Weekend Hacker: Motion Activated Squirt Gun

This weekend, why not make a great way to prank your friends by making a motion detecting squirt gun! Let’s jump right in!

Parts You Will Need

01_parts

 

Here are the parts you’ll need to accomplish this project.

  1. Raid Auto Trigger
  2. Glade Sense & Spray
  3. Travel Size Bottle
  4. Wire cutters and wire

Step 1: Disassembling The Air Freshener

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The air freshener has some pretty cool technology. It has a motion detector that activates a release arm whenever it detects motion which sprays the air freshener. What we want to do is take it apart so we can utilize the motion detector to activate the squirt gun. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Unscrew the back of the freshener
  2. Locate the motor that controls the gears and the release arm.
  3. Remove the gears and release arm.
  4. Detach and remove the motor leaving the wires connected to the freshener.

Step 2: Connecting The Automatic Sprayer

 

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The next step is to find a way to connect the automatic sprayer. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Unscrew the side of the automatic sprayer.
  2. Disconnect the motor wires from the battery pack.
  3. Take the wires from the motion detector and connect them to the motor on the automatic sprayer.
  4. If you need to, you can extend the wires using extra wire that you can either buy or use from another device.
  5. You can test the functionality by placing batteries in the motion detector and seeing if it triggers the motor on the automatic sprayer.

Step 3: Putting It All Together

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Now to make it work all together, here are the last few steps:

  1. Add a straw to the pump siphon on the automatic sprayer. You can seal it with hot glue at the top to prevent air leakage.
  2. To add a water source, a small hotel shampoo bottle can be used to fit into the motion detector.
  3. Now you can stack the automatic sprayer on top of the motion detector inserting the straw into bottle to make this a single device.
  4. Adding water to the bottle, put the batteries in and see if it works!

Once it detects motion, it should squirt water out of the top automatically. Now it’s time to prank some friends!

 

 

This week is the National Maker Faire!

TBqarTdlCAAEfh4Dhe Maker movement is taking the nation by storm. It started out in the Bay area of San Francisco, and over the years the movement has migrated to the east coast. And you know it’s a success when the President designates “A Nation Of Makers” and hosts a White House Maker Faire. So from yesterday till next Thursday, the National Maker Faire will be going on showing off cool stuff like robotic giraffes,  the Grow Box, learning Physics with Hot Wheels, making a Presidential Bust using a 3D-scanner, and of course Bill Nye! So be sure to check out makezine.comnationalmakerfaire.com, or whitehouse.com/nationofmakers for more info!

Weekend Hacker: Make A WiFi Repeater

This week, we’ll explore a reasonably easy way to turn an old wifi router into a wireless repeater or bridge using DD-WRT. Let’s jump right in!

Parts You Will Need

  • An old router that supports DD-WRT (find out if your is supported below)
    Untitled-1

Step 1: Connecting To The Router

These steps are general guidelines for setting up DD-WRT on a router, but since there are so many different brands and varieties of routers on the market, your instructions may vary.

  1. The first thing you want to do is connect to your router. This can be done through either wireless or through a wired connection. The preferred way is through a wired connection since it’s more reliable.
  2. You can login to the router interface by typing the routers IP address into your browser of choice. The IP address of the router can be found by opening up a command prompt (Windows) or terminal (Mac/Linux) and typing ipconfig (Windows) or netstat -rn (Mac/Linux) and copying down the Default Gateway value (ex. 192.168.0.1).
  3. After typing that IP address into the address bar of your router, you should see the routers interface. To login, you will need a username and password. If you never created one, then you can probably use the default username/password for your router, which is located either on the bottom of the router or on manufacturers website.

Step 2: Installing the DD-WRT Firmware

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Now that you’re connected to your router, the next step is to replace it’s firmware with the DD-WRT firmware, but first you need to verify that your router is supported.

