DIY IR remote on my Android Phone.

I have followed the instructions here:http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Infrared-transmitter-for-iPhone-iPod/#step1 and here: http://www.vladcazan.com/previous-projects/electronics/iphone-remote-control.

The basic idea is using the Left/Right channel on the audio jack to power up two IR LEDs, so when you play a special audio (wave) file on your phone, it will generate the appropiate IR signals to the devices such as TV or your Camera.

It is a very easy hack, may be a good project for the new year start.

What u needs are only 2 x IR LED and a Audio 3.5mm Plug! Of coz, your phone, I am using Nexus S.

I don't have a TV, so I generate a wave media file to trigger my Canon DSLR, please check out the video:




The signal is not very strong, so sometimes it is not working properly. It may be because of the choice of the IR LED or just the phone won't provide enough power to the LED. It may not be very pratical, but it is fun anyway. Hope u will enjoy.  Please do it @ your own risk, it may/may not damage your phone.

Tutorial on How to generate the wave form:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/131633-absurdly-simple-diy-k-x-remote-timer-using-mp3-player.html#post1368821

Canon Trigger Waveform:
http://controlyourcamera.blogspot.com/2010/01/automatically-resume-video-shooting-on.html

My Sample wave form download here:
http://androidhk.com/Canon.wav

Line Following Mini-Tank

Considering making a simple line following robot? Check this out:



Detail Tutorial can be found here: http://www.pyroelectro.com/projects/mini_tank/


It is a very good tutorial, thanks for the hard work, Chris!

NES router project.

With the USB2VGA adapter, any SoC platform with a USB host can now have the VGA output! This video show a network router can be turned into a NES emulator and playing on a VGA monitor. Cool!

Tokyo eletronic lover's heaven.

In tokyo, Akihabara is my favorite place. You can get many electronics related stuffs there. Akiba and Patrick @ Tokyo Hackerspace recorded a video introducing Akihabara:

AVR Love Project

kaas has made a very simple project called "2 hour Love project", it is a very simple circuit, no software programming at all. Recently, I found out that Hesit8 has improved this project and make a very cool : AVR Love Project! With the help of Attiny2313, he made some cool led effects. Let's see the demo video:



also the project link here:
http://hesit8.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/avr-love-projects/

Android controlled wireless lamp.

Previously, we discussed about bluetooth module used with Android Nexus One, so today, we would like to present our latest project here "Android controlled wireless lamp", We want to do somethings meaningful with the bluetooth module with Android, so we modify a small lamp and adding the bluetooth connectivity to it.

Sometimes, we may put the phone in bedroom, and we will not know someone is calling. With the bluetooth connectivity, it can communicate with your Android phone at least 10 meters or above. You can put the lamp near your TV or anywhere you stay. Also, you can use Android as a remote control to turn on/off the lamp (or any devices).

Hareware: AVRtiny2313, Bluetooth module, lamp


Ready to go:


Video Demo:

[DIY] Nexus one case (modify from an Iphone case)

Android is becoming more popular in US, but there is still not so many fancy phone cases available on the market like iPhone 3G/3Gs. I found out some Iphone 3G/3Gs cases can be easily modified to fit on Nexus One, so I give it a try.

Here is the iphone 3gs case,



with the right hand side, upper and lower side opened. So you have the USB connector, power button and volume button fit for your nexus one already!

In order to use this case, we only have to drill some holes on the back, so the nexus one camera and the speaker can be used. The size of the case is already quite fit for my case:)

Here is the modified case (attached on Nexus one):
Back:


Front:


Volume keys:

Love DIY Project Re-Make.

Letsmakerobot.com improved one of my old project, "2 Hour Love Project", they added a Attiny2313 to make it can display words other than static "Love" text. Schematic & codes are available on their website.

Video Demo:

Awesome DIY Magic Mirror for your home.

So Magic mirror is not only for Halloween, and it can also tell you today's weather and stock market information:)




You can buy the kit here:
http://makersmarket.com/products/magic-mirror-kit-with-breathalyzer

Android & Bluetooth module.

Android phone is becoming more popular, most of the android phones equipped with Bluetooth. Just wonder how we can make use of the powerful android phone to interact with MCU like Atmel AVR, PIC or even Arduino. I think that more interesting projects can be done with the bluetooth connectivity to Android:)

After some studies, I found out that in Android 2.0, Google enhanced the Bluetooth API and come with an Bluetooth Chat sample for communicating devices with RFCOMM (SPP profile). So I did a try and it really works very well!



Let's try it out! The Bluetooth module that I used is a very tiny one with PCB antenna, it can control device over 10 meters at least, good enough for small project:) It is programmed to use as RFCOMM, so it can act as a wireless UART, good fit for all the MCU! With only 4 wires, 3.3v/Gnd/Tx/Rx, no programming needed, you can directly connect the module to your MCU UART.


Here is my demonstration video:


For the bluetooth sample code, you can find it in the Android SDK or here.

Use Laser pointer to play a LED board game.

