Lab Play: Saturday 1/24/15 /  by Aaron Samuel

Converting an RC car to an autonomously controlled drone. Basic gutting of the existing body and logic board (lost remote control), added an Arduino Uno with a Motor Shield to power 2 motors (rear wheel drive & left-right). Replaced the connections, additionally adding an ultrasonic sensor which provides echolocation capabilities. At this point both the sensors and motors are working well, I am working on wrapping up the final code which pulls both functionalities together to provide for autonomous movement.

Testing echolocation func

Lab Play: 1/24/15 (Time Lapse Camera with 180 degree turret) /  by Aaron Samuel

Started up a small project this weekend. I am utilizing a Raspberry Pi B+ model micro controller loaded with Raspbian with a Pi camera attached to the board for image capture. Using an external power source (6 volt battery pack) to provide positive and ground to bread board rails, I was able to attach the signal pin of a Radio Shack 4.6V - 6V standard servo to GPIO pin 4. Utilizing the software PWM (Phase Width Modulation) module and some time conversions for Milliseconds to Microseconds moving the servo a 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 degrees are all possible by sending the proper length signals. Picture log below.

 

TO DO:

  • Create API based service which allows for turret and camera control. The service should also manage disk space either preventing disk full conditions with some sort of notification - or moving files to the cloud or external storage.
  • Utilize ffmpeg & image magick to provide commonly used filters for video/audio
  • Add a microphone.
  • Add status lights to indicate recording in progress or possible issues such as disk space.

Calibrating the turret for proper camera contr

The beta version demo. Software side is not yet complete, this is a simple demonstration of

Lab Play: Thursday 1/15/15 (sensors need tuning) /  by Aaron Samuel

Issues Fixed:

  • I couldn't locate the 9Volt battery pack but I did find an 8 AA battery pack which provides 12V. The regulators on the Arduino handled that extra voltage fine. This resolved the power issue.
  • I rewired the bread board according to the H motor driver manufacturer documentatio
  • I discovered that the leads on the motors were slightly ajar - I bent them into place for now.

Lab Play: Wednesday 1/14/15 /  by Aaron Samuel

Playing around with an Arduino UNO with a Motor Shield attachment. Picked up a couple of 2 step motors from Radio shack and slapped them on a breadboard. This is just some video of the process of programming the Arduino & any attached hardware to perform a specific action, in this case we are simply alternating the motors simultaneously back and forth.

Lab Play: Tuesday 1/13/15 /  by Aaron Samuel

Decided to build out an autonomous land vehicle after work today, I purchased the pieces & materials from tinkersphere down town NYC. It's a fairly simple design, utilizing a circular base plate for main support, 2 separate motors (per wheel), a swivel wheel (for balance), an Arduino UNO (main controller board, also powers the servo which moves the sensor), H-Bridge Motor Driver chip (for sensor & motor control), standard prototyping solder-less bread board for routing power and data connections. There are 2 battery packs (currently 6-Volt), one powering the Arduino board which feeds a 5-Volt line to one end of the bread board distributing power, as well as another battery pack which feeds directly to the opposite side of the board.

The finished version SHOULD move autonomously avoiding obstructions along the way. Currently I am having what I believe to be a power issue, ultimately I didn't have any 9Volt power supply compatible with the UNO board, and after checking the rail from the 5-Volt lead, I observed only 3 or so volts actually coming through on the bread board rails utilizing a multimeter. It seems I will need to a 9'volt supply or modify an existing one to work. However I will pick up on this tomorrow as it was an after work special =).

 



Lab Play: Sunday 1/11/15 /  by Aaron Samuel

I'm planning out a DIY project (Bird Shelter) to get a more intimate analysis on the life of Bedford Stuyvesant birds. I envision utilizing a series of relay modules along with some IR motion sensors to detect movement (of birds of course) and activate lights & cameras. There may possibly be a servo powered auto-feeder if time allows. This would also be a great project for solar cells to power. I'll be gathering materials over the next few days and writing up a schematic - We will keep y'all posted!