This winter, my dad and I took up the project of building a simple pedal-powered cell phone charger to mount on my bicycle. Cell phones are small potatoes in the big picture of energy consumption, but the apparatus we built could be a very practical concept for those on self-supported bike tours or those living […]
Here’s an easy hack for your Maker’s Notebook that’s sure to get noticed: Buy some thermochromic liquid crystal (LC) film and attach it to the cover! Originally I bought LC film from US suppliers and tried gluing it on. I tested three different adhesives (3M Super77, DAP Weldwood Contact Cement, and Elmer’s Craft Glue) and […]
Today, I am going to show you how easy it is to connect, and use, a Memsic 2125 Accelerometer from the Maker Shed. This sensor is able to detect tilt, acceleration, rotation, and vibration with a range of ±2 g. It can be used for making balancing robots, game controllers, musical instruments and more. I’ll […]
This is the 3rd installment of my Aduino How-To Tuesdays. This week I am going to cover using another basic part, the potentiometer. I will also cover connecting a servo to the Arduino. Servos can be hard to control, but not with the Arduino! That’s just another reason why I love this little micro-controller. Subscribe […]
This is the second installment of a series about programming our favorite little micro-controller, the Arduino. Last week I covered connecting and blinking an LED. This week I will discuss connecting a push button that controls the LED. This is the simplest way to use a button. However, it isn’t always the best way since […]
This week I am going to be making the Open Heart kit by Jimmie Rodgers. It’s a great open source kit that uses a technique called Charliplexing for lighting up the LEDs. Why? Charlieplexing allows you to control each LED’s state individually. All you need to do is create a simple program and upload it […]
