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Project14 | The Birthday Special: Open Arduino Projects: Part 2!

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NanoRama

Enter Your Project for a chance to win a Nano Grand Prize bundle for the most innovative use of Arduino plus a $400 shopping cart!

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Arduino is celebrated its 15th Birthday on March 21st, 2020!  We'll be up to sending 25 Nano Boards (5 different Flavors) for project proposals that use them!Project14 is celebrating its 3rd Birthday with a NanoRama Celebration that began the day before Arduino Day!  Help us celebrate by submitting an Arduino Project as a Birthday Present!Winners Announcement will be on Geek Pride Day on May 25th 2020.  It also happens to be the anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie.  A New Hope was released on May 25th, 1977!

 

Project14 | The Birthday Special: A NanoRama Open Arduino Competition!

 

Submit a Blog in NanoRama or tag your post NanoRamaCH for a Chance to Win!

 

This special event celebrates the 3rd birthday of Project14 and the 15th birthday of Arduino with an Open Ended Arduino project competition that kicks off the day before Arduino Day on March 21st, 2020.   The NanoRama project competition is a follow up to  Arduino Day 2020: NanoRama: We're Giving Away Different Nano Boards for Projects that Use Them!   We also launched an Arduino Fundamentals: Part I: Quiz where you can test your knowledge (or argue over) your knowledge of Arduino.    We will also have a round ups of the last two Arduino project competitions to celebrate Arduino Day in what has turned into an annual tradition.

 

Arduino Day 2020 Round Ups:

 

 

We're also aware that this is difficult time around the world, the Covid-19 Virus has upended life as we know it.

 

Your project can also include a Fighting Germs project as suggested in Project14 | Fighting Germs: Win a Thermal Imaging Camera, a Germicidal Lamp, and a Shopping Cart with Matching Charity Donation!

 

Simply tag your post FightingGermsCH and NanoRamaCH if your Fighting Germs project uses an Arduino.

 

The Grand Prize

 

Every Nano BoardPlus a $400 Shopping Cart
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Your Chance to Win a Nano Classic, Nano Every, Nano 33 IoT, Nano BLE, and Nano BLE Sense! Plus a $400 Shopping Cart to Do Cool Stuff with Your Boards!

 

First Place & Finisher Prizes

 

Three First Place Winners Receive a $200 Shopping Cart to Any of Our Stores!
Finisher Prizes

3 First Place Winners Receive a Nano BLE Sense plus a $200 Shopping Cart!

We have up to 20 Nano (Classic Boards) to Giveaway for Amazing Projects!

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The Projects:

 

Arduino in Test Instrumentation by

 

was extending the capabilities of my lab. He wanted to create repeatable and automated test setups.

The goal was to control the lab instruments and have all measurements logged to a document.

His PSU and scope are programmable. Together with two other element14 community members he's designed a Programmable Electronic Load.

What was missing was a programmable switch that can be used to turn on or off signals.

 

He'll use an Arduino UNO and two relay breakout boards. He received the UNO from element14 to celebrate Project 14's birthday.

 

Arduino in Test Instrumentation
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IR intervalometer for camera by

 

The basic idea was to create IR intervalometer for a Nikon DSLR. had found in network information about captured raw signal from existing Nikon ML-L3 remote control. So, he decided to use this information and Arduino Uno to create IR time-lapse intervalometer device for Nikon DSLR. Original RAW IR signal is modulated with 38kHz frequency and have following timings:

- 2.0 ms - on

- 28.0  ms - off

- 0.5 ms - on

- 1.5 ms - off

- 0.5 ms - on

- 3.5 ms - off

- 0.5 ms - on

- 63.5 ms - off

 

First step was to create a shield for arduino with support for IR LED and one button. IR diode is driven by NPN transistor to achieve 35 mA of current and larger distance for control. Button it pulled-up to 5 volt.

 

IR intervalometer for camera
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A more Intelligent Idiot Light by

 

  used to own a 1966 Pontiac and typical of the times, they had few guages and used warning lights.

These were often referred to as "Idiot Lights".

 

For the most part they worked ... except.

  • No method of checking the lamp wasn't blown.
  • No means to check the wire hadn't broken, or fallen off the sender.
  • The temperature that triggered the light was usually greater than 100 deg C (ie more than boiling).

So there were several ways this thing could fail and you wouldn't know about it.

 

In modern cars the warning lights come on for a period when you start the vehicle, and surprise surprise this is so you can tell the ones that aren't working.

 

So he came up with an idea idea.

Comes on when it starts for confidence, Flashes to warn it's getting HOT, and On when it is really hot,  .... easy.

He decided to add one more stage and that was Fade while the engine temperature was cold and it was still warming up.

 

The controller chosen was an Arduino but since I was going to do more with this, I added a shield for connections and interface components.

 

The regulator is a 7808 since vehicle charging can go as high as 15v, and many of the Arduino board regulators that aren't rated that high.

I call it insurance from spikes or other nasties in a vehicle.

 

One of the transistors drives the existing light, and the onboard LEd gets covered, so I added one on top.

 

A more Intelligent Hall Light
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I See in my Magic Ball...Someone is at the Front Door!  by

 

This project will show you how to build a wifi-connected decoration for your home which is also part of your IoT smart home.  What is detailed here is just one example - how yours looks is limited only by your creativity!

