Electronics Projects

Recent posts

Arduino Project 7: Buzzword

August 23, 2015 - Categories: Electronics Projects,How-to Guides

3 minute read

A “Catch Phrase” clone I built with an Arduino and TFT Touch Screen

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Arduino Project 6: Unlock it with Fire

July 12, 2015 - Categories: Electronics Projects,How-to Guides

5 minute read

A lock box that can only be opened with a different kind of key

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Powering a Raspberry Pi

December 18, 2013 - Categories: How-to Guides,Questions for the Community,Electronics Projects

3 minute read

I recently started building out a combination NAS and HTPC on a Raspberry Pi and came across some interesting information about powering Raspberry Pi's. While this isn't a project post per se, I thought it was interesting enough to share and wanted to send this out as sort of a PSA for the users out there who don't know the potential danger of "backpowering" a Raspberry Pi.

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Arduino Project 4: Tilt To Unlock

February 7, 2013 - Categories: Electronics Projects,How-to Guides

7 minute read

This is my favorite Arduino project to date. After some basic experimenting with an accelerometer, I had an idea. What if you used the accelerometer to look for a combination of movements? Instead of using a combination lock or a traditional key lock, you could just tilt the object in a set pattern to unlock it. Here's what I ended up with:

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Arduino Project 3: Accelerometer Primer

January 21, 2013 - Categories: Electronics Projects,IT/Software Projects,How-to Guides

2 minute read

This project is more of a warm-up than a full-blown project. I wanted to get a feel for the basic workings of an accelerometer in preparation for a larger undertaking (no spoilers!). I borrowed this project idea from a forum about Arduino and accelerometers but can't remember which forum, so I can't credit back to the original poster - sorry about that.

Before we get to the how, let's take a look at the what. Basically we have an accelerometer and 5 LEDs mounted on a breadboard. Four of the LEDs are mounted to correspond with the X and Y accelerometer axes and one LED is in the middle.   When the accelerometer is level, only the middle LED is illuminated. If you tilt the accelerometer to the side, the LED on that side is illuminated.

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Arduino Project 2: The Audible Eye Part 2

January 9, 2013 - Categories: Electronics Projects,How-to Guides

3 minute read

Alright, if you're following along from Part 1, you should have your headphones/speakers as well as your ultrasonic rangefinder wired up and operational. Next we have to write the code to marry these two devices.

The Code

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Arduino Project 2: The Audible Eye Part 1

January 7, 2013 - Categories: Electronics Projects,How-to Guides

4 minute read

The Audible Eye is a short proof-of-concept project that I came up with while looking for ways to experiment with some new gear. The idea of combining an ultrasonic rangefinder and some sort of signaling audio output jumped out to me - it would give you a depth perception, not unlike echo location that bats and dolphins use. As far as practical use, I believe it could be used by the visually impaired as a complement to a white cane, but not as a replacement.

Basically, the tone/pitch of the audio signal would get higher as the operator moves closer to a wall or object, indicating to the operator that they are getting closer. Similarly, as the operator moves away from the wall the tone will drop until it's almost inaudible.

Let me provide some context to make this more clear. Let's imagine our operator is blindfolded. If the operator pointed the device down an empty hallway for example, they would hear almost no tone, telling them it's safe to walk forward. As they approached a wall, the tone would increase. The operator would then scan around them with the device, find another path that was unobstructed, and could continue walking.

This video is all but unwatchable (quality is IMPRESSIVELY bad), but it will at least give you an idea of how it works. And of course I disassembled the project before I realized the video was botched.

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