If you’re like many commuters, you get home from work, press a button, and like magic your garage opens itself. Of course this is assuming you don’t have your garage dedicated to a workshop, or perhaps storage of junk that you’ve built up over the years, but either way, the door should open when prompted.
It’s something we generally take for granted, which is understandable since the electric garage door was invented nearly 100 years ago. Along the way there have been notable improvements like radio control and safety features to keep people from getting trapped under the closing door. With the advent of ubiquitous network connectivity, the possibility also exists to control these doors via the Internet and even your smartphone.
Of course there’s always a DIY option for enterprising hackers. For a head start on your own system, check out this EasyGarageControl board, which features Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to control two garage doors individually via a dual-relay setup. A smartphone simply connects to the device via an app and can control the garage when in range.
The device is wired in parallel with the normal opener switch so that manual operation is still possible. Additionally, there’s no reason that this device couldn’t be used with a lamp or other appliance.
While standard multimeters give a good reading on instantaneous voltage, resistance, and even current if things are set up correctly, a device that can graph how values vary over time would be quite useful. You know this instrument as an oscilloscope, and have probably debated about whether you really need to spend a few hundred bucks for one.
They can also take up valuable bench space. One option is portability and I’ve always liked scopemeters; oscilloscopes made in the form of voltmeters. While the best of these can cost more than $1000, the portability and convenience of one would be great for your yacht’s workbench—or you could look around for bargain versions that would be fine for intermittent use.
Still not sold on the idea? You could also check out this PIC-based device pictured in the image above. It comes as a DIY kit, and also features a signal generator, making it useful for more than pure input tasks. It doesn’t have the full versatility of a bench oscilloscope, but it is something of a swiss army knife of common tasks. If it fits your needs it will certainly fit your budget.
Those who need even more functionality out of a device should also check out the Evive prototyping platform. Evive includes an oscilloscope as a secondary function. It features an Arduino Mega, along with a breadboard and other accessories, allowing for a wide range of experimentation.
Another way to save space and money on an oscilloscope is to use a computer to display signal information. Take a look at the Arduino-based oscilloscope seen in the video below for an idea of how this works.
So once again you’ve put off your Halloween hack and will have to wait until next year to present your latest animatronic gizmo to the neighbors. Or will you?
The best Halloween props and installations are really about creativity. If you have a good idea there’s still time to make it happen, as long as you get a little bit of help with the execution.
For a head start on something spooky, this kit features a motion sensor, along with RGB LEDs and an MP3 player module to make your skeleton, jack-o-lantern, or glitching robot light up and say “hello” to your guests. You’ll need to provide an Arduino board to tie everything together per these instructions, as well as a micro SD card and the actual device to be “spook-ified.”
With motion, sound, and an Arduino at hand this is a great start for just about any idea. Just last week I covered several different motor options in a guide that will point you in the right direction to make that skeleton skull swivel back and forth too. Change out the audio, wire in more LEDs, and you can move a coffin lid that reacts to the motion sensor being triggered. See where I’m going with this?
While it looks quite scary in the video below, this set of components could easily be put to use in a more inviting configuration. Perhaps Santa Claus would like to say “ho-ho-ho” while Rudolph’s nose lights up, or maybe your robot just needs to be a little more social!
When you see a science fiction movie, you’re likely amazed at the technology. Whether this world features the ability to easily fly into space, holographic communications, incredible computer memory capacity, or robots that act just like their human counterparts, this genre has been inspiring future (and current) engineers and inventors for as long as its existed. Sometimes it’s tough to grasp just how amazing these changes are, since innovations are generally introduced one-by-one and incrementally. We just sort of adjust.
2 Kb of memory in the early 1950s. Project Whilwind by Daderot via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain.
Consider memory density, specifically the micro SD card. Measuring in at 15mm x 11mm x 1mm they’re described by Wikipedia as being “about the size of a fingernail.” Yet, a quick search reveals that high capacity cards can hold 400 Gigabytes, or 400,000,000,000,000 1s and 0s in a card that can be hard to find if dropped.
That’s a far cry from 2Kb of memory seen here in the 1950s. Even the amount of memory on a CD—around 700MB—is relatively tiny in today’s terms even though it was amazing when these disks started appearing in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Weirdly, one problem with memory now being so small is that these drives can be placed in areas that are difficult to access. Usually this means some sort of USB adapter (another amazing improvement over serial or parallel ports), but if you just want an actual SD extension cable in the form of a micro SD card, here it is! This device was conceived of when programming a BeagleBone Black, and could have lots of other applications.
