Category Archives: Electronics

From the mailbag: Bristlebots and Scribblebots

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Kate K.'s Bristlebot bug (Courtesy of Jessica K.)

Jessica K. wrote in:

A few years ago I used your bristlebot design for one of my kid’s classes as a project and it was such a success I’ve done it for each kid (I have 4).

Kate K's Bristlebot Ladybug bottom (Courtesy of Jessica K.)

We also made made “pontoon” versions of your bristlebots with 2 toothbrush ends underneath a cardboard oval so it looked like a beetle and gave the kids more decorating space.

Scribblebot parts (Courtesy of Jessica K.)

Well, now I needed a new project and I came up with the easiest, cheapest Scribblebot I’ve come across, using mostly your bristlebot construction.

Kate K.'s Dixie Scribblebot (Courtesy of Jessica K.)

The big discovery is that a Dixie cup plus mini markers keeps the whole thing so lightweight. Then put your foam taped pager motor and battery combo on top. It was also way cuter with some antennae and googley eyes. Thank you again for your great bristlebot – it’s made me the most popular mom in each of my kids’ classes.

The bots shown were made by her daughter Kate who also demonstrates them in the video clips. Thank you Kate & Jessica!

This entry was posted in Art, Education, Electronics, Robotics. Bookmark the Permalink.

Epic Cylon costume with Larson Scanner

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By Warren Goodwin

Warren wrote in on Facebook:

I just received your Larson scanner for my Foam Cylon helmet today … I have since this video diffused the light inside the clear conduit pipe the LEDS are held inside of to make the LED effect a bit more smoother.

He has been posting updates of the costume on facebook.

Cylon costume with Larson Scanner eye
By Warren Goodwin
This entry was posted in Costumes, Electronics, Microcontrollers. Bookmark the Permalink.

RGB Interactive Table

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IR_Table

Craig shared this project which evolved with the assistance of the Octolively project.

Thanks for the previous help you gave me when I was designing my own IR proximity boards. I thought you may want to have a look at the finished item.

I have attached a picture of the 25 100mmx100mm boards and a video of the table working. Each one had a SOIC PIC 18F26K22 on it, with 9 IR transmitters and receivers and 9 x WS2812b addressable LEDs on. They all kind of communicate with each other so that each board does the same IR reading of the same ‘pixel’ at the same time as the others. I simply have a pin on the board which outputs low whan it is working (taking a reading’, then after it is done, it changes to an input pin, it continually looks at this pin until it goes high, meaning all the other boards have also completed that particular reading and then it’s on to the next one.

I also have a calibration function so any thickness opaque covering can be put on the table top.

I have 2 buttons on it. One to change the colour (including the rainbow fade) and also a button to change the fade speed.

IR_Table

Thank you, Craig, for sharing your project! We’re glad you were able to get inspiration and helpful information from one of our projects.

 

 

This entry was posted in Electronics, Microcontrollers, Open Hardware and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

Interactive LED Christmas Tree

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LED Christmas tree on Octolively derivative boards

Our friends at Mouser sent us this picture of their Octolively derived display, updated for the holidays:

We continue to have fun with your Octolively module design. In the attached photo you can see why we decided to use sockets for the LEDs on our boards.  We plan on changing out the display for each of the holidays.

I was a little concerned at first about using the red LEDs with resistors that were chosen for white or blue, but they’re socketed, so replacing any that get damaged by overdriving should be easy! Looks like a fun way to celebrate at the office, and the snowflake tree-topper is a nice touch.

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DIY Mega Menorah 9000

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LEDs in breadboard

Over on twitter, @shaiss says:

This is why #OSHA is awesome! In a pinch+some parts we made our electronic menorah. @EMSL design &  @adafruit trinket.

If you want to roll your own, the open source hardware documentation is on our wiki. If you’re not keen on the breadboard aesthetic for your hanukkiyah, you can still get the Mega Menorah 9000 kit.

This entry was posted in Electronics, Microcontrollers, Open Hardware. Bookmark the Permalink.

The Boldport Buggy

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Boldport Buggy

Introducing the Boldport Buggy kit.

This simple and playful soldering kit is based on the on the beautiful Buggy circuit board designed by Saar Drimer of Boldport.

Boldport Buggy

Boldport Buggy

The first version of this circuit board was created as a badge for the hardwear.io hardware security conference in The Hague. This new version of the Buggy is a complete kit, featuring an updated circuit board, with a power switch and six candle-flicker LEDs.

Boldport Buggy

A cool detail is that its six legs are actually the current-limiting resistors for those six LEDs. They are posable (giving it quite a bit of personality) and we have given it little red tubing socks to cover up the otherwise-conductive feet.

Boldport Buggy Boldport Buggy

The Boldport Buggy kit is available now at our store, and you can read more about its design at Boldport.

This entry was posted in Electronics, EMSL Projects, Open Hardware and tagged , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

Octolively derivative at ARMTechCon

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Mouser display based on Octolively

We dropped by ARMTechCon last week to check out a tip sent in by email (thanks, Barry!) that Mouser Electronics was displaying something that looked like our Octolively modules.

Kids interacting with LEDs
Photo courtesy of Mouser

Mouser staff had been inspired by an installation of our Interactive LED Panels to create something interactive that they could show off at Engineers Week at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. They used the Octolively as the basis for their project, and the kids loved it of course.

Blue "M" in LEDs

For trade shows, they built up a display with a mix of blue and white LEDs to show off the Mouser “M”. Based on the foot traffic it got while I was at the booth, it is quite popular.

ATmega164P

They made some minor changes from our original Octolively design and used different connector types to highlight Mouser’s product lines. The heart of the project is still the 40-pin DIP ATmega164P (perhaps anomalous at an ARM conference) running our Octolively code, which gave the Mouser folks a chance to play with some microcontroller programming.

Interactive display based on Octolively

It’s always exciting to see a derivative of one of our projects in the wild. Thanks to the Mouser folks for sharing their project story and sending the museum picture for us to share.

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Inside the 741

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Ken Shirriff has written an excellent exploration of the 741 op-amp, including decapping a metal can package AD741. There’s a very cool interactive viewer so that you can click on the components in the schematic or on the picture of the die to see what each one is and does.

…The 25pF capacitor in the 741 has a very small value but takes up a large fraction of the chip’s area. You can see the capacitor in the middle of the die photo; it is the largest structure on the chip. …

Our very own XL741 is referenced in the footnotes, too.

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