Skittish Feather

This piece consists of a proximity sensing feather which abruptly retracts into its box when a fleshy appendage gets too close.

I used this as a platform to explore humanizing mechanisms in mechanical systems as well as the capabilities of capacitive sensing. As such, I spent very little time on aesthetic and craft considerations and spent several long hours debugging and becoming comfortable with the CapSense library.
. The documentation was a little on the vague side in terms of actual performance and installation practices. Since presenting in class, I have learned that the presence of actual earth groundingdrastically improves the quality of the returned data. Various pins on the Arduino have vastly different ranges and responses, for which there is no documentation. A millimeter shift of wires can lead to enormous fluctuations in returned values. Ideally, all of the circuitry for this application would be done with immobile solid core wire.
The performance of Capacitive sensing on the Teensy 3.0 is much more stable and easier to implement. Unfortunately, hurricanes have put these boards in short supply.

[flickr video=8148331704 secret=135129d4b8 w=400 h=225]

//Thiers
#include 
#include 

CapSense cs = CapSense(2,13);  //RESISTOR, ANTENNA   //White,   yellow
Servo myservo;

//Mine

const int inDeg = 0;
const int outDeg = 60;

boolean out = true;
boolean touchClean = false;
boolean touch = false;
boolean lastTouch = false;
int pos;
long limit = 100;//set with a pot later
long reading;
long lastDebounceTime = 0;  // the last time the output pin was toggled
long debounceDelay = 111;    // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers


void setup()                    
{
  cs.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF);     // turn off autocalibrate??
  Serial.begin(9600);
  myservo.attach(9);
  // cs.set_CS_Timeout_Millis(800);
}

void loop()                    
{
  limit=map(analogRead(0),0,1023,50,500);

 reading =  cs.capSense(40);

  /////// DeBugeRy //////

  Serial.print("Reading: ");
  Serial.print(reading);
  Serial.print("\t Pos: ");
  Serial.print(pos);
  Serial.print("\t limit: ");
  Serial.print(limit);
  Serial.print("\t Out: ");
  Serial.print(out);
  Serial.print("\t touchClean: ");
  Serial.print(touchClean);
  Serial.print("\t Touch: ");
  Serial.println(touch);
  //Serial saver delay
  delay(20);

  ////////InPuts  //////
if(out = true){
  if(reading>limit){
    touch = true;
  }
  else{ 
    touch = false;
  }
}

if (out = false){

    touch = false;
  }

  /// + Filtering + Debounce style ///////
  if (touch != lastTouch) {
    lastDebounceTime = millis();
  } 
  if ((millis() - lastDebounceTime) > debounceDelay) {
    touchClean = touch;
  }
  lastTouch = touch;


  //////Make the thwo connect///////
  if(touch){
    in();
    //out = false;

  }
  else {
    delay(100);
    outSlow();
    Serial.println("It's Out Now!");
  }

}
/////////// OuTpUtz /////////////

void in(){
  out = false;
  pos = inDeg;
  myservo.write(pos);
}



void outSlow(){
  Serial.print("outSlow Called!");

  while (pos<outDeg){
    pos = pos + 1;
    delay(22);
    myservo.write(pos);
    Serial.print(" * ");
  }
  Serial.println();
  out = true;

}

Description
My project was the coffin box that was activated when the lid was opened! A photoresistor inside detected the increased light levels and turned on three pulsing LEDs, a randomly jittering servo motor, and a continuously spinning gear motor.
I had two little skeleton toys and chains attached to the servo that would jiggle around when it moved, and there were two plastic spiders on the gear motor that circled each other on a web. The LEDs were diffused by the gauze spiderweb and two little ghost cutouts were entangled in it.

Picture

Fritzing

Video

Code

int led[] = {
  3,5,6}; 
int brightnessArray[] = {
  0,0,0};  
int fadeAmountArray[] = {
  5,3,8};

int prevSecond = 0; 

