Making Toys 5

Compy: The monitor for your monitor!

Compy is the monitor for your monitor!

Do you spend too much time sitting in front of your computer? Do you waste time checking your email over and over instead of going out and having a life? Compy is for you!

Compy clips to your laptop screen, and he sits patiently. He will use his infrared sensor to detect when you are in front of your computer, and if you're there for 30 minutes, he will alert you! Don't worry, if you walk away from your laptop, Compy knows and will restart his timer when you come back. He's always happy to keep an eye on you!

Compy! from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

By Joana Kelly (joanawithonen[at]gmail[dot]com)

Compy: A peek inside

Finally, Compy is up and working! Here are some photos of his guts, and his code is below!

Compy's front

I added googly eyes and a pipe cleaner bow-tie to give him a little craft charm.

Compy's Back

His battery pack is attached on the back.

Compy with his Battery Pack removed

The battery pack is attached with velcro. The chip clip which holds Compy onto a laptop is hot glued.

Compy's Guts

I used an Arduino Mini, and had to put that in a little acrylic box from the Container Store separate from another acrylic box containing the speaker and the IR sensor. Code is below!

Birdie/Qwail work in progress...

I've scrapped the Winbond, which is both good and bad. The Winbond would have been great for making bird sounds, but the Arduino Mini is so much more compact and easy to work with. It makes sound too, but the computery noises it makes are not very bird-like. In fact, they're just downright annoying.

I'm using the Play Melody code from an Arduino tutorial to get started. I had to add a couple of extra octaves (by halving the frequency of each tone for each octave), and now I'm working on getting the melody to play at the appropriate time.

Right now my code will play a little ditty after 15 seconds if someone is not in front of the IR sensor. I need more parameters, but it's not bad for a proof of concept. Consider is an implementation prototype.

My code is after the jump, by the way

Some photos:
The Whole Mess

Here is my arudino mini, hooked up to the arduino as a usb connector. Also featured within the mess of wires is an IR sensor, a speaker (bigger than the one I'll end up using, actually), and some fine LEDS to help me figure out what's going on when). The Red LED comes on when the IR is on and reading something is close, and Yellow LED comes on when the IR is reading that nothing is in front of it anymore.

A Close Up

This is just a close up shot of the Arduino Mini, connected to things. I'll be taking it off of the bread board as soon as I'm happy with my code. Until then, it stays, which unfortunately is holding me back from making Birdie look and feel prototypes.

A video is coming soon!!

Birdie (or perhaps "Qwail?") BOM

You know, like a quail that wails.

Anyway, here is a lovely diagram of how I'm hookin' things up.

You don't actually need the Arduino Mini USB adapter to get things cooking, you can use a regular Arduino, as shown above, if you already have one. Just be sure to remove the Atmel ATmega168 so you can connect the reset pin from the mini to the Arduino (see what I mean below). Without this, data will not transfer.
Arduino Mini
Arduino Mini USB Adapter or Arduino
Superbright LEDS
8 ohm speaker
IR Sensor

Okay, here is a photo of the Arduino without the Atmel chip.

Yes, that chip does come off! Just don't pry it off too violently, or you'll bend the pins. Mmkay?

Birdie Schedule!

11/18: Have two working winbond's to mess with, and bill of materials
11/25: Have three different Birdie cases ready for testing
Screw the winbond! Get Arduino Mini to make tones and design cases
12/02: Test Birdie 1.0, consider case alterations, other sounds, etc.
Test sound(s), and get code working seamlessly for implementation prototypes. Have look and feel prototypes to show.
12/09: Test Birdie with look and feel, implementation, and role prototypes. Consider and make any necessary alterations
12/16: Final Due (have video/documentation of Birdie in action)!

Birdie! (Very) Rough Sketch

Birdie! from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

IR sensor + 3 LEDS

Here's the fine video of my IR sensor actually working!!

Another IR sensor + 3 LEDS from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

I had some wacky issues connecting my IR sensor, but found a useful diagram, also including here:

I ended up adapting Matt's code also. My original code made the lights flicker a lot, but Matt averaged out the IR signal quite effectively. Kudos to you, sir. Matt's code is also after the jump.

