How to build an infra-red remote control
The infra-red remote control transmits a tone using an infra-red LED. This tone is decoded by the receiver.
Continue reading "How to build an infra-red remote control" »
About Sensors
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Gadget Master in the Sensors category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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Complete with build instructions for the design engineer who likes the silly side of inventing things and enjoys building stuff in his and her spare time, these gadgets range from highly silly and impractical to extraordinarily inspirational for your own engineering design work.
Why not submit your own pride and joy for publication in Gadget Master? Send us your project details here.
Gadget Master features cool, homemade electronic gadgets proudly brought to us--by you!
Complete with build instructions for the design engineer who likes the silly side of inventing things and enjoys building stuff in his and her spare time, these gadgets range from highly silly and impractical to extraordinarily inspirational for your own engineering design work.
Why not submit your own pride and joy for publication in Gadget Master? Send us your project details here.
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Sensors Archives
October 16, 2007
June 16, 2008
Solar radiation and a delta-sigma ADC
A device to measure the rays all around us, but it doesn't come under the 'tin-foil helmet' category. File it under delta-sigma ADC - it is a very detailed Solar Server project to measure the solar radiation striking Earth ("insolation"), recording the daily data to a file, which is then emailed. The device used for measuring daily insolation is designed by Wichit Sirichote in Thailand. He introduces the project, thus:
"The total solar radiation is measured by a Kipp & Zonen CM11 pyranometer (pictured). The EMF output of 5.14 uV/W/m2 is fed to the 24-bit resolution Delta-Sigma A/D converter, LTC2400. The microcontroller circuit built with a PIC18F2550 controls the A/D converter and provides one second time base for data sampling period. The insolation is computed by accumulated summation of the converted data in a whole day.
December 5, 2008
Cycling robot survives s-curve balance beam
UPDATED - See also: Video - Murata Girl unicyclist balances the beam
A good one for a Friday afternoon - 'Murata Boy' in action, one of the highlights from the show floor of Electronica 2008. We've highlighted it as part of our Electronica Roundup, but it's worthy of a post to itself on Gadget Master, I think.
If you couldn't catch the demonstration of sensor technology in motion, as the robot balances his bike along a narrow rail, check out our seven minute video of the cycling action.
A good one for a Friday afternoon - 'Murata Boy' in action, one of the highlights from the show floor of Electronica 2008. We've highlighted it as part of our Electronica Roundup, but it's worthy of a post to itself on Gadget Master, I think.
If you couldn't catch the demonstration of sensor technology in motion, as the robot balances his bike along a narrow rail, check out our seven minute video of the cycling action.
Continue reading "Cycling robot survives s-curve balance beam" »
January 7, 2009
The Stribe - A DIY LED touch Interface
This one was flagged up for Gadget Master by our Technology Editor, Steve Bush - a Do-Itself-Yourself LED Touch Interface, Hi-Fi style.
March 16, 2009
Bella Italia
Ahead of the imminent March/April competition post, here is an Italian-themed round up of Gadget Master posts.As a self-confessed Italophile, I needed no prompting to choose this one, and we have a rich set of posts to choose from. The Italian designers Flavio Dellepiane and Alberto Ricci Bitti, in particular, have submitted a number of excellent full projects.
The posts range from LEGO robots and fridge alarms to remote monitoring and plant watering systems. All involving Italian-originated submissions, check out:
August 17, 2009
Stormbringer coming - Defend against the static!
Thanks to Steve Bush, our Technology Editor, for flagging this one - a self-built passive infra-red detector, to help protect electronic equipment from the effects of static in violent storms of thunder and lightning.
The inventor, Jeff, lived in Majorca and felt the vulnerability of devices that had to be attached to mains electricity supply or the telephone lines.
The problems of static-intensive storms were compounded, he writes, by overhead electricity and telephone networks coursing with the very high voltages. He looked to build his own solution - a P.I.R. (passive infra-red) Detector....
The inventor, Jeff, lived in Majorca and felt the vulnerability of devices that had to be attached to mains electricity supply or the telephone lines.
The problems of static-intensive storms were compounded, he writes, by overhead electricity and telephone networks coursing with the very high voltages. He looked to build his own solution - a P.I.R. (passive infra-red) Detector....
Continue reading "Stormbringer coming - Defend against the static!" »
August 24, 2009
Dexter - The high-speed robot hand
We like robots on Gadget Master, and this robot hand is particularly impressive for high-speed manipulations.
The video is of a Ishikawa Komuro Lab robot hand, demonstrating "Skilful manipulation based on high-speed robotic systems".
November 9, 2009
Robot plays Rock Band on an iPhone
May 14, 2010
Shaping waveforms gets turntable in a spin
What is Gadget Master about, if not the creative reuse of existing components? Thanks to Bernard Green, of Syemon Electronic Solutions, for sending in his ingenious self-built solution to a problem.
He writes that he had a need to generate a single cycle of a very low frequency near sine wave, which was to be used to test software that measured the parameters of a waveform generated by a sensor.
Several ideas occurred to him - using digital devices and a digital to analogue convertor - but these needed analogue filters with some big capacitors, which were absent from his 'junk box'. Then he had a brainwave...
He writes that he had a need to generate a single cycle of a very low frequency near sine wave, which was to be used to test software that measured the parameters of a waveform generated by a sensor.
Several ideas occurred to him - using digital devices and a digital to analogue convertor - but these needed analogue filters with some big capacitors, which were absent from his 'junk box'. Then he had a brainwave...
Continue reading "Shaping waveforms gets turntable in a spin" »
May 19, 2010
Video: Old school tilt switch
Thanks to curiousinventor.com for this. One from the 'Found in the Junkbox' category....
