MURATA BOY is a self balancing robot that is packed with electronics to allow it to have extraordinary balancing capabilities. The specs are impressive especially considering the small size of the unit however watch the videos, they are something else! Videos and more pictures after the jump. “The little guy does not fall down, even when he comes to a complete stop. And, it’s not training wheels keeping him up,
Benjamin Tang and Rishi Ramchand are Cornell University students who made an Autonomous Blimp as their final project in the ECE 476 Microcontroller Design course. The project uses a GP2Y0D340 IR sensor to see if there is an obstacle in the way that needs to be maneuvered around. That IR sensor looks to be the type that is normally found in the automatic water taps that are found in most
This robot arm uses potentiometers to determine where the human arm is and then a servo controls the robot arm to match the position. “Each joint on the master arm is a potentiometer(a variable resistor). A joystick port basically checks the resistance. By itself, this resistance means nothing, so I wrote a little routine that converts a resistance into an angle that the servos can understand. To do this
Eight bit microcontrollers can get some real work done but the Parallax Propeller chip puts most microcontrollers to shame. The Parallax Propeller boasts eight – 32 bit processors on one chip! This example of Manic Miner running on the Propeller is an example of the power this chip wields. Hook up a TV, keyboard and a handful of components and you are ready to get your game on! If you
ASTLAB has built an machine that automates programming microcontrollers. This could be a useful machine if you needed to make hundreds of pre-programmed microcontrollers. There is a tube of blank microcontroller chips on the right, and the programmed ones on the left. A motorized arm moves over to this tube and grabs a blank chip using a suction tool and drops it into a ZIF socket, a servo then closes
Dutchtronix is selling AVR Oscilloscope Clock kits. No need to sit down for the kit price, at $35.00 this will make a great addition to any workbench! Video after the jump. “This AVR Oscilloscope clock is available as a kit, using all through hole components. The kit included ALL components necessary to assemble the board shown below, including a preprogrammed ATmega168 microcontroller. It does not include an oscilloscope. It also
Ross Smith from the University of South Australia gave an interesting microcontroller design presentation that contains some useful information for anyone that is considering using one in their next project. “This presentation looks at how to develop your own custom microcontroller hardware from scratch. Often laptops and general purpose computers are too powerful and too large to use for simple hardware projects. Often you can perform tasks like controlling DC
