Tag: Arduino

Mathematica catches the heat

I recently purchased the AMG8833 thermal camera breakout from Adafruit.  It’s an 8×8 pixel array of sensors that can be used to incorporate thermal vision into a project.  I’m interested in monitoring a thermoelectric cooler.  Adafruit provides a number of examples on how to interface the breakout with a Raspberry Pi or display connected to an Arduino.  I wanted to try a different interface and see if I could control it with Mathematica.  It took me longer to write this post than it did to write the software.

Temperature of 30×30 mm2 Peltier cooling device being measured with an AMG8833.

Read on if you’re interested in learning more

Continue reading Mathematica catches the heat

Mandy: The periodic table (teaser)

About six months ago, I started working on a project I like to call my piece de resistance. It combines a number of maker skills that I’ve learned over the past few years.  I call her Mandy, and she’s a laser-cut periodic table that has a bunch of three-color LEDS, an Arduino that controls the individually addressable LEDs, and a Raspberry Pi that stores information about the elements.  To make it stand out from being “just another bright periodic table”, I added a voice activation component, so Mandy is able to display different periodic trends at your verbal command!

I’m getting ready to move to a different part of the country, so I do not have time to provide more information about Mandy.  In the meanwhile, I created a teaser-trailer for your (OK, my) personal enjoyment.

 

Packet radio example

I received an Arduino Uno for Christmas this year, so my Dad and I spent some of the holiday time doing some projects.  His job was to get a circuit built implementing a 74HC595 Shift Register and my task was to set up some RF communication.  Dad completed his project before I did, but as I’m on vacation all this week, I was able to finally get something up and running.

Continue reading Packet radio example