Makespace - User contributions [en]

Latest member news

2018-06-21T20:42:47Z

Jenny:

A newsletter is e-mailed to Makespace members about once a quarter. You can have a look at past newsletters here. (Note that some sensitive info and email addresses may have been removed in these versions.) If you have items for upcoming newsletters, email admin (at) makespace (dot) org.

== [[Latest member news 7 April 2017 | 7 April 2017]] ==

* Report from the Science Festival
* Run an event at the Festival of Ideas
* Free SolidWorks demo
* Classroom update
* Lease update
* Darkroom plans
* Safety, fires and lasercutters
* Science Makers and other happenings

== [[Latest member news 1 March 2017 | 1 March 2017]] ==

* Open day on 16 March

== [[Latest member news 2 December 2016 | 2 December 2016]] ==

* Christmas party
* Trove survey
* Network improvements
* Theft prevention
* Fire safety and Health & Safety
* Date for your diary

== [[Latest member news 18 October 2016 | 18 October 2016]] ==

* Forthcoming events: Cambridge TV filming, 20 Oct; clean-up, 23 Oct; Open Day 29 Oct
* Makespace in the media: Raspberry Pi magazine, Smartbell on TV
* Storage and fire risk
* Important reminder: answering the door

== [[Latest member news 16 September 2016 | 16 September 2016]] ==

* Forthcoming events: Clean-up day, 23 Oct; Open Day 29 Oct
* Equipment: Seeking more electronics owners, CNC trainers; wood lathe open for business
* Bits & bobs: adjustable table, honesty boxes, community bank account, WEEE disposal

== [[Latest member news 23 August 2016 | 23 August 2016]] ==

* Recent events: Makespace on Radio Cambridge 105
* Forthcoming events: Game Jam; Continuing education; help for startups / SMEs; Quacky Races
* Equipment: Training available for wood lathe and knitting machine; jewellery books
* Odds and ends: Financial hardship; First Aid; Organising events

== [[Minutes of members' meeting 21 July 2016]] ==

* Finances
* New 'exec'
* Wood lathe
* Knitting machine
* Dark room
* Community account
* Other business

== [[Latest member news 14 July 2016 | 14 July 2016]] ==

* Members' meeting, 21 July
* Forthcoming events: First aid training, summer courses for kids, SME management training
* Recent events: Megaprocessor talk, art meets science at Dorkbot
* Waste wood etc: Please don't leave it by the (now clear) back door. Use the bins.
* Internet connectivity: Recent improvements

== [[Latest member news 6 June 2016 | 6 June 2016]] ==

* Members' Meeting: Thu 7 July
* New director: welcome Ward Hills who is joining the Makespace board
* Forthcoming events: Building a microprocessor from scratch; Building a Business, 16 Jun; IoT accelerator programme
* Contacting Makespace while Mark is away
* Reminders: No alcohol; storage boxes
* Data Protection

== [[Latest member news 12 May 2016 | 12 May 2016]] ==

* Community list: are you on the Makespace Google group?
* Glass owner wanted: can you help look after the glass kiln?
* Forthcoming events: Tiered membership meeting, Entrepreneurs Exchange, Onshape training, Artistic Impressions
* Equipment inductions: Form 1, screenprinting, and more
* Disabled access: access cards available
* Using the classroom: holding events at Makespace
* Farewell to Laura: founding director standing down

== [[Latest member news 18 April 2016 | 18 April 2016]] ==

* Recent events: Science Makers go bats
* Forthcoming events: Social Venture Weekend 13-15 May; Ignite training 10-15 July; social night
* Equipment: New Ultimaker in use; Form One 3D printer training soon
* Volunteer sought: community account
* Training: orange kit
* Notices: Do we have your e-mail address? Do you have our batteries?

== Older news ==

Older newsletters may be found [[Older news|here]].
A few ancient newsletters, originally sent via Meetup, are [[Updates|here]].

Useful makespace info for Members

2018-06-21T20:41:03Z

Jenny:

'''New members
'''

Please checkout the [[Reading list for new members]]

'''Equipment Inductions
'''

We're sure there'll be lots of pieces of equipment you're keen to get inducted on. As a reminder, the process for kit inductions is as follows:
* Look for an induction on http://meetup.com/makespace
* If there isn't one, find the page for that equipment on the Makespace wiki: wiki.makespace.org - there you will find instructions about how to request new inductions

We know there is a backlog on some popular pieces of equipment, and we're doing our best to find new owners and trainers to relieve the pressure. If you're a skilled operator on any of our kit, please consider offering to train people!

'''Getting involved
'''

Getting stuck in to the community will help you enjoy Makespace, and help Makespace thrive:
* Introduce yourself on the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group], and write about what you want to do
* Run events – or help others run events. All our events get listed on meetup.com/makespace
* Become a community owner of some equipment
* Just help – with cleaning, tidying, showing people around, welcoming new members on the mailing list and helping people find the information or help they need. Taking the tea towels home and washing them when they get dirty; loading the dishwasher; watering the plants; sweeping the floor; stocking up on chocolate.

'''Spread the word
'''

Grab some posters and stickers from the entrance hall – and tell your friends, put up posters in offices and common rooms and so on.

'''Keep in touch
'''

* Join the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group] to talk to other members about making, your projects, and Makespace
* Follow us on twitter/Facebook/Google+ for all the latest news (all linked from http://makespace.org )
* Don’t forget there’s usually a group chatting in IRC too, in #makespace on freenode.net

The archive of the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group] may be of interest too.

You may also be interested in recent updates sent to members every few weeks: http://wiki.makespace.org/Latest_member_news

'''Admin bits
'''

If you want to change your payment details, you can login at http://makespace.recurly.com

For any concerns about the space or community, email the Directors management@makespace.org

Useful makespace info for Members

2018-06-21T20:37:44Z

Jenny:

'''New members
'''
There’s a [[Reading list for new members]]

'''Equipment Inductions
'''

We're sure there'll be lots of pieces of equipment you're keen to get inducted on. As a reminder, the process for kit inductions is as follows:
* Look for an induction on http://meetup.com/makespace
* If there isn't one, find the page for that equipment on the Makespace wiki: wiki.makespace.org - there you will find instructions about how to request new inductions

We know there is a backlog on some popular pieces of equipment, and we're doing our best to find new owners and trainers to relieve the pressure. If you're a skilled operator on any of our kit, please consider offering to train people!

