This tutorial explains how to use an Arduino board as an AVR ISP (in-system programmer). This allows you to use the board to burn the bootloader onto an AVR (e.g. the ATmega168 or ATmega328 used in Arduino). The code in this example is based on the mega-isp firmware by Randall Bohn.
Playground
BootDrive for Arduino
BootDrive for Arduino uses one Arduino with an SD card to bootload another Arduino by pretending to be the avrdude program that is used under the covers in the Arduino IDE. You hook up the hardware UART (serial port) on the two Arduinos with transmit and receive crossed, and load away!
DIY a digital tachometer with Arduino & RGB LED matrix (video)
Today I tried making something with the Arduino RGB LED matrix and adapter shield on hand. The idea is to let the pixels of the matrix change in correspondent to the change of car’s engine RPM (or some other realtime data, maybe throttle position) and a step forward is to display a digit in different colors. The digit can even be displayed mirrored so the matrix can be put on the dashboard and reflect the digit on the window shield.
Attempting to connect Arduino to an Android pad’s USB host
I just got a very cheap ($75) Android 4.0 pad, with 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, WIFI and especially a USB host port. Google’s Open Accessory ADK solution allows Arduino with a USB host to connect with an Android device. Because of my Android device has got the USB host port, I am thinking of the possiblity to eliminate the need for a USB host on the Arduino side.
Start playing with XBee
Weeks ago I bought a pair of XBee modules, an expansion shield with XBee socket for Arduino and a XBee USB adapter. Thinking it might be tricky to let them work, I haven’t opened the package until today. The first thing before I start playing with them is downloading the latest version of X-CTU which I heard of can configure and test the XBee module.
CAN-BUS shield + GPS receiver from Sparkfun on hand
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- Package
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- Inside the package
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- GPS receiver from GlobalSat
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- CAN-BUS shield front
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- CAN-BUS shield back
When MediaCoder meets Arduino
DIY OBD+GPS virtual automotive dashboard with Arduino
Using standard Arduino board as Google’s ADK kit
When Google announced about the Open Accessory Development kit (ADK) in the last Google IO conference, I was really excited since it was based on Arduino boards.
But after the initial bliss went off, I was disappointed for two reasons. First you need an Android phone running Android version 2.3.4 or above. The second reason is that the original ADK kit is not compatible with the plain Arduino board. The downside of this is that all your existing Arduino Shields will not work with that board and not to mention you have to buy a rather expensive ADK kit. Now there is also an Arduino compatible ADK kit, but it is again expensive and it didn’t made sense for me to buy another Arduino board when I already had a bunch of them lying around.
Since it is based on Oleg’s USB Host Shield, I was trying to see if I can build a board with just plain Arduino board and Oleg’s USB Host Shield. It turns out it is possible and with the release of Oleg’s second version of the USB Host Library, it is much simpler. Continue reading