Driving your Roomba around using your phone is so last month… Today the cool way to do it is by tilting your Apple MacBook. I wonder what Todd will come up with next? “This project shows you how to use the built-in tilt sensors of the MacBook to control a Roomba. Since Perl hasn’t been used to program a Roomba yet, it seemed like a fun task to show
Doug Wilson has built a cool Altoids battery pack! Not sure what it is about the Altoids tins, but it seems that projects make great use out of them! This one seems to have all the bells and whistles. If you are looking for inspiration there are full build details on the site. “I have a 10 cell ‘AA’ NiMH battery pack (12V @ 1.6AH) that I use for backpacking.
10. Microcontroller Christmas Music This project will allow you to create your own music using a microcontroller. “With Christmas fast drawing near, I thought it appropriate to create a project that has a festive theme and also shows what the humble PICmicro is capable of doing with a little imagination and the right tools. i.e. PROTON+ Compiler. Everyone and their reindeer has created Christmas projects in the past but most
David from uC Hobby shows how to use a computer parallel port instead of a microcontroller when developing new projects. The article also includes the Microsoft C# code that he uses. “Using the parallel port is often easier to work with then a microcontroller. I find that testing code on the PC can be much easier then going straight to the firmware as the developer tools for the PC platform
This looks like an interesting solar camping light project. “The unit contains a solar controller board from the Electronics Goldmine that turns the light on at dusk and off at dawn. The batteries are two lithium 3.6 v cells in series, providing 7.2 v @ 1.1 amp hours. The two white LEDs are in series and draw 20ma. The only other parts used are a switch and power connector for
Hubert’s Laser Page has lots of cool laser projects documented. One section that caught my eye was one where he covers many ways of making an inexpensive XY laser scanner. Go and have a look at his article for details on using a CD player actuator, Piezo buzzer, Hard disk head actuator and Loudspeaker to get the task done. Unlike my hard drive oscilloscope, Hubert uses a computer to control
Our friends over at Zedomax have another cool project that will allow you to win the prize for coolest Christmas lights on your block! Only minor thing I would suggest is that the black AC wire be connected to “L” and the white AC wire be connected to “N” (sorry my electrical license made me do it 🙂 ). “Okay, today we are going try to build a computer controlled
