Posted May 24, 2015 by Chris

"Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been working on a BeagleBoard based robot. The motivation for this was to build a general robotics platform to try out some ideas I have on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and robust sensor fusion. Here’s the result so far."

Posted May 23, 2015 by Chris

"Now I continue the ‘Out of Boredom’ series with a setup that allows firing a paintball marker (gun) with a command sent from a computer 🙂 This time software stack is simpler – just a small Arduino sketch and uncomplicated WinForms (.NET/C#) application, but hardware requires a bit of electronics knowledge."

Posted May 22, 2015 by Chris

"…project named ‘DIY Led Mood Lamp’ can become a very interesting add-on for your room that’s absolutely sure it will impress everyone. As you can see in the photos, we talk about a color fading lamp, that looks amazing!"

Posted May 21, 2015 by Chris

This week we are learning about proximity sensors in our new PyroEDU course: An Introduction To Sensors. In this lesson we’ll look at everything there is to know about IR Proximity Sensors. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

Knowing if something is in front of you is very useful for many different electronic applications. In this lesson we will use an infrared emitter and detector to sense if an object has crossed the sensor’s path.

Posted May 19, 2015 by Chris

"A few months ago I had the idea to build a large hexapod using PVC pipe as the legs, wood for the body, and windshield-wiper motors for the actuators. Unlike my last hexapod robot, PegLeg, the middle legs would use 2 motors for lifting, allowing both to be controlled separately. This left the potential for some interesting locomotion if everything came together correctly."

Posted May 17, 2015 by Chris

"This part will describe all the hardware and various techniques used to figure out which signal goes where. Why do this? It’s an improvement on the original firmware and an exercise in consumer product design."

Posted May 16, 2015 by Chris

"….But the process of building a PC is pretty boring, it’s just an exercise of picking out compatible parts for the right price. I decided to make it slightly more interesting by submerging the entire computer in a fish tank full of mineral oil."

Posted May 15, 2015 by Chris

"Add general purpose input/output lines to your computer based projects. This circuit is a 12 pin digital GPIO interface using the Microchip PIC18f14k50 microcontroller which connects to an USB host port. The microcontroller is available in through-hole DIP20 and SMD packages, too."

Posted May 14, 2015 by Chris

Today we are learning about temperature sensors in our new PyroEDU course: An Introduction To Sensors. In this lesson we’ll look at everything there is to know about Temperature Sensors and perform a fun experiment to give you a hands-on feel for how they work. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

The temperature sensor is a small component that packs a powerful punch. In this lesson, we’ll use a temperature sensor to output the current temperature inside the range of -40°C to +125°C.

Posted May 11, 2015 by Chris

"KeySweeper is a stealthy Arduino-based device, camouflaged as a functioning USB wall charger, that wirelessly and passively sniffs, decrypts, logs and reports back (over GSM) all keystrokes from any Microsoft wireless keyboard in the vicinity."