LED stair sensors and other progress
I’ve received a few comments and e-mails about the LED stairs lately, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to contact me. Although I haven’t posted in a while, I have been moving forward with the project. When it is complete I plan to publish a full list of materials and schematics [...]
LED stairs: the chips are talking
In my last post on the LED stairs, I discussed using the Arduino and an M5451 driver chip to control the lighting sequence. Today, I completed my first breadboard version:
The Arduino Mini Pro is on the left and the M5451 is on the right, positions I will reverse in the final design. I used LEDs [...]
Robotics Open House at the University of Maryland
Last Friday the University of Maryland had an open house for their robotics department. This was a free event, including lunch, and very well organized. I had not been able to go to any previous robot competitions at the university so I was eager to see what they had.
The university has 18 robotics labs, 16 [...]
Expanding the Arduino: cheap ways to add output pins and power
For the LED stairs, I need to control 14 LED lamps and 2 sensors. From the beginning, I had in mind an Arduino as the microcontroller for this project. Although it is possible to do a primitive version of these stairs without a microcontroller, having a brain at the center gives many more options. And [...]
Automated LED stair lights
I’ve been hunting for a new project to do ever since completing my contest entry for Robie. I’ve done a number of interesting small things, mainly with the kids, but nothing too big. Then recently Make: Online featured this:
When someone walks on the first step, the LEDs light up in sequence. Aside from looking cool, [...]
Potato batteries
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Laurel went through a rite of passage last week, her first science fair. This was a non-competitive event, an Arts and Technology Night organized by her school. She really wanted to exhibit something so we got her signed up.
After looking online for ideas, Laurel chose to do food batteries. Batteries are very simple — two [...]
Playing with a solar robot
Holly has been begging to build her own robot ever since I made Robie. Fortunately there are some excellent options for kid-friendly robot kits. After browsing the MakerShed we decided to get the 6-in-1 Educational Solar Robotic Kit.
This was a good choice. As the box states you can make six different robots. We’ve done three [...]
Coasterbot gets a pair of eyes
I was featured in MAKE Robot Dispatch #7 — thanks guys! Hard to believe that there is less than a week left in the contest.
One of the requirements of the contest is for the robot to do some obstacle avoidance. The Jameco bundle came with some switches to do bump sensing. While this might be [...]
Coasterbot moves!
With the electronics done, it was time to go back and work on the chassis. As before, the DVDs are linked with screws. I wanted the servos to be firmly attached. Since we removed the controller units, this left a lot of empty space in the case, allowing for this type of attachment:
I still don’t [...]
Finishing up the coasterbot electronics (mostly)
After building the Ardweeny, and modifying the servo motors, there was only one major bit of soldering left: the breadboard voltage regulator.
The Ardweeny requires an input voltage of exactly 5V, a common requirement for many chips. This is solved by using a voltage regulator. This is available as a simple component ($1.59 from RadioShack) but [...]