'''Getting involved
'''
Getting stuck in to the community will help you enjoy Makespace, and help Makespace thrive:
* Introduce yourself on the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group], and write about what you want to do
* Run events – or help others run events. All our events get listed on meetup.com/makespace
* Become a community owner of some equipment
* Just help – with cleaning, tidying, showing people around, welcoming new members on the mailing list and helping people find the information or help they need. Taking the tea towels home and washing them when they get dirty; loading the dishwasher; watering the plants; sweeping the floor; stocking up on chocolate.

'''Spread the word
'''
Grab some posters and stickers from the entrance hall – and tell your friends, put up posters in offices and common rooms and so on.

'''Keep in touch
'''

* Join the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group] to talk to other members about making, your projects, and Makespace
* Follow us on twitter/Facebook/Google+ for all the latest news (all linked from http://makespace.org )
* Don’t forget there’s usually a group chatting in IRC too, in #makespace on freenode.net

The archive of the [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace Google Group] may be of interest too.

You may also be interested in recent updates sent to members every few weeks: http://wiki.makespace.org/Latest_member_news

'''Admin bits
'''
If you want to change your payment details, you can login at http://makespace.recurly.com

For any concerns about the space or community, email the Directors management@makespace.org

Reading list for new members

2018-06-21T20:29:54Z

Jenny:

Things to read for new Members:

* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/ Membership Agreement]. This is the thing you sign and is unlikely to change.
* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/membership-rules/ Rules and Guidelines]. You are bound by these when you sign the Membership Agreement, but they are likely to change as Makespace grows and evolves.
* The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/members-safety-briefing Health and Safety Briefing]. To ensure we can all use the space and do stuff without worrying!

There are also some specific things to look at depending on what you are doing. These tend to be linked from the above docs:

* If you plan to bring something into makespace, please consult the [[Hazardous Materials]] page if applicable, and the [[Electrical safety policy]] if you will plug it into the mains.
* If you want to store stuff here, consult the [[Infrastructure/Member Personal Storage]] and the [[personal Storage Policy]]

* If you are thinking of donating something to makespace, check the [[Donations Policy]]. (Please only things that might be useful, junk electronics such as your old router/modems can go in the wee recycling bin.(under the electronics bench))

* When using the wifi: The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/wifi-policy/ Wifi Policy].
* When doing stuff: The [http://makespace.org/wp-content/uploads/Makespace-Risk-Assessments-2012Decv1.xlsx Risk Assessments].

* If you are wondering what the community atmosphere at Makespace should be like, there are the [[Community Values]] .

'''Communications'''

Discuss making and Makespace on our [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/cammakespace mailing list] which is a Google Group. To join without a google account, you can email cammakespace+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Tweet [http://twitter.com/cammakespace @cammakespace ]

Reading list for new members

2018-06-21T20:27:16Z

Jenny:

Things to read for new Members:

* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/ Membership Agreement]. This is the thing you sign and is unlikely to change.
* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/membership-rules/ Rules and Guidelines]. You are bound by these when you sign the Membership Agreement, but they are likely to change as Makespace grows and evolves.
* The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/members-safety-briefing Health and Safety Briefing]. To ensure we can all use the space and do stuff without worrying!

There are also some specific things to look at depending on what you are doing. These tend to be linked from the above docs:

* If you plan to bring something into makespace, please consult the [[Hazardous Materials]] page if applicable, and the [[Electrical safety policy]] if you will plug it into the mains.
* If you want to store stuff here, consult the [[Infrastructure/Member Personal Storage]] and the [[personal Storage Policy]]

* If you are thinking of donating something to makespace, check the [[Donations Policy]]. (Please only things that might be useful, junk electronics such as your old router/modems can go in the wee recycling bin.(under the electronics bench))

* When using the wifi: The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/wifi-policy/ Wifi Policy].
* When doing stuff: The [http://makespace.org/wp-content/uploads/Makespace-Risk-Assessments-2012Decv1.xlsx Risk Assessments].

* If you are wondering what the community atmosphere at Makespace should be like, there are the [[Community Values]] .

'''Communications'''

Discuss making and Makespace on our [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/cammakespace mailing list] which is a Google Group. To join without a google account, you can email cammakespace+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Chat with the community: in the #makespace channel (and if you aren't familiar with IRC, there's help). Server details: [irc.freenode.net/#makespace Freenode]

Tweet [http://twitter.com/cammakespace @cammakespace ]

Reading list for new members

2018-06-21T20:20:31Z

Jenny:

Things to read for new Members:

* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/ Membership Agreement]. This is the thing you sign and is unlikely to change.
* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/membership-rules/ Rules and Guidelines]. You are bound by these when you sign the Membership Agreement, but they are likely to change as Makespace grows and evolves.
* The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/members-safety-briefing Health and Safety Briefing]. To ensure we can all use the space and do stuff without worrying!

There are also some specific things to look at depending on what you are doing. These tend to be linked from the above docs:

* If you plan to bring something into makespace, please consult the [[Hazardous Materials]] page if applicable, and the [[Electrical safety policy]] if you will plug it into the mains.
* If you want to store stuff here, consult the [[Infrastructure/Member Personal Storage]] and the [[personal Storage Policy]]

* If you are thinking of donating something to makespace, check the [[Donations Policy]]. (Please only things that might be useful - no modems!!)

* When using the wifi: The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/wifi-policy/ Wifi Policy].
* When doing stuff: The [http://makespace.org/wp-content/uploads/Makespace-Risk-Assessments-2012Decv1.xlsx Risk Assessments].

* If you are wondering what the community atmosphere at Makespace should be like, there are the [[Community Values]] .

'''Communications'''

Discuss making and Makespace on our [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/cammakespace mailing list] which is a Google Group. To join without a google account, you can email cammakespace+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Chat with the community: in the #makespace channel (and if you aren't familiar with IRC, there's help). Server details: [irc.freenode.net/#makespace Freenode]

Tweet [http://twitter.com/cammakespace @cammakespace ]

Donations Policy

2018-06-21T20:00:30Z

Jenny:

You can't donate equipment to Makespace, but we might buy something from you for a pound.

(This is so that there is a receipt, so that it's clear that you're not just lending the equipment to us; there has been confusion over this in the past, where we believed that we had been given something, but the person from whom we got it later said they had only lent it to us.)

Please contact management@makespace.org, to discuss this.

