tell us about his third-generation Arduino MIDI sequencer (translated) called the AM808 VX3. He had already laid a strong base for the project in his previous versions. But the user interface was still frustrating at times and that’s where this version comes in. it features a nice clean dashboard like interface, but also includes a configurable virtual interface.

The obvious components seen above include the slider and potentiometer band, as well as the repository of buttons mounted below that. But in the center of the board is a touchpad which [Christian] pulled out of an old Laptop. It interfaces as a PS2 device which makes it pretty simple to use in conjunction with the Arduino. But that’s not the only touch-enabled input device. The rectangle to the right of the touch pad is an LCD screen with a touch overlay. As you can see (and hear) in the video, the touch screen made it possible for him to rework the controls until they became simple and intuitive.

Via: Hack a Day, Source: arduinoprx.de

 

 

 
This week, RTVE (our national TV Channel) showed our Open Source Sensor Platform, Waspmote, through a technical TV program: i+. You will be able to know the vertical applications using this platform: agriculture, smart environment, smart metering...
Alicia Asín and David Gascón, Libelium's founders, talk about Waspmote and its benefits in the market,entering in the Internet of Things with a low cost device for professional applications.

Source: RTVE

 
About a year ago, [Anthony] decided to embark on his biggest project to date. He wanted something with a ton of LEDs, so when the idea of recreating the classic electronic Lights Out game came to mind, he knew he had the makings of a killer project. The finished Lights Out arcade box is a wonderful piece of work with sixteen 17-segment displays and just as many LED illuminated arcade buttons.

By far the most impressive feature of [Anthony]‘s project are the two rows of 17-segment displays. These are controlled by two MAX6954 LED display drivers on a beautiful wire wrapped board. The 16 buttons for the game are translucent arcade buttons that compliment the RGB LED strip very nicely.

A great display and a whole bunch of LEDs don’t make a game, though. [Anthony] came across this article on JSTOR that told him how to create new 4×4 games of Lights Out and solve them algorithmically to get the total number of moves required to solve the puzzle. As you can see in this video, it’s a little hard to solve the puzzle in the minimum amount of moves. Still, we have to commend [Anthony] for a great project.

Via: Hack a Day, Source: DiGirolamo Knows

 

 

Kacper Ziemianin conceived of a pretty simple audio interface: a row of photoresistors arranged like a piano. However, it’s what he does with that interface that’s compelling. The 24 sensors are multiplexed and routed through an Arduino. The data is then interpreted by MAX/MSP.
In MAX, Kacper manipulates the data in some novel ways. The instrument can be used simply as a touch controller; when the user covers a photoresistor with his/her finger, a note is played. Then he gets into some aleatory sound with a marble rolling around the surface of the controller. Finally, he flips the light reaction in MAX, making it play notes when light is detected. Now he’s able to control the sound using a variety of light sources such as a lamp and an illuminated cellphone.

We see a lot of sensor-based instruments come our way, but the Lightefface is notable for its expressive capability. Kacper has plans to start production of these. You can surely sign me up for one.

Via: Make, Source: Kacper Ziemianin

 

One of the most questions received from our Community has been about using the 3G/GPRS shield for Arduino / Raspberry Pi to make video calls. In this video, you will be able to know how to do it with the Audio/Video Kit.

We make a call from our Arduino to our mobile phone. The video took from the camera in the Arduino is showed in the mobile phone in real-time.

In order to work with 3G Shield, you can take a look on this tutorial. It explains how to use it with AT Commands through a Serial Terminal like Cutecom or GTKTerm.

The basic commands are:

- AT+CREG?: it returns "+CREG: 0,1" or "+CREG: 0,5" if we are connected through our own network (1) or in roaming (5)
- AT+CCAMS: we activate the camera
- AT+VPMAKE=<phone number>
- AT+VPEND: hang up.

Note: in this video, we type "AT+CMUT=1" and "AT+VMUTE=1" to mute the microphone and the speaker of the video/kit in order to avoid interferences.

Source: 3G/GPRS Shiedl for Arduino / Raspberry Pi (3G+GPS) Tutorial

 

Circuit bender Dr. Bleep built this sweet Arduino-compatible drum machine, the Bleep Drum, with four sounds, four selectable sequences, tap tempo, record and playback, and more. Of course it’s open source and eminently hackable.

Guide for Bleep Drum code v003 (also applies to Dam Drum 2.0).

The left knob controls the pitch of the red pad, the snare.

Right knob controls the blue, tom pad.

Play – Stop and start playback of selected sequence. Light will blink white on the beat.
Record – Start and stop additive recording. Any pad played will be added to the sequence.
Light blinks red.
Tap – Tap tempo
Shift + pad = Change to that color sequence. Light will change to that color.
Shift + right knob = Change tempo with knob.
Shift + Play = Reverses samples
Play + Record = Erase current sequence.

Blue and yellow sequences start with kick on the 1 and 3.

NOISE MODE 30XX
Hold shift while turning on the device. The light will turn green. Hitting shift again will turn it pink and blinky
Green – Pots control the pitch just like normal
Pink – Pots control noise.
All other controls are the same.

Via and Source: Make

 

Want to make your loved ones feel extra special with your handmade Valentine’s Day flowers? Nowait shows you how to make inexpensive electronic flowers:

"Long story short, I get alot of stick for not buying flowers (I think they are a waste of money) so I decided that I was going to make some that would never die…My first step was to find some way to make flowers, I decided on felt because I could buy it cheap from ebay".

Via and Source: Dangerous Prototypes

 

Using an Arduino Uno equipped with an Ethernet Shield and an LCD Keypad shield, MAKE reader Kedume demonstrates how to create a simple text display for the number of likes on any Facebook page. I think that this is a great project for an Arduino beginner because all you need to do is stack the Ethernet and LCD shields onto the Arduino, connect the cables, and customize the code to point to any Facebook page you want to monitor. And after you’ve uploaded the code, you’ll have a dedicated display to monitor your company/band/club’s popularity on Facebook. You can also start from this project and tweak it to create a counter for Twitter followers, unread email, or new items in your RSS feeds. We’ll have to get one of these going in MAKE Labs so that we can monitor the number of likes on the MAKE and Maker Faire Facebook pages.

Via and Source: Make