Green Lights is a project that was created to teach students about physical computing. This includes Inputs and Outputs, Electricity, programming with Arduino, and a little bit about traffic control systems. The intersection will be setup at the front of the classroom and students will be split up into teams. Teams will be given note […]
The spark plug was a key invention in the history of the internal combustion engine, allowing combustion to be easily controlled and engines to rev faster than messy earlier designs. Mid-century cars tended to rely on points ignition with a distributor and coil, however more modern designs place a coil on top of each individual
COIL ON PLUG IGNITION FOR TINY ENGINES Continue Reading
The cooker hood is a wonderful invention for removing excess fumes and steam from the kitchen. But like all electrically-powered devices, it only works when it is turned on. This was the problem facing [Peter], whose family are enthusiastic cooks who frequently forget to hit that switch. His solution? An automatic cooker hood switch that comes
NEVER FORGET TO TURN ON THE COOKER HOOD AGAIN Continue Reading
Controlling a model train layout with a wired throttle and turnout controllers might be a good start for beginners but they pose a problem of non-portability. Also, the wireless controllers which come in the market can either control only some locomotives or are a bit too expensive. So, in this instructable, let’s learn how to
Control Your Model Train Layout With Your Mobile Phone! Continue Reading
Just as cats find sitting on a keyboard to be irresistible, so do children find pressing their keys. After throwing some ideas around with other parents, [Peter] came up with the idea of transforming an old AT keyboard into a learning toy by making each key press “speak” its corresponding letter. The donor keyboard is a
AT KEYBOARD BECOMES CHILD’S SPEAKING TOY Continue Reading
Older industrial equipment is often a great option if you’re on a budget, and you might even be able to add some premium features yourself. [Brett] from [Theoretically Practical] has done with his old MIG welder, adding premium control features with the help of an Arduino. The main features [Brett] were after is pre-flow, post-flow, and
UPGRADING AN OLD MIG WELDER WIRE FEEDER WITH ARDUINO Continue Reading
Charlieplexing. Aside from being a fancy word it is a technique for driving multiple LEDs with relatively few pins on a microcontroller. It allows you to drive N*(N-1) LEDs with just N pins without requiring any additional hardware, making it a quick, cheap and easy way to add multiple LEDs to your arduino projects. Throughout
Charlieplexing Made Easy (and What It Even Means?!) Continue Reading
When synthesizers first hit the scene back in the mid-20th century, many were monophonic instruments, capable of producing just one pitch at a time. This was a major limitation, and over time polyphonic synthesizers began to flood into the scene, greatly expanding performance possibilities. [Kevin] decided to build his own polyphonic synthesizer, but far from taking
12-NOTE POLYPHONY ON AN ARDUINO SYNTH Continue Reading
[Attoparsec] has been building intriguing musical projects on his YouTube channel for a while and his latest is no exception. Dubbed simply as “Node Module”, it is a rack-mounted hardware-based Markov chain beat sequencer. Traditionally Markov chains are software state machines that transition between states with given probabilities, often learned from a training corpus. That same principle has
STOCHASTIC MARKOV BEATS Continue Reading
To measure wind speed and direction, most people turn the traditional cup anemometer and wind vane. Another less-known method is to use an array of ultrasonic transducers, which doesn’t need any moving parts. [Andy] demonstrates building an ultrasonic anemometer using a cheap after-market parking distance sensor kit and an Arduino. Demo video after the break. Aside from
TURN A PARKING SENSOR INTO AN ANEMOMETER Continue Reading
