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Whilst swapping out the stereo in his car for a more modern Android based solution, [Aaron] noticed that it only utilised a single CAN differential pair to communicate with the car as opposed to a whole bundle of wires employing analogue signalling. This is no surprise, as modern cars invariably use the CAN bus to establish communication between various peripherals and sensors.

In a series of videos, [Aaron] details how he used this opportunity to explore some of the nitty-gritty of CAN communication. In Part 1 he designs a cheap, custom CAN bus sniffer using an Arduino, a MCP2515 CAN controller and a CAN bus driver IC, demonstrating how this relatively simple hardware arrangement could be used along with open source software to decode some real CAN bus traffic. Part 2 of his series revolves around duping his Android stereo into various operational modes by sending the correct CAN packets.

These videos are a great way to learn some of the basic considerations associated with the various abstraction layers typically attributed to CAN. Once you’ve covered these, you can do some pretty interesting stuff, such as these dubious devices pulling a man-in-the-middle attack on your odometer! In the meantime, we would love to see a Part 3 on CAN hardware message filtering and masks [Aaron]!

If Elon Musk was to design a soapbox car, the prototype might look something like this by David Traum.

Traum’s project is powered by a 500W motor which is fed by a pair of 12V batteries, allowing it to attain a top speed of 35 km/h, and a range of 10 to 15km. Although that might not sound like a huge number, it looks quite speedy at the end of the video below!

But that’s not all. The vehicle features a rather unique control system, with front wheel steering actuated by a stepper and cable assembly. An Arduino Mega is the brains of the operation, while user input is via a small touchscreen, a joystick, and even a steering wheel (equipped with an Uno, a 9V battery, radio module, and gyro sensor) that can work wirelessly as needed—perhaps to park remotely, or simply as a gigantic RC car

The clip here is in German, but you can read more in this English-translated article.

This LED heads-up display is a simple modification for your car, but it makes your car look very futuristic.

Read more on MAKE

The post Hack Your Car into the Future with an LED Heads-Up Display appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

University of Birmingham researchers found two vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain entry to almost all VW vehicles manufactured after 1995.A team of researchers were able to unlock and start the ignition of Volkswagen cars with just $40 of electronic components.

Read more on MAKE

The post Volkswagen Security Problems: Arduino Hack Reveals RFID Vulnerability appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

University of Birmingham researchers found two vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain entry to almost all VW vehicles manufactured after 1995.A team of researchers were able to unlock and start the ignition of Volkswagen cars with just $40 of electronic components.

Read more on MAKE

The post Volkswagen Security Problems: Arduino Hack Reveals RFID Vulnerability appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

nfcphoneAdding an NFC unlocker to your car allows you to open your vehicle with your phone, or an NFC ring.

Read more on MAKE

The post Use Your Smartphone as Your Car Key with an NFC Lock appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

display1Harin De Mel could have hacked his car to display something "useful", but where's the challenge in that? Shower thoughts, it is!

Read more on MAKE

The post Hack Your Car’s Dashboard to Display Reddit Shower Thoughts appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

The world’s first Android autonomous vehicleLearn how a team of students created the first Google Android-based autonomous R/C car, able to detect lanes, avoid obstacles, self-park, and more.

Read more on MAKE

The post Build Your Own Android-Powered Self Driving R/C Car appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.

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A self-driving vehicle using image recognition on Android

Android, arduino, arduino mega, Cars, Featured, mega, self-driving Commenti disabilitati su A self-driving vehicle using image recognition on Android 

platis01

Dimitri Platis is a software engineer who’s been working with his team on an Android-based self-driving vehicle which uses machine vision algorithms and techniques as well as data from the on-board sensors, in order to follow street lanes, perform parking manoeuvres and overtake obstacles blocking its path:

The innovational aspect of this project, is first and foremost the use of an Android phone as the unit which realizes the image processing and decision making. It is responsible for wirelessly transmitting instructions to an Arduino Mega, that controls the physical aspects of the vehicle. Secondly, the various hardware components (i.e. sensors, motors etc) are programmatically handled in an object oriented way, using a custom made Arduino library, which enables developers without background in embedded systems to trivially accomplish their tasks, not caring about lower level implementation details.

[...]

On the software dimension of the physical layer, an Arduino library was created (based on a previous work of mine [1], [2]) which encapsulated the usage of the various sensors and permits us to handle them in an object oriented manner. The API, sports a high abstraction level, targeting primarily novice users who “just want to get the job done”. The components exposed, should however also be enough for more intricate user goals. The library is not yet 100% ready to be deployed out of the box in different hardware platforms, as it was built for an in house system after all, however with minor modifications that should not be a difficult task. This library was developed to be used with the following components in mind: an ESC, a servo motor for steering, HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensors, SHARP GP2D120 infrared distance sensors, an L3G4200D gyroscope, a speed encoder, a Razor IMU. Finally, you can find the sketch running on the actual vehicle here. Keep in mind that all decision making is done in the mobile device, therefore the microcontroller’s responsibility is just to fetch commands, encoded as Netstrings and execute them, while fetching sensor data and transmitting them.

 

Check the Arduino library on Github, explore the circuit below and enjoy the car in the video:

Here’s the essential bill of materials:

  • Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
  • Servo motor (Steering wheel)
  • Speed encoder
  • Ultrasonic sensors (HC-SR04, SRF05)
  • Infrared distance sensors (SHARP GP2D120)
  • Gyroscope (L3G4200D)
  • 9DOF IMU (Razor IMU)
platis02 platis03
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20

[Apachexmd] wanted to do something fun for his three-year-old son’s birthday party. Knowing how cool race cars are, he opted to build his own Hot Wheels drag race timer. He didn’t take the easy way out either. He put both his electronics and 3D printing skills to the test with this project.

The system has two main components. First, there’s the starting gate. The cars all have to leave the gate at the same time for a fair race, so [Apachexmd] needed a way to make this electronically controlled. His solution was to use a servo connected to a hinge. The hinge has four machine screws, one for each car. When the servo is rotated in one direction, the hinge pushes the screws out through holes in the track. This keeps the cars from moving on the downward slope. When the start button is pressed, the screws are pulled back and the cars are free to let gravity take over.

The second component is the finish line. Underneath the track are four laser diodes. These shine upwards through holes drilled into the track. Four phototransistors are mounted up above. These act as sensors to detect when the laser beam is broken by a car. It works similarly to a laser trip wire alarm system. The sensors are aimed downwards and covered in black tape to block out extra light noise.

Also above the track are eight 7-segment displays; two for each car. The system is able to keep track of the order in which the cars cross the finish line. When the race ends, it displays which place each car came in above the corresponding track. The system also keeps track of the winning car’s time in seconds and displays this on the display as well.

The system runs on an Arduino and is built almost exclusively out of custom designed 3D printed components. Since all of the components are designed to fit perfectly, the end result is a very slick race timer. Maybe next [Apachexmd] can add in a radar gun to clock top speed. Check out the video below to see it in action.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks, toy hacks


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