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HackEDA hits Kickstarter, makes Arduino board design a drag-and-drop affair (video)
Writing code for an Arduino-friendly board is relatively easy; creating the board is the hard part, unless you live and breathe electrical engineering. If HackEDA has its way, however, the design process could be almost as easy as window shopping. Its new Kickstarter-backed project lets tinkerers choose from a list of parts and get a made-to-order board without knowing a lick about PCB assembly -- algorithms sort out the finer details. While the initial effort includes just 36 combos based around an Atmega328 processor, contributors who want tangible hardware can pay anything from $30 for a bare board through to $10,000 for the first stages of mass production. The truly committed will have to wait until December for the finished goods, but those willing to try HackEDA can use its existing web tool for free.
MechBass robot nails bass guitar sounds with Arduino and a stone cold groove (video)
End-of-year engineering school projects often pique our interest for their creativity. It's not every day that they can carry a bassline, however. James McVay's robot project for his honors year at the Victoria University of Wellington, the supremely well-named MechBass, wouldn't have much trouble keeping up with a favorite band. It centers on a custom, Arduino-compatible board that controls the plucking, fretting and damping of four strings to faithfully recreate bass guitar sounds from MIDI input. The design even accounts for the unwanted noises of actuators and motors, while virtually everything was either 3D-printed or laser-cut just for the task at hand. Sounds good? There's more in the pipeline: an upcoming Swivel robot will experiment with different playing techniques, and McVay ultimately sees his work teaching us about robotic music's interaction with human performers. For now, we'll be happy with the video after the break and hope that MechBass takes requests.
Arduino-based GVS1 video sampler is like a DIY MPC for pixelated clips
Sweet merciful tech gods do we love the Arduino. Seriously, it seems there's almost nothing this little MCU can't do. The latest arrow in its quiver of awesomeness is this little sampler, called the GVS1, that can capture, loop, pause, and reverse pixelated clips of 1- or 1.5-bit video in stunning 128 × 96 clarity. (And, before you ask, we're not exactly sure what half-a-bit is either.) The creator, known as Gijs on Vimeo, plans to upgrade the GVS1 to 2-bit capture at some point and is working towards getting some kits out the door in either September or October. If you're impatient, and have have the necessary soldering skills, you can find schematics and the Arduino code at the source. But, before you go, make sure to check out the pair of demo videos after the break.
