loz's blog » computers

Arduinophone

Jonathan Lozinski — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 18:56:12 +0000

Having just picked up an arduino starter kit (the ARDX kit from oomlout) i had finished working through the example circuits. I played around with writing some custom code to drive some of the circuits in the kit and had a little fun. I now wanted to design my own circuit and code completely, as that’s really what the arduino is for. Hacking up a circuit and some code for the micro-controller to drive it.

It’s note the biggest leap from the simple switch test circuit and the piezo music circuit to construct a stylophone. So that’s what I did. The results can be seen in this youtube video, and for those interested the following circuit diagram should prove helpful in reconstructing such a project with your own arduino:

Circuit Diagram

Finally the actual code for the arduino is pretty simple, and relies on the known tone durations for the piezo from other experiements. The code can be found below. It basically loops over the input pins (2-9) and checks to see if any are LOW (they are all HIGH by default because of the circuit layout). If one is low, it calls a playTone function for the related note. It will play the tone until the corresponding pin registers as HIGH again (i.e the stylus is removed). The LOW signal is produce by the shorting of the circuit to he GROUND pin via the stylus, rather than the input pin.

Enjoy.

The Code:

int tones[] = {1915, 1700, 1519, 1432, 1275, 1136, 1014, 956}; char notes[] = {'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'a', 'b', 'C'}; int speakerPin = 13;

void setup() { for(int i =2; i < 10; i++) { pinMode(i, INPUT); } }

void playnote(int note) { int tone = tones[note-1]; while(digitalRead(note+1) == LOW) { digitalWrite(speakerPin, HIGH); delayMicroseconds(tone); digitalWrite(speakerPin, LOW); delayMicroseconds(tone); } }

void loop() { int note = 0; for(int i=2; i< 10; i++) { if (digitalRead(i) == LOW) { note = i-1; } } if(note > 0) { playnote(note); } }

Introducing Cachepoint

Jonathan Lozinski — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:04:00 +0000

I’m pleased to introduce Cachepoint. It’s my android app for geocaching. It processes pocket queries and then helps to find caches when you’re out and about.

This is my first android app and it’s on the market now (search Cachepoint). Dead pleased, but know that as it’s free the trolls will pan it first…

More details about it on the dedicated Cachepoint page.

Geocaching in the field, phone and all

Jonathan Lozinski — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:01:31 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve written a propper blog post. All this twitter etc means my rants are trickled out over a long time rather than in one big lump.

I’m actually trying to avoid a rant here. Just outlining my thoughts from the past couple of days. Laura and I had a short break in the lakes to go geocaching, and we racked up a total of 21 caches, which was awesome. We were using my own geocaching application on my android phone. We’re being guinnea pigs for it, and I even wrote a quick change at the hotel on the morning of the 2nd day.

It occurs to me, that even with testing, for phone apps which use GPS and other tech which is increasingly available in smart phones, you can’t find all the issues. It’s only when we were out and about (and on previous occasions) were we able to spot things which made life easier.

I’m pleased to say that the core functionality is there. I just need to implement the built in navigation elements (I’m using an external one at present) and fully implement preferences and a couple of other bits of polish and I can release it in the Android Market.

I wonder if when developing these sorts of things for work, which I am begining to be doing, whether they’d be happy for me to tramp about the hills in order to test fully what we’re developing. Probably not, but i reckon there’s little other way you’re able to properly test this sort of location and mobile net based work.

All in all, Laura and I had a very restful time, even if we were walking up hills and dales.

I Is Da Famous?

Jonathan Lozinski — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:30:06 +0000

Website aims for TV award | Commercial Creative | North East business news.

News article for one of our projects, going in for an award. The Wii fit really does seems to have paid off.. Not chubby around the face at all.. Awesome.. Plus be nice if we win the award..

Linux Media Center Edition

Jonathan Lozinski — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:47:03 +0000

How to Install Linux Media Center Edition step by step. | 14 bits

This long video shows how to setup Linux MCE.. This is really coming together. There’s some rough edges in the appearance. But this is way scalable. This might be the fate of the lappy some time soon, given its small size and TV out capability…

Sign This, Stop Phorm

Jonathan Lozinski — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:49:30 +0000

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

This is a government petition to stop phorm in it’s tracks. If you don’t know what phorm is, it’s your ISP allowing an advertising company (phorm) to scan ALL the web activity you make from your home computer and then target you with adverts based on what you look at on the web. Imagine that instead of just getting junk mail in the post they also read all mail you both recieve and send to/from any person on earth and then they target you futher with junk mail based on what they read in your private mail. THAT’S PHORM.

Virgin Media
BT
Carphone Warehouse (talk talk)

are all looking into doing this and there’s more to follow. This is actually likely to break the law in terms of intercept (you must have the permission in law to intercept email from both parties, i.e. you AND any website you visit).

Some good examples of where this can lead to issues even if you’re not that bothered about privacy were on lug radio this week:

You’re looking to buy a nice anniversary present for your wife and google lots of nice things like diamond rings or carribean holidays. Your wife then visits some websites and gets loads of really spefic ads to things you’re considering which blow the suprise. A small issue, but will be quite important to people if it happens.
You’re communicating online about a deeply personal issue, say a medial problem, through a forum or maybe even webmail. Then you’re now bombarded with adverts about your very personal problem, not very sensative. OK, so if you’ve got errectile disfunction then there’s already tonnes of viagra ads, but still..

This is very very bad, my data is mine. Get off it Virgin..

Screw That

Jonathan Lozinski — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:58:00 +0000

BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft offers to acquire Yahoo

If this happens, Microsoft will be further towards controlling the web. This would be catastrophic news for anyone who uses Yahoo services, like me and Yahoo Mail, and any FLIKR users. Bad Bad Bad. I hope someone stamps this on the head and anti-competative, because this is VERY VERY Bad.

Getting Silly

Jonathan Lozinski — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:00:47 +0000

This article shows how mental TV/DVD size is going to get.

Kids are cute

Jonathan Lozinski — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:51:34 +0000

This New Scientist article about toddlers interacting with sony’s adorable QRIO robot shows just how cute kids are..

Lego Star Wars

Jonathan Lozinski — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:34:10 +0000

I have ordered it! Yes that’s right, I have pre-ordered Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Wii. My remote will be my light-saber. My birthday money will be going towards this and it should arrive from game.co.uk on the day of release. Yeah!

Also thanks to Quidco, an online co-operative, I get 11% cashback for doing nothing but clicking on their account to go through to game.co.uk. You should check it out, there’s squillions of online retailers they’re registered with, and you get cashback for things you’re buying anyway. Very nice. All Quidco do is charge £5 a year if and only if you’ve earned more than £5 in a year through cashback. Very good..