For that matter, if you need to breakout either an SD card or card reader, all you’d need to do is clip and strip a few wires!
In our modern world, we take things like lights, instant communication via smartphone, and even air conditioning for granted. Unfortunately, when a natural disaster strikes, we’re often reminded just how tenuous our grasp on these services is, and we may have to live “off the grid” for a few days or more.
The good news is that since you’re reading this, you still have time to prepare for these eventualities, and while a whole-house backup generator might be out of your budget, keeping a backup source of lighting handy is an easy step towards being prepared for the worst. Here are a few options that enterprising makers and hackers can implement without breaking the bank.
Improvised LED Candle
While LEDs can provide lots of entertainment in the form of RGB rings and extremely bright lighting, let’s not forget that they’re extremely efficient, drawing just a few mA of power for the discreet components that you likely have hidden away in your components drawer. As seen here, Scott W. Harden, decided to build his own LED candles in preparation for a recent hurricane. The best of these should run for over a month, and could even be on as of this writing!
Joule Thieves
As profiled in this post, so-called “Joule Thieves” use the tiny amount of power left over in “dead” batteries to power one or several LEDs. It’s such a clever idea that I’m surprised it’s not in more widespread use for emergency preparedness. It also seems like a good way to keep things out of landfills for as long as possible, though it would seem that this has some competition with rechargeable cells!
USB Battery Pack
While good for charging a phone or other electronic device during a good trip, having a few lipstick chargers or similar around could also provide power for backup flashlights for some time. For that matter, they can be used to charge smartphones in order to act as a source of light and information. On the other hand, given some phones’ notoriously short battery lives, charging a USB flashlight would likely provide better results if keeping the darkness at bay is all you care about.
Alternatively, if you specifically need to charge something via USB, you could kludge something together with paper clips and C batteries!
Power Tool Lighting
While several power tool manufacturers make lighting that’s meant to run on removable batteries that also fit power tools, they’re designed to shine brightly for a relatively limited amount of time. On the other hand, with a little ingenuity there’s no reason why a drill battery couldn’t be used as an emergency power source. Here’s an example that uses the housing from an actual drill as well as the battery, though something lower powered might work even better.
For that matter, you could even turn a drill into a generator, however, as with several hacks listed here, you’d need a way to solder. While it’s great to know how to get yourself out of a sticky situation using electronics knowledge, the best solution is to stock up on what you need before danger is upon you!
We’ve all used LED and LCD 7-segment displays in calculators, home theater systems, and the like to show us pertinent information. While useful and extremely common, one alternative you may not have considered is an electromechanical 7-segment display.
These displays could be considered to be a simplified version of the flip-disc or flip-dot displays that were at one time common in mass transit systems, even being used in the game show Family Feud until 1995. In both systems a colored segment is moved into place using mechanical means, and uses no more power until the digits are adjusted once again.
While largely replaced by newer technology, you can still find these displays for sale via a quick web search. Unfortunately, they tend to be quite expensive, so if you’d like to build one using this technology plan on spending several hundred dollars or more on a multi-digit display. But check out the video below and you’ll hear (and see) why they’re so much fun to build into a project. That clicky action is addictive!
The good news is that if you do manage to obtain one or more of these devices, the Sig7Seg i2c controller for this type of device is available at a small fraction of this display’s price. It’s shown in the video taking signals from a Particle Photon, but will also work with a Raspberry Pi, Arduino board, or similar. The hardest part of driving these segments (other than getting your hands on them) is wiring the reversible voltage necessary to change to either state. This driver takes care of that with a port expander and two DMOS transistor array chips.
Browsing around tech sites, you’ve likely heard the term LoRa, or LoRaWAN thrown around. While you’ve probably established that it’s a long range IoT specificaion, documentation on how to get started with it can be somewhat elusive. Muddying the waters further is that some telecom operators are implementing this type of network, leading to the question of whether you can implement your own private network.
The good news is that this technology operates on the open spectrum, meaning that while you can use a telecom network to help with your LoRa needs, you can also set up your own. For a great way to get started, the Dragino LoRa IoT Kit includes everything you need to set up your own network, including a LoRa gateway, two LoRa shields (one with GPS capabilities), two Arduino Uno clones, and even wiring and sensors to capture data. Importantly, the kit also provides examples to help you get up and running.
While this type of network operates at 50 kbps or less, the claimed transmission range of 5-10km using this system is extremely exciting. While it might not work for VoIP calls, reading a sensor at a distance or giving short commands to a robot are ideal applications!
