Plush ObjectThe Identified Plush Object Network is one of a few bigger projects that I want to work on this year. The idea is to create a network of small plush animals that interact with users, each other, and the Internet. I called it “Identified” because as a separate project I’m working with an RFID reader/writer module I want to create a simpler interface for, and once that piece is working each object in the network will be tagged as well.

The motivation for the project is non-profit work I want to do in the future with at-risk teenagers here in Orange County, CA. I want to create something that can be built in phases that get increasingly complex as the students learn, but that starts simple enough to enable hands-on participation from day one. Software improvements will be made in each iteration. [click to continue…]

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I have recently received the following question from a reader:

I’m looking for a circuit board design that will need to turn on an array of LEDs when motion is detected during the day time, and also stay on continuously during the night time; using the Arduino would be nice. The project that I am working on is just a picture frame with my artwork in it. The art is actually an embossed piece. The light that I am placing within the frame will shine across the embossed art, and reflect off the raised areas of paper and make the picture appear more three-dimensional. So, the picture acts as a night light when it’s dark, and then turns on for a moment during the day time when some approaches the picture.

I suspected there had to be a simple circuit to accomplish this without having to program a microcontroller to take care of triggering the light. I could see that was overkill; after all, it is just a way to switch lights on/off. Still, I had no idea how to do it, if not from a software point of view.
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Wire messBack in April I posted about a goal I had for this year: setting up a decent workbench for myself in a corner of my (minuscule) home office. As the year comes to an end, I think it’s time for an update.

Did it happen exactly as planned? No…

Did I make progress? Yes!

So what happened?

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When I posted the “LED Control Using DIP Switch” sketch last year (a simple setup the turned on the LED corresponding to that switch position), I also had a slightly modified version of it in which the DIP switch controlled six different light patterns on the LEDs (scroll right, left, in, out, back and forth and random). It presented a “cleaned-up” version of the code using for loops and compared it to the “long-hand” version, showing the trade-off between ease of understanding and conciseness. Except that… I forgot to post it.

Last week someone contacted me asking a question about a similar project he is working on and when I wanted to refer him to this modified sketch I realized it wasn’t on the blog. (Here’s the original sketch and schematic for reference). [click to continue…]

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Lumex Graphic LCD Road Test

This is a review of the Lumex LCR-U12864GSF-WH which was recently sent to me by Newark as part of their Product Road Testing program. The Lumex LCR-U12864GSF-WH is a graphic LCD display (pardon the redundancy) with white backlighting and screen measuring 128 pixels in width and 64 pixels in height. It uses the standard KS0108 [...]

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Arduino Serial Display: Introducing the GLO-216 2×16 Multifont Serial OLED Display

The GLO-216 2×16 Multifont Serial OLED allows you to translate 9600bps serial data into bright, high-contrast text on a compact screen. This low cost, low power serial display comes in two font colors (yellow and green) and is made and sold by seetron.com, owned by Scott Edwards of Electronics Now and Nuts & Volts fame. [...]

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EEWeb Electronics Forum Shout Out

As a computer scientist turned electronics hobbyist trying to fill the gaps in my knowledge of electronics I find myself visiting the electronics forums over at EEWeb quite a lot these days. They are a community of EEs eager to help others, sharing tons of online resources, news, projects and general electronics expertise. Whether you [...]

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The 2011 Workbench Challenge

Since I started playing with hobby electronics I’ve been making do with somewhat of a makeshift workbench, which consists of some space of my desk combined with a tray table that I stole from my husband. The table is small and wobbly. The space on the desk is not permanent, so I have to put [...]

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LED Bar Graph: Testing the Ardweeny

A while ago I purchased an Ardweeny kit, but hadn’t put it together and tested it until now. The Ardweeny is a small, breadboard friendly Arduino clone. In fact, it is the smallest Arduino clone that I know of, and the tiny board is backpacked on top of the ATMega chip. Here are the parts [...]

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Pull Up Resistors

If you’ve read Getting Started with Arduino (click on link to read my review of the book) you must have noticed that the circuit on page 43 uses a 10K Ohm resistor in series with the pushbutton. (If you haven’t read it yet, the example in the schematic on the right is similar to the [...]

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Arduino LED Control Using DIP Switch: Schematic | Part 2

This is an addendum to the LED control using DIP switch post, to include the schematic to the project circuit:

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Arduino LED Control Using DIP Switch | Part 1

This is a very simple project that controls a set of LEDs using a DIP switch. The purpose of the sketch is to show the use of some Arduino serial communication functions, and to increase familiarity interfacing with digital I/O pins. Two LEDs were connected to the RX and TX pins on the Arduino (digital [...]

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Arduino Serial Communication

Computers can exchange bits of information serially (one after another, in sequence) or in parallel (several at the same time). In applications where it is necessary to have one computer talk to another, the most commonly used communication method is serial. So it is no surprise that serial communication is the method used to send [...]

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Arduino RGB LED Control for the Spinning Night Light | Part 4

When looking at the parts list for the Arduino RGB LED spinning night light you must have noticed that current limiting resistors of different values were used for the Red and the Green/Blue pins of the RGB LED. That is due to them having different forward voltage ratings. You can find complete specs for the [...]

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