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Atmel has announced their AVR Xplained series of dev boards.
Atmel AVR Xplained is a series small-sized and easy-to-use evaluation kits for 8- and 32-bit AVR microcontrollers. It consists of a series of low cost MCU boards for evaluation and demonstration of feature and capabilities of different AVR familie. Example projects and code drivers are provided in AVR Studio 5. Code functionality is easily added by pulling in additional drivers and libraries from the AVR Software Framework.
The AVR Xplained series also consists of a range of add-on boards that can be stacked on the MCU boards to create platforms for specific application development. A wide range of add-on boards is available, including, intertial pressure and temperature sensors, ZigBee RF, and Cryptographic authentication.
List price for MCU boards is around $30, with sensor modules between $25-54.
Details on features and availability are available from Atmel.
Atmel AVR Xplained dev boards – [Link]
dangerousprototypes.com writes: [via]
The gang at SinnerSchrader have combined their love of foosball and their passion for digital solutions to make the world’s first digital foosball game. The project uses optical sensors to detect the scoring of goals. These sensors are read with the Arduino which sends it over WiFi to the server which then makes it available over the internet via mobile Webapp and on their agency foosball league’s webpage.
They promise that the source code will be published on their site very soon.
Foosball table uses Arduino to put scores on web - [Link]
sandroP made a single-sided PCB version of the USB IR Toy v2:
I’ve recently built a single-sided, through-hole version of the USB IR Toy v2, using the schematic posted on the wiki for it without the pin breakout area…
Mine is 40x50mm using an USB-A connector and includes a USB pin header, VCC/GND/RX/TX header for serial communications and ICSP – had to dispense with the pin breakout area though.
gSchem and PCB formatted design files are posted.
Single-sided, through-hole USB IR Toy v2 – [Link]
dangerousprototypes.com writes:
Travis Goodspeed wrote this article on his blog detailing his extraction of firmware from the MC13224 that had been read protected. This is the same MCU used in the Defcon 18 badge and the Redwire Econotag.
He presents two methods. In one he decaps the SPI flash memory chip using nitric acid, then removes and repackages it. The second method involves accessing Pin 133 of the memory chip, when can be used to initiate a reset and process to provide access to the contents.
Practical MC13224 firmware extraction – [Link]
Here’s a live blog of the Google Wallet stuff going on today, Google Wallet is a contactless payment system that uses NFC. You’ll be hearing a lot about this soon. [via]
And here’s the official blog post from Google.
Google Wallet – NFC (Near Field Communications) - [Link]
Workshop 88 presents: The Educubes [via]
For the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge, the team at Workshop 88 designed, built and programmed a series of five interactive cubes which are intended to be used as a platform for encouraging students at all levels to learn.
The Educubes that we made have a touchscreen for displaying problems and puzzles for students to work out and attempt to solve. The cubes communicate with each other, so that students can rearrange the order of the cubes to create various permutations of problems to work on.
For the contest, we have created four apps which are programmed into our cubes. Two are sorting apps: numerical and alphabetical. One is an example of an arithmetic app where numbers are added together. The last app is an example of an anagram game.
We want to emphasize that the cubes are not just about the apps that we have programmed in. Many applications for learning could be programmed into these Educubes: mathematics, spelling, grammar, anagrams, logic gates, chemical equations, even electronic circuit problems. The possibilities for learning applications are endless! The simple apps we have programmed are currently at the level of elementary school students, but a slightly more advanced math app could be written to test students understanding of the order of operations.
The Educubes are intended to foster creativity, curiosity and teamwork in students who use them. If a group of students work with the Educubes they could easily set up different challenges for other students in the classroom. The making of the Educubes was a collaborative process for the members of Workshop 88. We hope students using the Educubes would also use them collaboratively to further their own learning.
Workshop 88 Educubes DIY “Sifteo” ! – [Link]
Here is a complete tutorial in 9 easy steps for programming ATtiny chips from Atmel using an Arduino. Fills in missing pieces from other online guides
Program an ATtiny Using an Arduino - [Link]
This is a low-cost prototype electrooculography (EOG) system, based on the ATmega328P, that allows people with motor disabilities to write text on a screen using only eye movements. Luis explains: [via]
The human eye is polarized, with the front of the eye being positive and the back of the eye being negative. This is caused by a concentration of negatively charged nerves in the retina on the back of the eye. As the eye moves the negative pole moves relative to the face and this change in the dipole potential can be measured on the skin in micro volts. To translate this voltage into a position, two sets of electrodes are used to measure the differential voltage in the vertical and horizontal direction, on this project, however, just horizontal movements are recorded.
Honduran High Schooler’s Low-Cost Eye-Controlled Interface – [Link]
Joe Desbonnet was looking for a cheap and easy way to transfer data from an Arduino to an Android device. The hack he devised requires only a 1-meter length of wire wound into a coil, a resistor and diode. He writes: [via]
This is a little hack that allows very low bandwidth communications in one direction for practically no cost. It’s not practical for most applications, but I thought the idea was sufficiently interesting to explore. This article describes how to implement a very low bandwidth one way communication channel between an Arduino (or any other microcontroller) and an Android device using nothing more than about a meter of magnet wire, a resistor and diode. Links to a software sketch for the Arduino and the Android source code is included.
Cool and imaginative!
Arduino to Android IO on the cheap – [Link]
Michael writes: [via]
Gmote turns Android into a remote control for a computer, allowing users to run movies and music at a distance. It supports all of the standard remote control features such as play, pause, rewind, volume controls etc. It also has a built-in file browser that lets you select what to play.
Source code is open so it maybe possible to expand it to other functions.
Gmote turns Android into a remote control – [Link]
