We were excited to see this tweet from Josh Talbot:
The EAGLE design files are shared on BitBucket:
Author: fustini
Smart Racer: control RC cars from your smartphone
Sarunas designed this RC receiver replacement which uses a smart phone as remote controller via WiFi or Bluetooth:
Smart Racer
Why not control your RC car with smart phone?
Features include:
- Control RC car from Android phone or iPhone
- Control RC servo and ESC
- Control 5 Leds
- Drive RC car up to 70m away
- Drives Brushed and Brushless motors
- Works with 1:10 and 1:18 models
- Powered directly from ESC power
- Control using REST API
- Connection lost cut off
The design files and source code are available on GitHub:
drme/ble-rc
Here’s the Smart Racer in action:
Hardware Happy Hour in Chicago
The first meeting of Hardware Happy Hour (3H) Chicago is Tuesday, December 6th, with Chris Gammell of The Amp Hour and Contextual Electronics. Our Drew Fustini will be there along with Andrew Sowa and many more:
https://www.meetup.com/Hardware-Happy-Hour-3H-Chicago/events/235937326/
Blue IR: Build your own universal remote
Sarunas built this device to replace a bunch of different remote controls with a smart phone:
Blue IR
Build your own universal remote
Features include:
- Control TV, HiFi and more from Android, iPhone or Windows Phone.
- Control devices using NEC, RC5 and SIRC protocols
- Provides Bluetooth Low Energy service for controlling it from other devices.
A solar version was also designed to avoid having to change the battery:
Blue IR solar version
Despite that Bluetooth Low Energy device uses so little of it, the battery will eventually run out. To overcome that, the old device was improved by adding a solar charger.
The design files and source code are available on GitHub:
drme/ble-remote
ATTiny-Widget
jonmash designed this simple board with two ATTiny processors powered by a micro USB connector.
ATTiny-Widget
Micro USB power input to two ATTiny MCU’s. There are two different ATTinys on this board. An ATTiny84 and an ATTiny85. These MCUs are great because they can be used with no additional components. In fact, on this board, the only additional components are some filter capacitors for the power rail and a header for the programmer interface.
I have exposed an array of copper pads for every pin. This makes it easy to add LEDs or to wire to just about any sensor.
jonmash has shared the board on OSH Park:
ATTiny-Widget
BFuse: Electronic Fuse for Breadboard
Jakub Polonský created this solution to make breadboard prototyping safer for components:
BFuse – Electronic Fuse for Breadboard
adjustable and programmable electronic fuse especially designed for breadboards – a breadboard fuse, or BFuse
The trip current can be set from 50 mA to 1 A but it can measure current up to 6 A [..] It has reverse polarity protection (by P-FET), transient voltage suppressors both on its input and output and two LEDs for indication
Set current and actual current can be compared using ATTiny’s built-in comparator or sampled by the ATTiny’s ADC. Then, the microprocessor controls a P-FET switch that opens or closes the power supply
Open Source AIS Transponder
Open Source AIS Transponder (Class B)
This is the first ever (that I’m aware of) attempt at creating an open source AIS transponder
On the hardware side, the design is based on two Silicon Labs 4463 transceiver ICs and an STM32F302CBT6 ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller. One of the SiLabs ICs acts as a transceiver, while the other IC works as a receiver only. In receiver mode, each IC tunes to a different channel. When a transmission is scheduled, the ICs swap channels if the transceiver is not listening on the next transmit channel. This configuration may be construed as a violation of the AIS specification, but it makes for a much simpler PCB layout and negates the need for a 3-position RF switch.
There are two programs that need to be installed on the flash. The bootloader and the main application.
petera650 has shared the boards on OSH Park:
RF side of AIS transponder
Logic / digital side of AIS transponder
MIDI Guitar Pedals
Ever since Jimi Hendrix brought guitar distortion to the forefront of rock and roll, pedals to control the distortion have been a standard piece of equipment for almost every guitarist. Now, there are individual analog pedals for each effect or even digital pedals that have banks of effects programmed in. Distortion is just one of…
EDm: OBDII CAN bus BLE dongle
MyLab-odysseymonitor the status of your Smart electric drive EV with this RFduino CAN bus dongle and the Blynk app on your mobile phone:
/EDm_BLE
Hardware used:
- RFduino MCU & BLE
- MCP2515 CAN controller
- MCP2562 CAN transceiver + ESD diode
- OKI 78SR DC/DC for efficiency.
EDm_v1.1.brd
DIY Scanning tunneling microscope
MatthiasR is building a scanning tunneling microscope:
DIY Scanning tunneling microscope
At the end of last year i started collecting information about needed system components like the vibration isolation, the tunneling current amplifier, the z-height controller, the coarse approach mechanism and so on
Here’s a video of his DIY vibration isolation system:
OSH Park 