Reading list for new members

2018-06-21T19:54:25Z

Jenny:

Things to read for new Members:

* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/ Membership Agreement]. This is the thing you sign and is unlikely to change.
* The [http://makespace.org/index.php/membership/membership-agreement/membership-rules/ Rules and Guidelines]. You are bound by these when you sign the Membership Agreement, but they are likely to change as Makespace grows and evolves.
* The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/members-safety-briefing Health and Safety Briefing]. To ensure we can all use the space and do stuff without worrying!

There are also some specific things to look at depending on what you are doing. These tend to be linked from the above docs:

* If you are thinking of bringing something into Makespace, we're still working out how we should handle some things, so you might want to read the [[Donations Policy]] if you plan to donate it to Makespace, the [[Hazardous Materials]] page if it's a substance that might be a hazard, the [[Electrical safety policy]] if you will plug it into the mains, the [[personal Storage Policy]] if you plan to store it at Makespace, and the Storage page if it's big or heavy or awkward or expensive.

* When using the wifi: The [http://makespace.org/membership/membership-agreement/wifi-policy/ Wifi Policy].
* When doing stuff: The [http://makespace.org/wp-content/uploads/Makespace-Risk-Assessments-2012Decv1.xlsx Risk Assessments].

* If you are wondering what the community atmosphere at Makespace should be like, there are the [[Community Values]] .

'''Communications'''

Discuss making and Makespace on our [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/cammakespace mailing list] which is a Google Group. To join without a google account, you can email cammakespace+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Chat with the community: in the #makespace channel (and if you aren't familiar with IRC, there's help). Server details: [irc.freenode.net/#makespace Freenode]

Tweet [http://twitter.com/cammakespace @cammakespace ]

Useful makespace info for Members

2018-06-21T19:41:40Z

Jenny:

'''Equipment Inductions
'''

We're sure there'll be lots of pieces of equipment you're keen to get inducted on. As a reminder, the process for kit inductions is as follows:
* Look for an induction on http://meetup.com/makespace
* If there isn't one, find the page for that equipment on the Makespace wiki: wiki.makespace.org - there you will find instructions about how to request new inductions

We know there is a backlog on some popular pieces of equipment, and we're doing our best to find new owners and trainers to relieve the pressure. If you're a skilled operator on any of our kit, please consider offering to train people!

'''Getting involved
'''
Getting stuck in to the community will help you enjoy Makespace, and help Makespace thrive:
* Introduce yourself on the Forum (http://makespace.org/forum), and write about what you want to do
* Run events – or help others run events. All our events get listed on meetup.com/makespace
* Become a community owner of some equipment
* Just help – with cleaning, tidying, showing people around, welcoming new members on the mailing list and helping people find the information or help they need. Taking the tea towels home and washing them when they get dirty; loading the dishwasher; watering the plants; sweeping the floor; stocking up on chocolate.

'''Spread the word
'''
Grab some posters and stickers from the entrance hall – and tell your friends, put up posters in offices and common rooms and so on.

'''Keep in touch
'''

* Join the Google Group to talk to other members about making, your projects, and Makespace https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cammakespace
* Follow us on twitter/Facebook/Google+ for all the latest news (all linked from http://makespace.org )
* Don’t forget there’s usually a group chatting in IRC too, in #makespace on freenode.net

'''Things to read
'''
There’s a reading list on the wiki: http://makespace.org/wiki/index.php/Reading_list_for_new_members
and a page which points to what’s going on at the moment:
http://makespace.org/wiki/index.php/Currently_active_and_interesting

The archive of the Google Group may be of interest too.

You may also be interested in recent updates sent to members every few weeks: http://wiki.makespace.org/Latest_member_news

'''Admin bits
'''
If you want to change your payment details, you can login at http://makespace.recurly.com

For any concerns about the space or community, email the Directors management@makespace.org

Arduino and Cake/Big Box

2014-11-28T22:43:19Z

Jenny:

[[File:bbbbb.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Big box!]]
= Big Box of Breakout Boards and Bits =

We have a box of bits containing Arduinos for use in the space along with an assortment of sensors, motors, lights and other things you might need to make up a project. It lives in... (to be confirmed, currently it lives in my kitchen, obviously that won't be its final location!)

This page exists to catalogue the contents of the box along with any notes on how to use each modules, including links to Arduino libraries, datasheets, photos showing pinouts and suchlike. Basically if you've figured out how to use a module through extensive googling and experimentation here is where you can share that knowledge with everyone else. Use your signatures to claim credit!

== Policies ==

This is not primarily intended to be used as stock for people's projects, rather it's there to provide a lending library of parts for use at events such as the [[Arduino and Cake]] sessions and [[Family Makers]]. That said, none of the parts are particularly expensive and we try to have a reasonable number of them so if you really need something for a project right now, aren't going to be taking the last one of something and are prepared to provide a replacement in non ludicrous time that's probably fine. If unsure ask on the mailing list! Most things here have been bought from sellers from the far East on eBay, so while they're cheap the lead times are often quite lengthy.

There's a section at the end of this page for requests - if there's something you'd like to have access to and which is of general use (i.e. not for just one project you have in mind) add some details and we'll see whether we can source it at an appropriate price. If something goes wrong and the magic white smoke escapes from something please make a note in the section for the component or module concerned, that way we know it's broken and can either fix or replace it (and tell everyone how to avoid the same thing happening again)

== What's in the Box? ==

Contents of the box, both current and planned. Things that have arrived and are ready for use are marked in {{Done|this colour}}. We need photos and documentation for everything on this list!

