Arduino Final Projects

I started using Arduino, an open source electronics platform in my one semester electronics course. Arduino incorporates a microcontroller (mini computer) and allows for a lot of really cool options. Last semester was the first semester I used Arduino with the whole class. It went fairly well.

All students were required to create a final project. I gave them the option of working with a partner with the caveat that when they presented their final project I would get to decided which of the two of them would have to answer my questions.

Their projects included not only the circuitry and programming, but students also had to physically build the device. This ended up being a really good project. Even if they chose to build upon a project they found on the net they had to tinker with it to make it do what they wanted it to do.

Once completed, students had to write up and present their projects on Google Sites. If you're interested you can go to the class site to find descriptions, pictures and Arduino code. Below is a video created by a pair of my students who used an old remote controlled car as the chassis for an autonomous Arduino controlled robot.

Fun with Web Cameras

Now I assume you know you can use web cameras for the usual, Skype, Google Talk, streaming video of your classroom to the net. I also know I've shared directions on how to modify a web cam to see in the near infrared part of the spectrum. But did you know you can use a webcam as a radiation detector?

Over at Inventgeek.com they have modified a webcam to visualize alpha particles. It looks really easy. Basically all you need to do is pull the lens and put an alpha source close to the CCD. The CCD is the bit that collects the light in a digital camera. You also need to cover it all up so that no light gets in. Apparently (or predictably) when an alpha particle slams into the CCD it results in the computer seeing a flash of light. I assume this will damage the webcam and that over time you'd see a degradation of image quality if you turn it back into a regular webcam again.

Arguably some of the flashes are undoubtedly the result of other factors, like cosmic rays, but you could always do a control study first to observe the flash rate without the radioactive source. Oh, I forgot to mention, he used Americium 241 from a smoke detector for his radioactive source.