3D Printed RC Hex to LEGO Hub Adapter
After building BluCrawler, I wanted to see what other possibilities there were with builds using RC crawler tires. LEGO is not there yet with similar tires (closest are the Claas Xerion tires - but they are not crawler tires). Anyway, it's challenging to mate a LEGO hub to an RC tire. There are aftermarket adapters out there, but they are expensive, so I decided to design and print my own. You can download the STL file here. Samples…
Nextion TFT LCD – Why you need one!
I'll start this by stating that I don't work for iTead, and nor am I getting any sort of I just really like this TFT LCD. I stumbled upon the Nextion (which is a slick easy-to-use TFT LCD with a HMI editor) when they had their first crowdfunding campaign a year or so ago. I ignored it as there was not a lot of documentation, and frankly, I really didn't understand the concept of…
WIoT-2 Weather and Home Automation – Nextion with ESP8266/ESP32
This is a continuation from my first iteration of WIoT weather station. What is WIoT-2? I use it as a cloud-connected (IoT) info center of sorts. It is a culmination of information my wife or I often look for either on our way out of the house, or when we come home. It displays current/forecast weather, temp/humidity from outside the house (this), date, time, our local waste collection schedule, currency rates, the status of our garage…
WIoT: Weather Station & IoT Notifier
Update: Check out my latest version of this project WIoT-2. 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…
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 in…
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 for…
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! The…
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 as…
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 from…