Posted March 16, 2011 by Chris

The Tricopter is an awesome little multi-blade helicopter. It uses an ATmega for the control loop from the sensor feedback and has a camera mounted on its front so you can see where it’s going. Take a look at the action videos, a pretty impressive little project.

Posted March 12, 2011 by Chris

Using an Atmel ATmega, this project is able to regulate how much power an AC device (Lamp/Fan) receives from the wall. The project write-up is extremely detailed with all schematics and software freely available to look at and for download.

Posted March 6, 2011 by Chris

This project goes through the few fundamentals necessary for making a robotic car. There’s nothing fancy here, just the basics of H-brigdes, keypad circuits and stepper/dc motor control. Take a look if you’re just beginning with any of those topics, you’ll learn something.

Posted March 4, 2011 by Chris

If motor and motion control is what you do, then you’ll want to take a look at this write-up. It goes through how to implement PID control using a PIC which is a much more robust method of controlling motors where error and stability issues seem to virtually disappear from servo systems.

Posted February 26, 2011 by Chris

Basic motor control is achieved through using what is known as an ‘H-Bridge’. The name comes from the circuit looking like the letter H. It allows current to pass through a DC motor in two different directions. With a little PWM added in speed can also be controlled. This embedded lab shows you how to do all of this is a nice 3 page tutorial.

Posted February 23, 2011 by Chris

Today’s project shows you how to use an Arduino with an ethernet shield to begin automating your home. The example the project uses is building a web service to control light switches in a room.

Posted February 20, 2011 by Chris

This robot has built in functionality for line following, object avoiding and ‘victim finding’. A PIC micro allows to it be able to do all these at once. Check the project write-up to see the hardware schematics, software & parts list.

Posted January 29, 2011 by Chris

Any attempt at dead-reckoning in autonomous vehicles is at present extremely difficult. Without expensive sensors the accumulated error grows exponentially with time. The WFR robot takes a shot at trying out some dead-reckoning navigation techniques for location tracking.

Posted January 28, 2011 by Chris

Vestal designers purchased cheap robotic toy dogs, reverse engineered their CPU’s, and reprogrammed them to “hunt” toxic waste. Building upon this experience, later models (pictured above) were built from scratch to meet the all-terrain needs of the urban environment.

Posted January 27, 2011 by Chris

The tachometer is not a new invention, but being able to build a digital tachometer in less than an hour by yourself shows you how far technology has come. This tutorial guides you through the process of building your own PIC based rpm counter!