I just came back from yet another amazing event by HasGeek. This time it is DroidCon.
DroidCon
DroidCon is a developer conference and is part of world’s largest series of Android conferences. It happened at Bangalore on 18th and 19th of November.
Tag Archives: Arduino
Programmable watch – My new Geek toy
I have added a new addition to my existing list of geek toys. This time it the programmable watch ez430 by Texas instruments.
Yes you heard it right; it is a watch which you can (re)program 😉
Features
The following are some of its features
- MSP430 with integrated <1GHz wireless transceiver
- On-board 3-axis accelerometer
- Pressure sensor
- Temperature sensor
- Battery voltage sensor
- 96-Segment LCD display driven directly by CC430
- Includes an eZ430 USB emulator that connects the Chronos to a PC for real-time, in-system programming and debugging
- Can be paired wirelessly with other RF based devices
- And of course you can see time as well 😉
Video
Here is a video introducing the watch by Texas Instruments
I am currently working on a couple of ideas like integrating this watch with Arduino etc. So stay tuned. Meanwhile if you see me waving hands in the air, look carefully, I might be controlling the nearby devices using gestures 😉
Posted in Arduino Tagged Arduino, chronos, ez430 9 Comments
Using standard Arduino board as Google’s ADK kit
When Google announced about the Open Accessory Development kit (ADK) in the last Google IO conference, I was really excited since it was based on Arduino boards.
But after the initial bliss went off, I was disappointed for two reasons. First you need an Android phone running Android version 2.3.4 or above. The second reason is that the original ADK kit is not compatible with the plain Arduino board. The downside of this is that all your existing Arduino Shields will not work with that board and not to mention you have to buy a rather expensive ADK kit. Now there is also an Arduino compatible ADK kit, but it is again expensive and it didn’t made sense for me to buy another Arduino board when I already had a bunch of them lying around.
Since it is based on Oleg’s USB Host Shield, I was trying to see if I can build a board with just plain Arduino board and Oleg’s USB Host Shield. It turns out it is possible and with the release of Oleg’s second version of the USB Host Library, it is much simpler.
Things you need
Any Arduino board.
You can use either UNO or Duemilanove. You can also use Arduino Mega, if you have one lying around. The advantage of using Mega is that you will have additional I/O pins.
USB Host Shield
You need a USB Host shield for Arduino. You can use the original shield by Oleg for $40, or you can buy a cheaper clone from sparkfun for $25. I recommend the original one by Oleg, since it doesn’t need an external power supply. If you are going to use Sparkfun’s version you need an external power supply. Also make sure you don’t buy the older version of Sparkfun shield. It has pins marked wrongly and you need to make changes to the library to make it work.
ADK compatible Android phone
You need an Android Phone which is ADK compatible, which means you need a phone which is running 2.3.4 or above. I tested this setup in Nexus S and it is working properly.
Sensors, LED’s, buttons
You would need additional sensors, LEDs or buttons to test the flow. To start with, you can just use some LED’s
Connections
Stack the USB Host shield on top of the Arduino board. Connect an LED on pin number 3. Connect your phone’s cable to the USB port of the shield.
Arduino Firmware
Download v2 of the USB Host Shield Library and place it in the library folder of your Arduino setup. Open the demokit_20 example sketch from the /examples folder and upload it to your Arduino board.
Android App
The Android demo app for ADK, can be found under the /app folder of the ADK package. Upload the app to your Android phone.
Testing it
Power on Arduino and connect your Android phone to the other side of the cable. You should see a dialog box, which asks you whether you want to launch the app. Click yes. Once the app is launched you can control the LED connected on pin 3, by moving the slider in the Android app.
Now enjoy your new cheaper ADK kit 😉
Posted in Android/Java, Arduino Tagged ADK, Android/Java, Arduino, USB Host Shield 22 Comments
Hardware hacking in Yahoo Open hackday
The annual Yahoo Open Hack day is back and this year it is going to happen on 30th and 31st of July.
This hackday is special for me, for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, I am going to see my idol Douglas Crockford in person 🙂 He is one of the reasons why I started loving JavaScript and I am really excited about meeting him in person and to listen to his talk.
Update: Here are the photos
And the second reason is that, we are going to have hardware hacks during the event. Yes you read it right 🙂 This time we are planning to have tech talks about hardware and let people do hardware hacks as well.
Regular readers of my blog would know that I hack around hardware (especially Arduino) as a hobby and you could understand my excitement.
I am also going to give a talk on Arduino and Android ADK and will be demoing some of the hacks which I have created using them.
If this hasn’t convinced you, then there is more. Yahoo is also going to sponsor 50% price for the hardware that you need for hacking. Yes, you read it right again. 😉 We have arranged this offer with 9 Circuits. Head over to the Open hackday wiki to get more details about it.
See you guys at Open Hack day next weekend.
Update:
My Slides
More information
Posted in Arduino, Events/Conferences, Google/Yahoo Tagged ADK, Arduino, HackDay, Yahoo 14 Comments
JoystickShield Library for Arduino
I recently bought the JoystickShield for Arduino from Sparkfun and after playing around with it for a while, I realized that we don’t have a good Arduino library to interface with the JoystickShield. As it always happens with me, I ended up creating one 🙂
Features
The library supports the following events
- All 8 directions of Joystick. (Up, RightUp, Right, RightDown, Down, LeftDown, Left and LeftUp)
- Joystick button press
- All 4 button press (Up, Right, Down, Left)
JavaScript influence
While designing the interface for the library, my JavaScript skills influenced me and I have added callback function support for all the events, in addition to the normal mode.
If you are wondering how I added support for callbacks in C/C++, then the answer is that I implemented them using function pointers. I would probably write an article explaining about it when I find some time. Meanwhile you can check the source code or check out the callback example sketch to find out how to use them.
More details and Download
You can find more details about the library at its homepage and can download it from github account. There are also examples in the /examples directory from which you can find out how to use the library in both the modes.
Try it out and let me know if you have any feedback/comments.
PS: BTW this is my first Arduino based library 🙂
Posted in Arduino Tagged Arduino, Joystick, JoystickShield, Library Leave a comment
iAndroidRemote – Control your Android phone using Apple Remote
Long time readers of my blog, would know that I hack around Arduino. Couple of days ago, I was playing around with Arduino while listening to music from my Android phone. I wanted to increase the volume of the song that was playing.
At that moment an idea struck me and I thought it would be cool if I can control the volume using some kind of remote. I opened my bag and found an old Apple remote.
Couple of hours later, I was continuing hacking around Arduino, listening to music from my Android phone, but now if I had to change the volume or change the track, I don’t have to reach for my phone, I can do it using my Apple remote itself 😉
If you want to know more about how I did it, or want to try it out yourself, then head over to the project page, where I describe the entire process including the schematics and the source code for both Arduino and Android that I am using.
Try it out and let me know how it works for you. Happy hacking 😉
Posted in Android/Java, Arduino Tagged Amarino, Android/Java, Arduino 5 Comments