{|class="wikitable" style="background-color: #fff"
!colspan="4"|Spotter's Guide
|-
{{Cell|max7219matrix.jpg|Max7219 based dot matrix display}}
{{Cell|max7219segment.jpg|Max7219 based seven segment LED display}}
{{Cell|steppermotor.jpg|5v stepper motor}}
{{Cell|steppermotordriver.jpg|Driver board for 5v stepper motor}}
|-
{{Cell2|nrf24l01.jpg|NRF24L01 radio modules}}
{{Cell2|irbeambreak.jpg|IR beam break detector}}
{{Cell2|dht11.jpg|DHT11 temperature / humidity sensor}}
{{Cell2|barometric.jpg|Barometric pressure sensor}}
|-
{{Cell|deadservo.jpg|Geared 6v motor (ex servo)}}
{{Cell|bagofleds.jpg|Assorted pink, green, orange and blue LEDs}}
{{Cell|mpu6050.jpg|MPU6050 six axis motion sensor}}
{{Cell|arduinonano.jpg|Arduino nano v3}}
|-
{{Cell2|nanoethernet.jpg|Arduino nano ethernet shield}}
{{Cell2|lcddisplay.jpg|Blue LCD display}}
{{Cell2|9gservo.jpg|9g servo and accessories}}
{{Cell2|ultrasoundranger.jpg|Ultrasonic rangefinder board}}
|-
{{Cell|hbridge.jpg|Dual H-bridge module}}
{{Cell|cablesoflurve.jpg|Cables of lurve}}

|}

=== Arduinos ===

;{{Done|6x Arduino Nano v3}}
: Breadboard compatible Arduinos with ATMega328 processors. Note that the 3.3v rail is driven from the FTDI chip (the part that interfaces with USB) so is only available when powered through the USB cable (in other cases use a 3.3v regulator). If supplying external power remember to use the VIn pin and not the 5v one, even if you think you have a regulated power supply.

=== Sensors and Input Devices ===

;{{Done|3x DHT11 temperature and humidity Sensors}}
: These modules break out the three usable pins on the DHT11 sensors

;{{Done|MPU6050 based 6 axis motion sensor board}}
: I2C based motion processor, contains a 3 axis gyroscope in conjunction with a 3 axis linear accelerometer and an embedded DSP

;{{Done|1x Barometric pressure sensor board}}
: Not tested yet, but believed to be a [http://learn.adafruit.com/bmp085/using-the-bmp085-api-v2 BMP085], which if so is capable of resolving pressure differences corresponding to about 20cm of altitude, very nifty!

;{{Done|Ultrasonic rangefinders}}
: Modules with an ultrasonic emitter / receiver pair and the logic to calculate distance to a reflecting object based on timing.

=== Motors and other Output Devices ===

;{{Done|12x Dual H-bridge modules, used to drive regular and stepper motors}}
: H-Bridge modules, used to interface to high power devices including motors and drive them from the logic level signals on the Arduino.

;{{Done|1x hacked HiTec HS-625MG}}
: A tough servo with the servo bits removed, now just acts as a high quality electric motor with a gearbox. Drive at 5-6v and use conventional PWM / H-Bridge to alter its speed and direction.

;{{Done|10x 9g servo motors}}
: Basic servo motors. Use the Servo or modified Servo2 library (the latter for when you need to drive more than a couple of servos at a time from the Arduino)

;{{Done|4x 5V stepper motors with driver boards}}
: Document how to make them work here (Martin?) - there's more info on these exact boards along with example code [http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/SmallSteppers here], yet to be tried but they look identical!

=== Communications ===

;{{Done|10x NRF24L01 Radio Modules}}
: Short range radio modules, use the mIRF library. (edit - we've lost one, there are now nine of them....)

;{{Done|2x Arduino nano ethernet shields}}
: Stackable modules providing an ethernet jack

Useful library here: https://github.com/ntruchsess/arduino_uip

To use:

cd [path to Arduino distribution]\libraries
git clone https://github.com/ntruchsess/arduino_uip UIPEthernet

There are examples included, which you'll want to tinker with to suit your network.

=== LEDs and displays ===

;{{Done|High brightness LEDs}}
: 20 each of four different colours (pink, green, blue and orange) 5mm LEDs, remember to use current limiting resistors or a constant current source when driving them!

;{{Done|4x LED Dot matrix modules with drivers}}
: Dot matrix displays, single colour with drivers

<span style='font-family: monospace; display: block; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 6px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;background-color: #f9f9f9;'>/* MAX7219 Example  
 * Tom Oinn, 16th September 2013 
 * Drive our dot matrix and 7+1 segment displays using the LedControl  
 * library, download from http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/LedControl 
 */ 
#include <LedControl.h> 
 
/* Digital pin connected to the 'DIN' on the module */ 
int DATA = 5; 
/* Digital pin connected to the 'CS' on the module */ 
int CS = 6; 
/* Digital pin connected to the 'CLK' on the module */ 
int CLOCK = 7; 
 
/*  
 * Number of displays connected, more displays can be chained 
 * together by connecting the (hopefully) obvious pins. Displays 
 * are numbered with display 1 being at the end of the chain if 
 * you have more than one. 
 */ 
int DISPLAYS = 3; 
 
/*  
 * Create a new LedControl object, passing in the data,  
 * clock, chip select and number of displays  
 */ 
LedControl lc = LedControl(DATA, CLOCK, CS, DISPLAYS); 
 
/* Initialise the displays */ 
void setup() { 
  for (int n = 0; n < DISPLAYS; n++) { 
    lc.shutdown(n,false); 
    lc.setIntensity(n,8); 
    lc.clearDisplay(n); 
  } 
} 
 
/* Used to allow the sin wave to animate */ 
float offset = 0.0; 
 
void loop() { 
  /* Iterate over the total number of rows, i.e. DISPLAYS * 8 */ 
  for (int i = 0 ; i < DISPLAYS <<3; i++) { 
    /* For each row work out where we want the dot for a sin wave */ 
    int shift = (int)((sin(offset + ((float)(i)*0.6))+1.0)*4.0); 
    /* 
     * Set the row to be that value, we'd use columns but our 
     * are the wrong shape on the boards to do that. Columns would 
     * be more efficient and require fewer shift operations internally 
     */ 
    lc.setRow(i>>3, i & 7, 1<<shift);  
  } 
  /* Increment the offset, add a delay and go around again */ 
  offset += PI / 16; 
  delay(50); 
} 


;{{Done|2x Eight digit seven segment displays with drivers}}
: Standard 'calculator style' seven segment displays in a module of eight of them with associated driver circuitry.

;{{Done|4x LCD 20x4 character displays}}
: LCD character displays, serial protocol (probably!) to drive them.

=== Everything else ===

;{{Done|2x IR correlation modules}}
: IR beam break sensors with amplifiers to provide a clean signal. Not tested yet!

;10x Playstation style joysticks
: Analogue joysticks with an embedded press button

;{{Done|Male to male and male to female jumper leads}}
: A load of long jump leads with pins and sockets (depending on type) to make it easier to interface to modules such as the NRF24L which have otherwise awkward pin layouts and can't be directly connected to a breadboard. Update - these are now here, and are so full of lurve that they're unsafe to use unless you are singing 'The Power of Love' by Huey Lewis and the News while doing so. This will be enforced.

