The Waveonoi is a light installation, first featured in the Amsterdam Light Festival as part of a larger piece called From Twente with Love.

The project was a collaboration between six students (Edo de Wolf, Jorik Ordelmans, Han de Jong, Lubo Andreev, Wouter Deenik and Emiel Harmsen) from the DesignLab at the University of Twente, as well as the Twentse Ambassade and artist Randy van Lingen.

Initially using eight panels of LEDs and a Teensy 3.6, the piece used a Voronoi pattern to depict a wave rising up from the canal. Visitors could touch the inside of the wave, triggering a beam of “love” that traveled through the wave to sculptures behind, which blew kisses to the boats on the canal. Emil and Wouter have written about their contributions.

One of the panels was upgraded by Emil with a Teensy 4.0 which increased its frame rate from 40 FPS to 140 FPS. The Voronoi pattern is created by 1761 LEDs supported by the OctoWS2811 LED library.

You can also check out this post by Paul from PJRC on the Teensy Forums for more details. Video below.

This Digital HD Radio is a sleek AM/FM radio from PJRC forum user roomtek that runs both HD Radio and RDS (Radio Data System) protocols.

While using the Digital HD Radio, the IPS display shows album art and station logos. It allows for stereo recording and digital audio over USB connection, with a PCM5122 DAC, Teensy 3.6 and inbuilt alarm clock. On the forum post linked above, roomtek shares current and planned features of the radio, along with technical details and the the below board layout.

SchmickBike is a 3-part motorcycle monitoring system posted by forum user thebigg consisting of a controller, a display, and an app that allow the user to observe real-time data relevant to their ride.

SchmickBike’s 3D-printed controller houses a custom PCB, CANbus transceiver, GPS and Bluetooth modules, power management, and connectors.  The connectors extend to external sensors including an IMU, ultrasonic distance sensors capable of measuring the suspension compression, and a tire temperature monitor. It connects to the bike’s CANbus, fuel injectors and power.

The controller also connects to a 5″ LCD display in a weather resistant enclosure which can be mounted to the handlebars. The automatically-dimming display (determined by an embedded ambient light sensor) has twenty different screens full of useful data including real-time fuel consumption calculators, GPS and sensor results, as well as setup and configuration screens. It has an ambient temperature sensor and configurable status RGB LED alongside options for user inputs such as a handlebar-mounted joystick or buttons.

Driving both display and controller is a Teensy 3.5. According to the creator, the code currently occupies just under 50% of the available flash even with all options enabled.

Thebigg has even created an optional Android app capable of receiving a continuous stream of data from the controller via Bluetooth. The app not only displays the data but uploads it to the cloud so you can keep a record of your data from every ride. It can even transmit portions of text messages to the controller so the driver can decide whether or not it’s time to pull over. Useful stuff!

Less than a week after the release of the Teensy 4.1, developer Jean-Marc Harvengt used it to create a miniature Amiga Emulator running at full speed.

For control input, Jean-Marc created a simple keypad made up of a selection of buttons and a joystick attached to a circuit board. In the video below, you can see Jean-Marc play a variety of classic games from Gauntlet to Xenon using an attached ILI9341 TFT 2.8″ display.

The games are loaded on to the Teensy’s onboard microSD card and accessed via a file list. A recent development which Jean-Marc posted to Github provides HDD support and improved sound.

The Amiga family of personal computers, introduced in the mid-80s, provided a leap in graphics and sound capabilities over previous 8-bit systems. Jean-Marc’s Amiga Emulator is a UAE, or an emulator which allows users to emulate Amiga systems. The “U” in UAE stands for “Unix” but was also jokingly said to stand for  “unusable” in its early development years due to the system’s inability to boot. Jean-Marc’s emulator, on the other hand, is delightfully usable and, for those who are keen to try, Marc has provided his source code and instructions.

French digital-analog musician Emmanuel Presselin has created a synthesizer capable of taking in acoustic notes from instruments, keys, or vocals using an attached microphone and translating them into waves.

The synthesizer–which he calls the Wooblizer–uses a Teensy 3.6 and the Teensy audio library’s Yin algorithm to translate sound input into frequencies then apply the synth’s three oscillators and effects. Using the synth’s control panel shown below, users can EQ and filter the input, manipulate the envelope, or add LFO among other options. As Presselin explains in his post to our forum, the synth works best for treble instruments like flutes, violins and trumpets but not as well with low pitch instruments due to some latency he is still hoping to address in future versions of the project. Presselin shared the source code for the project to the forum for anyone who is interested in testing it out. Presselin demonstrates the synth in action in the following video using live input from a guitar and a flute.

Foone Turing is a Python programmer from California who likes to make strange and wonderful USB keyboards in his spare time.

In a recent project posted to Twitter, Foone used one button, one knob, an 8-segment display  and a Teensy to make an extremely minimal and inefficient approach to keyboard user interface design.

