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Arduino distance meter

Posted on October 8, 2016 by R-B Leave a comment

HC-SR04 is a very popular ultrasonic sensor for short distance measurements in DIY projects. This Instructable describes how to use it with an Arduino board to build an inexpensive distance meter with range 2-400cm. The measured distance is displayed on a Nokia 5110 LCD screen using a large size font for improved readability. The Instructable explains the details of how the HC-SR04 sensor works and can be interfaced with the Arduino for ranging with an accuracy of 3mm. In simpler words, the sensor, sends an ultrasound, then it detects wheather this ultrasound has bounced off of an object or not. If the ultrasound

SolarSurfer: A robotic surfboard

Posted on October 5, 2016 by R-B Leave a comment

The SolarSurfer is a neat concept of building a solar-powered robotic surfboard submitted to the 2014 Hackaday Prize by Rusty Jehangir and his team at BlueRobotics. It’w built using an 8 feet surfboard and is powered by a 120 W solar panel and a 12V lead acid battery. It’s also equipped with a GPS system, satellite modem, and sensors that collect ocean temperature and pH values during the journey. The surfer is guided by a 3D Robotics APM2.6 with a uBlox GPS. A RockBLOCK satellite radio from Rock Seven let’s us communicate back and forth with the SolarSurfer to monitor its position,

Arduino music player

Posted on October 5, 2016 by R-B Leave a comment

Dejan Nedelkovski from How to Mechatronics recently posted a new project tutorial on making an Arduino-powered MP3 Music Player plus Alarm Clock. It features a professional looking touchscreen user interface using a 3.2″ TFT LCD. The home screen displays time, date and temperature along with touch control buttons for running the music player and setting the alarm clock. While the music being played, you can also see a progress bar for the song. The project is built using an Arduino Mega board. For mp3 player, it uses the BY8001 module, which is a MP3/WAV player with MicroSD support and a built-in 3W audio amplifier. The time keeping

MyComm: a portable satellite messenger

Posted on October 4, 2016 by R-B Leave a comment

MyComm is a portable satellite messenger currently being designed by John Grant. It provides true global messaging to keep you connected to your family all the time and from anywhere on Earth beyond the reach of WiFi and GSM networks. Yes, it uses a satellite network for sending and receiving text messages from any point on Earth, including the polar regions. The satellite modem used in his project is RockBLOCK Mk2, that operates in L-band and therefore requires a clear-sky line-of-sight for reliable communication. The message lengths are limited to 340 bytes for transmission and 270 bytes for reception per message. This is the portable

Data Display glasses for a multimeter

Posted on October 3, 2016 by R-B Leave a comment

Electrical engineers do not have the luxury of a spacious working desk during field work, and sometimes they could not even find a good spot or stand for a multimeter. Alain Mauer‘s data glasses could come in handy during such situations. He designed a head-mounted display that is Arduino-powered, and receives the multimeter measurements data through Bluetooth, and projects the readings as a virtual image at a distance of ~30cm from the eye using a tiny OLED and a few other optical components. Check out the demo video below:

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