The Laser Command by Eiji is a very brilliant project. He used arduino mini to build a complete LED board game, and just one 8x8 matrix led as the game output & also input device. Player can use a laser pointer to point to the led and start playing the game. The author website has a very good explanation of his project, it is worth to read if you are interested how to use LED as input : http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehayashi/projects/lasercommand/

Laser Command from Eiji Hayashi on Vimeo.

Wirewrap tool How-To.

I used to work with wire wrapper when I was in the University. I think it is very useful when you don't want to get your hand dirty with the soldering iron. It is good for fast prototyping, and also suitable for your kid when they are too young to use the soldering iron.

Take a look of this demo video:

wire wrap how-to from j saavedra on Vimeo.

Building R2-D2 from scratch.

R2-D2 is one of the famous robot in human history. Victor Franco, who is making remote controlled R2-D2 from scratch at home, which is very impressive!

Please check out the cool *making of* video:


and also check out his R2-D2 blog: http://vfranco.blogspot.com/

DIY Hobby center GRAND opening in Philippines

My friend, Dandy, opened a DIY Hobby store in Philippines! He is selling 8051 starter kit, home automation kit and also satellite DIY kit. Recently, also start selling ARM9 (S3C2440) based development platform "FriendlyARM". The basic kit comes with 3.5" LCD, with 400MHz ARM9, which is capable of running Linux and also Android! Check out some photos here:





You can see the FriendlyARM with 7" LCD in this photo, it is really cool! Once installed the Android, you can open the WebKit browser and surf the net with Wifi.


Congratulation to him, and please check it out if you live in Philippines!
Location:http://www.electronicslab.ph/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=d6fedf7919a33df34ad9b6e65a6caf3f&/topic,15240.msg265515.html#msg265515

Home made DIY LED projector.

Getting a decent projector may be very expensive, with limited budget, how about consider to make one yourself? Found an article about making LED projector in Instructables, it is awesome.
Take a look:




Link:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_a_small_Diy_LED_Projector/

Hard Disk Propeller Clock (HDDClock)

Got some old hard drives? You can make a cool clock with the HDD parts. Using one ATMEGA128 and some RGB Leds, you are ready to make a cool HDDClock.



Author Page:
http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/viewtopic.php?p=6984995

Source codes & Schematics:
http://mb.forall.pl/hddclock/

Halloween project made with PIR motion sensor.

Halloween is coming, and people are working hard on making somethings scary to "celebrate!". PIR motion sensor is very useful for this purpose, as you will like your scary machine to operate only when someone is passing. Let's check out this "Jan in the Pan" project, you may get the ideas:)



Details of the project is on this website.

Trackballer interfacing.

Sparkfun got another cool stuff here, the trackballer which is used in smartphone like Blackberry and also HTC Magic android phone. Trackballer contains 4 LED inside (red, blue, green and white), which used to indicate the phone status like miss call, sms etc. The hall effect sensors inside the trackballer help to detect 360 degree movement. For detail schematic, and datasheet, please find it in sparkfun store:here.

If you wonder how cool is it, please play the demonstration video below:

Pete Lewis shows off the TrackBaller from Sparkfun on Vimeo.

XGameStation - AVR 8-bit Development board - Create your own console game!

XGamestation sent me a link about their new AVR 8-bit Developement kit, XGS AVR 8-Bit Development System. After reading the details, I am impressed. The DIY video console game is nice, and showed me how the AVR 8-bit processor can be optimized to do complicated image processing(So far, I only use AVR for small project!). Let's take a look on the video demo first:






The kit includes:
1) XGS AVR 8-bit development board (VGA output, NTSC/PAL output, game controller(NES) port, PS/2 port, SD card slot, power regulator, serial port, audio output etc.)
2) AVR USB MKII ISP programmer
3) one NES clone gamepad
4) 1G MicroSD
5) DVD (includes all the codes, manuals to kick start)

One thing want to emphasis is the Ebook "Inside the XGS AVR 8-Bit" come with the kit, it is a comprehensive guide of programming AVR and also game console programming. If you are very interested on how the game console works, it is a good book for you too.


See? It is a complete kit for game console programming, it costs $139.95, you can buy it here: http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=46&mid_img_index=0

Let me know if you make some cool games! I am pretty busy recently, otherwise, I really want to have a try! and write you an in-depth review on it!


Any cool site or kit to suggest to me? Just fill out the form here: Suggest to me I would be happy to take a look!

64 (8x8) Led Matrix with ATtiny2313V

Tinkerlog presents a 64 LED matrix howto, controlled by Tiny2313 and powered by only 2 AA batteries. Check out the following demo video:


64pixels from tinkerlog on Vimeo.


I really love the simplicity of this project. The ATtiny2313 is a good fit on the back of the 8x8 Led matrix, though not placing resistors in between the LED and IO are a bit risky. But using 2 AA batteries, roughly 3V input and 20mA max output from 2313 should not burn the LED out:)

The source code is also ready on the tinkerblog website, so follow the steps there and build it in the weekend! Have fun!