I have cross post on Instagram & Facebook, so you’ve likely already seen this… but the Bubble Alarm Clock has been a ‘hit’ with Stanley and the instructables write up was featured on the front page! I seem to be in a bubble mania phase, we went to Toys ‘R’ Us today to look for other bubble toys to exploit.
Kids toys today are a sad lot. I was hoping to find a bargain on some random simple electronic toys to take apart but couldn’t find anything. There was a decent selection of bubble toys and I ended up with the Gazillion Bubble Hurricane. (Yes, that’s really it’s name - they also have the Bubble Typhoon) It does indeed produce a gazillion bubbles, however the drive mechanism for the wands seems to be faulty.
I’m going to have to return it and try again tomorrow. After reading online, it looks like they are not making the machines like they used to, the old version let you screw in the bubble solution as an auto feeder!
This Gazillion Bubble company & Super Miracle Bubbles seem to have a monopoly on the bubble fun market. Who knew.
Anyway, I’m glad to have a finished arduino project in daily use. I learned how to make a clock, use a transistor, use a relay, use an LCD and how to use github for code. All in all not a bad project.
What’s next? Bubbles + Bike
melted heart.
Apparently today’s theme is adorable pictures of adorable animals being adorable. Enjoy.
Source: lokalrunde
Operation #bubblegun alarm made major progress today. Sketches for controlling the pump, wand wiper via servo and now time + alarm exist. To be combined and improved tomorrow! #arduino #alarmclock #MAKE #sparkfun (Taken with instagram)
Yesssssss
This eye-fi based ‘internet of things’ camera seems pretty neat. I have a few eye-fi cards sitting around. I wonder what I could stalk… the mailman when he opens the mailbox?
Last night I went to Disneyland and went on Star Tours the Adventures Continue, which impresses me more and more every visit. The queue is great and has lots of stuff to look out (it even uses projectors in a respectable way, I’m thinking about you Winnie the Pooh) but the ride experience is even better. (I’m also curious how the integration works)
I love that the Rebel spy incorporated into the film is an actual guest onboard the Star Speeder. This just seems like the right way to make things interactive. Not to be derivative, but what if Mara inside Indiana Jones & the Temple of the Forbidden Eye actually could *see* if you looked into her eyes. I remember ducking down and hiding as a kid because I literally believed I would be doomed if I looked into her eyes.
But think about it, what if she singled out the few or many people that looked into her eyes with a laser burst or another effect. There have been so many new special effect technologies in the last few years, Indiana Jones could be even more amazing!
Source: Boing Boing
The installation of the xbee + arduino powered garage door sensor was a success! This was my first time working with xbee, and I’m pretty happy about the way things came out.
The problem: because of the design of the house, it’s difficult to visually check if both garage doors are securely closed.
Although it might be a bit of overkill, this was an opportunity to figure out how to use xbee & install a sensor system.
My solution: Private twitter account that relays the status of both doors (open or closed).
In the garage:
- Two magnetic proximity sensors mounted at floor level on each of the garage doors.
- An xbee radio mounted on a spark fun regulated breakout board with one digital pin connected to each of the sensors
In the house:
- Arduino Uno with an ethernet shield & xbee radio mounted on a spark fun breakout board.
Online
- The Arduino reports the status of the garage doors to a pachube feed about every minute (the code for the arduino includes a watchdog script to reset the board if it gets stuck)
- Triggers on pachube automatically tweet when the door is opened & when it is closed.
In the future: Visual indicator of door status / push notifications instead of twitter / better handling of normal operation (short open/close for access/egress)
All in all, for my first try I think it went pretty well. The system is operating reliably. I wish that pachube made it easier to set more specific triggers. I’m not yet really familiar enough with writing/hosting the triggers or adjusting the arduino behavior to make the system wait longer before notifying that the door is open an unusually long amount of time.
I’m really excited tonight. I got the XBee radios talking to each other! It’s kind of a big deal. Progress!
My first laser cut anything!
This use of Kinect reminds me of those Shopper Trak devices that “counts people, analyzes data, and reveals total sales opportunities for retailers and mall owners, worldwide.” Nearly every big brand store (Gap, Apple, Disneyland, etc.) has these devices watching the doors counting you as you enter & leave and if you have bags or a stroller.
What else could we count? hmmm…
Source: Laughing Squid