== Requests ==

Put your requests for parts here...

At the moment I think we could do with some regular DC motors, some switches, potentiometers, piezo speakers and battery packs (ideally with a few regulator boards capable of providing clean 3.3v, 5v and possibly 12v feeds from the same). We can make the boards, potentially. Even better for power would be a few LiPo packs, again with regulators and suitable chargers.

Arduino and Cake

2013-10-17T16:37:50Z

Jenny: /* Sessions */

[[File:P1100161.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Cake!]]
[[File:P1100164.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Arduino!]]
[[File:P1100162.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Happy Hacking!]]
[[File:P1100160.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The temperature sensor, it lives!]]
[[File:P1100163.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Step step step...]]

= Arduino and Cake =

This is a page of information for the (hopefully) regular 'Arduino and Cake' event we run at Makespace. This is an evening where we get together in the space to learn and hack on projects involving the Arduino and similar microcontrollers. As the name suggests, there's also cake!

If you're a complete beginner to microcontrollers (tiny, very cheap computers without an operating system, files, display, keyboard...) this is a great opportunity to come and play with them. Experts also very welcome, in fact we need you to help the new people! Possible things you can do with an Arduino (a particularly easy to use microcontroller board) range from simple flashing lights up to acting as the brains of an autonomous flying robot, managing your hydroponic gardening project or tweeting the current temperature of your hot water tank. This get-together is intended to help those of us for whom imagination exceeds expertise (that is to say, pretty much everyone I know), let's build cool things together :)

== Sessions ==

The plan is to have this as regularly as possible, varying the day around in case people can't make a particular day of the week.

# Our first session, with all levels of experience from complete novices to expert embedded programmers. Everyone paired up, with beginners and experts working together; judging from the happy buzz of making noises (both the noise of making, and the making of noises - we had buzzers!) it worked pretty well. The meetup page for the first go is [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/130569572/ on meetup here]
# The second one was on the 8th of August; meetup event [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/132710342/ here], big copies of the photos (which are lurking on the right hand side of this very page) [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomoinn/sets/72157634991866826/ here] :) Some of the bits for the Big Box of Breakout Boards and Bits arrived, temperature and humidity sensors and stepper motor drivers yielded to sugar driven curiosity.
# The third was on the 16th August, slightly slower mostly as was distracted wiring cables but we made the dot matrix displays work (mostly) and Martin hacked some more on his sky tracking camera mount. Meetup event page [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/134508292/ here]
# The fourth was on the 28th August, no robots as we had some issues with the new Arduinos (it turned out later that they didn't have bootloaders, now fixed). The meetup event was [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/135690182/ here]
# The fith was in September 19th, meetup event was [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/140024592/ here]

Next meeting is Friday 25th October. Meetup page [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/146064672/ here] - sign up! Bring cake! Bring friends! (particularly friends with cake) Make bleepy flashing things that run around the room!

== Helpful links ==

Arduino home page : [http://www.arduino.cc/ www.arduino.cc] 
A bunch of useful little circuits to play with: [http://www.pighixxx.com/abc-arduino-basic-connections/ Arduino Basic Connections]

== Big Box of Breakout Boards and Bits (BBBBB) ==

We've had approval to buy some bits and pieces for people to play with at this event, and generally within Makespace so I've done an eBay dive and ordered the following, these will arrive sometime over the next month or so:

# {{Done|80 high brightness LEDs (20 each of orange, green, blue and pink!)}}
# {{Done|4 LED Dot matrix modules with drivers}}
# {{Done|2 Eight digit seven segment displays with drivers}}
# {{Done|2 Ethernet shields for the Arduino Nano}}
# {{Done|4 LCD 20x4 character displays}}
# {{Done|8 Motion sensors (6 degrees of freedom MPU6050 based with 3 axis gyro and 3 axis accelerometer)}}
# {{Done|6 Arduino Nano v3 boards (ATMega328, mounts on a breadboard)}}
# {{Done|12 Dual H-bridge modules, used to drive regular and stepper motors}}
# {{Done|3 Temperature / Relative humidity sensor modules}}
# {{Done|2 IR correlation sensor modules (the kind where you have a beam which outputs a signal when broken, good for detecting rotation etc)}}
# {{Done|10 Small servo motors (9g plastic type)}}
# {{Done|6 Ultrasonic rangefinder modules, detect bounce from around 20cm to 3m}}
# {{Done|4 Stepper motors with driver modules, 5v supply}}
# {{Done|1 Barometric pressure sensor module}}
# 10 Playstation style joysticks, the little analogue ones with a built in pushbutton on breakout boards
# {{Done|10 NRF24L01 radio modules, short (~100m) range radio modules capable of transmitting packets of 3 bytes at around 2Mbits/second under ideal conditions}}
# {{Done|A lot of somewhat longer jumper leads (20cm and 30cm) both male to male and male to female, the latter being particularly useful for connecting to the radio modules as they have a non-breadboard-friendly pin layout (or we can make boards with the PCB mill)}}

Total budget for all the above including shipping is 270GBP (you get a lot of electronics for you money when buying from the far East!)

As and when these appear at my house I'll bring them in and add them to the BBBBB - I'm planning to buy a decent size box with compartments to keep these in, both as convenient access and as a way to monitor attrition (these are cheap, but the cheapness comes with long lead times). These bits will be for use at Makespace, rather than for consumption but as long as we have enough items we can be flexible on that; I think if someone has ordered a Nano, say, there's no reason we can't lend them one of the kit ones while they wait for it to turn up.

'''Update''' - we now have the box and some of the bits, I'm marking bits which have arrived and are now in the box in {{Done|this colour}} in the list above. At the moment the box is waiting to be documented and have the components properly marked, it'll then be left in Makespace and hopefully its contents won't evaporate too fast!

'''Update 14th August 2013''' - The BBBBB has its own wiki page at [[Arduino and Cake/Big Box]] where we'll try to document everything as it arrives. Add information to that page if you find something interesting about a part we have, it's also the place to put requests for components and modules.

'''Update 20th August 2013''' - More bits have arrived, we're almost complete! The next session should result in robots, or I'll be severely displeased.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 10:22, 20 August 2013 (BST)

== Projects ==

Got an interesting project or a project idea? Add it here.

=== Vehicle monitor / heating controller ===

I've re-wired my Land Rover, using a star topology, with a big central "ganglion" which almost all the wires run to and from. There's an extra wire coming from each connection, that will go to a board of LEDs and voltage dividers, the latter feeding into an Arduino Mega, which will monitor just about everything, and display information on a small LCD panel.

I'm also planning to make a motorized heater control system (moving flaps to direct air from an Eberspacher) and the valve motors will be driven from relays on the Arduino.

And there'll be a GPS/GSM security unit, and eventually a Linux board (probably Pandaboard) running navigation software. And later on, I hope, an electric motor to drive the extra axle I added. The Arduino Mega will route data between all these points, with its multiple hardware UARTS, as well as sending out information it converts locally from its own inputs.

I expect the software will be a main loop that polls all UARTs for incoming information, all wiring lines for changes from their previous state, all heating valve position sensors for whether they've reached the right position, all pedals for information to send to the traction motor controller when fitted, and does the associated actions (for example, NMEA sentences from the GPS get forwarded to the Linux board for navigation and are also used to display the time on the LCD, heating switches update the desired positions for flap valves).

[[User:JCGS|JCGS]] 15:00, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Quadcopter ===

Because everyone loves autonomous flying robots surrounded by razor sharp rotating propellers, right?

A friend and I are working on a full self build of a quad rotor, we have the airframe, motors, props, speed controllers and an arduino with a combined gyro / accelerometer mounted. We just need to add batteries, wireless comms and software. I don't know whether I can persuade Si to come along to this meeting, he's not a member, but that's one of the things I'm playing with at the moment. I'm using the MPU6050 and PID libraries to manage the feedback between the accelerometer and the speed controllers in an attempt to get a stable hover mode, and the NRF24L01 as the radio module.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Bottle rocket telemetry ===

The family makers are making bottle rockets, I thought it'd be cool to try to make a telemetry module that would tell them how high they'd gone and render a 3d trace of the trajectory using either Processing or WebGL. The main challenge here is to get the circuitry small enough and tough enough to be carried by the rockets and then survive the return to ground level! The second issue is power, I have a LiPo battery and charger so should just be a case of a 3.3v regulator but maybe it needs a boost converter, not really my area of expertise so I'd really like some help there.

At the moment I'm interested in using an ATTiny85 (8 pin dip package MCU) as an Arduino, using the MPU6050 gyro / accelerometer and an XBee v2 radio - I'd use the NRF24 radio but I think it needs more pins than I have available on the ATTiny. Another option would be to use a rather more sophisticated Arduino pro mini, more pins means the NRF radio would be an option which is much cheaper than the XBee modules.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== I2C plant moisture sensors ===

Program an ATTiny85 as an I2C slave, embedding it onto a circuit board etched to work as a capacitive moisture sensor. Use Arduino nano with ethernet shield as an I2C master to then monitor the moisture levels in my various outdoor plant pots and tweet when they're getting too dry.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Breadboard prototype of a 1D Pong Game ===

The idea is to prototype a simple 1D pong game (see [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgQg1DVY4Xc YouTube]) on Arduino or other microcontroller.

Features:
*Some kind of startup animation (similar to the YouTube video)
*A scoreboard or something similar. Based maybe on a segmented display or LCD.
*SOUNDS! :-)
*Perhaps some different game modes, maybe "powerups" of some kind?

Eventually I would like this to be the start of a '''MUCH''' larger version of the game (but that's for the future ;-))

--[[User:DannyG|DannyG]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Self-levelling camera gimbal ===

One popular use of quadcopters is aerial photography/videography, but for this you ideally need a stabilised camera mounting. It's relatively easy to fabricate a two-axis gimbal for a small camera like a GoPro, driven by servos, which can hold itself level using readings from a gyro/accelerometer board.

[[User:Martin de S|Martin de S]] 12:25, 13 August 2013 (BST)

=== Barn door sky tracker ===
* Goal: take long exposure photos of the sky.
* Problem: the sky rotates over the course of a long exposure.
* Solution: make a motorised mount which rotates your camera at the same rate.

I'm aiming to build a simple "barn door" mount (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_door_tracker) to enable me to take long exposure sky photos. At its simplest this is two hinged pieces of wood connected by a threaded rod which you turn slowly to increase the angle at the hinge. I'd like to drive this with a stepper motor so it can be left running, and ideally let the Arduino do some of the maths to compensate for the changing geometry of the mount.

[[User:Martin de S|Martin de S]] 12:25, 13 August 2013 (BST)

=== Electricity monitor and TRIAC based resistive load driver ===

I need to modulate a large resistive heating load on AC with a TRIAC: whole cycle and half cycle burst fire with some supervisory decision making process to make it comply with the EMC directives. I also need to monitor the power delivered by integrating current and voltage over the waveform and integrating the lot. It would be useful to estimate the supply impedance and/or internal resistance of the load using the same hardware. A lot of this is similar to work done on the Open Energy Monitor by the Solar-PV folks trying to game the tax system - with added EMC directives...

[http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/]
[http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/841]

[[User:markocosic|markocosic]] 17:37, 21 August 2013 (BST)

== Custom Arduino IDE Build ==

I'm working on a custom version of the Arduino IDE to, amongst other things, allow us to cut and paste code from the IDE directly into this wiki. I've made that particular change on my own clone of the code, the adventurous can check it out from https://github.com/tomoinn/Arduino/tree/ide-1.5.x; you'll need to do the following (only tested on linux thus far!)


> git clone git@github.com:tomoinn/Arduino.git 
> git checkout ide-1.5.x 
> cd Arduino/build 
> ant run


You should then have a version of the IDE based on version 1.5 but with an extra context menu option 'copy as MediaWiki HTML', if you use this and then copy the clipboard into an editor in our wiki you should get something like the following:

<span style='font-family: monospace; display: block; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 6px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;background-color: #f9f9f9;'>/* 
  Blink 
 Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly. 
  
 This example code is in the public domain. 
 */ 
 
// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards. 
// give it a name: 
int led = 13; 
 
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset: 
void setup() { 
  // initialize the digital pin as an output. 
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT); 
} 
 
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever: 
void loop() { 
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level) 
  delay(1000); // wait for a second 
  digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW 
  delay(1000); // wait for a second 
} 


Should make putting example code up easier - I'm also thinking of customizing colours, logo etc to create a makespace edition of the IDE. As and when it becomes a bit more stable I'll start doing proper builds for linux and windows at least. Note that cloning the github repository takes a long time, it's going on for 600Mb of data, potentially you can cut that down by only cloning the ide-1.5.x branch if you're familiar with git.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 14:09, 13 September 2013 (BST)

Arduino and Cake

2013-10-17T16:32:18Z

Jenny: /* Sessions */

[[File:P1100161.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Cake!]]
[[File:P1100164.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Arduino!]]
[[File:P1100162.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Happy Hacking!]]
[[File:P1100160.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The temperature sensor, it lives!]]
[[File:P1100163.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Step step step...]]