Foone’s single-knob keyboard uses a potentiometer to select ASCII characters based on degrees and an enter button to select the character. The selection is visualized in an 8-segment display  and all components are driven by a Teensy LC. In the video below, Foone writes his first “hello world” for the project with a post to Twitter.

A little while ago I threatened to make a keyboard based on a knob that you turn to select the letter, and a button to enter that letter.

And now I have built it! pic.twitter.com/AToxvqkfXq

— foone (@Foone) December 20, 2019

Foone further demonstrates his design at work in a recorded game of Zork, but cautions that it may not be the most ergonomic of products saying, “I recorded 5 minutes of it and now my hand hurts.” Some Twitter users pointed out that the design is reminiscent of the iPod click wheel designed by Apple in 1998 and used in the iPod Classic and the iPod Shuffle.

Aside from this design, Foone has made many unusual keyboards including one which has faux fur in lieu of keys and another which uses 7 switches and a button to allow users to select alphanumeric characters by inputting binary. Foone’s keyboard designs, which you can explore more of on his website, are a playful exploration of human computer interaction and user experience that makers and designers alike can delight in.

Sacramento-based Peregrine Developments has engineered a flight computer called the Randall FC using the Teensy 4.1.

Although rocket design has roots going back to thirteenth century China, modern model rockets have been a source of fascination for hobbyists and professionals alike since the 1950s. Early model rockets consisted of a simple 3″ motor built from a nozzle, case, propellant, delay charge, ejection charge and an end cap that amounted to a single-use engine. Today, model rockets can include complex assemblies such as onboard computer systems that allow users to steer and control rockets with great precision.

The system, which was designed for 74mm airframes, provides for the control of two 9g servo motors and two 4-amp pyro channels to control the flight of thrust vectoring-enabled model rockets. The system also has a system of onboard sensors for measuring orientation, acceleration, humidity, pressure, and temperature as well as four spare I/O connectors available for use. You can read more about the project and see the schematic and PCB layout on Google Docs.

Shane Wighton, the designer behind the well-known basketball hoop that won’t let you miss, has created a system for obstacle detection that uses the new iPad’s built-in LIDAR scanner.

The LIDAR system works by taking regular readings of a room by sending out tiny pulses of light at targets and measuring the time it takes to return a reflection. In this way, a scan can be taken of an entire room to accurately determine the location of objects and obstructions.

Wighton used the technology to make an app which not only harnesses data from the LIDAR scans at regular intervals but visualizes the data as an augmented reality overlay color coded to show the relative distance of objects. When paired with a custom 3D-printed tactile interface that attaches to the back of the iPad, the data can be translated through a mechanism that depresses or exposes a set of pins as an indicator of obstacle presence. In a video posted to YouTube, Wighton discusses his design process including how he decided to use the iPad’s LIDAR system and how he built the tactile feedback mechanism which uses two stepper motors driven by a Teensy 3.6. He also discusses the parts of the project he feels could be improved as well as his hopes for future iterations, especially if LIDAR were to be released for the iPhone. You can view Wighton’s other projects on his website and his YouTube channel Stuff Made Here.

 

Instrument maker and artist Greg Francke recently shared a project on Hackaday that uses binaural recording in combination with the Teensy audio library to produce a six channel wave synthesizer capable of generating “complex aural soundscapes.”

Binaural recording is a process that makes use of two microphones strategically located to create a 3-D stereo experience for the listener that replicates the experience of being in a room with a live sound performance.

The project features a TFT display GUI showing options for sound manipulation that include modulation frequency, waveform, duty cycle, center frequency, beat frequency, beat waveform, and beat duty cycle.

In his project posting on Hackaday, Francke mentions that his original plan for the synth was to use analog potentiometers for control but found that noise levels were too high leading him to scrap this feature.

Francke’s blog includes many other projects which explore everything from J.G. Ballard-inspired robots to USB-powered “Tesla Stress Relief” devices.

 

 

 

Few people are able to distinguish between a flu and a cold based on symptoms alone, but what if a device could do it for you? F°LUEX is an automated medical diagnostics device that uses the Teensy 3.2.

Designed by engineer and actual rocket scientist M. Bindhammer, F°LUEX is an automated medical diagnostics device that incorporates a medical-grade MLX90614 infrared thermometer to read human body temperature with an accuracy of ±0.2˚C. Following the reading, the patient is asked a series of questions displayed on an OLED screen about their symptoms. Based on their temperature reading and the patient’s responses which are input using the device’s controls, the thermometer is able to distinguish cold from flu within a certain probability based upon the same Bayesian statistic analysis process that is frequently used among modern medical practitioners. The device is powered by two 1.5 V AA alkaline batteries and all electronics including display, inputs (soft power switch and miniature joystick), and sensor are driven by a Teensy 3.2.

M. Bindhammer created the project to support his 8 year old daughter who frequently contracts the flu and whose pediatrician is often unavailable on the weekends when she usually becomes ill. In his design, he strove to use only a few easy-to-obtain components in combination with a 3D printed case so that others could replicate the project at home. The project is a winner of a 2020 Hackaday Prize and the full project description can be viewed on Hackaday.