Saving the Nexus

Not a project per say but my phone had ended up spinning around in the washing machine for a few minutes and I needed it saved. I tried a method recommended by friends, keeping it in rice for a few days.


Unfortunately that didn't work so I decided to take matters into my own hands and open it up. I opened everything, used nail polish remover to clean some dirty parts and finally used a hair dryer to get everything dry.

There are some marks visible against white, but I believe that is just water under the screen that will eventually dry out.

2 Wheel Self Balancing Robot - Robot body

So there are three general components to this project:

1) Electronics hardware

2) Robot body

3) PID

4) Code  (other than PID)

I will be making more posts going into details about topics (1) (3) and (4).

For this post I will speak about the easiest part, part (2).

So by this point I had tested everything individually. Had to put it together then start tuning the PID. 

Got a battery holder from Sim Lim tower that could hold up to 8 * AA batteries. Thats a grand total of 12 possible Volts. 

I used solder to complete the circuit, since I was using less than the maximum number of batteries. 

Had ran out of wire so I just used jumper cable everywhere.

 Because I refused to pay $30 for the robot body kit, I had to improvise and build a body from things I had lying around. The major contributors were foam, zip ties and blue-tack. 

The final product.

This made me realize how much resources are at our disposal all around us; we just need to use our creativity. That's the reason why I classified this process as a major section of the project, although it was done in just a few hours. Currently I took this apart so that I could savage the foam and Arduino for other purposes, but I think over the summer I will revive it with a better body. Will take a video then and upload it.

Arduino based webcam face tracker

So for this project I used processing, openCV, Arduino and an old webcam.

The Arduino code is from Adafruit and the processing code is written by me and (soon to be) hosted on my Github. For the code, skip to the end. 

 

I decided to used my (10+ years?) old webcam.

 

The base was very heavy so I decided to remove it. Then I decided to open it up as I was curious to how its inside looked. 

 

This is how it looked like on the inside. The round black rubber thing makes sure light is tunneled though to the lens and does not get in from angles. 

 

As the rubber cover was in place due to pressure, and the pressure was removed, I tired to fashion another cover out of things on my table. What worked in the end was foam (as usual). 

Managed to get the code working with an external camera device.

 

While I had a servo(on the left), I wanted to make it work on two axis so I purchased another one and also a First Person View(FPV) cradle.

 

 

Honestly the cradle was hard to put together as it did not come with instructions and I had to figure out how to assemble it on my own. And to make matters worse, I was not provided with the correct arm size(the white thing). Cutting its length was fine but the width was very troublesome.  

 And tad-da! The final product! 

I took a video demo of it. One video of the webcam face tracker in motion and another screen recording. However the screen recording was not captured properly. Hence I cannot upload those videos. 

About the code:

So initially I took two files from Adafruit. One was for the Arduino and the other was for processing. 

While the Arduino code worked well, the processing one was broken. It was based on a library that could not be found anywhere on the net. 

I then took a look at some of the openCV examples. Based off the examples, I managed to put together some code that did the trick. I will be uploading it on Github soon and will update this post with the link.

Scipt to automatically check kickstarter (pebble time)

So I backed Pebble Time ($179 slot) but today morning in the train I read on Facebook that some people had managed to switch to the lower $159 bracket due to drop outs.

Since I could not keep refreshing the page, I wrote a script to help me check for vacancy. It is hosted here:
https://github.com/Ashwani001/kickstarter-scripts/blob/master/kick-checker.py
 Missed a few chances but managed to change on the 4th or 5th chance. Saved myself about SGD30 and it was the first time I wrote a mining(? not sure what to call this)  script for application.

Ok so the how to, for non coders: 
(1) Download the file (kick-checker.py)
(2) Open a terminal (command promt)
(3) Navigate to the file
(4) type 'python kick-checker.py'
(5) Now just push the terminal into a corner and you can carry on with other work, with your eyes having to glance at it once in awhile
(if you are unfamiliar with navigating or do not have python, feel free to ask in the comments. as always, google it first though.)

I know this is not ideal. I think it would be much more helpful if it could play sounds.
Perhaps someone can help me update it to play a sound when there is a vacancy, or to even automate the whole process. Else I will look into it the next time I am backing a project.

PiCade V1

So my PiCade project has been on hold for one whole sem now. I can't remember why. My club. Open Source Society, was invited to take part in CEC so all of us had to display a project. I thought it would be a good time to get this running.

