Automatic plant growth lamp

Having some leds lying around lazy, I had to put them to work πŸ˜‰

This is just a quick side project. We have a lovely hibiscus home which has quite a high sentimental value to us. But sadly it hardly got any flowers. I thought it is time for a little help.

I read some articles which point out that wavelenghts of 630 nm (red) and 460 nm (blue), are very good for the growth of a plant.Β  70% red, 30% blue would be ideal for getting flowers and a strong plant. This matches almost to the point the wavelenghts of the led strip I got.

Next I wanted to preserve the day-night cycle which a plant needs, which schould remain the real day-night cycle. For that puprose I developed a little light sensing electronic part, which turns the leds on if it is day outside, and back off at night.

Hope we get some flowers soon πŸ™‚

 

VR Controller (Step 2: AirMouse)

 

So I managed to get my virtual reality controller to the next step.

Took some time to find the best blueooth adapter, but i finally got one to act easy as a HID:Β  Bluefruit EZ-Key. This is a very easy to use component, which can be used even without an Arduino, just a few buttons soldered on the right pin. For my purposes a serial communication between a microcontrooler and it is crucial, since I don’t need only the basic buttons handled.

As a gyroscope + accelerometer I sticked to the GY-521 which is a breakout board for the MPU 6050 chip. This one is more tricky since it requires I2C communication, which is totally new to me.

The programming of the Arduino was not so difficult, only the I2C part took some tinkering, but I got it to work since I didn’t need to learn only some parts.

Finally it can be used to connect to any BT device like PC, Arduino phones and tablets, and play games which handle mouse/keyboard input.

Todo in the next step:

  • try to make a glove out of it
  • replace Arduino with Atmega 328
  • solder everything on 1-2 perfboards
  • add on/off switch
  • add buttons to fire/action
  • add some tilt sensor for moving forward/backwards

Ultrasonic staircase illumination

Just the beginning of another of my projects.

Some time ago I thought about making a staircase illumination using a programmable LED strip, which should only light up near the person going up/down the stairs.

So the last idea was to use an ultrasonic ranging module to find out the persons position on the stairs, which then triggers the corresponding LEDs to light up.

Parts used:

  • Ultrasonic ranging module HC-SR04
  • Arduino
  • WS2812B programmable LED strip

Todo:

  • make some trailing effect for the LEDs to go out smoothly after person passes by
  • put strip in a frame and minimize the electronics
  • replace Arduino with ATMega328

Firefighter truck painting

http://www.instructables.com/id/Firefighter-truck-painting/

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And another long overdue project of mine, which started with us painting my son’s room.

My son also wanted to have a firefighter truck painted on his wall. But since I had some electronics stuff on my mind which I wanted to try out anyway, I promised him much more than a painting.

The idea behind, is to have a somehow 3d painting, with lights, and more states of programming. I decided to go with this:

  • Idle mode: all lights are off, but if the light sensor senses no light, the headlights go on 20% of their power
  • Headlight mode: headlights go on 100%
  • Action mode: all lights animated somehow like a real firefighter truck (see video)

Cycling through all actions is done with a touch sensor on the lower left part, near the wheel.

Sunday workspace: Stop Motion Dough

Very bad weather outside, kids lost interest in most of the toys, so we had to try something new. Actually I am glad that they still can be delighted by ideas like this. And it’s not like I don’t enjoy something like this either πŸ˜‰

Quickly put together a smartphone stand “hobo”-style, to hold the smartphone in one place. had to stick it to the table too.

Then I downloaded a few stop motion apps from the market and tried until I found something easy to use for children.

And then the fun began. My kids started making stuff from dough, and the we animated them together.

Not a wasted weekend at all … πŸ™‚

VR Controller (Step 1: Trials)

All the fuss theese days about VR really put me in the mood to try at least something from all the offers which appear on the market. Of course you can go directly for a Oculus, but even that is still only a development kit. So I decided to start small not spending too much from the start, since I didnt know if I like it. So I bought a Google Cardboard. This one is about the cheapest VR you can get πŸ™‚ since you put your phone into it, load some special apps and games, and you have VR. And I have to say I was amazed.

