Here is a fun project you can do with your kids. It’s a project box with battery, switches, LEDs, vibrating motor, and whatever else you can come up with. it uses header pins and jumper wires to enable the user to connect circuits.
So… I need to make more medieval siege weapons… lets get started with an afternoon project trebuchet made with 1” PVC pipe.
The useless machine is a simple box with a switch and motor, when you turn on the switch the lid opens and the arm swings out and turns off the machine and then retracts. It is so simple but brings a smile to the face of everyone that tries! The Useless Machine was not created by me, it can be found in Make Magazine and in numerous Instructables and DIY articles online.
Building my very first 3D printer was quite traumatic and time consuming but also fun and rewarding! I don’t suggest building your own unless you have a love for tinkering, and making. There are some other qualities that will come in handy such as tendency’s for hacking, electronics, and computers. As this is a computer controlled machine complete with a microcontroller you MUST know how to turn a computer on. Be aware that building your own RepRap is more like getting a hobby than getting a project.
I’ve seen videos on YouTube using an Arduino and a Graphical LCD screen (GLCD) to create a simple Oscilloscope. The annoying thing is that I found no help whatsoever on how to build one. I spent a few days figuring out how to use the Nokia 3310 LCD screen and then figuring out how to sample an analog port to create a fun oscilloscope effect.
Read moreDIY Arduino Oscilloscope with the Nokia 3310 GLCD screen
As a follow up to my DIY Arduino Oscilloscope video or as a stand alone tutorial, this video should help you understand arrays and recursion in Arduino. You can find the original post here: DIY Arduino Oscilloscope with the Nokia 3310 GLCD screen
I had a need for a temperature scanner to troubleshoot overheating on my Duramax LB7 pickup while towing. A commercial solution to collect 6 temperatures may have run me over a thousand dollars so I ordered some thermistors and for about 40 bucks in parts made one myself.
As it is getting cold again and my chickens made it through the summer just fine, it is time to revisit and revitalize my automatic chicken door.
The older model was a large door that slid on a track that would get leaves, snow, and ice messing the whole thing up. Also the mecanisim that opened the door was a string that tension was held on with springs, the string would knot up and stop working, blowing the fuse sometimes.
In this video I show how to connect a servo to an Arduino and also how to load the sample servo programs included with the Arduino software. The sweep program will drive the arm of the servo back and forth while the Knob program will move the arm of the servo when you turn a potentiometer.
An attempt to make a good solar reflector out of mirror pieces and a Direct TV satellite dish. If I had it to do again I would have had an actual glass cutter and cut 1” squares…
Read moreBuilding a Parabolic Solar Reflector out of a Satellite Dish
Adding a solar panel to a RV can provide convenient daily battery maintenance and can extend power available while camping away from civilization.
Here I show how to create some usable electricity from a candle and a peltier cooler.
Materials include a candle, metal plate, four nuts, four long bolts, a peltier cooler, heat sink, and thermal grease.
LCD screen backlights can often go out requiring a new inverter or CFL lamp. Replacement parts can be hard to find or costly. Here I use a six dollar LED strip to replace the CFL backlight with success! If you look hard you can see points of light where the LEDs are but all together the LCD is very usable.
Here is my homemade function generator that can produce a square, triangle, and sign wave. This is all done with a few bucks worth of parts. The heart of the function generator is a LM324N quad OpAmp. I got the schematic off of a site where they were also selling kits to build the signal generator.
I needed to create an IO simulator for testing a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). I pieced together a useful tool to do the trick of simulating analog and digital input and output that was expected from sensors in the real world.
I used a ST7565 GLCD (Graphic Liquid Cristal Display) screen to display the live analog readings from an Arduino. Here …
There are many advantages of having an automatic chicken coop door. The door will automatically close at night when the …
A few years ago I built a keyless entry system for my shop using a keypad, now it is time …
Here is my second ESC or Electronic Speed Control that I built with an Arduino Duemilanove. You can’t just hook …
Here is my first ESC or Electronic Speed Control that I built with an Arduino Duemilanove. If you don’t already …