= Arduino and Cake =

This is a page of information for the (hopefully) regular 'Arduino and Cake' event we run at Makespace. This is an evening where we get together in the space to learn and hack on projects involving the Arduino and similar microcontrollers. As the name suggests, there's also cake!

If you're a complete beginner to microcontrollers (tiny, very cheap computers without an operating system, files, display, keyboard...) this is a great opportunity to come and play with them. Experts also very welcome, in fact we need you to help the new people! Possible things you can do with an Arduino (a particularly easy to use microcontroller board) range from simple flashing lights up to acting as the brains of an autonomous flying robot, managing your hydroponic gardening project or tweeting the current temperature of your hot water tank. This get-together is intended to help those of us for whom imagination exceeds expertise (that is to say, pretty much everyone I know), let's build cool things together :)

== Sessions ==

The plan is to have this as regularly as possible, varying the day around in case people can't make a particular day of the week.

# Our first session, with all levels of experience from complete novices to expert embedded programmers. Everyone paired up, with beginners and experts working together; judging from the happy buzz of making noises (both the noise of making, and the making of noises - we had buzzers!) it worked pretty well. The meetup page for the first go is [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/130569572/ on meetup here]
# The second one was on the 8th of August; meetup event [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/132710342/ here], big copies of the photos (which are lurking on the right hand side of this very page) [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomoinn/sets/72157634991866826/ here] :) Some of the bits for the Big Box of Breakout Boards and Bits arrived, temperature and humidity sensors and stepper motor drivers yielded to sugar driven curiosity.
# The third was on the 16th August, slightly slower mostly as was distracted wiring cables but we made the dot matrix displays work (mostly) and Martin hacked some more on his sky tracking camera mount. Meetup event page [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/134508292/ here]
# The fourth was on the 28th August, no robots as we had some issues with the new Arduinos (it turned out later that they didn't have bootloaders, now fixed). The meetup event was [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/135690182/ here]

Next meeting is Friday 25th October. Meetup page [http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/140024592/ here] - sign up! Bring cake! Bring friends! (particularly friends with cake) Make bleepy flashing things that run around the room!

== Helpful links ==

Arduino home page : [http://www.arduino.cc/ www.arduino.cc] 
A bunch of useful little circuits to play with: [http://www.pighixxx.com/abc-arduino-basic-connections/ Arduino Basic Connections]

== Big Box of Breakout Boards and Bits (BBBBB) ==

We've had approval to buy some bits and pieces for people to play with at this event, and generally within Makespace so I've done an eBay dive and ordered the following, these will arrive sometime over the next month or so:

# {{Done|80 high brightness LEDs (20 each of orange, green, blue and pink!)}}
# {{Done|4 LED Dot matrix modules with drivers}}
# {{Done|2 Eight digit seven segment displays with drivers}}
# {{Done|2 Ethernet shields for the Arduino Nano}}
# {{Done|4 LCD 20x4 character displays}}
# {{Done|8 Motion sensors (6 degrees of freedom MPU6050 based with 3 axis gyro and 3 axis accelerometer)}}
# {{Done|6 Arduino Nano v3 boards (ATMega328, mounts on a breadboard)}}
# {{Done|12 Dual H-bridge modules, used to drive regular and stepper motors}}
# {{Done|3 Temperature / Relative humidity sensor modules}}
# {{Done|2 IR correlation sensor modules (the kind where you have a beam which outputs a signal when broken, good for detecting rotation etc)}}
# {{Done|10 Small servo motors (9g plastic type)}}
# {{Done|6 Ultrasonic rangefinder modules, detect bounce from around 20cm to 3m}}
# {{Done|4 Stepper motors with driver modules, 5v supply}}
# {{Done|1 Barometric pressure sensor module}}
# 10 Playstation style joysticks, the little analogue ones with a built in pushbutton on breakout boards
# {{Done|10 NRF24L01 radio modules, short (~100m) range radio modules capable of transmitting packets of 3 bytes at around 2Mbits/second under ideal conditions}}
# {{Done|A lot of somewhat longer jumper leads (20cm and 30cm) both male to male and male to female, the latter being particularly useful for connecting to the radio modules as they have a non-breadboard-friendly pin layout (or we can make boards with the PCB mill)}}

Total budget for all the above including shipping is 270GBP (you get a lot of electronics for you money when buying from the far East!)

As and when these appear at my house I'll bring them in and add them to the BBBBB - I'm planning to buy a decent size box with compartments to keep these in, both as convenient access and as a way to monitor attrition (these are cheap, but the cheapness comes with long lead times). These bits will be for use at Makespace, rather than for consumption but as long as we have enough items we can be flexible on that; I think if someone has ordered a Nano, say, there's no reason we can't lend them one of the kit ones while they wait for it to turn up.

'''Update''' - we now have the box and some of the bits, I'm marking bits which have arrived and are now in the box in {{Done|this colour}} in the list above. At the moment the box is waiting to be documented and have the components properly marked, it'll then be left in Makespace and hopefully its contents won't evaporate too fast!

'''Update 14th August 2013''' - The BBBBB has its own wiki page at [[Arduino and Cake/Big Box]] where we'll try to document everything as it arrives. Add information to that page if you find something interesting about a part we have, it's also the place to put requests for components and modules.

'''Update 20th August 2013''' - More bits have arrived, we're almost complete! The next session should result in robots, or I'll be severely displeased.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 10:22, 20 August 2013 (BST)

== Projects ==

Got an interesting project or a project idea? Add it here.

=== Vehicle monitor / heating controller ===

I've re-wired my Land Rover, using a star topology, with a big central "ganglion" which almost all the wires run to and from. There's an extra wire coming from each connection, that will go to a board of LEDs and voltage dividers, the latter feeding into an Arduino Mega, which will monitor just about everything, and display information on a small LCD panel.

