Keep an eye (er, ear) on your beloved bbies while you are away! This project monitors the volume of sound in your home and if your pet gets too anxious and starts barking or making other loud noises, soothe their sad lil’ soul by turning on music or your own (pre-recorded) voice! This tutorial will…
Secretly change settings for your wearable outfits or use this button as a secret prank trigger! Here’s a quick & easy tutorial on how to build and program a “state change switch.” AKA a button that cycles through different settings. It’s super easy and has tons of practical applications! Read Time: ~ 5 min…
What does a baby elephant weigh?* How much impact force does a jump have?? How can you tell if a rain barrel is full without looking inside??? Answer all these questions and more by building your very own Internet of Things (“IoT”) industrial scale using the SparkFun OpenScale board! This project is intended for…
A survey questionnaire come to life! Use (nearly) any object to gather helpful data through an interactive, engaging, and fun multiple-choice survey. This project uses the Makey Makey microcontroller in combination with a Raspberry Pi computer to read in participants’ survey choices and save the results in a text file. Planning & Design! This…
Build a portable gas monitor to check for dangerous levels of hazardous gases in your home, community, or on the go and prevent your friends from lighting a cigarette during a gasoline fight.* This tutorial shows you how to build a web-connected “canary” monitor for three hazardous gases: Liquid Propane Gas (“LPG”), Methane (aka natural gas),…
Bring science fiction to life with a personalized light-up outfit! EL wire is a delightfully futuristic-looking luminescent wire that has the added benefit of staying cool, making it ideal for wearable projects. Combining sensors and a microcontroller with EL wire allow for a wide range of feedback and control options. This project uses the SparkFun…
Whether it’s to keep Fido (or in my case, Marley) visible on an adventure or as an awesome all-year-round costume, a light up dog harness is an excellent accessory for your favorite pup. EL wire is a great option for wearable lights. It stays cool, is flexible, and comes in lots of different colors. This…
Gardening improves health and quality of life, connecting us to our local environment. Plus, you can eat organic fruits and veggies at very little cost. Alas, remembering to water can sometimes take a backseat to our busy lives. Fortunately, home automation is easier than ever with inexpensive and accessible microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi 2 Model…
Conserving freshwater is one of those seemingly constant struggles, especially with a human population exceeding seven billion. In the United States, between 80 – 90 % of freshwater is consumed by agriculture, making it the perfect industry to implement more efficient ways of using water! Installing a soil moisture sensor is one way to optimize…
Welcome to the wonderful world of controlling physical objects with software! This tutorial is a complete beginners introduction to the Raspberry Pi computer, covering the basic features and functions to help you bring your ideas to life! Blinking a light using the Raspberry Pi’s General Purpose Input and Output (“GPIO”) pins is the hardware equivalent…