Midterm Concepts

Pandas

This concept involves two pandas, which both detect presence. One panda, when detecting someone near by, sends a message to the second panda, which sneezes, alerting the second person of the first person's presence. Naturally this concept makes the most sense when the two pandas are in different places.

Time Bird

The tenatively named Time Bird monitors the amount of time someone spends in front the computer. The bird will chirp every hour, counting the number of hours that pass, and when someone gets up from the computer the bird will reset.

Ambient Sound Frame

This photo frame would play ambient sound from the day the photograph was taken, or a recorded message related to the photograph when someone picks up the frame or gets close to it.

Proximity Alert

I thought about this the other day while setting up a photo studio in my apartment. I came close to falling over the lights and cords several times and could have used a little extra help steering clear of all the obstacles.

Magic Music Box

The music box would play a short tune, much like a traditional music box (or snow globe), but it would mysteriously sense your presence and begin to play! Like Magic!!

Chipcorder with buttons

Below is a video of my chipcorder working, and some photos of what it would look like if I could get it to work inside it's cute little box-like shell. I've apparently killed my other chip, and I think I've done something iffy to the volume pin on my second chip. Ruh roh. Before I screwed everything up, though, things were beautiful:


Chipcorder with Buttons from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

The Case

Look, there's my speaker, some holes for the LEDS, and all my buttons! Hooray!

Lodged

Also, this is a photograph of some stuff from Sparkfun lodged in my mailbox. Great! I know it looks like maybe if I tilt the box then it will slide out of the mailbox quite easily, but I assure you it does not work. I'm going to hack apart the box inside the mailbox tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Color Mixer with an IR Sensor

What a disaster! I've ruined one an IR sensor, and only just about managed to get this second one in action. I haven't changed my code (yet), so I'm still using the code from the Arduino site. The code can been seen below.

Color Mixer with an IR Sensor and a tri-color LED from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

Here are some fine photos of the thing in action.
The Color Mixer

This is what my color mixer looks like from the top. The black rectangle on the right is my IR sensor. I'd like to make a nicer case for this soon.

The Innards

Here are the innards of my color mixer. It's kind of a mess.

The Disaster

Through the simultaneous use of solder, wrapping wire, and hot glue, I finally got this working, for the most part. I do not recommend this approach. Jumper wires are definitely the way to go.

Color Mixer with a Potentiometer and a Tri-Color LED

Here's a short video of a color mixer I made using a tri-color led. I used the color mixer code from the Arduino site. To see the code, click the link at the bottom of the post.

Color Mixer from Joana Kelly on Vimeo

Color Mixer Insides

This is the inside of the mixer. That's the arduino on the left! Note I finally got that tri-color led working. Yesss! Turns out the short pin does go to power....good to know.

BristleBot

Want to build a cool little mobile bot? Sure you do.

For more information visit evilmadscientist.com.

LOLS

Speaking of toys, I thought you'd all appreciate this:

via icanhascheezburger.com

Dissection: The Cute Drum

I took apart a Cute Drum that I purchased at Riteaid for $7.99. Its simplicity appealed to me, and you can't go wrong with a musical instrument. I think I might like to cover it in fur and make it a musical monster one day...

This is a little video of it working, while it's put together:

Cute Drum from Joana Kelly on Vimeo.

Hello, Wireless Toys

Hi, I'm Joana Kelly. I look like this sometimes:

My favorite childhood toys were almost always stuffed animals. I have a hard time remembering what was so great about them, but I was mad for stuffed animals. I also really liked Legos, Playdoh, and colored pencils.

Stuffed animals via MrsBaskets.com

My background is in photography, and my interests are in making delightful fun projects and the internet. I've also been really into crocodiles lately. Really.

I'm taking this class in order to explore the fabulous fun world of toys  and to delve deeper into physical computing. I'm specifically interested in learning about Arduino. Ideally, I'd like to end up with a great little project I can add to my portfolio, and have a better understanding of electronics in general.