 

Normally, when your smart home system does not have any messages for you, the ball just glows different colours.  The colour fades from red to blue to green to red (and all the colours in between) and so on.  It also sends your system regular updates on the ambient temperature and humidity, the light levels, and whether it has detected any movement.

 

When certain events occur, things change (assuming you have configured these functions...we will show you how here).  If your system sends an "alarm" alert, the ball slowly flashes red (fading from black to red and back to black again).  If your phone gets an alert, it will flash blue, and a doorbell will cause it to flash green.

 

If that is not enough to keep you interested, you can switch the ball to manual mode and choose a colour and brightness level.

 

And don't worry about it keeping you up at night either!  When evening comes it turns itself off so you will not go nuts from the glowing lights (you can place multiple magic balls throughout the house).

 

I See in my Magic Ball...Someone is at the Front Door!
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Sensortile - programming with Arduino ! by

 

is using a STEVAL-STLKT01V1 development kit. The sensor tile is the smallest IOT module she hasa seen. The sensors she focuses on are:

 

1. LSM6DSM - inErtial module, 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope

 

2. LSM303AGR - eCompass module with a 3D accelerometer and a 3D magnetometer

 

When Element 14 sent her the Arduino Uno she had no idea that she could program the sensortile using Arduino sketches. That simplifies the programming process and certainly makes it easier. The Arduino Uno has a connector layout and it was just a matter of attaching the sensortile cradle expansion board on top of it and then attaching the sensortile.

 

Sensortile - programming with Arduino!
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Newtonian Arduino based telescope by

 

was working on an algorithm for the Arduino Mega that controls a Newtonian telescope using the SynScan protocol.

 

Newtonian Arduino based telescope
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Retirement Present by

 

A work college retired after 49 years at work.

 

He'd achieved what he wanted/needed to achieve, and he was seeking a less stressful life on the Gold Coast of Australia enjoying the weather there.

He was doing shift work, and while it had benefits, there is a price to pay, and as you get older it can be harder to handle/manage.

 

Clive had always been into Hardware, but surprisingly he'd dabbled in a little software way back when Commodore 64's came onto the market.

So it was a surprise that he never kept playing with software, but he certainly kept designing and building unique solutions at work.

 

A previous ATC system used a couple of main frame style computers that received the data and fed it out to the various displays, etc.

Looking back it wasn't anything special, at that point it was being replaced by much newer technology ... well hardware anyway.

 

Clive had been very instrumental in getting a remote changeover system working, and one of the guys had saved the control panel just for his retirement.

 

The day came and someone asked if they could hook it up and make some lights function so it looked like it was going.

was the obvious choice since he was the only one at work playing with anything that could do it.

 

Retirement Present
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Vehicle Fan Controller by

 

This project started as a cry for help from a good friend in Australia.

He had just purchased a second hand vehicle and one of the previous owners had added electric fans.

 

While the actual fan mounting wasn't the issue, the large wires and horrible toggle switch hanging out the dash was.

 

There was also the issue of a lack of any automation, and the thought that his partner or someone else driving it might forget about the switch.

 

The Arduino cannot drive a 30A relay on it's own, so a transistor was needed.

It was decided that a dash mounted LED would give feedback about what was happening.

It also required connections that could easily connect the various wires to, rather than soldering.

 

Vehicle Fan Controller
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The Making of R2D2 - The Force on Wheels by  

 

When was around six,   told him that when he was his age, he always wanted to build an R2D2.  He would look at tree stumps and imagine how he could cut it up into his shape.  So, he and his son did a Google search to see if anyone else ever had that crazy idea. To his surprise, he found a forum on Yahoo Groups just for building R2.  A guy in Australia was leading the charge since 1999.  He had grown a community of 5000 around the world by 2010.  As he researched, he immediately became attracted to the coding of the mechelectronics of the build.  It was also the period he found the Ben Heck Show.  He had programmed for leisure since he was 10, so now applying programming to control hardware was super fun.  For over a year, he did nothing but learn about the Arduino, Netduino, proximity switches, servos, and motor controllers.  Autodesk Fusion didn't exist, but he found Blender.  It was, and still is, the hardest software I ever learned - but it is an amazingly powerful, free tool to substitute for 3D CAD once you learn it.  After 3 years, he had a great movie prop.  Not every body detail was finished, but they had enough to apply some programming and microcontroller skills.  Ben Heck taught him how to make his own PCB.  So, using Eagle, they designed the PCB shields to control R2's motor drivers using XBee radios.  This allowed for the control to fit in his pocket. His first true circuit was in 2013 when he made a voltage regulator circuit.

 

The Making of R2D2 - The Force on Wheels
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"A truly amazing project" - Community Member Judge

 

 

"Sean has provided a really good build diary and some great custom PCBs. Plus it includes the Star Wars theme!" - Community Member Judge

 

During the birthday special livestream last year, shared this behind the scenes walkthrough of the making of R2D2:

 

 

 

 

 

Product Name
High Impact Polystyrene
molded resin parts
Wood
Paint
PCB shields
Motor Drivers
Xbee Radios
Arduino Mini