Well the pythons have it right in my humble opinion. What ever you do people are going to steal/pirate your media. If there is technology to make it you can break it, no matter how good your DRM is. So in their wisdom the pythons have released high quality clips of themselves on on youtube, and if you like it buy it and keep it. Its kind of like donating to your favourite open source project and its the way it should be! So everyone enjoy. I really hope more people star adopting this responsible sharing philosophy.
This is a good place to learn about wireless communications using an XBee and an Arduino. There are a lot of different sensors that could use this same code with only slight variations.
I managed to put together a wireless accelerometer the other night using my two new XBees, an Arduino XBee shield, an XBee Explorer USB, an ADXL330, and some Python. I struggled a bit with some of it, so here’s what I learned.
The Auduino project turns Arduino into a PWM based sound synthesizer -
Sound is generated by playing the same noise (’grain’) repeatedly at very high speed. This merges into a tone that is an audible hybrid of the repetition rate and the original grain.
The grain consists of two triangular waves of adjustable frequency, and adjustable decay rate. The repetition rate is set by another control.Only basic hardware required - 5 potentiometers, and an output jack -
Looks like a cool project - details, links to Arduino code here - Auduino
This is a nice DIY universal remote using an Arduino and an IR LED. Hopefully you have an oscilloscope so you can decode your current remote. If not, keep checking craigslist for a really cheap one. That’s where I got mine.
It is really easy to build a universal remote using an Arduino. With just an infrared LED, it can impersonate remotes for your TV, fans, lights, etc. and can let you easily incorporate these into your electronics projects. You won’t even have to solder anything or void any warranties.
The REPLICATOR blog put together an overview of Open Source Hardware including a past presentation I co-authored, a good start if you’re interested in the ongoing evolution of the Open Source Hardware movement.
The biggest challenges I see ahead involves the use of the term “Open source hardware” - for the folks who have been doing OSH, it’s pretty specific - basically others can use your stuff in a commercial way, Arduino being a specific example, you can manufacture you own and sell them if you wanted (some have). The flipside is, some makers don’t want to allow commercial use of their projects but *do* want to share their works in a non-commercial way. The term “open hardware” has been gaining some interest along with a specific Creative Common-like license, for example - “Open Hardware Project” with a “Non-commercial manufacturing license”.
The “Breath Bra” was created as a simple excersize using a LilyPad Arduino to record its wearer’s breath over the course of a day or week and transmit the data over a Bluetooth connection to their cellphone (in this case a Nokia N95). Check out the link below for code on this build.
Just cannot keep this thing to myself no more. My collaborators at 1scale1.com have been running this year’s course in Physical Prototyping at K3, Malmo University, Sweden. I have no pictures of the course’s result, only of the prize given to the Best Interaction Design Piece at the end of the show. David Sjunnesson sent it to me while I am lecturing in Argentina (more about the country of beef on this blog soon).
The prize consisted of a golden cherubim carrying one of the early Arduino Serial boards on his head. I am sorry I missed the celebration, it must have been a funny one.
The Image Scanning Sequencer uses photocells with Arduino to generate streams of MIDI notes -
It uses LDRs to measure the gray-scale of specific point of a image, and triggers midi notes from a selected threshold. When the threshold is reached the velocity will be set by the darkness at that point. the darker point the higher the velocity will be.
The sequencer plays the notes as a arpeggiator, i chose for this playback method because i dont have a midi device that can play 24 keys at the same time.. There are 2 different arpeggio modes. One rearranges the playback sequence to the active notes velocitys. And the second mode changes the arpeggio playback speed to the amount of notes that are active. If this mode is not selected the playback speed is set by a potentiometer. These modes can also be combined. - Image Scan Sequencer
Nick has a nice post about visualizing sound on an Arduino. He uploaded the Processing and Arduino code so you can try it out yourself. This looks like a good place to start learning about the Minim library and Processing.
I modified another old Processing program of mine to graphically react to sound using the Minim library. The program outputs the sound level to an Arduino connected to a breadboard, creating a sound level meter using LEDs. The code is a bit sloppy (and uncommented!) as I quickly tried to prototype these ideas.
The Italian design firm Arduino makes one of the hottest circuit boards used by gadget builders today. Since mass production began two years ago, the company has sold about 50,000 units - not bad for a small start-up nestled in the medieval foothills of Milan.
But there’s something different about Arduino – their business model. They give everything away. On their Website you can download all the design plans, send them off to a Chinese factory, mass-produce the boards, and sell them yourself. There are no patents. You can pocket the change without paying Arduino a dime. Sounds crazy? It’s part of a new movement called open source hardware.
