WIoT: Weather Station & IoT Notifier
This is a project that I have been wanting to do for some time. Since the marrying of IoT with microcontrollers, the world of cloud-connected devices has taken off. I had a hard time naming this thing because its sort of a swiss army knife of IoT. I keep coming up with new ideas as to what to connect to and control. I’ve done other similar projects (like my garage door monitor / opener project),...
LISAMRC ML180 Carbon Fiber Frame Kit – Review
Today we are doing a review of the LISAMRC ML1800 Carbon Fiber Frame Kit. Not sure what LISAMRC stands for, so I suppose it’s a ‘cool’ factor thing. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this micro-sized quad frame kit. It’s well crafted and light. There are some minor issues, but no show stoppers and nothing you can’t fix with some spare bits. The following is an unboxing review and observations putting the base kit together. Sometime...
LulzBot Mini: Arduino Temp Monitor / Fan & LED Controller
I’m on a mission to reduce the amount of noise my LulzBot Mini 3D printer makes. I’ve already added a motor damper to the Y axis. However, one thing that is consistently noisy is the case fan. It’s on at > 70% nearly all the time. In addition to this, the air vent fins in the side of the case amplifies the fan noise. So, I decided to build my own fan controller....
DIY & Hobby Projects: Parts, Components & Tools Must Have’s
Most people who visit to this site are either DIY’ers, Makers, Hackers, or Robotics / RC enthusiast. For the most part, we all do the same thing – we build or mod stuff for our projects or hobbies. Over the years, experience and repetition has given we wisdom as to what works, what doesn’t, and key components that I want to have on hand. I wanted to share a list of parts/components I have found useful...
LulzBot Mini: LED Lighting Controller
Update: Check out the more recent mod – camera mount and better lighting. So, I just got my LulzBot Mini this week and have to say I love this thing. It’s my 2nd 3D printer (I Kickstarted the M3D – but it was not a reliable machine). Anyway, like any guy with a new toy, I had to do something to make it my own! ..and why not print some parts for it!...
250 Carbon Fibre Quad Build
I recently downsized from my 450 quad to a ZMR 250 unit. The purpose of this post is not so much of a step-by-step but rather a collection of tips, suggestions and lesson’s learned to help should you go down a similar avenue to build your own quad. There are plenty of video’s and how-to’s out there once you know what set-up you want to go with. I will reference mine as well...
10 Minute Project – Glowy Pumpkin
Here’s a quick project to get some funky flashing / colour changing LEDs into your pumpkin. Just grab a set of addressable WS2812‘s and some Arduino code and your’re done. The 2812’s are pretty easy to wire up. Essentially, +5v, GND and data signal get daisy changed through the set of LEDs. Each LED has 3 pins for IN and 3 pins out. Wire from the Arduino to the first IN set, then...
Quadcopter: 3D Printed Leveling Workstand
I often mess around with my quad configuration. Sometimes I re-flash the firmware which requires the re-calibration of the accelerometer and magnetometer. To calibrating the accelerometer, the quad has to be on a level surface. I have a 4-in-1 Quattro ESC mounted to the bottom, which makes an excellent platform to mount to. After tinkering on TinkerCAD (see what I did there?) for a few minutes, a base was born. I also...
In-Flight Rate Profile Changes – Cleanflight
As I gain more experience flying, I want to have the ability to swap rate profiles while in flight. Some days I want easy flying, while others I want things a little more aggressive so I can do flips etc. Cleanflight has the ability to set profiles in the PID Tuning tab. You can set different PID values as well as RC Rate etc and save them to 1 of 3 profiles. Values...
Prop Storage Using LEGO Technic Axles
I have a variety of 5040 and 5030 spare props. The need for both CW and CCW props, makes for a mess when trying to find a replacement when you crash and need a new prop. Given I break at least 1 prop per flight (I’m learning flips these days!), I wanted a quick way to access either size or direction of prop. Look no further to your LEGO Technic collection for axles...