Into AVR chip programming? Check out how you can convert an Arduino into an AVR chip programming hardware for use with AVRDude!

By the way, AVR is microcontrollers from Atmel. Check out AVRFreaks for good AVR info.

(Thanks David for the tip! )

I ported the Atmel AVR910 In System Programmer protocol to the Arduino. Now I can write programs to my ATtiny2313 and tiny13 chips. The Arduino sketch is available for download here. It works with the AVRDude programming software. This article will show how to use the Arduino to upload a program to the tiny13. The first step is to download the zip, extract the .pde file, then load it into the Arduino IDE, and write it to the Arduino. Next we can hook up the tiny13 chip.

The original AVR910 programmer didn’t support the tiny13 chip. I added tiny13 support to the Arduino version and assigned it part ID 1. I had to modify the avrdude.conf file also. I just added the following line

via uCHobby

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Check out this cool RGB LED Tick-Tack-Toe!

via HackedGadgets

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Wow, here’s a great DIY video on making your own custom fiber optic rose!

Using a few LEDs and really cheap fiber optics, I made this dead sexy, illuminated fiber optic rose.

via HackedGadgets

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Check out this tight ass hexapod robot from MicroMagic systems! Very cute.

The hexapod was my fourth generation robot, and took around 2 weeks to build, the hexapod locomotion engine has been developed on and off over a couple of years. The face recognition software was based on OpenCV libraries, integration of face recognition into the i.C. hexapod face tracking took around 1 week, but with several weeks of fine tuning and enhancements.

A bit of technical background:

i.C. has an on board processor I have developed called the p.Brain, this takes care of all body leg and body locomotion. The p.Brain runs on a PIC ds33F processor.

There is an off board Windows XP Mini-ITX based PC with a Pentium M 1.73Ghz processor which takes care of the face recognition and tracking. This PC is connected to the p.Brain via a serial link. Only simple commands such as X,Y and Z rotation of the head and body are sent to the p.Brain from the PC. This means that if the PC crashes (which they so often do!) The p.Brain will put i.C to sleep without damaging any of the servos.

There are 21 servos on i.C. hexapod. 3 degrees of freedom for each leg, 2 for head pan and tilt, and one which acts as a blink shutter for the main lens. i.C. blinks when a picture has been taken, pictures are stored locally with the time data and location they were taken, and also uploaded to a server for his website (still under development).

via HackedGadgets

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Check out this awesome LED Hat you can make for Halloween! There’s some construction notes that you can refer to build one yourself.

I think this was originally because I was planning to go to the Burning Man festival, in which being covered with lights is a practical way of keeping track of your friends. But the idea was a bit beyond my expertise for a long time, and it took about two years before I found someone who said they would help me with the electronics side and I decided it was worth the risk of buying the kit to try.

I started work six weeks before Glade 2006, i.e. about June. I also optimistically hoped to finish something basic in time, but it took until about February 2007 before I had something which was self-contained and wearable. Obviously not all of this time was spent soldering LEDs, but soldering and testing those and about 400 wires was the biggest job.

Then progress stalled for a while, since I was a bit sick of LEDs at that point, but if I wanted to take it to Glade 2007 I needed to finish it off: some decent patterns and a button to switch between them, which I managed about 4 hours before having to get up again to catch the train there. And it was a success! Despite ridiculously heavy rain leading to a big mud bath at the festival, the hat did it’s job without breaking and the most common response was, “Wow, cool hat! Where did you buy it?”

via HackedGADGETS

Cool, check out CircuitScout next time you are trying to find that circuit for your next project. I looked up “Alarm System” and got some pretty decent results. (Much better than google for circuits) Thanks Jerry for the tip!

Check this Steam Punk Computer that serves you fresh beer from Russia!

Looks like Russians can turn an ordinary home computer into almost everything. For example, looks like this one can fill your mug with a fresh beer. Though actually nobody can tell how this weird thing works.

via

Check out this really really simple DIY on how to make your own Cool LED Lamp Art using LEDs, acrylic glass, and some creativity.

LED of LED The lights are approximately twenty times the scale of an actual LED bulb. Not only does the product show the beauty of the LED structure, but it also creates a special visual effect on the ceiling, 12 LED bulbs are refracted through the Acrylic glass lens to generate this pattern. Materials: Aluminum, Acrylic glass, LEDs.

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Yes, you can control music on your PC with your Wiimote if you get really really bored…

This app allows users to use their Wiimote to control iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, and Napster.
It offers many functions, such as Play/Pause, Next/Prev track, Volume Up/Down. Any function can be mapped to any button. Plus the motion sensing is used. Shake the Wiimote to the right to go to Next Track.

Take a look and download the application here

via wiihacks