Gadget Master

Video: Get to grips with the BeagleBone

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:03:24 +0000

We're all for BeagleBoards here on Gadget Master and this is one I meant to flag before - Texas Instrument's system has a little brother: the BeagleBone, powered by the company's Sitara ARM Cortex-A8 processor.

"It builds in the most loved features of the BeagleBoard but has shrunk the size and price while adding more I/O connections," boasts TI in the video below. The RRP is $89.

To get started, simply plug it into your PC (Windows MacOs or Linux) and you can begin development... It will appear as a Flash drive and you will be able to extract the files to get you going.

Create your own Terminator Arm!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:29:35 +0000

Are you up to the challenge of creating your own Terminator Arm, complete with LED lighting effect?!

I ordered an Android IOIO board from SparkFun recently - for the current Gadget Master compo - and this tutorial on the same site caught my eye.

It's a tutorial by one "T Zero", taking us through the creation of afore mentioned robotic arm....

They begin:

Being a solder jockey, I'm not the best at programming and making things light up and blink. But, I am a wiz with a soldering iron. I enjoy making sculptures and little objects you can set at the edge of your desk to strike up a conversation. For this tutorial, I was trying to come up with the best sculpture or desk ornament - something every nerd or geek like myself would be proud to put on display. Something that didn't cost much and was a good rainy afternoon project. This project was done with trashed parts I found around the shop, and if your workstation looks anything like mine, you should be able to find these or similar parts.

Robot explores, seeks and destroys!

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:24:36 +0000

We highlighted a neat sound-activated light system recently - How to build a whistle-activated light switch - and the Gadget Master behind it has plenty of other projects under his belt. His website is well worth exploring >>

Take for example this exploratory robot, which he developed as part of an independent-study project in Computer Engineering at the Universirty of Illinois. The basic idea for it is that the 'robot', or something similar, "could conceivably be used by SWAT teams or the military to enter buildings where bad people are and shoot/Taser them".

Check out the video, above, of the device in operation, including the robot's eye view of the test action.

Most read Gadget Master posts in January

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:34:48 +0000

Well, the New Year is here and is already a month underway... Time to ask the question: which posts have proved the most popular on Gadget Master among your peers, in January?

Well, the answer covers IO boards, LED displays, the Raspberry Pi and a whistle-activated light switch...

Let's take it in reverse order:

10. How to build a rotating LED display

9. Build your own wand based barcode scanner

8. A DIY Android Gadget Starter Kit

Sign up for the Circuits-Gadget Master newsletter

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:10:29 +0000

Having one of those days? Work driving you mad? Just can't seem to find the time to visit Gadget Master as much as you would like to?

Well, don't stress, help is at hand. If you can't come to us, we'll come to you!

You can now sign up for the Circuits newsletter to ensure you receive the latest and greatest Gadget Master news, hot and fresh, straight into your inbox!

Signing up only takes a second and then you can sit back and relax as we do the rest.

Video: The Four-bit Maze challenge, via Arduino

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:49:30 +0000

This is a good one, from Gadget Master Oskar van Deventer. He had a vision for a mechanical or electronic puzzle without a screen and without lights, purely tactile and purely mechanical...

Based on an Arduino UNO microcontroller, it's programmed for ten different levels of difficulty, with an Arduino Motor Shield operating the motorfaders, reports Engadget.

He writes:

The Four Bit Maze is an electronic mechanical puzzle that is 100% tactile. The object of the puzzle is to move all four sliders from the "0" position to the "1" position.

Each challenge has only 16 binary states, and the operation of each challenge is 100% deterministic without any hidden states. Some challenges are easy and playful, whereas others are fiendishly hard.

How does it work? Check out the video below:

Tearing down the (3rd Gen) Kindle

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:08:26 +0000

"It's been a while since I destroyed something beautiful" says Will Smith from the excellent ested.com, with a Kindle in his hands.

Check out this video of his teardown of Amazon's e-book reader. Okay, it is not the very most recent release (the 4th Gen was announced in September last year), but it's still of interest. See how gets on with this "impenetrable" device and see the e-ink screen in full clour...

A Steampunk fob watch fit for a gentleman's ensemble

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:37:44 +0000

This is more Solarpunk than Steampunk if you want to be literal about it, but it's delightfully stylish and clearly Steampunk inspired.

