LED Cubes are interesting. A work of art at rest, and hypnotic experience once the microcontroller takes charge. This cube was created by Chris Lomont and Gene Foulk. Initially prototyped using a PIC microcontroller that was later swapped out in favor of a gumstick controller. “Gene and I started construction on a LED cube. We built a 4x4x4 bicolor prototype over the weekend to help us decide on LED colors,
David Forbes has built a very interesting CRT (cathode ray tube) clock. It uses a 3 inch oscilloscope tube. The clock draws images by bending the CRT beam; this produces a smooth well formed numbers. This is a much different procedure than a TV uses to produce images on a CRT. At the time of writing David does not have any clocks to sell but he does intend to have
Bert van Dam wanted to alter the default operation of his SRF04 Range Finder. Some Lego, a bit of JAL microcontroller programming and a VB computer program has made an interesting project. Bert has made a number of other interesting projects, have a look. “The Devantech SFR04 Ultrasonic Range Finder indicates the distance to the closest object within range. Echo’s that arrive later are received and processed, but subsequently ignored.
Need a radio? Why not build your own! The materials that are needed are probably in your house already. H. P. Friedrichs has an interesting design available on his Web site. “If you’ve studied the subject of crystal radio for any length of time, you’re already aware that these instruments appear in an endless variety. The diversity found in vintage commercial sets is intriguing enough, though I have a special
Looking for an interesting LED project? Why not make an LED Throwie… LED Throwies are an inexpensive way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. An LED, a battery, some tape, a magnet and lots of fun! Total cost would be under a dollar each and they seem to gaining popularity. Check out this cool video of them in action! read more | digg story
Nathan True constructed a neat color shifting orb project. He was inspired by a Ask Slashdot question and looked at the Ambient Orb for design ideas. His initial idea of using a Parallax Basic Stamp was discarded since color mixing needed a faster processor. The solution was to go with a Microchip PIC16F84A, the 16F84 still has a large following since there are vast resources available on the internet for
After outgrowing the capability of his Homeseer home automation system this guy decided to build his own. The system consists of a wide variety of hardware, everything from off the shelf X10 to custom build modules. For example to monitor his electricity consumption he is counting the number of times his meter flashes in a minute. What does it monitor? The easier question is what doesn’t it monitor… Currently it