A nice little video of an "Old School Accelerometer", aka a mercury tilt switch. Not quite the favoured, modern, smartphone way of detecting device orientation.
Apparently there is no wear in bridging the contacts, which makes for a good shelf life. But anyone know the right way to dispose of these?, asks the blogger.
A nice little video of an "Old School Accelerometer", aka a mercury tilt switch. Not quite the favoured, modern, smartphone way of detecting device orientation.
Apparently there is no wear in bridging the contacts, which makes for a good shelf life. But anyone know the right way to dispose of these?, asks the blogger.
September 17, 2010
From Earls Court we travel to Mars
This must be one of the most demanding projects you could tackle, requiring Uber-Masters of embedded technology. A distant planet. Autonomous navigation.... I'm talking about the European Mars Rover.It is being developed by Astrium under an ESA-NASA cooperation "ExoMars" programme, which sees two inter-planetary missions. The first, in 2016, involves a preparatory Entry, Descent & Landing Demonstrator (EDL), but the second, in 2018, involves a sample-caching rover developed by NASA as well as the European ESA ExoMars rover, aka "Bridget".
Why do I mention this? Well, it is going to the Red Planet in 2018, but the prototype is first coming to the un-Martian Earls Court Centre as part of Embedded Live, 19-21 October.
If you want to take a closer look at Bridget, marvel at the prototype, and talk to some of the team behind the rover, set your co-ordinates for West London.
March 4, 2011
RFID Video Poker Table records your hands
Take a look at what Gadget Master, and poker player, Andrew Milner has built, an RFID Video Poker Table.I guess how you feel about this will be determined by how you feel about Poker, but if you like turning over playing cards on green baize. amid piles of casino chips, then this could be for you...
Basically, it is an RFID-equipped poker table with an automated video overlay system to match. Individual cameras keep track of the players and the Windows-based software manages the spread of the RFID-tagged playing cards.
Continue reading "RFID Video Poker Table records your hands" »
September 23, 2011
Engaged or vacant? iPotti monitor knows when to go
This one kind of reminds me of the Trojan Room coffee pot, the world's first webcam monitoring a coffee pot in the old computing department of the University of Cambridge...An inventive Gadget Master was frustrated at work by never knowing whether a distantly-located small room was occupied or not. So he set about creating a monitoring system that would help avoid useless trips - he dubbed it iPotti, the box for which carries the slogan ' know when its time to go'. It should be emphasised that sensors rather than webcams are used!
Using a Make interface board powered by an a Atmel Sam7 Arm microcontroller, he also employed some ambient light sensors and some Ethernet connectivity and built the system himself.
Continue reading "Engaged or vacant? iPotti monitor knows when to go" »
December 21, 2011
Design a Tricorder, win $10 million
Here's one that will catch the attention of Trekkies amongst us - there's a $10 million prize up for grabs for whoever can meet the Tricorder challenge.Qualcomm and the X PRIZE Foundation - a "nonprofit organization solving the world's Grand Challenges of our time" - have the design challenge to "develop a mobile solution that can diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians".
Now there's a challenge worthy of a Supreme-Gadget-Master!
January 18, 2012
Video: Sensors tune the Singing House
'
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...
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...
February 17, 2012
Self-balancing unicycle - the one true way!
This gadget may not yet be weatherproof enough for your daily commute in the UK, but for a pop to the shops for icecream on a sunny afternoon the Focus Designs self balancing unicycle, SBU V2.0 is a real treat.
The company reports that it's increasing production "to meet a quickly growing demand", with a lead time of 8-12 weeks.
The cycle is gyro stabilised, battery-powered and driven by an accelerometer, and the manufacturers claim green credentials for it too.
Continue reading "Self-balancing unicycle - the one true way!" »
March 19, 2012
DIY Geiger counter smartphone app helps measure radiation
Out of awful events sometimes the better side of human nature emerges... We previously highlighted - see How to build your own Geiger Counter - the work of some engineers at Libelium, a wireless sensor network company, to help the people of Japan, around Fukushima, determine levels of radiation for themselves.Well, our sister site New Scientist's One Per Cent blog has recently reported on a Smartphone-based initiative to help people track the critically important levels of radiation around them.
Kat Austen, CultureLab editor, writes:
In the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster, amidst a climate of general mistrust of government radiation data, a number of crowdsourced initiatives for mapping radiation levels sprang up, such as Japan Geigermap, in which radiation readings from citizens are aggregated and displayed online using a web service called pachube.
Continue reading "DIY Geiger counter smartphone app helps measure radiation" »
May 11, 2012
Breathing on the IOIO board for an Android Breathalyser
Here's a nice example of what you can do with the IOIO Android-friendly breakout board that we've featured previously.It's a DIY Android Breathalyser. It's still in prototype form, but is shown working in cable-less form, courtesy of Bluetooth.
Note you would need a phone with Android 2.3.3+ ("Gingerbread") - for the requisite Bluetooth support - or else old-fashioned USB cable connectivity will be required...
Continue reading "Breathing on the IOIO board for an Android Breathalyser" »
May 15, 2012
Makey Makey circuit board turns objects into computer keys
This is a nice one to share with Gadget Masters, from our sister site New Scientist - DIY circuit turns your alphabet soup into a keyboardJacob Aron writes about some wizardry from MIT:
Ever wanted to move Pac-Man using pencil drawings, make music with bananas or type an email with alphabet soup? Now you can thanks to Makey Makey, a simple circuit board that turns almost any object into a computer key (see video here).
"It works with anything that is a little bit electrically conductive," says Eric Rosenbaum, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Things like food, Play-Doh and lots of different metallic or organic materials."
Continue reading "Makey Makey circuit board turns objects into computer keys" »
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