Here is an update on the UWPD light box.

We decided to use a freakduino board which is an affordable, arduino compatible board, with onboard wifi signal detector.

The code is providing a lovely challenge to write. Currently, we are focusing on having the freakduino board switch between  a red and a white LED. From there we would like the color switch to only happen when a new alert is tweeted by UWalerts.

Our hope is that an RGB or 7-color blinking LED can replace the two LED’s we have now and different colors can be added in to mean different types of alerts. Also, we would like the light box to cycle through the 3 most recent alerts until the box is recent and goes back to cycling through a blue and white light cycle.

What I’ve learnt so far on this project is there are many different ways to do what seems like a simple task with an arduino. Getting a 7 color LED to go through a color sequence was a lot more challenging that I thought. One set of instructions included resistors, while a different one included a switch.

It would be convenient and a lot less frustrating if there was a specific instructables for this project. At the same time, the challenge presented and the skills I am learning (C++ for dummies is my new ‘light’ reading) plus how accomplished I will feel makes it all the more worth it.

I leave y’all with this life lesson: When using lead based solder; use proper protection and solder in a well ventilated area.

After much fiddling with instructions, circuit diagrams, and trying to zoom in on grainy unhelpful pictures, the Knock Block was completed. These are the instructions I’ve been using: http://www.instructables.com/id/Knock-Block/

The electronics are in steps 3 and 4 of the instructions. Wiring the piezo was simple enough, yet it wasn’t exactly like I could test the film element without finishing the rest of it, so even trying to tape it to anything at that point was moot! Step 4 was where things got hairy for a while. It has a circuit diagram and then seemingly-contradictory instructions beneath it on how to wire the battery. And the photo uploaded for this step happened to physically cover up exactly where wires were coming from and going into, some help that was…

Stalled out at step four

I’m no Electrical Engineer, this is my first project with an Arduino besides making a cute little LED blink, so when I came across a confusing circuit diagram, I waited until I had people with more experience around and picked their brains for it. One of my little helpers was able to figure out it might be okay to wire these two wires into the same pin, then confirmed it with even higher-level experts on the internet, and no explosions happened when I tried it.

I got the green light on the Arduino to go on for a second. It was the most exciting thing I can remember.

I’m glad I already knew how to solder before this because it turns out I was using the world’s crappiest iron for most of the afternoon before seeing there was another one in the drawer. It’s not “ballin’” to discover that your soldering wire keeps balling whenever you get it close, but never hot enough to solder anything.

Knock one... knock two...?

Now, the electronics are all wired, all functional, yay, right? Not necessarily. Upon testing, it appears as there’s one last unresolved problem. One of my helpers would hold down the piezo vibration sensor to the plastic lid we had taped it to while I’d knock the lid or flick it with my fingers. In my other hand, I held the solenoid ever-so-slightly over the table so that the pin would tap up and fall down (creating the reciprocal machine-generated “knock”). If you knocked once, nothing would happen. If you knocked twice, it would tell the time “6:45″ by knocking six times followed by three slower knocks (6 hours and 3 quarter-tones). If you knocked any more than three times, at any speed, it would tell time. It’s supposed to echo back a knocking pattern after two knocks! Only two or three times out of what felt like a hundred was I able to get a replicated-knock (other than 6:45).

The finished electronics

My next steps on this project include commenting-out the time-telling section of code in C++ and building the final box in which these electronics will function. I am hoping to learn how to use a CNC router, as this will be valuable to me as a sculptor throughout my career, but they’re hard to find. My only lead is to consult with the ME department, possibly Physics, or maybe even Architecture, which I know owns a laser-cutter that’s supposedly very easy to use.

Stay curious,

-Julia

After a few false starts and one smoking LED (whoops), I finally got my arduino+IR LED camera trigger up and running! My next step is to get a motion sensor and then use that to set up a motion sensitive trigger for the camera! I am also eventually thinking it would be cool to build something that will be triggered by the like sof lightning or fireworks:

http://solargap.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/nikon-d-series-lightning-trigger-with-arduino/#

Here is a video of what I built in action. My Nikon D7000 being triggered by IR LED connected to my Arduino Uno board:

So I thought I would start with a post that shares something that is somewhat of a failure thus far, and then move on to a post that is a success!

