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You can have a lot of fun with remote control toys, and even more fun once you've hacked them to do your bidding. One great example of this is by Instructables member jeneral who took an RC tank, determined how the motors were controlled and then substituted his own control hardware.

This consists of an Arduino, compatible h-bridge circuit to control the motors and a serial Bluetooth module. This allows the Arduino to receive commands in the form of serial text, which are generated by an Android app created with the free MIT App Inventor software. This combination of hardware and software gives full control of the tank to the Android device user, as shown in the following video:

This project is a great demonstration of how to control robotics from a smart phone, so visit the Instructable to learn how. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

 If you're looking into starting with Arduino and robotics, such as controlling your own tank from your Arduino or compatible, check out our HBRIDGE: DC/stepper motor shield. Based around the powerful Allegro A4954 H-bridge driver IC you can control two DC motors with complete ease, or one bipolar stepper motor. With connections for external power management, a complete beginners' guide and documentation - motor control couldn't be any easier. For more information and to order, visit the HBRIDGE: page. 

Many vehicles are fitted with ultrasonic sensors that let you know if you're getting too close to a wall or pedestrian, however the actual distance is not given. For those with a small garage this data can be quite useful when parking is tight, and thus a system has been created by Instructables member checho0180 to do just that.

Their system uses two Arduino-compatible circuits - one uses an ultrasonic distance sensor and a wireless data transmitter to send the distance measured between the wall and car to another circuit which is inside the motor vehicle, and displays the distance on an LCD - for example:

Then the driver can have a real-time display of the remaining distance when parking in a tight spot. For all the details, visit the project Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're bored with the abstraction of C++ that's used to write Arduino sketches, or you're up for a challenge and enjoy learning how things work in a much greater detail then one interesting option is to leearn how to program the microcontroller used in your Arduino or compatible in assembly language.

Although the thought of doing so may seem a little scary, after some reading and thought it really isn't that difficult at all - and thanks to the tutorials published by Instrucables user 1o_o7 you can get started pretty quickly. The example hardware is a minimal Arduino-compatble circuit, and the code is generated using a text editor and command-line uploader - no fancy IDE!

There are two tutorials so far, and with some encouragement the author will continue with the series, so visit their first chapter and give encouragement if you're enjoying them. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

If you're wanting to make your own Arduino-compatible project for the assembly language tutorials, you'll need an ATmega328P MCU:

This is the same Atmel AVR ATmega328P microcontroller used in the official Arduino Uno, as well as our Eleven, EtherTen, USBDroid, and other boards. Perfect for building your own Arduino-compatible project directly on a breadboard or on a custom PCB, or for replacing the MCU in an existing board. Comes with the Arduino Uno bootloader pre-installed. Better still, it even has a special label stuck on top with details of the pinout, so you don't even need to look up the datasheet when connecting it up in your project! For more information and to order, click here!

If you're interested in experimenting with older technology standards such as VT100 terminal emulation, or would prefer a portable unit to display serial text from your Arduino instead of using a connected PC then the following by Martin K. Schröder solves the problem nicely.

Martin has used an inexpensive Arduino-compatible board to receive incoming serial text that can also be encoded with VT100 escape sequences to allow easier formatting of the text on the screen or display used.

This is an interesting combination of the past and also a useful debugging device for portable mircrocontroller applications, so visit Martin's github page to get started. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Making a time-lapse photography controller for a camera with an Arduino isn't anything new, and most circuits can be complex as they either emulate an infra-red remote control or require hacking into an exisiting remote to control it via the Arduino's GPIO pins.

However with some simple thinking you can simply recreate the presence of a human, and this has been demonstrated by Instructables member Switch and Lever whose solution is to simply attach a servo to the side of the camera which can be activated to  physically press the shutter release on the camera. Doing so is simple, and it works. A demonstration is showin in the following video:

Sometimes the simple methods are often the best, so for more information check out the project's Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking to learn how to use an Arduino with servos as well as sensors, LCDs and much more - you can't go past reading a copy of "Arduino Workshop -  A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects” by John Boxall.

Arduino Workshop takes the reader from having zero knowledge about the Arduino platform, electronics and programming and leaves them with the know-how and instructions on everything from blinking an LED, to robotics, wireless data, cellular communications, motor control, sensors, Internet connected systems and more. For more information including a sample chapter and table of contents, visit the book page.

Once could spend a limitless amount of time creating all sorts of fun devices with an Arduino and various parts, however this platform can also be put to some good an interesting use to help those different to ourselves. One example of this has been demonstrated by Instructables member tushar197 who has created a gesture-controlled voice playback device around an Arduino.

How it works is quite simple, an Arduino takes readings from an accelerometer - which have a matching, pre-determined meaning in the form of a basic sign language. Once a gesture is matched, a voice-playback circuit is activated which plays the audio matching the gesture. And thus the sign-language to speech experiment is successful, as shown in the following video:

Another great demonstration of helping others with an Arduino. For more details, check out the project's Instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

After coming across a commercial flip-dot display (as used in destination indicators and other displays that require excellent visibility in direct sunlight) David Henshaw spent considerable time and effort by adding Arduino-powered circuitry to convert the display into a neat clock.

The results are fantastic, and with enough circuitry (including a lot of H-bridge ICs to handle the change of polarity requried for each dot) the Arduino can individually control each dot in the display. This gives the user a great amount of freedom to create visual effects and display more than simple numbers. However as a clock the display is a success, a demonstration of which is shown in the following video:

For more information on "Dottie", visit David's interesting project log. And for more, we're on facebook, twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

The most important part of any clock or timer-based project is the inclusion of an accurate real-time clock IC. Here at Freetronics we have the Maxim DS3232 real-time clock IC module:

Although an Arduino may seem somewhat underpowered compared to a computer, it can still process quite complex mathematic work much faster than you can do so with a calculator. There are also examples of people making their own Arduino-powered caluclators, and with this in mind the following library by github user AnonymousPenguin is of interest.

Based on the work published by Arduino enthusiast Oscar Liang, this new library offers faster methods of calculating common trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine, arc cosine and so on. These sorts of functions will not only be useful for academic work but also have practical uses for navigation, autonomous robots and so on.

You can check out the library and download the code from the github page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking for an Arduino Uno-compatible board to embed into various projects, choose what tens of thousands of others have done and use our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs: 

Thanks to the ease of connecting a large (or small) display to a Raspberry Pi - it can be used to display all sorts of data and look great on the largest of monitors or HDMI-capable televisions. This feature really benefits the following project by Vamsi Krishna, who demonstrates how to connect a SIM900-style GSM module to a Raspberry Pi - and display inbound SMSs.

This would be neat for parties, tracking status data from various GSM-equipped devices or just a neat way for groups of people to read messages if required. The particular GSM module used has a RS232 serial port, so connection with the Pi is with a simple RS-232 to USB cable. Then it's easy for the python software to communicate via serial text (to send AT commands for the GSM module) and so on.

For complete details for this interesting project, visit Vamsi's instructable page. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.