This project consist of an 8×8 LED grid controlled by the Arduino. The result is a particle effect, a particle that bounces around the LED matrix. But the arduino only has 13 outputs, so you can only control 13 LEDs? Well, the author discovered that trough Charlieplexing which is a complicated mode of wiring LED’s you can actually drive more LED’s with fewer outputs.
Arduino LED particle system: [Link]
While this project doesn’t directly take advantage of ambient technology, it does show you a great method for generating a simple color-changing LED that can be integrated into any number of projects. By combining the open-source Arduino microcontroller circuit board with a “smart” LED called BlinkM, you can build a simple mood cube that randomly generates a spectrum of sumptuous colors.
A Smart Ambient LED: [Via]
Want your Arduino to check email? How about sending a twitter (which can then be easily forwarded to a phone via SMS)? Or grabbing data from a website? There are so many possibilites for projects that connect to the Internet to get data, now there’s an easy way to do it with an Arduino.
This shield allows you to add and use an XPort or XPort direct(+) Ethernet module (they cost only US$30-$50) using any 4 pins. All of the TCP/IP stack awfulness is done for you in the module so its super easy to just connect to any server.
Arduino Ethernet (XPort) shield kit: [Link]
The author writes:
I developed this infrared remote control decoder for Arduino on my Arduino-compatible STK500 evaluation board for Atmel’s AVRs. The sketch is pretty much standard C code so porting to non-arduino dev systems is almost immediate.
Infrared remote control receiver for Arduino: [Link]
The author writes:
The brain of the system is really on the arduino or the web page the phone requests. . . The phone just passes any data it sees back and forth. . .For the phone app to run, it needs the URL of a server and the path to a web page. Once that information has been made available by the arduino board, the phone will request that web page anytime it sees a # on its serial port. . . Additionally, any results from the web page requested are sent back to the arduino via the serial port. So, if you just need to request data from the web at a set time frame, the arduino sketch needs only to send a # from time to time and wait for the result. If you need to pass variables to a website, the arduino must pass a string with those variables and end the string with a #.
Arduino mobile processing: [Link]