Tag: diy

10 Micro-electronics Projects that Aren’t Robotics

Posted on by Cordelya

There’s more to educational/hobby micro-electronics than building robots.

If you or your kid can’t muster up excitement about robotics, go take a peek at these 10 projects. I’ve included a variety of different projects that do different things, run on different platforms, require different knowledge levels, and have different price points. Some of them also include the opportunity to learn about enclosure fabrication.

1. The Pimoroni Grow

Grow HAT Mini (HAT only)

A Raspberry Pi mini HAT designed to help you take care of your plants. It can tell you how well they’re hydrated, attract your attention when they need water and, if you want to go a step further, even give them water!

https://learn.pimoroni.com/assembling-grow

This handy widget is a Raspberry Pi “HAT” (that stands for “Hardware-On-Top”). It connects to a Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins, and is compatible with any Raspberry Pi model that has 40 GPIO pins (so, not the very earliest Pis). It is easy to connect to a Raspberry Pi – you just (carefully) plug it in so that all 40 pins are seated in the Grow’s GPIO socket. You can separate the two boards later if you need to.

The Grow uses connected capacitive touch sensors on custom-designed plant marker sticks to detect the moisture level in potted plant soil, and then gives a visual indication of moisture level for up to 3 sensors.

2. SparkFun OBD-II UART board

SparkFun OBD-II UART

This board allows you to interface with your car’s OBD-II bus. It provides you a serial interface using the ELM327 command set and supports all major OBD-I

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/obd-ii-uart-hookup-guide

Learn how to read vehicle diagnostics over a serial connection. Those with more experience in micro-electronics should be able to, for example, create a portable version that runs on an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, features a screen and selection options, is rechargeable, and has a custom enclosure.

3. PiHut RasPi TV HAT

Raspberry Pi TV HAT

The Raspberry Pi TV HAT is a DVB-T2 Digital TV receiver add on for the Raspberry Pi, compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ or Raspberry Pi Zero W (and older Raspberry Pi 2 & 3 models) The Raspberry Pi TV HAT allows you to receive digital terrestrial TV broadcast systems which includes DVB…

https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/how-to-stream-digital-tv-with-the-raspberry-pi-tv-hat

Feed digital OTA (broadcast) TV into this board while it’s plugged into a Raspberry Pi and you can stream broadcast TV to other devices on your network.

4. MagTag Pet Feeding Clock

MagTag Cat Fed Clock

Keep track of the current time + when you last fed your favorite pet with this connected Eink clock.

Does your pet tell lies about not having been fed yet? This project is for you!

You can easily program this lightweight smart display to update the date and time your pet was last fed by pushing the left-most button. While it’s not included in the tutorial, a more advanced version of this would give you the ability to track most-recent mealtimes for up to 4 pets (or food plus 3 different medications).

5. Pwnagotchi WiFi Pentester

Build a Pwnagotchi WiFi penetration tester with Pi Zero and a PaPiRus display • Pi Supply Maker Zone

Build a Pwnagotchi WiFi penetration tester with Pi Zero and a PaPiRus display Pwnagotchi is an A2C-based “AI” powered by bettercap that learns from its surrounding WiFi environment in order to maximize the crackable WPA key material it captures (either through passive sniffing or by performing deaut…

Test your home network’s wireless security.

Reminder: hack responsibly.

6. Digital-to-Analog Audio Conversion

HiFiBerry DAC+ Zero | HiFiBerry

This is our smallest board in the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor. It can be used not only with the Raspberry Pi Zero, but also with the bigger Raspberry Pi B+/2 and 3. Note that for the Raspberry PI zero, you need to solder a 40-pin male header to the board. This header isn’t included, but you can or…

https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/hardware/up-cycle-your-vintage-audio-system-what-to-do/

Have you found a nice pair of old analog speakers at a yard sale? Give them new life with a Raspberry Pi HAT from HiFiBerry.

While you’re at it, you can use the same Raspberry Pi board to also host a local streaming music server using Jellyfin. Note that you will need to have music files stored locally.

7. Environment Sensor HAT

Environment Sensor HAT For Raspberry Pi, I2C Bus

Environment Sensor HAT For Raspberry Pi, I2C Bus

There’s no specific project tutorial for this one, but similar tutorials are available, and part of the lesson can be adapting to using different hardware. This HAT would be great for an offline local weather conditions display. It even has onboard motion sensing for those of you who live in places where earthquakes are frequent. For even more experienced programmers, how about including weather prediction by data analysis?

9. Binary Clock Soldering Kit

24 Hour Binary Clock With Bamboo Case

24 Hour Binary Clock With Bamboo Case: Assembly Instructions for 24-Hour Binary Clock Kit. Buy a kit: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AppleMountain

This Binary Clock project is a soldering kit that also presents an opportunity to custom fabricate a case. It comes with a printed circuit board, board components, and a pre-programmed IC, so no programming skills are needed for this one.

