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#Martians

Martians is a fun project teaching how to make wireless animated communication devices.

Video of Martian's in action. Click the image to view the video:

IMAGE ALT TEXT HERE

[email protected] Martians is a free GPL open source project. See LICENSE for details.

Martians teaches:

  • Wireless communication
  • GPS location tracking
  • Magnetometer (compass) tracking
  • Data Serialization
  • Real-time and multi-tasking software engineering
  • 8-bit processor environments (Arduino)
  • Battery operated and portable environments
  • LED display technology

Instructions:

  1. Buy the components. See below for a parts list. Cost in 2019 was less than $100 USD.
  2. Wire the components. Follow the Wiring Guide.
  3. Install the needed libraries to documents/arduino/libraries. See the list below.
  4. Create a new Arduino IDE sketch/Project
  5. Set the radioNumber value for the first Martian to 0, the second Martian to 1
  6. Compile MartiansAtMakerFaire2019.ino in Arduino IDE and upload to the Mega board
  7. Repeat 5-6 for the second Martian
  8. Have fun with your Martians

Jim Henson’s Muppets work on Sesame Street inspired this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ

I brought the Martians to the Maker Faire, San Mateo, California. May 17 to 19, 2019. http://makerfaire.com

Video of Martian's in action: https://youtu.be/dwj0wr4Axek

Martians is a free GPL open source project. Find all code, wiring, components, and everything else at: https://github.com/frankcohen/Martians

See Martians Wiring Guide 2019.pdf for wiring instructions.

Martians uses the following components (parts): TMRh20/RF24 wireless radios, https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/ Neo7 GPS board, https://www.ebay.com/i/273760042170?chn=ps Magnetometer, https://learn.adafruit.com/lsm303-accelerometer-slash-compass-breakout/coding WS2812b LED strip, http://bit.ly/2W06RPd Arduino Mega

Software libraries: TinyGPS+ - object library for working with GPS data Adafruit_Sensor and Adafruit_LSM303_U to read compass and accelerometer ArduinoJson - serialize and deserialize data between Martians FastLED - drives LED display

Plastic housing found at IKEA. SOLVINDEN solar powered table light, $15 https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40422098/

-Frank Cohen, May 16, 2019

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Maker project to teach wireless communication

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