Creative electronics
Context.
I have been doing some level of basic coding for as long as I can remember, from Basic, Java, C++ through school to HTML, CSS, and Arduino/embedded C in college. It often saddens me that I don't practice it more often, but I enjoy it enough to keep it around.
The following are some simple experiments from classes over the last four years involving some form of creative electronics and coding.
The dream is to economically make my own camera drone, someday. Someday.
Spudzy: the robot on wheels
This little contraption, spudzy, as we affectionately called it, follows a black line (using IR sensors), stops at a horizontal black line; or a finish line (IR, again), avoids and backs away from obstacles and from cliff endings (ultrasonic transducer), and starts/stops at loud claps/noises.
Spudzy is a group of sensors/ transducers, a chassis, an Arduino Unoa breadboard, two DC motors, a motor driver, a power source and a lot of wires.
Videos of Spudzy
The making
Other projects
that weren't as well documented
A five note, toggle switch instrument.
That translated into a 12 note keyboard.
A radio station I set up with a teammate, where we broadcasted, for a day, the many musical creations of the people of our college.
We needed a longer antenna than we previously anticipated.
The echolocater
After some interesting reading about SONAR and bats with their echolocation, we made a headset using an ultrasonic transducer that notifies you of any obstacles in the one meter of space ahead of you with a low frequency beep that gets higher in frequency proportionally to how close the obstacle is.