So I installed RetroPie again. I then soldered ( I had borrow my friend's kit, so I could do it in my room) all the wires to the buttons. The joystick I had done long back. 

I then proceeded to my TV lounge to test it, since my monitor does not have HDMI input. However the Pi could not turn on, due to it not having enough power. I came back to the room and plugged it in, it turned on fine and I could ssh in. Since I did not have any alternative power supply or monitor I tested it no more that night.

I went home the next day and tested it again, it switched on. Now this part is where I had the most trouble, getting the joystick to be recognized.  I had to try a lot of drivers, none worked. In the end the first one I had installed, from Adafruit worked. Turned out I had just named  a folder wrongly. That got it to be recognized by EmulationSation but to get Snes to recognize it I had to download a python script that ran in the background which made the GPIO inputs appear like a keyboard. I found it online, I will post an update soon with all links.

Next I went to work on the holding station. I found this box to be perfect as it had a display at the front, from which people would be able to see the internals.

 It was a nice fit!

 I decided to put the buttons in foam then fit the foam onto the box.
It was a nice and tight fit!

But damn sadly the foam broke for the last button. And cutting metal accurately was quite hard anyways...So

 I created this little beauty! There is a small flap at the back for the wires to come out from.
 The pi can be placed inside while being carried around and when on display/being used it can sit outside.

 Here is a short clip of it in action.

Some photos of the booth, including projects by other members of NTUOSS:

 

NTUOSS: https://www.facebook.com/ntuoss

PiCade 2.0

Will there be a PiCade 2.0? Yes definitely!

This time it will be powered by Pi2 and will be hosted in a proper cabinet for the entire system! I will probably do this in June or July.

The Dragon Inscriber

For one of my specialization courses, Robotics, we had a group project in which we were given a kit, Robix, and asked to build something.

Out group built a simple arm and tasked it to write Chinese characters. All the programming was done by the software we downloaded from the official website.

Due to the software, we were spared reverse kinematics calculations.

A short clip of it in motion.

Summary of Nao

A photo I took for the Graduation book (2014)

While I was with Team Nanyang (Robocup) I got exposed to Ubuntu and Python, learnt how to use Terminal to run scripts and transfer files and also learnt how to use Choregraphe, a software made for the Nao Robot. While the team disassembled before we could work on the soccer aspect, we did put together a dance for EEE night.

Enjoy the video!

Durian Kong

Last semester I had a semester long project with 7 other randomly selected students. After much brainstorming we settled on an idea of Durian Opener.

My part in the project included using SolidWorks to come up with some parts of the device, lasing with the technicians as well as coming up with the poster. Initially the poster was supposed to be done by another group member but because she got into an accident I took over with 2 days left to the deadline. I'm quite proud of the posters as I had no prior knowledge of Photoshop and got it done in two days by using resources such as YouTube.

The device could not be manufactured in school due to it's complexity so we outsourced the manufacturing portion to China.

Here are some photos of the complete device and the poster as well.

Fruit of our labor!

Before the test

Successful test!

 



The two posters and the product are currently on display in the engineering library at NTU!

Post Hackathon

The Code Extreme Hackathon is over. Was a very good experience. The only problem was that I was very tired from reservist. Think I might have slept the most.
My group made an eBasket.

Got a chance to test most of the things I bought the other time. All work well.

Fruit Tree SG

In June 2014 I took a course called Open Source Technologies during special semester. I had to do a project for it in which I decided to make an app. Everyone else decided to use Arduino for their projects. As I already had experience with Arduino, to make the project more challenging, I decided to try something new. Thus I decided to make an Android app. Fruit Tree SG is the name of the app I created.

Prior to this I knew C and C++ so Java was not very alien. I used online resources such as Youtube, Github, Stack Overflow and Google to get the project done in a couple of weeks. From having zero knowledge of app development to publishing a fully working app; I can say this project really levelled me up!

The purpose of the app is to engage citizens to help map the fruiting trees of Singapore.
However the bigger picture is that the source code can be easily modified to suit any crowded source data collection projects. For example citizens submitting mosquito breeding areas. Backpackers logging their progress for their families to follow.

 

 












It might be simple but I am proud of it!

The app is not perfect yet. I am on the look out for people to join in on the project.

Future development:
-Finding an alternative place to host the data
-Allowing users to upload photos with the markers
-Implementing a reporting system for bugs or wrongly planted markers
-Adding a marker which allows users to mark fruits which are not present in the menu and state their name