  1. Check that your router is supported by going to the DD-WRT router database and searching for it.
    • If you don’t see your router listed, you can also check the OpenWRT and Tomato websites. While these alternatives don’t have the same features as DD-WRT, they’ll still allow you to add awesome functionality to your router.
  2. If you see your router, clicking on it will take you to a page where you can download the DD-WRT firmware specific to your router. It should also contain instructions for how to install the firmware. As an example, here’s what my router, an Asus WL-520GU requires.
    • Login to the router interface and go to System Setup > Update firmware.
    • Beside the New Firmware File field, select to upload a new firmware file.
    • Choose the DD-WRT firmware file that you downloaded for this specific router and install it.
  3. Once the DD-WRT firmware is installed, your router should reboot to the new DD-WRT interface.
  4. The first thing it asks you to do is to create a new password. After that, you can move on to the next step.

Step 3: Creating A Repeater

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With DD-WRT installed, here are the steps for turning your router into a repeater.

  1. Select the Wireless tab, and in the wireless mode drop down menu, select Repeater.
  2. In the Wireless Network Name (SSID) field, put the name of the Wireless network that you wish to connect to.
  3. For the Network Configuration, you can select bridged (part of the original network) or unabridged (segregated from the original network)
  4. Click Save to save your settings.
  5. Now you want to click Add to create a new Virtual Interface and enter a new SSID name for your repeater.
  6. Save and apply your settings.
  7. Next, click on the Wireless Security tab and under Physical Interface, enter the password for your primary wireless network.
  8. Under Virtual Interface, enter a password you would like to create for your repeater network.
  9. Save and apply your settings, then click on the Status tab and select the Wireless tab.
  10. Under Wireless Nodes, click the Site Survey button.
  11. Find the wireless network you are intending to connect to and click Join.
  12. Then Save and apply your settings one last time and you are done!

Now you should be able to scan your network using any wireless device and select the SSID of your repeater and connect to it!

Step 4: Creating A Wireless Bridge

Screen Shot 2015-06-07 at 3.37.05 PM

If you’re device doesn’t have wireless capabilities and can only connect via ethernet, then you can also use DD-WRT to create a wireless bridge that can convert the wireless signal back to a physical ethernet connection. It’s a very simple process. If you’ve already followed the steps above, on the Wireless settings page, change the wireless mode from Repeater to Repeater Bridge. Done! Now you have no excuse for not having wireless!

Wearable Wednesday Meeting Tonight @ 6:30!

IMG_0148Have you been playing around with wearable electronics and want to learn more or just bounce ideas off of other like-minded individuals? Or, have you always wanted to try a project with wearables and have no idea where to start?

This once a month meetup is for people interested in wearable/sewable electronics and e-textiles.

Bring a project to show off or talk about or just your general interest and we’ll share ideas or trouble-shoot projects.

Any level of skill and interest is welcome from beginner to advanced!

RSVP here!

 

Windows 10, Arduino and Raspberry Pi

arduino-windows-640x427Microsoft had some incredible announcements for Makers at their Build conference this past week! First off, they announced Windows 10 IOT core insider preview, which is a Windows Internet Of Things platform for Raspberry Pi. This allows Windows Developers to write programs and run them directly on the Raspberry Pi! Secondly, Microsoft has announced a partnership with Arduino. Two features that Microsoft has created for this partnership is the Windows Arduino remote allowing you to program any Arduino from Windows using simply a bluetooth device connected to your Arduino. They also announced the Windows Phone Arduino Shield that lets you use the sensors in any Windows 10 phone for your Arduino projects! Very cool stuff and great news for makers!

Burlington Maker Faire In Pictures

The Burlington Mini Maker Faire was a HUGE success and a TON of fun! The Maker community really came out in full force with awesome crafts, projects, electronics, art and other passions! Here’s just a few pics Darren took of our booth just to give you a piece of how awesome we were! If you want to view more, check out the Splat Space Flickr Pool. Enjoy!