I'm also planning to make a motorized heater control system (moving flaps to direct air from an Eberspacher) and the valve motors will be driven from relays on the Arduino.

And there'll be a GPS/GSM security unit, and eventually a Linux board (probably Pandaboard) running navigation software. And later on, I hope, an electric motor to drive the extra axle I added. The Arduino Mega will route data between all these points, with its multiple hardware UARTS, as well as sending out information it converts locally from its own inputs.

I expect the software will be a main loop that polls all UARTs for incoming information, all wiring lines for changes from their previous state, all heating valve position sensors for whether they've reached the right position, all pedals for information to send to the traction motor controller when fitted, and does the associated actions (for example, NMEA sentences from the GPS get forwarded to the Linux board for navigation and are also used to display the time on the LCD, heating switches update the desired positions for flap valves).

[[User:JCGS|JCGS]] 15:00, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Quadcopter ===

Because everyone loves autonomous flying robots surrounded by razor sharp rotating propellers, right?

A friend and I are working on a full self build of a quad rotor, we have the airframe, motors, props, speed controllers and an arduino with a combined gyro / accelerometer mounted. We just need to add batteries, wireless comms and software. I don't know whether I can persuade Si to come along to this meeting, he's not a member, but that's one of the things I'm playing with at the moment. I'm using the MPU6050 and PID libraries to manage the feedback between the accelerometer and the speed controllers in an attempt to get a stable hover mode, and the NRF24L01 as the radio module.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Bottle rocket telemetry ===

The family makers are making bottle rockets, I thought it'd be cool to try to make a telemetry module that would tell them how high they'd gone and render a 3d trace of the trajectory using either Processing or WebGL. The main challenge here is to get the circuitry small enough and tough enough to be carried by the rockets and then survive the return to ground level! The second issue is power, I have a LiPo battery and charger so should just be a case of a 3.3v regulator but maybe it needs a boost converter, not really my area of expertise so I'd really like some help there.

At the moment I'm interested in using an ATTiny85 (8 pin dip package MCU) as an Arduino, using the MPU6050 gyro / accelerometer and an XBee v2 radio - I'd use the NRF24 radio but I think it needs more pins than I have available on the ATTiny. Another option would be to use a rather more sophisticated Arduino pro mini, more pins means the NRF radio would be an option which is much cheaper than the XBee modules.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== I2C plant moisture sensors ===

Program an ATTiny85 as an I2C slave, embedding it onto a circuit board etched to work as a capacitive moisture sensor. Use Arduino nano with ethernet shield as an I2C master to then monitor the moisture levels in my various outdoor plant pots and tweet when they're getting too dry.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Breadboard prototype of a 1D Pong Game ===

The idea is to prototype a simple 1D pong game (see [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgQg1DVY4Xc YouTube]) on Arduino or other microcontroller.

Features:
*Some kind of startup animation (similar to the YouTube video)
*A scoreboard or something similar. Based maybe on a segmented display or LCD.
*SOUNDS! :-)
*Perhaps some different game modes, maybe "powerups" of some kind?

Eventually I would like this to be the start of a '''MUCH''' larger version of the game (but that's for the future ;-))

--[[User:DannyG|DannyG]] 15:12, 2 August 2013 (BST)

=== Self-levelling camera gimbal ===

One popular use of quadcopters is aerial photography/videography, but for this you ideally need a stabilised camera mounting. It's relatively easy to fabricate a two-axis gimbal for a small camera like a GoPro, driven by servos, which can hold itself level using readings from a gyro/accelerometer board.

[[User:Martin de S|Martin de S]] 12:25, 13 August 2013 (BST)

=== Barn door sky tracker ===
* Goal: take long exposure photos of the sky.
* Problem: the sky rotates over the course of a long exposure.
* Solution: make a motorised mount which rotates your camera at the same rate.

I'm aiming to build a simple "barn door" mount (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_door_tracker) to enable me to take long exposure sky photos. At its simplest this is two hinged pieces of wood connected by a threaded rod which you turn slowly to increase the angle at the hinge. I'd like to drive this with a stepper motor so it can be left running, and ideally let the Arduino do some of the maths to compensate for the changing geometry of the mount.

[[User:Martin de S|Martin de S]] 12:25, 13 August 2013 (BST)

=== Electricity monitor and TRIAC based resistive load driver ===

I need to modulate a large resistive heating load on AC with a TRIAC: whole cycle and half cycle burst fire with some supervisory decision making process to make it comply with the EMC directives. I also need to monitor the power delivered by integrating current and voltage over the waveform and integrating the lot. It would be useful to estimate the supply impedance and/or internal resistance of the load using the same hardware. A lot of this is similar to work done on the Open Energy Monitor by the Solar-PV folks trying to game the tax system - with added EMC directives...

[http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/]
[http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/841]

[[User:markocosic|markocosic]] 17:37, 21 August 2013 (BST)

== Custom Arduino IDE Build ==

I'm working on a custom version of the Arduino IDE to, amongst other things, allow us to cut and paste code from the IDE directly into this wiki. I've made that particular change on my own clone of the code, the adventurous can check it out from https://github.com/tomoinn/Arduino/tree/ide-1.5.x; you'll need to do the following (only tested on linux thus far!)


> git clone git@github.com:tomoinn/Arduino.git 
> git checkout ide-1.5.x 
> cd Arduino/build 
> ant run


You should then have a version of the IDE based on version 1.5 but with an extra context menu option 'copy as MediaWiki HTML', if you use this and then copy the clipboard into an editor in our wiki you should get something like the following:

<span style='font-family: monospace; display: block; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 6px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;background-color: #f9f9f9;'>/* 
  Blink 
 Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly. 
  
 This example code is in the public domain. 
 */ 
 
// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards. 
// give it a name: 
int led = 13; 
 
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset: 
void setup() { 
  // initialize the digital pin as an output. 
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT); 
} 
 
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever: 
void loop() { 
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level) 
  delay(1000); // wait for a second 
  digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW 
  delay(1000); // wait for a second 
} 


Should make putting example code up easier - I'm also thinking of customizing colours, logo etc to create a makespace edition of the IDE. As and when it becomes a bit more stable I'll start doing proper builds for linux and windows at least. Note that cloning the github repository takes a long time, it's going on for 600Mb of data, potentially you can cut that down by only cloning the ide-1.5.x branch if you're familiar with git.

--[[User:Tomoinn|tmo]] 14:09, 13 September 2013 (BST)