I have been trying to get my Syma SG107 to take flight via the use of an IR LED attached to the Arduino Uno board so that I can try to automate a very simple flight path:

So far these attempt shave been mostly unsuccessful. I am fairly certain that my wiring is correct, but I might need to use a different resistor as there are a couple of conflicting opinions online. I am also trying to modify some of the code I have found to be an amalgamation of two different sources, so that might be holding me back a bit as well. I was able to get it to sort of sporadically trigger the rotors on the helicopter for about 5 seconds – but haven’t been able to repeat this (very frustrating!).

I will be messing with this over the next few weeks when I have free time – so, updates coming soon!

I’ve got a few projects on my hands at the moment in the Hackademia Lab.

First, I have been working on the home-made 3D scanner with a team for a few weeks now. We made a background and mounted calibration dots on it to correspond to the correct scale of the objects we plan to scan. To do the actual scanning, I volunteered the use of my Canon DSLR, though I wasn’t sure on how to work it. I did a little online research to see that I would need to a) know how to work the camera in video mode and b) have an HDMI cable. As for the video functions, I got the hang of it with the help of the manual, specifically figuring out the funky business of why the shutter stays open then closes randomly, or how to perform auto-focus, or do the (extremely helpful) LCD-zoom for focusing the camera with utmost accuracy. I would like to attribute my fine eye for focusing lenses back to darkroom photography and my countless days spent staring at crisp grains of silver on plastic. I wish we were allowed the same fine focusing of the projector we’re using to perform the scan, as you’ll see in this picture, the projector makes things a bit tricky.

Calibrating the projector with my DSLR, notice fancy cup!

After we calibrated the focus, another group member ran the scanning software to calibrate it with the computer. That’s where those fun little lines come from on the image above! The calibration process is easy to run, but not as easy to set up. The camera and projector have to be arranged at specific angle differences for it to work, the board & calibration dots have to be exactly facing the camera, and then we still get problems within the software of misread angles, thus affecting our point clouds. The actual scanning process is barely harder than the calibration: it takes about the same amount of time and it looks the same with the scan lines going. On our first try a week or two ago, we attempted to scan a bag of coffee beans. One factor we didn’t take into account was that the bag was made of reflective plastic, and reflective material messes with the scan big-time. The only things the point cloud definitively picked up were the matte-paper logo and the curled top of the bag. From here on out, it’s going to be all about getting the scanner to make a more accurate point cloud.

As for my individual project, I have started working on the Knock Block, seen here at Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Knock-Block/

I hunted down all of the electronics on the creators’ list, but I’ve already noticed they leave a few things out. I’m glad our lab has basic stuff like alligator clips laying around. The instructions contain a picture of the actual setup of the Arduino as well as a circuit diagram. As I’m not an Electrical Engineer and I haven’t taken physics since AP in my senior year, the circuit diagram is a bit more of a stretch to understand. I find myself looking at their real picture more than the diagram. They aren’t easy to understand, and if you Google search “understanding beginner circuit diagrams” or the like, I haven’t come across any tutorials yet. Here is where I left off in the lab on Monday evening:

This is my best guess at how the squiggles on the circuit diagram are supposed to look in real life.

And the last project I’m working on is assisting my friend with getting to know the 3D printer. We thought the first place to start would be at the software, and since the lab has a Makerbot 3D printer, we went to Makerbot Technology’s website for answers. Solidworks would have been the best to learn 3D modeling, but we’re students and they don’t even give students a limited-time free trial, so we had to go the free route. We raced each other to see who could download Google Sketchup and add the necessary plugin for 3D printing first. My friend is a PC user, I’m a Mac user, and we both ran into a lot of frustrating problems for maybe a half an hour. I broke the cycle by looking deeply at the Makerbot website instructions, downloading a different version of the plugin, and adding it manually via the program preferences. Now to learn Sketchup…

Little did Mr. Smiley Pants know his creator looked down on him for being disappointingly two-dimensional...

