Electronics

3D Print Your Way to a Modular MIDI Playset

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Have you ever wanted to experiment with MIDI, but didn’t know where to start? Or perhaps you didn’t think you could afford to properly outfit your digital beat laboratory, especially given the average hacker’s penchant for blinkenlights? Well worry no more, as [Johan von Konow] has unveiled a collection of DIY MIDI devices that anyone with a 3D printer can build on the cheap.

The LEET modular synthesizer is made up of a keyboard, drum pad, chord keyboard, arpeggiator and a step sequencer that plug into your computer and interface with industry standard digital audio workstation (DAW) programs. The down side is that they don’t do anything on their own, but this simplification allowed [Johan] to really streamline the design and bring the cost of the build down to the bare minimum.

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Jeff Geerling Squeezes 4.15Gb/s From a RaspberryPi Compute Module 4 Using a PCIe Network Card

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Jeff Geerling has succeeded in pulling over 4Gb/s of data from a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, by hooking up a four-port Ethernet card to its PCI Express bus — and the same may well be possible on a modified Raspberry Pi 4, too.

Launched last month, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 takes the core technology found in the popular Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and brings it to a system-on-module (SoM) form factor. The biggest shift from the original design, though, comes with making the USB 3.0 ports optional and replacing them with a fully-functional PCI Express Gen. 2 lane — suitable for all manner of add-on boards, providing you can find suitable drivers for the Arm architecture.

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Control a wheelchair using an EEG headset and Arduino

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In an effort to help provide paralyzed patients with an easier way to operate their wheelchairs, these makers have developed a system that uses an OpenBCI brainwave cap to collect electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals, literally from a user’s head. Data is then sent to a PC running OpenBCI software and passed along to an Arduino Uno via Bluetooth for control.

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WhatsApp Halloween-Themed RFID Talking Doorbell w/ RGB Eyes

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Despite the fact that making a hilarious yet not deceitful joke with a jack-o’-lantern on Halloween night is not unobtrusive, I decided to create an exceptional event for my guests on Halloween when they ring the doorbell by designing a jack-o’-lantern doorbell with intriguing features. And, not surprisingly, I only let some of my closest friends know about my new doorbell features by giving them registered RFID tags (entrance permits) to make my other guests frightened even a little bit 🙂 In detail, this doorbell talks to the guests and informs the user via WhatsApp when the guests ring the doorbell or show RFID tags or cards.

First of all, to make the doorbell talking with the guests after an interaction, I generated voices from texts for each occasion I wanted the doorbell to talk. You can get more information about how to create voice files over text files in the following sections.

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The GPRino is a $300 ground penetrating radar

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Ground penetrating radar systems, which can be used to sense the density of objects under the Earth, are normally seen as a fairly exotic piece of equipment. Naturally, such devices cost thousands of dollars. Mirel Paun’s “GPRino” prototype, though, aims to accomplish this viewing task for the comparatively paltry sum of $300.

The GPRino uses antipodal Vivaldi antennas to see into the ground, under control of an Arduino Mega. Onboard visualization is handled by an LCD shield, and collected data can also be transmitted to a PC for further analysis.

This Oscilloscope Tester Keyring Puts ‘Scope Troubleshooting Powers in Your Pocket

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The Engineering Octopus has launched a keyring with a difference: As well as helping you keep track of your keys, it doubles as a means to quickly test an oscilloscope — hence its name, the Oscilloscope Tester Keyring (OTK).

“All electronic engineers love to show off the fact that they are electronic engineers, and what better way to do that than with a keyring! Not only will the bare electronics be noticed by many, it’s also a fully functional oscilloscope tester,” The Engineering Octopus founder Max writes. “The OTK generates a pure, analog, sine wave (via a Colpitts oscillator) at approximately 10MHz (+/-2MHz). It has a DC offset, which allows you to test almost all functions of a oscilloscope, and carry it with you everywhere you go!”

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α-WaLTR Turns It Wheels Into Triple-Bladed “Legs” to Navigate Uneven Terrain — and Even Stairs

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Built as part of a military program but with wide-ranging use-cases, α-WaLTR goes where other wheeled robots fear to roll.

Researchers at Texas A&M have designed a compact four-wheeled robot for whom stairs and other uneven terrain pose no problems — thanks to wheels which can transform themselves into “legs” on demand.

Dubbed α-WaLTR, for the Adaptable Wheel-and-Leg Transformable Robot, the robot has been built as part of DARPA’s Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) programme under the leadership of grant awardee Associate Professor Kiju Lee. “Through this new project,” Lee explains, “I will develop unmanned ground vehicles with agile and versatile locomotive capabilities for urban military operations.

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Using ESP8266 WiFi Module with Arduino Micro

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Although the ESP8266 01 WiFi Module has a wide support and a good community crowd, the Arduino Uno board takes advantage of it’s ease of use and beginner-friendly layout over Arduino Micro for being one of the most used boards for cheap IoT solutions. As a result, there aren’t many tutorials documenting how to use the module with this board. So here’s a short & simple tutorial for people getting started with IoT and want to use the Micro+ESP01 combination.

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Digital LED Staircase lightening in motion using Arduino and Ultrasonic Sensor

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Automated lightening of staircase not only helps to save electricity but also takes us to advancement in quality living of life. We generally uses normal circuit to turn on and off the light in stairs, but there is loss in electricity since we turn it off only at once during sleep. So, in this tutorial we are going to make the automated staircase that will light up only when it senses motion of people passing through stair.

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Geekworm’s Voice HAT Gives a RaspberryPi Stereo Microphones, a Built-In Speaker, and RGB LEDs

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Geekworm has released a new add-on for the Raspberry Pi and compatible single-board computers, designed to make development of voice-activated systems as simple as possible: the dual-microphone Voice HAT.

“Raspberry Pi Voice HAT is a Raspberry Pi dual-microphone expansion board specially designed for AI and voice applications,” the company writes of its most recent release. “It supports Raspberry Pi 4 Model B/3B+/3B/2B. Now you can build a more powerful and flexible voice product that integrates Amazon Alexa voice service, Google Assistant, Baidu AI, etc.”

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