We all know that power can be transmitted wirelessly, whether through an exotic arcing setup like you might have seen many years ago in Nikola Tesla’s lab, or with the more modern (yet less spectacular) use of an inductive charging pad used for smartphones. To really understand this inductive charging principle give this wireless power kit from Electromechreation a try.
The device uses a powered coil of wires to wirelessly light up a 1 watt LED, or it can be configured to power an electrical motor. While fun for experimenters, this would also make a really excellent teaching tool for classroom use. You can see an earlier version in action in the video below:
As with some other products found here, this device started out as a Kickstarter campaign. Now it’s on Tindie. Listing here is as simple as making a blog post. If you’re looking for a place to list your crowdfunded items, or even somewhere to boost sales of an established product, why not give selling on Tindie a try?
Motors01CJC by C_J_Cowie via Wikimedia Commons CCA-SA 3.0
If you like to make things—and you’re reading Tindie’s blog so that seems like a fair assumption—at some point you’ll want to make one of your creations move, likely with a motor of some sort. We can help you decide which kind of motor best fits your application. Read on!
DC Motors
DC motors are the simplest rotary motion devices on this list, as movement is started when sufficient voltage is applied between the positive and negative poles. Speed can be controlled by varying this applied voltage, and direction is changed by reversing input polarity. By default, there is no feedback to tell you how fast this type of motor is going. If needed, an encoder can be added to sense speed, and gear reduction can be used to increase output torque at the expense of rotational speed.
While easy to control, they need more current than an Arduino or similar dev board can generally provide. For an easy way to integrate a motor with this type of control, just do a search for Arduino “motor shield” for lots of options, many of which will also work with the other motor types discussed here.
Stepper Motors
Sometimes confused with servo motors, stepper motors operate by energizing certain coils to make a shaft turn one step at a time. This requires more thoughtful control than a simple DC motor, but also gives it the ability to move in a precisely controlled fashion. While there are many uses for this type of device, one notable use is in CNC equipment. For a great illustration of how one of these work, check out the video above of YouTuber Proto G’s 3D-Printed Stepper Motor.
For CNC control options, if you’re interested in driving one in a laser or plotter project, this board looks interesting. It’s meant for use with the Grbl software package, which has become the de facto CNC control standard for Arduino boards. Alternatively, this shield gives a more general Arduino/Grbl implementation, including a connection point for your Z-axis.
Servomotor
Servomotors, or just servos, come in all shapes and sizes, but feature a feedback loop. This means that if there is an error in the motor’s position, the controller knows about it and can take the proper corrective action. Steppers, while generally extremely accurate, don’t have this ability, and if your system somehow misses a step, all further actions from there on out will be inaccurate until it’s re-homed. For many Tindarians, “servo” is synonymous with the hobby servos that are seen in model airplanes and the like. While these work well in many applications, other models are available that can cost thousands of dollars, many of which can rotate continuously with feedback.
Incidentally, you’ve likely heard that you can modify a servo for continuous rotation. After doing this myself, calling these modified motors “servos” is a bit of a misnomer, as there’s no longer any positional feedback. They are simply DC motors in a convenient format with a modicum of speed control. That being said, if you do need positional feedback, then you can add a Mocoder encoder to one of these modded devices, restoring a sense of control to your system!
Of course there are other electro-mechanical options, such as AC motors, solenoids, and variations of the motors listed here. Hopefully this gives you a good place to start if you’re considering building a new robot or other moving device!
Makernet Knob’s makes the point that “Rotary encoders are cool but hard to wire into your projects.” Having wired up a custom input device for my computer using an encoder, I can attest to both of these statements. In my case, it took me quite a bit of time simply to figure out how each encoder pin was used!
To help alleviate complicated wiring issues, this custom knob features a built-in I2C interface, which allows several (even hundereds) of knobs to be chained together without issue. Additionally, the top of the encoder can be depressed as a pushbutton, and it even has an RGB LED integrated inside of it to give you feedback right on the knob!
While this device looks very interesting (especially the integrated RGB output), if you’re new to encoders, check out this “Rotary Input Battle” post. Encoders are certainly extremely useful, but sometimes an inexpensive potentiometer will get the job done nicely!
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more.
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
So once again you’ve put off your Halloween hack and will have to wait until next year to present your latest animatronic gizmo to the neighbors. Or will you?
These displays could be considered to be a simplified version of the 
