Although this is an awesome Wii hack using GlovePie and the Wiimote, you could probably do this a lot easier using a simple 3-axis accelerometer and a microcontroller.

I got this idea after seeing some physics class use the wiimote in some kinda pendulum experiment.

Why not use the wiimote’s built in 3-axis accelerometers to measue g-forces, acceleration and even calculate my own 0-60mph times!

So I did. I wrote a script to dump all the g-force readings from the wiimote to a comma separated value file, then did some post processing in MS Excel, and voila, I can see every bump, every curve, my acceleration and braking, and even calculated my current speed using high school physics (v=a*t)

I even convinced my coworker to take me out in his E46 M3 to measure his SMG’s performance

I admit, it’s not super accurate since the wiimote spits out G readings rounded to two decimal places. It also provides other acceleration readings in finer granularity, but I couldn’t figure out what metric it was recording in. I used Gs since I knew it was just the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s)

[via] vwvortex

Related Posts:

Build a accelerometer in 1 minute!

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Looks like Shelto has been updating his internet robot project from couple months ago.

Check out this cool internet controlled security robots made with some CUBLOC PLCs and GPS modules.

We’ve lowered the overall profile and given Turtle (or should it be Tiger), a new paint job. We have also added a GPS unit. The GPS feeds signals to the CUBLOC micro controller which sends the location back to the controlling pc on the internet.

via Shelato

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Man, check out this AIRguitar!

Carlos Vamos demonstrates his Prototype hand made custom AIRguitar. The guitar neck is from Ibanez, the guitar body was build with the Kind help and cooperation of Marcus Van Engelen. The final guitar asembly and wiring was done by Carlos Vamos. See the other AIRguitar videos on Youtube more info www.carlosvamos.com

via

Ohhh….. here’s a really cool DIY HACK that can sense your squeeze. (This might be good for making an adult-related game…then again…)

I’m researching squeeze sensing as a mode of tactile interface. Here I will cover the process of developing a squeezeable sensor and the firmware/software concerns associated with interpreting the data from the sensor. This fulfills the “sensor project” for my class called Computational Principles in Media Arts taught in AME at ASU by Todd Ingalls and Hari Sundaram.

First off, how do we sense “squeeze?” People squeeze all kinds of things: lemons, steering wheels, loved ones, toothpaste and other toiletries, pimples, stress balls, hand exercisers. I would like to focus on the latter two, which provide a therapeutic activity for those with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Using flex sensors arranged in a certain pattern on a spherical object, in this case a rubber dog toy, one can capture whenever the ball is squeezed. Here’s a sketch of the sensor layout:

via

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

You can try this at home as it can be a lot of fun without actually buying any kind of instruments other than your Wii game system.

via hackawii

Related:

WiiTAR

Wiimote HACKED

You guys are going to love this giant LED. It almost seems like there’s a LOT of circuit on it. (It that necessary?)

Anyways, thumbs up for this cool giant LED. I wish they had a video on it…

This project is 6″ seven-segment.All segments consist of fourteen 5mm super bright LEDs except dot segment it use only 4 LEDs.I design this project use for multipurpose such as big 7-segemnt display ,big digital clock,digital timer etc.The project designed as a module for one digit .You can cascade up to 8 module or 8 digits. For each digit there are two options on PCB which you can use or ignore these options for each digit PCB.

via

Need a touch Keypad instead of the traditional 4×4 keypads? This might be the way to go.

The actual data from the touch sensors is quite erratic and requires some software processing. Basically you create a pulse for each of the ports and read the data with the instruction following the pulse signlal rise. Then read the ports the same way looking for a gap of 0.1 seconds with no data detected. This does the ‘debounce’. This results in fairly clean data capture from the sensors.

via

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Wow, this has to be one of the coolest coffee tables you can own. You can get the kit at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories for about $350 or $450. You can even purchase a completed version if you are just not circuits-savvy.

Since we first showed these off, we have had a lot of inquiries about how you can make your own table like this. Today we are announcing the availability of some (very large) electronic soldering kits so that you indeed can make your own.

Our kits include the giant printed circuit boards, components, instructions, regulated power supply, and all other parts needed to build the electronic portion of the table tops. Constructed, you end up with what essentially amounts to a single extra-ginormous circuit board that can sit underneath the clear or frosted glass (or plastic) top of your own table.

via

Related:

Halo Lighting Table

Digital Roulette Table

Wow, check out this Jacobs Ladder too!

This is how I used a neon sign transformer to create my own classic sci-fi prop the Jacobs Ladder. A Jacobs Ladder is nothing more than two vertical wires attached to a very high voltage. The wires which form the ladder are close together at the base but diverge as they go up. When switched on an electric arc forms at the base of the wires. The arc heats the air above it and in doing so forms an easier path for the electricity to take. The arc moves upwards continually heating the air above itself and rising to take the easier path until eventually the arc reaches the end of the wires and leaps into the air. Once free of the wires it dies but a new arc starts again at the bottom of the ladder. The arc itself moves with a very distinctive buzzing noise. These devices are most usually seen in old sci-fi and horror films and the houses of strange people.

via