Join the Steel City Makers for the first meeting of Make:PGH at the HackPittsburgh hack space. The meeting is free and open to the public which features a MakerBot 3D printer, mystery activities, and an ioBridge-based, iPhone controlled fighting Domo toy.
“Andy Leer will share with us his experiences using the ioBridge to create fun interactive web enabled dioramas. Find out how with a few minutes and some simple hardware you too can put almost anything on the web.”
Eric Edwards of EJESolar.com created a system that takes solar energy and heats water for his home. He uses Sun Strip Solar panels to heat the water. With a single solar panel Eric is able to heat a 60 gallon tank to temperatures beyond 160°F. He uses the ioBridge IO-204 to data log and actively monitors the water heating system by getting alerts and updates on his mobile phone.
Water Tank and ioBridge IO-204
ioBridge IO-204 with Temperature Sensors
Eric monitors and data logs the temperatures of the the hot water storage tank, the collectors, and the outside temperature in real-time using the ioBridge IO-204 and temperature sensors. This data allows Eric to calculate BTUs collected per day and translate into a dollar figure to track savings. He has surrounded himself with the data to make sure there is no system damage, freezing, etc., by creating a web site to view the data, setting ioBridge message alerts, and using a Google Gadget to display the temperatures collected by the IO-204.
Visit EJESolar.com to see a live view of the data collected by the solar hot water system as well as some more details behind this solar hot water heating system. Ingenious!
Screen Shot of Solar Array and Collected Data (EJESolar.com)
We wanted to take a moment and thank all of our customers, users, developers, and everyone that makes up the ioBridge Community. Our wish to you and yours is that you have a safe and happy holiday season. Enjoy your downtime, friends, and family. See you in the New Year!
Enjoy some projects…
Xmas-Box.com — Interactive Christmas lights sync to music, songs are selected on web site, and if you are local you can listen to the music on your radio as you watch
Pacific Lights -- Control Christmas lights in New Zealand
Serv O’Beer -- Have your iPhone pour a beverage for your New Year’s party
Santa vs. Domo -- Play with some interactive toys on Andy Leer’s blog and let Santa have it
iPhone Controlled Lights -- Control your Christmas lights with a touch of your iPhone using the open ioBridge PHP Proxy
We found out what happens when you place two lovable toys against each other. They attack!
Hack Pittsburgh member Andy Leer created an interactive toy fight featuring Domo and Munny squaring off. You get to control one of the characters and watch the battle via a webcam live. Move over “Internet of Things” - make way for the “Internet of Vengeful Toys”.
Munny vs. Domo
The Munny and Domokun are attached to servos. The servos are connected to the ioBridge servo controller and IO-204. You control the toys with servo slider widgets. Andy’s blog mentions that the next version will have iPhone support. Visit his blog to play and sweep the leg at the Domo Dojo.
Pete from Pete’s Fishcam and TankedCam fame got a great writeup on MoreControl.com. His system uses the ioBridge IO-204 to control and monitor his fish tank from anywhere.
“Designed for the iPhone/iPod (and Mac/PC desktop), the TankedCam app allows you to turn your Atlantis into an aquatic home automation paradise.”
From the “My Electronics Notepad” blog, Noel Portugal created a tracking webcam using passive infrared (PIR) sensors, a webcam mounted on a servo, and the IO-204 monitor and control module.
PIR Sensors, Webcam, and ioBridge IO-204 Module
Noel was able to pull this off with using the ioBridge Actions. An action is logic created through the ioBridge interface that allows automated events to occur. For example, an action can cause a servo to move to preset position, send an email, update your Facebook status, etc. In Noel’s case, he use the output of the PIR sensor to cause the servo to move to a set position. The output of the PIR is digital – “high” means motion detected and “low” means no motion.
Using two PIRs covering two regions, he was able to detect motion in two regions. If motion is sensed in one area, the webcam points in that direction and if motion is detected in the other area, the servo moves the camera to cover the other region. Very clever.
The PIR sensor has been the subject of a recent Adafruit tutorial – it’s available on the Adafruit store and even your local Radio Shack (of all places). For more information about this ioBridge project and other projects Noel dreams up, visit his blog.
Thomas W. Lewis produced two excellent projects to remotely control his HVAC system and monitor his home power usage.
He wanted to turn off his HVAC system completely before leaving for an extended period of time, like going on vacation, and then turn it back on just before he gets to his house. Thomas found the controls wires on the thermostat and uses a relay to turn on or off the thermostat. He made it remote controllable with the ioBridge IO-204 module and control widgets placed on a mobile phone.
HVAC and Thermostat Control with the ioBridge IO-204
In additional to remotely being able to shut down his HVAC system, Thomas also monitors his temperature and whole house power using the analog inputs of the IO-204. He used AC clamps around the house power mains to get a power utilization relative to the current through the wires.
Power Monitoring for the Whole House
More details and photos are available on Thomas’ Smart Grid section of his blog.
OharaRP created a wireless LED scrolling sign that displays messages received from the Internet. The sign uses an array of 8x8 LED modules connected together -- expandable to 16 segments. The LED’s are controlled by a MAX7219 controller board that can receive messages from an Xbee wireless module and is power by 5VDC (using a standard mini-USB plug). The sign has a wireless base station that forwards text and commands towards the sign relayed from Twitter or an ioBridge widget embedded on a website.
In this photo OharaRP sent IOBridge to the sign from his iPhone.
XBee Wireless LED Sign
If you would like to learn more about this project check OharaRP’s blog or watch his very instructional demonstration of his Wireless LED Sign Project on YouTube.
Since Jason’s Fishcam has hit the scene, there have been a few ioBridge-based aquarium monitor and control projects pop up. The fish cam has evolved into interactive displays, temperature monitoring, water level control, fish feeding, tank aeration, Twitter integration, killer gators, and burping frogs. The interface for full control and monitoring of aquariums are using a web browser or iPhone. The systems use the IO-204 Ethernet module to control outputs, lights, X10, and servos and monitor inputs, temperature, and water levels.
Check out Pete’s TankedCAM.com and Kevin’s BurpTheFrog.com for some really awesome interactive aquarium projects with full on Web 2.0 services.
Here is a cool video from TankedCAM demonstrating all of the interactive features.
Who knew when Steve aka “polymythic” posted his ioBridge project using iTurn to pour a real beer that it would get over 100k hits on YouTube and make it into print. Well, if you check out the April 2009 issue of Popular Science you will find Steve’s Serv O’Beer is the “Build of the Month” in the How 2.0 section of the magazine. There’s a photo of the latest version of the system with a sturdier frame made of Contrux and an ioBridge IO-204 to link the iPhone to a web application to drive a servo. You can read all about on Popular Science and learn how to build your own Servo O’Beer at Instructables.
