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Because they're much friendlier to get started for the novice, most of the widespread examples seem extremely trivial to someone with experience. Now- I'm DEFI

Because they're much friendlier to get started for the novice, most of the widespread examples seem extremely trivial to someone with experience. Now- I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, probably barely mediocre with the EE fundamentals, but I did take a lot of EE and some robotics at Uni to get my degree in Computer Engineering. I am nothing more than a hobbyist but some of my cooler projects have been: - Autonomous 4WD robot - Quadcopter - A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build - Used an electronic photo frame as a display to show happy birthday tweets and Facebook posts to my wife from all the friends and family on her birthday - WiFi/Proximity garage door opener (before they were cool) - Garage freezer monitor (after an accidental unplug that spoiled a season's worth of salmon and elk) - A vending machine that let you pay with your work badge from 'points' you earned (this involved a Raspbery Pi and a surface tablet as well, but the Arduino was what actually controlled the vending machine) I've done a ton of random home automation IoT gizmos, mostly just for the fun of it, and a lot of robot builds for the boys. But the reason I use a lot of Arduino is that they are pretty friendly to use, there's a lot of help when I'm stuck, and I often don't need more. When I do, sometimes I just add another Arduino (or 4) and use serial or SPI communications between them. I've got some PIC chips for stuff, and some other random chips laying around, but I get more done quickly with the Arduino. Now, if I ever got on to an idea I wanted to make more permanent I would look elsewhere, but for a hobby, everything else provides more friction and ramp up in the few hours a month I can free up to work on stuff. EDIT: I'll add I've gotten some ESP8266 chips/breakouts that I've gotten more used to and I may start using them in a lot of places I've previously used Arduino + WiFi because the WiFi breakouts use a LOT of the available I/O and are usually the most expensive part of a build. I think I have 2 or 3 that I reuse.

timlyo 10y ago
>A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build Anywhere I can read any more about this?
- trampi 10y ago
  I think it was on HN some time ago: https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    That's pretty much what mine was, but isn't mine (and probably better?)
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  I always mean to write up my projects but never do. The gist is really, through trial and error I was able to map developer's desks to coordinates and elevation angles to get to their seat and just made a flat file that had their username, X, Y, and Z values in it. The main loop was just the standard socket server you'd find in a Ethernet module example and I wrote a Jenkins plugin that would connect on break and send the offending username over the socket. There were at the time a number of examples showing how to control the USB launcher from Geekwire w/ an Arduino that I pretty much just copied.
  - ayuvar 10y ago
    You probably could have done some basic artillery calculations. Then again, you might work in one of those weird offices where trying to measure the distance from your desk to theirs is more awkward than repeatedly attempting to shoot your coworkers while you fine-tuned the numbers. Neat project!
    - manyxcxi 10y ago
      Actually, having someone sit at their desk while I continued to shoot closer and closer to their face was probably the most fun of the entire project. I tried some basic calculations, but as you could guess with a nerf dart, building HVAC, and all the other things going on it wound up being faster and easier (and again, more fun) just shooting until I was on target a couple of times. After the first few desks it was pretty easy to get close on the first shot because you could generally know that 4ft left or right was about an adjustment value of +/- whatever from the last coordinate you had dialed in.
      - soylentcola 10y ago
        Plus then they can build defense fortifications and start an arms race!
        fapjacks 10y ago
        Precisely. I immediately started thinking about Arduino-powered counter-battery fire.
- pat_space 10y ago
  Please!
- flamedoge 10y ago
  I keep throwing money at the screen, but I don't get the nerf gun.
  - rjeli 10y ago
    this is not reddit, please comment as such.
- screature2 10y ago
  Here's another similar Jenkins/USB/NerfDart gitblame launcher project... https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation
win_ini 10y ago
Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is out, save that state, continue logging temps, then transmit after the wifi (assuming loss of power - although I have a UPS for the modem/wifi that will last a few hours) is available again. This obviously adds complexity. Would love to hear your approach to that project....
- win_ini 10y ago
  Oops. "Nerf" - not "nerd". Although I think we'd both agree - both terms apply.
- barttenbrinke 10y ago
  We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech
  - RankingMember 10y ago
    I love low-tech solutions like this.
  - win_ini 10y ago
    Low effort too: I just look at the ice in the bucket rose if it's frozen in a blob - or a pool of frozen water at the bottom. :)
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    This is a tip EVERYONE should know and I still do this! I use a half filled bottle of water, a small rock, and mark safe/not safe so anyone who's not me knows which way it should be. Pretty sure it was my great-grandpa who taught me that.
  - 10y ago
seanp2k2 10y ago
Adalight is also cool and one of the very few projects where instead of being able to just do it on a basic stamp instead, it actually benefits from moving up to a Teensy for faster refresh rates. Adalight is TL;DR picture-sensitive ambient monitor / TV / projector backlighting. The colors around the monitor change based on what's on the screen. It's a neat effect that was standard on some Phillips TVs: https://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-diy-ambient-tv-lighting/pieces https://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-diy-ambient-tv-lighting/... http://davenewson.com/posts/2013/ambilight-with-teensy-2.html http://davenewson.com/posts/2013/ambilight-with-teensy-2.htm... Also works with e.g. XBMC. I'm hoping to get mine working with my FireTV.

