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Monthly Archives: February 2012

Android USB host mode + Arduino

Similar to the IOIO board covered a few posts ago, I’ve been seeing several projects lately utilizing USB host mode on Android to communicate with an Arduino.  This is a neat one which is able to send text messages to an LED matrix. It’s got a fail amount of detail and contains both the Android code and the Arduino sketch needed to get it up and running quickly. Here is a more general guide on using your Android device as a USB host, again with an Arduino.

As a bonus, the second link will get you to some how-to’s on USB communication with an Arduino. I’ll include the links here as well:

 
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Posted by on February 25, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

ZigBee Primer

I’ve always wanted to try out a ZigBee in a project, but wasn’t quite sure where to begin. For those in a similar situation who want to learn every tid-bit about the devices, take a gander here. It goes further in depth than needed for someone who just wants to put together a project prototype, but if you really want to see what they’re capable of it can’t be beat.

 
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Posted by on February 24, 2012 in Microcontrollers, Peripherals

 

Parallel Port Communication with Peripheral

Use an old computer for a lab bench or just have one sitting around? Chances are good that if it’s more than a few years old, it’ll have a parallel port on it. If you also run Linux and want to play around with I/O you should take a look at this project. It’ll show you how to hook up a standard 16×2 LCD character screen to your parallel port, create drivers for it, and then control it using redirects to /dev/my_lcd.  Very cool!

 

 
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Posted by on February 24, 2012 in Drivers, LCD, PC, Software

 

Using IOIO and Android to Control LED Matrix

Here‘s a great example on how to use the IOIO board I covered in my previous post.  The user managed to stream video from his phone’s camera to a RGB LED matrix using some open source computer vision software for Android, very cool!  Check out the video of the display in action.

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2012 in Uncategorized