Gustavo Brancante is working on a very interesting project that let you control a prosthetic arm with your muscle movement using open source technology with InMoov Hand (which can be 3D printed), Arduino Uno R3, and Olimex Electrocardiography electromiography shield (SHIELD-EKG-EMG). This is called a Myo-Electric Prosthesis. Gabriel wrote a tutorial to use his “open arm” which I’ll summarize here. On the hardware front, you’ll also need a UDP compatible Wifi Shield configured as a UDP server with a fixed IP in the same LAN as the smartphone, and 57600 bps. TouchOSC (for smartphone and Workstation) is used with the following layout for calibration and feature selection. Finally load the program below to your Arduino board: Once everything is connected together, you should be able to do that: The demo looks impressive, but this is still work in progress, and next step will be to use a four channel EMG instead […]
$34 BLEduino Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Arduino-Compatible Board
After RFDuino, here’s another tiny low cost Bluetooth 4.0 SMART development board compatible with Arduino. BLEduino board is the merger of Arduino Leonardo and Bluetooth module, features Atmel ATmega32u4 MCU, Nordic Semi nRF8001 for BLE, and includes an on-board USB programming interface. Key features of BLEduino board: MCU – Atmel ATmega32u4 @ 16 MHz with 32 KB flash, 2.5 KB SRAM, and 1 KB EEPROM Power Supply – 5V. Onboard 5V & 3.3V regulators I/O: 21x GPIO Pins 6x PWM Channels 12x Analog Input Channels Serial Communication – UART, SPI, I2C LED – RX/TX for serial communication, LED for Bluetooth connectivity Bluetooth – Version 4.0 with Low Energy sypport via Nordic Semi nRF8001. Expected range: at least 24 meters Dimensions – Around 22.8 x 43.2 mm Kytelab, the company behind BLEduino, also provides “Shield-Shield”, a baseboard that translates BLEduino’s pin layout into the traditional Arduino layout, and allows you to […]
$25 Babuino Stick & Board Let You Control Your Devices with Your Smartphone and Vice Versa
Babuino Stick and Babuino Board are tiny low cost Arduino-compatible USB dongle and board featuring Atmel AVR MCU, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR connectivity. Both have basically the same hardware, but Babuino Stick is more suited to control a computer or Smart TV via your smartphone, and Babuino Board can be used for robotics and automation projects. The device can also be used to control your smartphone (e.g. to write SMS) from your PC or Mac. Here are the specifications of these “Babuini”: MCU – Atmel ATXMega128A1 @ 32 MHz with 128KB flash program memory, 8KB boot code section, and 8KB SRAM. Master/Slave selectable Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR module Infrared transmitter and receiver USB – micro USB (board) and USB port (stick) User and reset push-buttons Headers (Board only) – ICSP pins, ADC & DAC, PWM, I2C & SMBus, SPI and UART LEDs – Bluetooth and User LED for both, […]
Stealth Nighthawk F-117A is a Raspberry Pi-in-a-Stick Preloaded with XBMC
Stealth Nighthawk F-117A was a “single-seat, twin-engine stealth ground-attack aircraft formerly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF)”, but it’s now an HDMI dongle based on the same processor as the Raspberry Pi, namely Broadcom BCM2825, software compatible with the Raspberry Pi, and preloaded with an XBMC OS, which turns out to the Raspbmc. The main hardware differences with Raspberry Pi are that you lose Ethernet, composite output, and all headers used for hardware hacking, but you gain Wi-Fi, a casing, and an even smaller form factor. Here are the specifications of the device: SOC – Broadcom BCM2835 @ 700mhz with Video Core IV GPU/VPU System Memory – 512MB Storage – micro SD card slot (up to 32GB) USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port + micro USB port for power Video Output – HDMI (up to 1080p) Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11n Power – 5V/1A via microUSB port Dimensions – […]
This is How the BeagleBone Black is Manufactured
CircuitCo has recently uploaded an interesting “Make of the BeagleBone Black” video showing how the BeagleBone Black is manufactured in their facilities in Richardson, Texas, USA. The main steps are as follows: A machine applies solder paste to the PCB Pick and place components Reflow soldering for SMT components Hand placement of through hole components such as the Ethernet connector Selective soldering PCB washing Optical inspection via an automatic optical inspection (AOI) machine Manual inspection Burn-in tests after flashing the board with factory firmware Functional testing Packing and shipping Beside the overall process, one interesting point is that human hands are only involved with through-hole components placement, functional testing and packing & shipping. Even those steps may eventually be automatized in the future with robots such as Baxter. Watch the video, it’s worth a look. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his […]
$59 Digitstump DigiX is an Arduino Due Compatible Board with Wi-Fi and Mesh Networking
The DigiX, by Digistump, is hobbyist board with an Atmel SAM3 Cortex M3 MCU @ 84 MHz, embedded low power Wi-Fi (b/g/n) and mesh networking,audio output, USB on the go support, and the company claims it is 100% compatible with anything that works with the Arduino Due, with some extra I/Os for a total of 99 I/O pins. The hardware specifications go as follows: MCU – Atmel AT91SAM3X8E 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 Processor @ 84 Mhz with 96KB SRAM, 512KB Flash Connectivity On-board 802.11b/g/n WiFi Module (FCC/CE Approved) On-board nRF24L01+ wireless module (removable) – 2.4Ghz band 99 I/O Pins including 12 PWM, 12 Analog Input, 2 Analog Output (DAC), CAN bus, 4x UARTs, 2x I2C, SPI, JTAG, DMA and more. Audio – 3.5mm stereo jack USB – micro USB OTG port Misc – On-board RTC, user LED Power Supply – 3.3V, 3.4-5.5V (LiPo Ready), 5V, or 6-16V input (on-board buck regulator) (Max?) Power […]
Unu is an Android Tablet, a Gaming Console and a Smart TV
In the last year or so, we’ve started using Android set-top boxes or mini-PCs to make our TV smart and play games, and some products such as Ouya and Gamestick, using similar hardware, have been specifically designed for game play. But Unu Tablet, which can be used as a tablet (really), can also transform your TV into a gaming platform, and a smart connected TV, thanks to a docking station, and a game controller. Here are the known specifications for Unu tablet: SoC – 1.6 GHz quad-core chip (I’m guessing Rockchip RK3188). System Memory – Unknown Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + microSD card slot Display – 7″ IPS display, 1280×800 resolution. Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2 microUSB ports Video Output – mini HDMI jack Camera – 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera This Android 4.2.2 tablet comes with a docking station that handles charging and […]
Souliss Automation and IoT Framework Makes Your Home Smarter
Souliss is an open-source framework written in C/C++ for the Internet of Things and home automation that runs on Arduino boards, or other Atmel AVR MCU based boards, and let your control lighting, heating, or anything else you can think of via your Android device, or switches connected to your board(s). You can get started with Souliss in 3 steps: Getting the building blocks, for example: Arduino, Olimex, or other AVR boards (See list of supported boards) Relay boards ON/OFF Switches, Lights, etc… Wi-Fi router Download and load Souliss to an AVR powered board controlling real things such as lights. Monitor and/or control via Souliss Home Automation App for Android. A detailed getting started guide is provided on Souliss Google Code page. Internally, the framework is composed of three parts: Souliss, an application level layer, MaCaco, a communication protocol and vNet, a transport layer. I’ll skip details in this post, […]