It's a pocket watch that will add a touch of Victorian glamour to a gentleman's morning ensemble, showing how retailers are beginning to catch the enthusiasm for this sort of thing so it is actually available to buy, if you want it.

Video: Sensors tune the Singing House

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:21:13 +0000

'Home is where the gadgets' are is an observation we've made before, but how about this one to extend the concept - the Singing House by the New Orleans-based musician/inventor Quintron. Check out the video below.

It's a bit of fun where an analogue "drone synthesizer" is modulated by the weather outside a house, whether wind, rain, sunrise or sunset....

Check out the wind detectors, the drop sensors and the special sensor on the roof that "brings in a tone" for sunriose and sunset and, apparently, the presence of the moon...

"A bright moon will purr and lightning will strike," says the commmentary, with the latter slightly resembling a Theremin...

The IOIO Android breakout board competition

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:04:47 +0000

Time for another competition! The theme we are taking for this one is Google's Android platform. So, taking a cue from a previous Gadget Master post - Android phones hack their way with IOIO breakout - let's have an Android related prize!

The IOIO board (pronounced "YoYo"), from SparkFun, is an easy way to get I/O from an Android smartphone's USB connection (OS versions 1.5 and greater). The board uses a Java API to hook into your phone's app, and this means you can extend the functionality of the phone out to external sensors and controls!

Here's the January/February compo!

The prize question:

Digital Volt Meters from Santa's workshop

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:46:40 +0000

I don't know if you follow the Engineer in Wonderland series on Electro-ramblings, but when Alice gets into the workshop the content is worth sharing - consider Alice an uber-Gadget Master!

Take this recent post:

I like to make at least one present for someone at Christmas.

This time it was little pocket DVMs for those gathered around the Christmas tree that maintain their own cars and motorbikes.

A little time consuming, but the result was three happy relatives.

Inside each is a little self-powered DVM module from China.

Raspberry Pi #0001 goes for £3,500 on eBay

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:18:41 +0000

I don't know if you have been following the Raspberry Pi project - it looks very promising material for Gadget Masters - but a £20 Raspberry Pi computer sold for £3,500 on eBay last night, writes Steve Bush. It is intended to cost under £20 when it goes into production.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation, which intends to sell its educational computers directly, auctioned 10 of its beta production board on eBay.

As executive director Eben Upton pointed out in a video on the Foundation's website, this limited auction was aimed at: computer collectors, benefactors intending to donate to the foundation - which is a charity, and software development firm's wanting hardware before full-production boards are released later this month.

Android advances to centre stage

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:35:20 +0000

Ahead of the imminent Jan/Feb 2012 compo, let's have another themed roundup of posts... on Google's Android platform.

People who follow my other blog, Eyes on Android, will know I maintain a certain interest in all things 'Droid, and Gadget Master certainly crosses into this territory from time to time.

Here are some posts that touch on - however tangentially - the open source, non-Apple and non-Microsoft platform.

* A DIY Android Gadget Starter Kit

* Android phones hack their way with IOIO breakout

* Musical GPS guides cyclists on their way

How to build a whistle-activated light switch

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:22:03 +0000

This is a good project - building a whistle-activated light switch. Hold a note to turn it on, and whistle again to turn it off!

Check out the website of Luke Allen, a US Navy officer, where he details the project - Whistle-activated switch - and provides circuit diagrams, C code and explanations, and lots more.

"This device turns my bedroom ceiling light on or off when I whistle a steady tone. It lets me turn on the light before getting up in the morning, to help myself wake up. It also lets me read in bed at night and then turn off the light without getting up. (The project was inspired when I read Atlas Shrugged a few months ago and couldn't put it down. I liked the vehement anti-socialist arguments and the fact that the ideal man in the book is a tall electrical engineer. Both things are true.) Some people might suggest that buying a bedside lamp would accomplish the same thing as this project, but I don't listen to those people. Also, this method lets me control a brighter light and costs slightly less."

SparkFun preps Free Day giveaway event

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:15:08 +0000

Possibly a chance for Gadget Masters to get their hands on some free kit, courtesy of SparkFun...

SparkFun Electronics is bringing back its annual Free Day giveaway event. The prize pool is up to $200,000, up 30% from last year, says the company.

Basically, two thousand people who visit the website on Free Day - which is January 11 - will be chosen at random to win their share of the prize - a $100 credit to be used on SparkFun products.