Arduino Ideas
Wed, 11/18/2009 - 20:27 — Sean CarneyLately I've been giving some thought as to what micro-controller tinkering I should do next.
The first thing I need to do is to finish what I have started and complete the 'weather clock' project. I tracked down an old mantle clock which I might purchase tonight, so all I need to do is get some servos and print the new clock face. Hopefully I can complete this by Christmas.
I have also been playing around with the idea of a GPS enabled hat with an Arduino doing all the processing work. The various ideas I have had are;
- A hat that notifies the wearer when they are close to certain drinking establishments
- A hat that uses multiple vibrating motors to always indicate true north
- A hat that will guide the user to a disclosed (or undisclosed) destination by merely providing the direction to travel in
- Some combination of the above
I also thought that the hat could be used for some form of perverse orienteering competition. Individuals could be timed on how long they took to complete a set course of unknown checkpoints using only the hat for guidance. The hat could also lead someone to a party or another secret event.
This will take a while to implement since the hardware required is rather costly, but I think it will be a really cool project once it is completed.
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Comments
I like the true north idea
I like the true north idea and have very much wanted one of those things. The orienteering competition would also be awesome. The problem with doing NESW with GPS is that it gives a position reading, not a direction (unless I am mistaken and the Arduino GPS does both), so it would only be able to determine where you are facing if you are moving. It will also point you in the wrong direction if you aren't walking forwards, if I am correct. I'm not sure how much a digital compass would be, but I suspect it would be cheaper than a GPS module since it doesn't need satellite connections. The only problem is no Arduino board for it. If you can find a digital compass with I2C or something, though, I think the Arduino supports that which would make it relatively simple.
I intend to get an Arduino by Christmas and I hope to make my own alarm clock. The two things I hate most about my clock are the fact that it loses settings and time on power loss and it is super annoying, so I hope to build something that can retain the time on power failure (I believe a Real Time Clock does that) and will use a gradually dimming-on light as an alarm with a buzzer as a backup. As for the display, I have a few different ideas, but it will mostly be governed by the remaining I/O pins.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
You're right about the
You're right about the limitations of GPS for telling which direction your facing. There's no avoiding that I will need both a GPS receiver and a compass to get the results I want. I already found a digital compass unit which should be easy to interface with the Arduino at Sparkfun. The compass is a little bit expensive (when combined with GPS), so I think I'll add it as an incremental improvement later on.
I'm also curious to see what you come up with on the alarm clock front.
I just found this interesting
I just found this interesting application for an Arduino with GPS. Perhaps it may help you with inspiration. http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/10/gps-puzzle-box-only-opens-in-one-speci...
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