timlyo 10y ago

>A USB nerf gun that shoots at the developer who broke the Jenkins build Anywhere I can read any more about this?

trampi 10y ago
I think it was on HN some time ago: https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  That's pretty much what mine was, but isn't mine (and probably better?)
manyxcxi 10y ago
I always mean to write up my projects but never do. The gist is really, through trial and error I was able to map developer's desks to coordinates and elevation angles to get to their seat and just made a flat file that had their username, X, Y, and Z values in it. The main loop was just the standard socket server you'd find in a Ethernet module example and I wrote a Jenkins plugin that would connect on break and send the offending username over the socket. There were at the time a number of examples showing how to control the USB launcher from Geekwire w/ an Arduino that I pretty much just copied.
- ayuvar 10y ago
  You probably could have done some basic artillery calculations. Then again, you might work in one of those weird offices where trying to measure the distance from your desk to theirs is more awkward than repeatedly attempting to shoot your coworkers while you fine-tuned the numbers. Neat project!
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    Actually, having someone sit at their desk while I continued to shoot closer and closer to their face was probably the most fun of the entire project. I tried some basic calculations, but as you could guess with a nerf dart, building HVAC, and all the other things going on it wound up being faster and easier (and again, more fun) just shooting until I was on target a couple of times. After the first few desks it was pretty easy to get close on the first shot because you could generally know that 4ft left or right was about an adjustment value of +/- whatever from the last coordinate you had dialed in.
    - soylentcola 10y ago
      Plus then they can build defense fortifications and start an arms race!
      - fapjacks 10y ago
        Precisely. I immediately started thinking about Arduino-powered counter-battery fire.
pat_space 10y ago
Please!
flamedoge 10y ago
I keep throwing money at the screen, but I don't get the nerf gun.
- rjeli 10y ago
  this is not reddit, please comment as such.
screature2 10y ago
Here's another similar Jenkins/USB/NerfDart gitblame launcher project... https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation https://github.com/codedance/Retaliation

win_ini 10y ago

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is out, save that state, continue logging temps, then transmit after the wifi (assuming loss of power - although I have a UPS for the modem/wifi that will last a few hours) is available again. This obviously adds complexity. Would love to hear your approach to that project....

win_ini 10y ago
Oops. "Nerf" - not "nerd". Although I think we'd both agree - both terms apply.
barttenbrinke 10y ago
We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech
- RankingMember 10y ago
  I love low-tech solutions like this.
- win_ini 10y ago
  Low effort too: I just look at the ice in the bucket rose if it's frozen in a blob - or a pool of frozen water at the bottom. :)
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  This is a tip EVERYONE should know and I still do this! I use a half filled bottle of water, a small rock, and mark safe/not safe so anyone who's not me knows which way it should be. Pretty sure it was my great-grandpa who taught me that.
- 10y ago

seanp2k2 10y ago

Adalight is also cool and one of the very few projects where instead of being able to just do it on a basic stamp instead, it actually benefits from moving up to a Teensy for faster refresh rates. Adalight is TL;DR picture-sensitive ambient monitor / TV / projector backlighting. The colors around the monitor change based on what's on the screen. It's a neat effect that was standard on some Phillips TVs: https://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-diy-ambient-tv-lighting/pieces https://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-diy-ambient-tv-lighting/... http://davenewson.com/posts/2013/ambilight-with-teensy-2.html http://davenewson.com/posts/2013/ambilight-with-teensy-2.htm... Also works with e.g. XBMC. I'm hoping to get mine working with my FireTV.