This was the second Arduino introduction training held in Randburg and presented by Kevin.
Kevin presenting Introduction to Arduino
Afterwards we had some phun with Matthew’s quadcopter:
It was great meeting everyone who attended and hope to see you soon at one of our meetups!
Thanks to everyone who attended and participated at Software Freedom Day.
Special thanks to those who helped with the stand – helping with setting up and cleaning up afterwards, manning the stand during the talks and contributing to the exhibition.
Our stand showed of
House4hack’s stand drew a lot of attention, leading to many very interesting chats, ideas and potentially new members. We were even approached to help setup a hackerspace to be founded on Wits campus!
We received some praise from prof Ken Nixon from Wits regarding the quality of presentations and talks this year – well done to everyone!
I really enjoyed this year’s SFD and can’t wait for next year!
As always, Freddie took some great photos – mouse over on the panorama to zoom in
Tweety Pi
Solar oven
Arduino display
Desktop Aquaponics and 3d printer
I have received confirmation for Saturday’s Introduction to Arduino course from :
| Denise |
| Chris Graham |
| Sonja Van der Westhuizen |
| Kiren Rawatlal |
| Iain Prior |
| Kevin |
| Makau Takalo |
| Chris |
| Gerhard Taljaard |
| Neil Burger |
| Konrad |
See you this Saturday 29 September 9:00 at House4Hack Randburg (www.house4hack.co.za/about) . You are welcome to pay on the day in cash or via EFT using your name as reference (banking details also on the about page)
Please bring your own laptop and pre-install the IDE and drivers (http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/
Solar Challenge 2012 South Africa kicked off today at CSIR in Pretoria. Here are some clips of the cars as they leave the starting line:
Toby and I worked on an Android app which shows the speed, power etc. and will be used as the instrument cluster, (using the Samung Galaxy Tab 2) for the University of Johannesburg solar car. The app uses bluetooth to communicate with the car telemetry system and gives indication of power required, power applied, head lights, speed, warning lights etc.
Android Instrument Cluster for UJ solar car
For more information check out: www.solarchallenge.org.za and live tracking of the event: http://sasolsolarchallenge.mapit.co.za/
The UJ car site is http://www.ujsolar.co.za/ and the live tracking http://www.ujsolar.co.za/live
As usual (ok like last year) we are planning an awesome stand for Software Freedom Day – this year will include:
To register and for more details goto softwarefreedom.co.za
See you there!!!
As part of preparation for Software Freedom Day, Freddie and I worked on a bluetooth controlled car. The first step was to use a IOIO board (http://www.house4hack.co.za/ioio-controlled-car) which was pretty cool.
The next step was to make a car that is controlled by an Arduino via bluetooth. Freddie used the Arduino sketch and Android apk from Mobot (http://www.mobot.es/MobotBTCar.html) as a starting point. He replaced the motor controller from a toy car with his own custom circuit shown below:
Custom controller board for toy car
The circuit consists of a ATTiny 2313, Bluetooth Bee (Seeedstudio) and 1A motor driver breakout (Sparkfun). This works great with the Mobot apk.
For more phun, I wrote an Android app, called BlueRCR that records a series of commands for the car to be executed. The user can select to go straight, left, right, reverse or stop and specify the time for each command. A screen shot of the application is shown below:
Screenshot of bluercr application
The user can the issue these commands and the car will race. Here is a short clip of the car and app in action:
The source code for the Android app and Arduino sketch is available on github: https://github.com/skullkey/bluercr
We are planning to have the car, app and a simple track at Software Freedom Day, so if you wanna play … see you there!
Last night was the first Printrbot build session and looking at the photos it was lots of phun.
Peter (openhardware.co.za) has worked tirelessly to source all the parts and prepare the kits – well done!
Finally got around to editing the video of Peter (openhardware.co.za) demonstrating how to etch a pcb using pool acid and hydrogen peroxide via the toner transfer method.
The editing is a bit rough, but I tried to remove most profanities and Austin Power references.
WARNING: The chemicals used in this video is dangerous and can react violently if not treated with care – be sure to mix the correct quantities and concentration of each chemical – if you are not sure, please mail us for advice. Be sure to wear protective clothing, eye wear and gloves. Always etch in a very well ventilated space (do the first one outside) and at all times away from small children, pets or birds.
In preparation for Software Freedom Day, Freddie removed the RC receiver of a toy car and replaced it with a IOIO. The following clip shows progress on this project:
This will be the base for some further goodies, so watch this space!
Nick has been working on an aquaponics pump controller – the idea is to use an microprocessor to control the water level in the aquaponic system. In order to turn the pump on and off, he built a controller using a diac and triac pair.
The following clip shows a POC of the controller, turning on a 60W light bulb when the control signal is pulled high. In this case it is accomplished using a small battery, but in the final system this would be connected to an Arduino AT Tiny configuration.
And some photos detailing the board:
