Planet Arduino

Build a smart octopus drumbot that listens, learns, and plays along with you

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The post Dr. Squiggles: An AI Rhythm Robot appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Build a smart octopus drumbot that listens, learns, and plays along with you

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The post Dr. Squiggles: An AI Rhythm Robot appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

I met John Kuiphoff a couple years ago and was blown away by some very clever data visualizations he shared based on people’s youtube channels. John’s back, and this time with another very creative approach to data visualization. In this project, John is wanting to display how much sunlight hits […]

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The post These Blobs Are Actually Clever Data Visualizations appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

Central Florida Maker groups use their diverse skills to create an interactive Bumblebee costume in only 3 weeks for a Magic Wheelchair recipient.

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The post Watch These Makers Transform a Wheelchair into an Interactive Bumblebee Costume appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

What's cooler than a clock that draws the time with a marker? One that does it with a laser of course! Build your own.

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The post Telling the Time with Robots, Lasers, and Phosphorescence appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

As multitools have lots of different functions in one case, so [Shadwan’s] clock design incorporates a multitude of features. He started the design as a binary clock using a Fibonacci spiral for the shape. However, the finished clock has four modes. The original binary clock, an analog clock, a flashlight (all lights on), and a disco mode that strobes multiple lights.

[Shadwan] used Rhino to model the case and then produced it using a laser cutter. The brains are — small wonder — an Arduino. A 3D-printed bracket holds everything together. You can see the result in the video below.

The clock was a school project and used a Neopixel ring. The students had a 16 position ring, which is not enough to do a 24-hour clock so they settled on a 12-hour design. The LED color, however, changes between AM and PM.

The paper included with the design said that research didn’t turn up any other binary clocks using Neopixels. We found that hard to believe, but it might be true. We certainly didn’t find any in our archives, although there are plenty of non-binary clocks out there.

Filed under: Arduino Hacks, clock hacks

[Niko1499] had a plan. He’d built a cool hardware controller for the game Kerbal Space Program (KSP). He got a lot of positive reaction to it and decided to form a company to produce them. As many people have found out, though, that’s easier said than done, and the planned company fell short of its goals. However, [Niko1499] has taken his controller and documented a lot about its construction, including some of the process he used to get there.

If you haven’t run into it before, KSP is sort of half simulator, half game. You take command of an alien space program and develop it, plan and execute missions, and so on. The physics simulation is quite realistic, and the game has a large following.

When we first saw the photos, we thought it was an old Heathkit trainer, and–indeed–the case is from an old Heathkit. However, the panel is laser cut, and the software is Arduino-based. [Niko1499] covers a few different methods of letting the Arduino control the game by emulating a joystick, a keyboard, or by using some software to take serial data and use it to control the game.

The project isn’t quite an exact how-to, although he does provide a bill of materials and the software. However, you’ll surely want to customize the layout to fit your case and your preferences anyway.

We are always surprised we don’t see more dedicated hardware control panels for popular software like Gimp (or Photoshop) or video editing. Faking mouse and keyboard input is pretty simple and having dedicated buttons for common functions could be pretty productive if you plan it out right.

We have, however, seen a number of controllers for KSP for quite a while. Of course, everyone has their own take on exactly what one should look like.

Filed under: Arduino Hacks

Now you can recreate the infamous dance scene from Ex Machina with some cardboard, LEDs, and Arduino.

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The post Party Like a Sci-Fi Billionaire with the Music-Sensing Light from Ex Machina appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

"Your Projects" is a column that features some of the awesome creations our readers have been making. These projects from our readers come from the MAKE Google+ Community and beyond.

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First year ITP student Xuedi ("Zoodie") Chen presented this awesome physical/virtual game installation as part of ITP's Winter Show.

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