Stay curious,

Julia

The result of 4 hours of work.

I have been looking into making my own “Knock Block” which I found on Instructables.com. You can find instructions for it here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Knock-Block/

I’m drawn to this project because it will give me the chance to really check out this Arduino stuff on my own, maybe tweak the C++ code a little bit, and exercise my mad woodworking skills. And the thing tells time too. I just got all the parts in the mail and I’m excited to start making it. The element that detects vibrations was the hardest to track down, I wonder what other kind of uses it could have.

Beth brought in a cool project for us to complete during lab meeting last week, it put my blinky LED and paper-cutting knowledge to the test!

I like to think that the dolphin is dreamin' big, trying to snack on that juicy light-up bird. The light is only activated when the card is pressed, preserving battery life.

Knock Block progress later,

Julia

One of the more frustrating aspects of the internet is that if I am looking for a simple solution to a problem, it will present me with several options and leave me believing the solution is a lot more complex.

My team’s project is to create a light box that changes color based off of University of Washington Police Department alerts. For example, if there were no alerts than an RGB LED inside the light box would be white but if a chemical spill occurred then the light would switch to blue. The inspiration for this project was twofold. First, I came across the Twiiter Mood in a Box (http://www.instructables.com/id/Twitter-Mood-Light-The-Worlds-Mood-in-a-Box/?ALLSTEPS) which changes color based off the mood most expressed in tweets. Secondly, as a Resident Assistant in the res halls, it is important that I know when there is an emergency on campus but text alert does not always work and I don’t check my email more than every couple of hours. Thus, a light box would be a more visible and immediate alert system.

One of the most crucial pieces to the light box is a Wifly shield that consistently checks UWPD alerts using a wifi signal. In my search for an affordable shield (average price is upwards of $85), I came across all types of configurations and models that left me with more questions than answers. Do I want a shield or a module, what is the difference between a transceiver and a resistor, how does the thing even connect to an arduino, ect… I finally came across a master post of all the wifly shields out there (http://postscapes.com/arduino-wifi) which will hopefully give some direction.

Pictures of the construction of the light box to come soon.

-Erin

This week in the Hackademia Lab we constructed high-tech cards.

We learned the basic structure of a circuit and applied it to making our card light up with an LED. I made a pop-up card featuring a bright idea.

My card was designed to congratulate someone who had a bright idea.

One of the barriers we ran into is how to create a switch using the materials we were given. A few of us wanted our LEDs to light-up when the card was open. This would save the battery’s power while the card wasn’t being looked at.

A couple of solutions were tossed on the table:

• Create a device that would slide into contact and close the circuit once the card was opened.
• Install a manual on/off switch accessible to the card reader.

We didn’t have time to try either, but I’m eager to test them out!

Back stage: power source and copper tape.

In the bigger scheme of things, we’re going to be starting our projects soon. My group will be creating a 3-D scanner using a projector, a camera, an arduino, and some free software (DAVID-LaserScanner).

We have all of the needed components assembled and we’ll begin the construction phase in the next week!

Best,

Mark

Hey, my name is Marcel and my first post will describe how I made a LED blink and what possible projects I have in mind for this quarter of Hackademia:

Blinking LED

Because there are a lot of good tutorials on how to make a LED blink with an Arduino, I looked for the most complete one which also included steps to connect the board to my computer: Tutorial

As instructed, I connected the LED to the board. Then, I downloaded the software and connected the Arduino Board to my computer. Then I compiled  the code, uploaded it to the board and thus completed my first Arduino project.

Possible Projects

My first plan for this quarter was to learn how to operate the makerbot and use 3D-Modelling Software to create my own object. After thinking about what I could create, I had another idea: Copying Objects

To make a copy of a real-life object, one first would have to scan it, then use the data to save it as a model for the makerbot and then print it. After some research, I found a instructional website which would let one build a 3D-Laserscanner at low cost: David-Laserscanner

I’m very optimistic that this could become a very interesting project and would love to hear what others think about it.