10. E-Paper Badge

PiE-Ink Name Badge

PiE-Ink Name Badge: Want to decorate your chest with something amazingly dorky? Want to stand out in a crowd? How about earn some serious geek cred, and the wonderment of your peers?HAVE I GOT THE THING FOR YOU!Introducing the PiE-Ink Name Badge – a Raspberry Pi Zero P…

Show your name (or whatever else you want) on a small e-paper display you can wear. You can add magnets to the back to attach it to your shirt or connect it to a badge lanyard (tip: make that easier by adding a bezel-type frame with lanyard loops).

Where to Next?

Once you learn the basic concepts of connecting peripherals and programming logic, you can take disparate components and make something completely new! There are quite a few hobby electronics suppliers out there these days, with lots of platform and form-factor options (we didn’t even get into soft circuits, which are electronics built into clothing using conductive thread and sew-on components!). Browse those tutorial sections, follow makers on Twitter, and maybe even write a tutorial of your own!

Indoor COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies for Fall 2021

Posted on by Cordelya

You know it’s coming: you’re going to be guilt-tripped into attending a family shindig during a major holiday during the part of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere) where being outdoors isn’t a comfortable alternative. And maybe some of your family members are refusing to be vaccinated, while others may be immunocompromised. It is a pickle, but there are some things you can do to lower the risk of those gatherings turning into super-spreader events. I don’t know about you, but even though I’m vaccinated, I don’t relish needing to spend an entire week sick, miserable, and in bed!

Risk mitigation is when you take an action or put a control in place that reduces the risk of bad things happening. Mitigations are rarely 100% effective, but they don’t need to be, either. When you combine two or more risk-mitigating actions or controls, you combine the risk-reducing effect they have. Combining mitigations that work in different ways (for example, providing both shade and water to people working outdoors in hot conditions) works better than each action alone does.

1. Everyone Wears a Mask

Pick a mask, any mask. As long as it fits well and is worn properly, a mask can reduce the number of viral particles ejected into the air from your nose and mouth while you are breathing, talking, singing, yelling, coughing, or even sneezing. By reducing the number of viral particles that make it into the air, you also reduce the total number of viral particles in the air.

2. Everyone Wears a (K)N95 Mask

Cloth and surgical masks are great at blocking large droplets. Certified N95 masks and their untested-but-possibly-easier-to-find cousins KN95 masks can stop fine aerosols. They also are much better at keeping air from leaking out via the edges – and they don’t tend to push against your nose the way cloth masks do. Make sure you get the kind that doesn’t have valves – those aren’t as effective because they don’t block viral particles and fine aerosols on the way out. An added benefit is that this type of mask works in both directions – it can help keep viral particles out of your respiratory system (though they won’t keep the virus out of your eyes).

3. Monitor CO2 Levels and Cross-ventilate When Necessary

Researchers at UC Boulder figured out that CO2 concentrations in a space correlate to the risk of covid-19 spread. Properly ventilating indoor spaces to reduce viral spread is a concept that dates back at least to the 1918 pandemic. The tl;dr is that you can use a CO2 monitor to tell you when you need to throw open a window or two and let in some fresh air.

However, a pro-grade CO2 monitor may cost you several hundred dollars, something a lot of people just don’t have. DIY electronics hobbyists have an alternate solution for you, though: DIY CO2 monitors.

There are a variety of plans and tutorials available, all the way from source-all-parts-yourself to programmable gadgets (such as the Raspberry Pi) that just need a CO2 sensor plugged in.

4. Add Ad-hoc Filtration

The EPA recommends increasing ventilation system airflow in both homes and institutional spaces to reduce the spread of covid-19. When modifying an existing ventilation system is cost-prohibitive, or you don’t have any control over it, an in-room filtration solution can help out. Some air filters can be very pricey – but some smart people at an air filter company – working with an environmental engineer at Portland State U – came up with an accessible, inexpensive, high-capacity solution: a 20″ box fan and some 20″ x 20″ MERV-13 rated air filters. The design calls for 5 filters, but if one side of the resulting cube is going to sit flush on a flat surface, you can probably do just 4 filters.

5. Maintain Adequate Relative Humidity

The consistently cold temperatures of winter cause relative humidity to drop. Viral particles (of all kinds) thrive in drier air. The solution? Monitor and maintain an indoor relative humidity of 40-60%. Your respiratory system will be happier. It is also harder for viruses to infect people who have sufficiently moist respiratory passages. Some DIY CO2 sensor modules will also report temperature and relative humidity, so if you’re going to build a DIY CO2 monitor, you may be able to add in humidity reporting!

In Conclusion…

The covid-19 pandemic is far from over. Life tries to go on in spite of that, but we can all take part in reducing covid transmission by adopting mitigation strategies. Don’t think your family will go for it? Try making your attendance contingent on these controls being put into place, and stick to that. Or, host the next one, and make everyone else’s attendance contingent on their compliance. Use FOMO to your advantage, here.

Image: Yoga in a Yellow Suit by Cottonbro