Hackaday Prize Entry: MappyDot, a Micro Smart LiDAR Sensor

UPDATE: now available for sale on the Tindie

[Blecky]’s entry to the Hackaday Prize is MappyDot, a tiny board less than a square inch in size that holds a VL53L0X time-of-flight distance sensor and can measure distances of up to 2 meters. MappyDot is more than just a breakout board; the ATMega328PB microcontroller on each PCB provides filtering, an easy to use I2C interface,…

via Hackaday Prize Entry: MappyDot, a Micro Smart LiDAR Sensor

Hackaday Prize Entry: MappyDot, a Micro Smart LiDAR Sensor

Arduino Based TV Remote Project

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Arduino Based TV Remote Project

A couple years ago my TV remote broke. I had used one of those universal remote phone apps as an alternative for a while, but that just got really frustrating. Without the tactile feel of buttons it was too easy to press wrong buttons on my smart phone; accidentally pressing mute, stop or changing the channel / input, etc.

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I considered just ordering a cheap replacement remote off of Ebay for a few dollars but part of me wanted to take advantage of the situation and make one from scratch using the atmega328p chip used on the famous Arduino Uno.  I had been tinkering with the atmega chip quite a bit at the time and was also exploring the process of designing circuit boards using cad software.

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I loved the idea of designing a circuit board from scratch & filling it with circuits. This seemed like the perfect project for me – being able to use my beloved arduino chip, design and populate a circuit board with circuits & fashion some kind of project case (altoids tin) to put it all in. I went for it.

Arduino Based TV Remote Project

I Can Surface Mount Solder Intro Board

From on the Tindie blog:

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I Can Surface Mount Solder Intro Board

For those of you reading this that are generally quite clumsy, favoring electronics that use screw terminals over everything else, then perhaps you should stop reading here. Yes, today I’ll be talking about surface mount devices, commonly known as SMDs. According to the Collin’s Labvideo seen below, “The process is pretty straightforward once you get used to the scale,” and “It’s actually quite relaxing.”

I Can Surface Mount Solder Intro Board

Tindie Names in Hackaday Prize Best Product Finalists

From  on the Tindie blog:
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The first comes from Nick Sayer of Geppetto Electronics. His store includes a variety of interesting hardware devices, but his Hackaday Prize entry, an encryption system named Orthrus, is different from anything seen there.

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Keeping data secure is important, but if you simply need a little entertainment, or perhaps are looking for a good way to program in CircuitPython, Radomir Dopieralski of the Deshipu Store has a new idea with the PewPew FeatherWing project. According to its description

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Tindie Names in Hackaday Prize Best Product Finalists