Looking back, I am surprised at how electronics has quietly advanced to the point where we can buy small programmable computers on chips for a dollar or two. These are microcontrollers of course, and in my lab we are working on programming them to handle the tedious tasks in our robotics projects.
At makezine.com, I stumbled on this gem of a book titled “Making Things Talk
It is packed with 26 electronics projects that involve getting these tiny computers to talk to each other and the internet over both wired and wireless connections. I have ordered all the requisite parts, and when purchased, they amount to around $280. I am looking forward to summer vacation when I get to go through each of these projects one-by-one:
- Making a computer “mouse” out of a stuffed animal monkey and flex sensors.
- Making the monkey wireless
- Negotiating in Bluetooth with the BlueSMiRF module
- Setting up a networked webcam
- Connecting a microcontroller to the internet without a computer
- Networked Air Quality Meter
- Networked Games
- Infrared Communication
- Radio Communication
- Duplex Radio Communication
- Bluetooth Communication
- Broadcasting Messaging
- Directed Messaging
- Infrared Rangefinding
- Ultrasonic Rangefinding
- Reading Signal Strength with XBee Radios
- Reading Signal Strength with Bluetooth Radios
- Reading the GPS Serial Protocol
- Heading with a Digital Compass
- Attitude with an Accelerometer
- Color Recognition with a Webcam
- 2D Barcode Recognition with a Webcam
- Reading RFID Tags
- RFID and Home Automation
- IP Geocoding
- Email from RFID
OK, I wont be making each of these. I will get an idea halfway through and take off and work on that. But it should be fun!
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
