Sorting Machine - Skittles and M&Ms ?


I find this almost therapeutic to watch, perhaps it's a little OCPD in me but seeing an Arduino UnoArduino Uno control a machine which will sort out your sweeties by colour is great. This little video does well to demonstrate it working with the 3D printed parts, an RGB and an infra-red sensor doing the work in tune with the motors.


Practical wise it's a little slow and you would be forgiven for asking "why would I do this?" but for a friends birthday present, a person who loves purple sour skittles, I manually made up a whole bag of them for him from many, many large bags and this would have made it so much easier! Even though it's doing skittles and M&M I'm sure it could just as easily do smarties - and really this could be useful for maybe wedding favours or just if you have friends/children who particularly prefer a certain flavour or colour. I certainly couldn't find the ability to buy a particular colour of what I wanted from the sweet store.



You can even find a bill of materials and the 3D printed models along with instructions here.


$1 Photo-Theremin and more fun with reversed LEDs


I love this project. It's so simple yet the principle behind it isn't and I feel it shows a good understanding of electronics and how it works! Basically, an LED can work as a crude light sensor, or specifically it's a photo-diode. All this is using is a resistor an LED and an Arduino Uno - it brightens when it gets lighter and dims when it gets darker and ultimately when hooked up to a piezo buzzer - you can play a tune like a theremin!



The code, electrical diagrams and videos can be found here.


Plotting Time - Open Source Clock


There are clocks which use LEDs to tell the time, there are ones that use valves, hands, light casting and those that use e-ink. What if you could use actual ink to tell the time ? In this project, an Arduino is hooked up to a motor and mechanism where a felt pen draws out the time (though it could be anything you want) and wipes it away to correct it! I think it's a cute and out-of-the box way to show that there are always many ways to do the same task.



The original instructions for creating this project are in German, but there are links to the resources, 3D models, etc at a thingiverse page for the project.




It's an ATMega328PATMega328P (Arduino Uno) embedded within a small, smooth designed, display. It can standalone by itself or you can attach it to a computer or single board computer like the Raspberry PiRaspberry Pi. So you have the power of the ATMega chip and the potential of the OLED display. It's in a form factor that's really nice to play with, communicates over the USB port that's attached to it but also can plug straight into a breadboard.



It began as a kickstarter and it's a product you can actually buy, there's a video and more examples on the Kickstarter page.


Arduino Bowel Gauge


This smart project I see as having medical applications, it follows one of the basic, natural needs! using the toilet! What's not to like ? You can tell if people are really telling the truth about when they've last cleaned it, if they're healthy or if the poor goldfish has gone the way of the drink.



It was actually created by request from HackaDay and more information is available from the appropriate blog post.


Etch-a-Sketch with Lasers


I didn't have an etch-a-sketch, but I had friends whom did, using it was definitely an art form and managing to do a curve was practically a nigh impossibility for a young child such as myself at the time. What was true of it though, is the inability to keep what you drew; just one shake and poof! gone! Not this time, not when the drawing field is a laser cutter!



Dom runs a company offering laser cutters to Hack/Mak(er) spaces and has more information on the blog.


Arduino Etch-a-Sketch Clock


This project is exactly what you think it is, where as we've seen an Arduino felt-tip pen clock and a laser cutter etch-a-sketch. Why not combine the two? Just shake it and draw a new time! Awesomely renewable.



Of course if you want to, you can make your own.


K4S, a Keyboard for Arduino to use with Scratch


Scratch, if you're not aware, is a programming language which I was originally introduced to with the Raspberry Pi. Scratch 4 Arduino since came along and with it, an Arduino Shield to help teach its principles - a Keyboard 4 Scratch!



Quite nicely the schematic is available!


Arduino Baby Robot


There's not a lot of information about this project that I've found. Just a thought provoking video. I think that this is a robot kit that you can get, it has been programmed to act curious and follow, be wary and I think it just acts amusingly.



Arduino Phone


It's old news to some, but since the Arduino GSM ShieldArduino GSM Shield came out it was inevitable that someone would convert it into a working phone. If you decide to do it yourself, make sure that you monitor or replace the tantalum capacitors else they may explode (I'm serious).



I'd be interested in seeing after following the original guide, how cheaply this could be made.




Which do you like the most ? Are you working on an Arduino project?


If you can't see "Add Comment" below, please sign up for an account!