Month: October 2013

RFID Door Lock DIY

vladpetrescuLeave a comment

For this project you will need:

  • Arduino board (25 €)
  • RFID Reader (ID-20/ID-12) (24 €)
  • RFID Adaptor (20 €)
  • RFID Tag (1 €)

Total costs: 70 €

Instructions:

  1. Mount the RFID reader into the adaptor socket
  2. Install PuTTY on your computer
  3. Connect the sensor to your computer through a USB cable
  4. Scan the tag and you should see a unique code displayed on the terminal, such as: 2500ABF31C58. This is the tag’s identification code. You use PuTTY to find out what code does the tag has in order to use it on your algorithm
  5. Connect the adaptor (including the sensor which is already connected) to the Arduino board specifing the following diagram
    RFID Arduino
    1. Tx D.P. 2
    2. Rx D.P. 3
    3.
    4. GND GND
    5. +5V(DC) +5V
  6. Upload this code to Arduino board
  7. Connect your relay switch (5 V) to Pin 7 (digital) in order to command your door lock or a led when the tag is scanned.

id-12

(source: http://bildr.org/2011/02/rfid-arduino)

Bucharest City Marathon 2013

vladpetrescuLeave a comment

A few days ago, I decided to take part in one of the biggest sport competitions held in our country. Being used to short distances and running 6 km per day (2 days per week in extra-season), I jumped in to overcome my limits. Until now, the longest running race I finished was the Triathlon Challenge Mamaia 2012 where I had to run 15 km.

photo(3)

Today, I finished the Half Marathon (21 km) in 1:55 minutes. The weather was good, so the conditions to beat my record were appropriate. In the first 10 km I ran with an average of 15 km/h, whereas in the second part of the race I had an average of 8.8 km/h as I had no experience of how to maintain my energy level constant for such an effort.

I drank a coffee and a magnesium pill before the race, during it I drank 1 litre of water and by the end of the race I had 2 kilograms less.

This was a unique opportunity for me to develop my resistance to effort. I will train more for the next year in order to participate to the marathon (42 km) and finish in less than 3:30.

Pan & Tilt DIY

vladpetrescu2 Comments

 

For this project you will need:

  • Arduino board (25 €)
  • Wii nunchuck (18 €)
  • 2 servos (3.5 € each)

Total costs: 50 €

You should connect the first servo to Pin 7 (digital) and the other one to Pin 6 (digital), the + and – should pe connected in series to Vcc (5 V) and GND respectively.

The algorithm for Arduino is posted here.

bpt01

(source: http://www.robotshop.com/ca//ProductInfo.aspx?pc=rb-lyn-74)