My cats like to jump on furniture and shed their fur, which ends up on my clothes. To stop them, I’m using a Monkey Couch Guardian. I made it from one of those old-fashioned cymbal-banging toy monkeys, modified with an inexpensive Arduino microcontroller and a proximity sensor. Now when a cat jumps on a table, […]
These directions were adapted from alan-parekh.com. The IR Jammer project is microcontroller-based; what this means is there is a small self-contained computer that controls the unit. The IR Jammer will cause most infrared remote controls to stop working. This means that you could prevent someone from changing the TV channel or adjusting the volume on […]
Back in the 1970s, my friend Wayne Gillis and I used to do light shows at science fiction conventions. We had the usual panoply of overhead, slide, and custom-made projectors, and a single, very expensive, helium-neon laser from Edmund Scientific. Calling ourselves Light Opera, and later, Illuminatus, we performed at ConFusion conventions in Ann Arbor, […]
The Mintronics: Menta is a unique Arduino-compatible microcontroller kit. It features a handy, on-board prototyping space and is specifically designed to use the included mint tin as an enclosure! This makes it perfect for logging applications and on-the-go development. The prototyping area is perfectly sized for one of our mini breadboards (not included) so you […]
Build a Notification Alert Generator that pesters you to do your chores.
The MakerShield is a great prototyping shield but the button can be a little confusing to use. Since it connects to ground when pressed, it takes a little extra wiring and one change in the code to get to work with with the Arduino example sketch. Follow along!
With an estimated one billion 555 timers manufactured annually, you know this component must be versatile! We’re going to learn how to build and control drivers for three very different types of motors using a breadboard, resistors, diodes, transistors, and some 555 timers (along with a sprinkling of CMOS logic). These motor drivers are the […]