#include 
Servo servo;

const int sensorPin = 0;
int lightLevel, high = 0, low = 1023;

const int motorPin = 11;

void setup()  { 
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);

  servo.attach(9);
  Serial.begin(9600);

  int i;
  for (i=0; i<=2; i++){
    pinMode(led[i], OUTPUT);
  }
} 

void loop()  { 
  lightLevel = analogRead(sensorPin);
  lightLevel = map(lightLevel, 400, 900, 0, 255);
  lightLevel = constrain(lightLevel, 0, 255);
  Serial.println( lightLevel); 

  if (lightLevel<=125){
    for (int i=0; i<=2; i++){
      int magic[] = {
        (int) (128 + 127 * sin (millis()/400.0)), (int) (128 + 127 * sin (millis()/700.0)), (int) (128 + 127 * sin (millis()/1000.0))                  };
      analogWrite(led[i], magic[i]); 
      delay(1); 
    }

    int currSecond = millis()/600;
    if (currSecond != prevSecond){
      Serial.println( "Do something trigger!"); 
      int position; 
      position = random(180);
      servo.write(position);
    }
    prevSecond = currSecond; // last thing to do 

    analogWrite(motorPin, 100);
  }

  else{
    for(int i=0; i<=2; i++){
      analogWrite(led[i], LOW);
    }
  }
}

No fading

int ledPins[] = {2,3,4,5,6,7, 8, 9};

void setup()
{
  int index;
  for(index = 0; index <= 7; index++)
  {
    pinMode(ledPins[index],OUTPUT);
  }
}

void loop() {
  int index;
  int delayTime = 50; 

  for(index = 7; index >= 0; index--)
  {
    digitalWrite(ledPins[index], HIGH);
    delay(delayTime);
    digitalWrite(ledPins[index], LOW);
  }  
}

Fading

int ledPins[] = {3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11};

void setup()
{
  int index;
  for(index = 0; index <= 7; index++)
  {
    pinMode(ledPins[index],OUTPUT);
  }
}

void loop() {
  int index;
  int delayTime = 1; 
  int delayTime2 = 100; 
  for(int fadeValue = 255 ; fadeValue > 0; fadeValue -=5) {  
      analogWrite(ledPins[index], fadeValue);            
      delay(5);                            
    }    
  }

  for(index = 5; index >= 0; index--)
    for(int fadeValue = 255 ; fadeValue > 0; fadeValue -=5) { 
      analogWrite(ledPins[index], fadeValue);            
      delay(5);                            
    }    

}

Wished I had a better camera, my ipod doesn’t have widescreen :(

Here’s my Night Rider video:

[youtube http://youtu.be/CiE3Men2INI]

 
// Oliver Haimson
// first Arduino assignment
// code modified from SIK Guide Circuit 1 code

int L1 = 13; // LED connected to digital pin 13
int L2 = 12; // LED connected to digital pin 12
int L3 = 11; // LED connected to digital pin 11
int L4 = 10; // LED connected to digital pin 10
int L5 = 9; // LED connected to digital pin 9
int L6 = 8; // LED connected to digital pin 8
int L7 = 7; // LED connected to digital pin 7
int L8 = 6; // LED connected to digital pin 6

void setup() {
// initialize the digital pin as an output:
pinMode(L1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L5, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L6, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L7, OUTPUT);
pinMode(L8, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
digitalWrite(L1, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L2, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L1, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L2, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L4, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L5, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L4, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L6, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L5, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L7, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L6, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L8, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L7, LOW);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L8, LOW);
digitalWrite(L7, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L6, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L7, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L5, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L6, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L4, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L5, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L3, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L4, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L2, HIGH);
delay(100);
digitalWrite(L3, LOW);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(L1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(L2, LOW);
delay(50);
}

And here is my Potentiometer:

[youtube http://youtu.be/NH6dwHtnXhs]

Here are the lights for the Knight Rider assignment!

int led1 = 13;
int led2 = 12;
int led3 = 11;
int led4 = 10;
int led5 = 9;
int led6 = 8;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() { 
// initialize the digital pin as an output.
pinMode(led1, OUTPUT); 
pinMode(led2, OUTPUT); 
pinMode(led3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(led4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(led5, OUTPUT);
pinMode(led6, OUTPUT);
}


void loop() {
digitalWrite(led1, HIGH);
delay(100); 
digitalWrite(led1, LOW);
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led2, HIGH); 
delay(102); 
digitalWrite(led2, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led3, HIGH); 
delay(104); 
digitalWrite(led3, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led4, HIGH); 
delay(106); 
digitalWrite(led4, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led5, HIGH); 
delay(108); 
digitalWrite(led5, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led6, HIGH); 
delay(110); 
digitalWrite(led6, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led5, HIGH); 
delay(112); 
digitalWrite(led5, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led4, HIGH); 
delay(114); 
digitalWrite(led4, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led3, HIGH); 
delay(116); 
digitalWrite(led3, LOW); 
delay(100); 

digitalWrite(led2, HIGH); 
delay(118); 
digitalWrite(led2, LOW); 
delay(100); 
}