littlebird
is using Posterous to post everything online. Shouldn't you?
Little Bird Electronics Blog
by John Boxall This is part of a series originally titled “Getting Started with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! In this instalment we will start to examine RFID systems Please note that we will not be discussing the use of 13.56 MHz RFID systems such as NXP “Mifare Classic”. I’m not going to teach you how to clone stored-value public transport fare cards. First of all, RFID – radio...
August, 18 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
John Boiles, whose extracurricular exploits as an undergraduate at UT Austin brought us iPhone-controlled dance floor lights, R/C cars, and yes, even full-size automobiles, has since moved to San Francisco and scored a job with Yelp. His latest "spare time" project, with the Yelp Engineering crew, is KegMate--a keg-mounted, Arduino-controlled data-logging suite with an iPad-based user interface. Among other features, the system reports and records the keg temperature, tracks which of its registered users is dispensing...
August, 17 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Master EEG hackers [MOG] and [Tim] over at the Makers Local 256 have been working on creating a Bluetooth EEG listener made from a Mattel Mindflex. This build is based on an earlier build of a group called [Frontier Nerds] (thanks for the heads up [Nathan]!), but this version ditches the Arduino in favor of a basic serial to bluetooth adapter for the sake of power efficiency (as well as not having to keep an Arduino strapped to you head). We have covered a few Mindflex hacks before, but this seems to be the most...
August, 17 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
by John Boxall Hello readers Today we are going to examine the Macetech Shiftbrite modules. These are high-powered RGB LEDs that are mounted on a small PCB with a controller IC that you can control easily with an AVR or Arduino system, with a brightness of 8800 mcd per colour, and a viewing angle of 140 degrees. Ouch! In this review we will be using the Arduino system, however there is AVR instructions and a demonstration available here. First of all, here is one example: You can order Shiftbrites with and without header...
August, 13 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Reverse engineer your microwave using a thermal camera You might be aware that microwave ovens have hot and cold spots (thats why many of them have little turntables that spin around while your food heats), but have you ever wondered what they look like? Luckily, some folks from Robots & Dinosaurs were thinking about it as well, and decided to measure the effects once and for all. Detecting waves in space can be pretty complicated, but luckily they happened to have a thermal...
August, 12 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
by John Boxall Hello everyone! Today we are going to explore the use of the Inductor. This is a continuation from the series of articles on alternating current. An inductor is a component that can resist changes in AC current, and store energy in a magnetic field from a current that passes through it. A changing current (AC) causes a changing magnetic field which induces a voltage that opposes the current produced by the magnetic field. This is known as the inductance. One could think of an inductor as an AC...
August, 10 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Updated Ethernet Shield: micro-SD card slot, Mega support, and reset controller. We’re very happy to announce an updated version of the Arduino Ethernet shield, with some nice new features. This revision incorporates a micro-SD card slot so you can store files to send over the network. It’s compatible with the Arduino Mega (using the SPI pins on the ICSP header). It adds a reset controller which should address the problems some people have had getting it to work directly on power-up. All-in-all...
August, 9 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
by John Boxall This is part of a series originally titled “Getting Started with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here. Welcome back fellow arduidans! From this chapter on, the title of this series will now be Moving Forward with Arduino, as we are well past the Getting Started stage There is also a new Arduino-based project in another article – blinky the clock. This instalment is by user request – we will examine the XBee wireless...
August, 6 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
by John Boxall Hello readers Followers of my Getting Started with Arduino series would realise that I tend to make too many clocks in those tutorials. Well, it’s my blog – and I like making clocks. So here is another one. However this time I have tried to make the most simple version possible. Usually projects will have many LEDs, or perhaps an LCD, buzzers, buttons, all sorts of things. Which looks great and will impress many. But the other day I was daydreaming in a lecture staring at the clock (as one does...
August, 4 2010 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
