Arduino

As the preeminent tool for makers, Arduino is a versatile platform that covers almost every type of creative making. With its simple-to-use coding language and fun programming concepts, Arduino enables users to create modern electronics with ease. From beginner level projects like flashing LED lights to more advanced builds such as interactive robots, there are an endless number of possibilities when it comes to building projects with Arduino. Whether you are new or an experienced builder in search of fresh ideas, these posts will provide interesting Arduino tutorials and unique ideas that may spark your creativity and motivate you take on any type of maker project!

Interactive Musical Tire Swing

Interactive Musical Tire Swing

The Interactive Musical Tire Swing is a ton of fun to play with and was a big hit at Maker Faire Bay Area last year. In a nutshell, it plays soundtracks and musical beats depending on the rider’s acceleration and rotation. The Swing will be back at this year’s Faire, taking place May 18 and […]

Be a Mint Tin Hero

Be a Mint Tin Hero

After a night of brainstorming, and then another week or so of indecision, maker Brian Dolan settled on making a Guitar-Hero-like rhythm game inside a Trader Joe’s mint tin involving a single sensor, an LCD screen, and a small speaker for playing some cheesy music. I play drums, and I was kind of thinking of the whole mint tin as a drum, with the plastic screen acting like a drum head. The other side, made of metal, would host the LCD screen and speaker, facing the “player.”

New MAKE Video Series: Projects with Ryan Slaugh

New MAKE Video Series: Projects with Ryan Slaugh

Today we debut a new monthly video series: Projects with Ryan Slaugh. Each new episode will air on the first Tuesday of the month. The series aims to help people with their own projects by giving them ideas, techniques, and inspiration. While most projects will be electronics related, many built around Arduino and Raspberry Pi, some projects will offer insight on using specialized tools and working with different materials. The projects will range from easy to challenging and from application-based to something done just for fun. In his first video, Ryan will show us how to make an Arduino-powered, Pelican case-based mobile prototyping platform for writing code, arranging tools, and all around making.

Knock Knock Calculator

Knock Knock Calculator

Knock Knock is a clever Arduino-controlled calculator toy, designed for small children. The user knocks out a calculation on the surface — addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division — and Knock Knock will spit back the solution, in the form of knocks, of course. It’s a fun idea for a toy, but good luck trying to use this in secret during a “no calculators” test at school!

LilyPad MP3 Released

LilyPad MP3 Released

The new Lilypad MP3 board is out and it looks pretty sweet! Lilypads are washable Arduinos designed for wearable electronics. You can sew them onto your clothing and wire them up with conductive thread. The new MP3 board is basically an Arduino — it’s got the standard ATmega 328p with Arduino bootloader. However, like the […]