Cool Arduino Projects?

[Lightmeow]

Hi all, I have an opportunity to get some new Arduino stuff for Christmas this year. I haven't choose what I want yet.

 

I am not asking for like some links on how to do stuff from the internet. I know how to Google, and have done some research. Nothing has really interested me. I was wondering if anyone had any unique ideas that wouldn't cost a large amount of money.

 

I have done a lot of AI with Arduino, such as turning one of my RC cars into a UAV rover thing, and making a quadrocopter drone. For the project, I was thinking something not in that direction, as I would like to learn something new(Not saying that I know everything about that!)

 

Any suggestions would be good, it doesn't matter if it is a complex project, or a dumb little project. I'm just trying to brainstorm.

[Klaynos]

One that ice been thinking about is a pair of devices. One outside with some sensors one inside with notifications (led, buzzer, screen). You use the sensor data as a very simple "need to deice car" or not.

 

I'll leave what sensors etc to you to think about (I have around 5 solutions no idea which would be best). This obviously depends on your climate as to how useful this is.

[Danijel Gorupec]

If you didn't do much stabilization in your past projects, I would suggest you to try to stabilize some inherently unstable process (maglev, segway...).

 

When I am doing something for fun and when I feel that it might be too easy, then I limit myself to lowest possible budget or only to components that can be found everywhere.

 

BTW, are you more hardware-interested or software-interested person?

[Sato]

You could make your own inFORM-like project. With a few motors or actuators and weight sensors, it sort of resembles the swarm-of-nanoparticles sci-fi trope. You could use the Google Maps elevation API to get terrain data for different places and push blocks to represent it accordingly, visualize mathematical functions, or interact with it like some kind of expensive restricted putty. I'm sure you'd think of lots of ideas to implement on it once it's build.

[pzkpfw]

I'm part way into something now; in response to a co-worker (A) having trouble getting the attention of another co-worker (B) when she's got her headphones in.

 

With an Arduino Nano, an ENC28j60 based Ethernet adaptor and a small servo; the plan is to bolt something to the back of B's monitor (on the Vesa mounts) that allows A to go to a web site and click a link.

 

That link'll just refer back to itself, with a GET parameter that tells the Arduino to drive the servo to raise a little red flag from behind her screen. If I can do it all secretly, I'm hoping for a good fall-off-her-chair moment.

 

... haven't done Ethernet on an Arduino before - so that's what I'm having to google and youtube the last few nights. (And is kind of the underlying point of the exercise.)

Edited December 15, 2015 by pzkpfw

[Lightmeow]

If you didn't do much stabilization in your past projects, I would suggest you to try to stabilize some inherently unstable process (maglev, segway...).

 

When I am doing something for fun and when I feel that it might be too easy, then I limit myself to lowest possible budget or only to components that can be found everywhere.

 

BTW, are you more hardware-interested or software-interested person?

I am a more hardware-interested person, but of course I also can program, because you need to program the hardware.

 

 

You could make your own inFORM-like project. With a few motors or actuators and weight sensors, it sort of resembles the swarm-of-nanoparticles sci-fi trope. You could use the Google Maps elevation API to get terrain data for different places and push blocks to represent it accordingly, visualize mathematical functions, or interact with it like some kind of expensive restricted putty. I'm sure you'd think of lots of ideas to implement on it once it's build.

This is amazing. I have never seen anything like that before. This is something I am going to look into... Wow, thanks!

 

 

 

I'm part way into something now; in response to a co-worker (A) having trouble getting the attention of another co-worker (B) when she's got her headphones in.

With an Arduino Nano, an ENC28j60 based Ethernet adaptor and a small servo; the plan is to bolt something to the back of B's monitor (on the Vesa mounts) that allows A to go to a web site and click a link.

That link'll just refer back to itself, with a GET parameter that tells the Arduino to drive the servo to raise a little red flag from behind her screen. If I can do it all secretly, I'm hoping for a good fall-off-her-chair moment.

... haven't done Ethernet on an Arduino before - so that's what I'm having to google and youtube the last few nights. (And is kind of the underlying point of the exercise.)

 

That seems like another cool thing to do.

 

Oh, and I don't know if I took what you said out of context, but when i said that I didn't want to Google, I meant I didn't want some really common project that could be found on Google, where I was going to follow some tutorial(like how to make a clock or the like) I can research, I just want something uncommon that would be unique.

[pzkpfw]

... Oh, and I don't know if I took what you said out of context, but when i said that I didn't want to Google, I meant I didn't want some really common project that could be found on Google, where I was going to follow some tutorial(like how to make a clock or the like) I can research, I just want something uncommon that would be unique.

All good. I just mentioned that to part-explain why I was doing something slightly silly (to learn something).

 

 

It's very hard to do something truly new. Just a few weeks ago a friend (way cleverer than me, and more experienced in this stuff too) mentioned he wanted to do a project using speakers to direct lasers, to do a light show. The idea was that the electromagnets in the speakers could be used not to make sound, but to allow precise positioning by feeding a varying voltage in.

 

So that night I did a quick search, and yep, been done.

[Sensei]

Any suggestions would be good, it doesn't matter if it is a complex project, or a dumb little project. I'm just trying to brainstorm.

I would try making plotter.

It's pretty similar stuff to 3D printer.

 

It needs 2 or 3 motors that are going both directions.

One for X axis, second one for Y axis, and third one for up-down.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Sensei

[DevilSolution]

Build a mini computer on a multiple bread boards, the basic requirements would be a decoder, full/semi adder, multiplexor and a 555 timer. You could also create registers if you didnt want the data to get fed straight back into the arduino. The outlay would be fairly minimal, just need aload of 5v transistors and a 555 timer. oh and low amp resistors i forget the arduino output and capacitors if you want registers but then you'd need a feed back loop.

 

Dont imagine it will be very quick but you could get some LED's to light up as the your gates are working so you can see the actual process take place. I'd probably start with 8 bits aswell, or 9 with the sign.