If you want more than just cardboard, you can go for Durovis Dive, which is basically the same thing 5x more expensive, but, and here comes the interesting part, it comes with the Dive SDK for Unity3D which allows you to make a 3D world for the glasses in about 10 minutes. And it really didnt take longer.

Ok, now you have a full VR experience (if Oculus, Dive or Cardboard) but your hands still hanging there, your actions are still limited on (in my opinion) very old-school HIDs (keyboard, mouse, gamepad, etc.).

Some times ago I started to tinker around with electronics components. Still have pretty basic knoledge about electronics, and don’t understand most electronics signs πŸ™‚

And it got me thinking. Given an Arduino, a bluetooth module, some sensors fixed on my body (like tilt sensor, gyro sensor, compass module, and a few buttons), what could stop me to make a next gen game/fitness/generic controller?

My ideea is to do a lot of stuff with it: make a fitness app which will be controlled by running on a treadmill (or using a workout bike). Something like the old Nintendo Wii and the running game from Sports. Or a game like Temple Run, in which running the treadmill faster, gets you faster in the game. Or a shooter where you really run… etc.

For this I would like to create a game controller which records the leg movements, direction, body position, etc. which would then influence the actions in the game. A lot of detals I still need to work out.

I would like to be able to record more then a conventional controller does (more than just up, down, left, right, etc) that’s why I would like to build one and not buy one and break it apart and hack into it. That, and for kicks πŸ˜‰

STEP 1:Β  Gather all hardware needed

Well, not as easy as it sounds. I started with an Arduino Uno thinking it will be enough. Had to upgrade to Arduino Mega since it has 3 serial ports, and the SoftwareSerial support on the Uno wasn’t working so smooth. And the reason is the next module. Until now I thought a HC-05 bluetooth module would be enough. And it is up to a point. It only supports SPP for communication. It wasn’t hard toΒ  write a little code on the Arduino, connect it to my smartphone, and use it as a little chat aplication. But as soon as I wanted to connect it as a keyboard or mouse, the trouble started. Using AT commands I configured every relevant flag on the HC-05, only to find out the it actually doesn’t support the bluetooth HID profile, which would allow me that. For that I would need at least a Bluesmirf RN42-HID or a BlueGiga WT12 module, which support both SPP and HID. Or to flash a new firmware on the HC-05 (a really messy solution)

So I can either upgrade to a better bluetooth module, or use the HC-05 in SPP mode, and write an andoid driver app, which converts the messages from Arduino into HID events and deliver them to any Android app. But for this a rooted phone is needed (no problem either).

(… to be continued)

Island City – Starry Night

http://www.instructables.com/id/Island-City-Starry-Night/

This is a project I started more than 6 month ago (not much spare time in my house πŸ˜‰ ). We needed something for the bedroom, which would light up automatically, and not too bright, enough to find your way into bed, and not wake the other one up, which is most of the times my wife πŸ˜‰

Have seen online a lot of solutions for a starry night ceiling and paintings. Gathered all those ideas, took the best ones and put them into this one.

As soon as I discovered the potential of blacklight painting doing this painting, I knew I will probably never do a painting without it. Have a lot to learn on how to mix colors to get the nicest effects, and it really looks good in the dark (way better than all pictures I shoot with my camera).

From all the solutions for the stars I chose the fully programable rgb leds, since I wanted to be able to program some of the starts to go bright randonmly from time to time.

Cupcake cake #1 & #2

Kids theese days don’t care much for old school birthday cakes with lots of creams. Every time, more than half was remaining in the freezer. A real danger to my diet :-).

In the summer we tried the first time a cupcake cake. I have never seen another cake get eaten faster than that πŸ™‚

So yesterday we tried it again.