Arduitter is live

So, that's it. Arduitter is ready and it's live. After a few months it can now be broadcasted so anyone can see, enjoy, comment and maybe build one themselves. First of all let me tell you what Arduitter is and where the idea came from and what it is not.
Arduitter came from the fact that i wanted to build something related to Twitter and what could be better than build a device that could read tweets in near real time. So i did a little research on the Twitter API and found JTwitter wich is a Java wrapper of the API and fitted (does this word exist?) well for what i needed. After that i implemented my Java code that from 5 to 5 seconds runs a search on Twitter and refreshs a pool of status. Then went straight to the electronics part and made Arduino talk to the Java via serial (COM3 in my case) and show tweets on the LCD connect to it. There's also a Wave Shield connected to Arduino responsible for making Arduitter "tweet". Here's the post that ilustrates this part of the project.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/its-working.html

Next i had to put everything i had into something, then i decided to google a twitter bird paper toy and here's what i found (here). Tested for the correct size in order to put the whole thing inside and started the building part. Next are some post on the tests.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/building-bird.html
http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/progress-i.html
http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/06/here-we-go.html

Now starts the hardest step of arduitter's building. I had to model pieces on 3mm MDF, cut, sand, glue, paint and glue again, this time was the skin. About the skin here's something you should know, the original template belongs to Josh Mckibillo that also owns a page on these kind of paper toys, NaniBird. Here are the results.

http://arduitter.blogspot.com/2010/07/arduitter-is-done-for-now.html

After that i had to publish and show that it really works. Here's Arduitter live on UStream.

 What i expect from here:
- I intent to add a RTC breakout board to the project in order to make it more usefull when it is not showing tweets.
- Put it to work wireless, via RF links, and by wireless i mean half the way, since i'm still going to need the PC part.
- I'll also publish the schematics of Arduitter so others can build one themselves.
- And, since the building part was the hardest step, i'm going to work on an Arduino based desktop CNC Router and here's the design i intent to follow. With that i'll be able to build a second version of Arduitter and correct some mistakes i made with a little bit more speed than the first one.

At last but not least, Arduitter was Made in Brazil.

So, got interested and want to build an Arduitter yourself? Build it, take pictures and send it to me so it appers here and others can see your work. In the meantime, follow Arduitter on Twitter and get to know all the news before everyone else. And, don't forget to send a tweet to Arduitter (@arduitter) or use the hashtag (#arduitter) to see your tweet live.

Arduino has a 128 bytes serial buffer size

After i found out that Arduino has a 128 bytes serial buffer size (took me a while, it would be easier if i had taken a look here before) i'm working in a protocol to send tweets to Arduitter with no data loss. I've already had a few of everything, some messages were not being showed, some messages came in with some 'trash', some messages were simply not being showed at all and so on...
For now it is showing messages smaller than 128 bytes. Not enough, working on the perfection...

Preview

Here comes a preview of what i'm working on. Stay tuned for more.

a preview

In the mean time, follow @arduitter on twitter.
Liked the project? Let me know, leave a comment.

Arduitter is done (for now)

Yep! You read it right, arduitter is done, at least for now. This weekend i was able to finish the project and put it to work. In the next pictures you can see the painting process, skin glueing process, the "finishings" and the whole thing turned on.
I'm planning on putting it live so everyone can send tweets and see arduitter showing them. I'll let you know when that happens. Enough with the talking, let's see some pictures.

getting ready

Nanibird template, arduino, wave shield, lcd and some wires

Yeah, it works (again). After some time arduitter has been put together once again, but this time it's where it's supposed to be, in the bird. Yesterday my package came in and i was able to wire it up and test the space i had on the inside to see if the whole thing would really fit. Below are some pictures of my order and for those who know what is shown in the pictures, lucky you, for those who doesn't, wait on a later post that i'll add it to the project and you'll be able to see it working.

the red box

Progress V

Here comes the fifth post of the Progress Series. In this post we can see the speech baloon in place so as the feet and the screws to hold arduino in place. By the end of the post there are two pics of the beak in place. Yeah, the bird is done.
There's something that now i can share with you guys. Josh McKible, the creator of the template i'm using in this project and also the owner of the nanibird blog, got in touch with me and offered himself to create a design especially for arduitter. According to him at the end of this week we'll have something. Now let's get something straight, the actual design i'm using in the project was made by ataque mutante, using Josh's template, which is another blog about paper toys.
I'm also waiting an order i placed to arrive, i think, until this week. This order has some components that will help me finishing the guts of arduitter.
So, enough fooling around and let's see how arduitter is until now.

speech baloon

Progress IV

A few more pictures of arduitter's building process. Next we can see the speaker "reglued" in place, now in the correct position, and the beginning of the sign's construction.

speaker in place (again)

[OFF-TOPIC] This is the Scooterputer

Holy crap! Take a look at this project and see what Arduino (still don't know what Arduino is?) is capable of. Made by Kurt Schulz this is one of those projects that starts from a need and becomes something much bigger - The Scooterputer.

The Scooterputer

Glueing it togehter

Yeah! Now it's starting to look nice. Here are some pictures of the glueing process of the pieces, the holes i made to put cables and boards in place and some of the tools i used.

speaker holes

Progress III

Here are some pictures of the work of this week. Some more pieces were built and put in place, some decisions were made, such as the place of the lcd and speaker, and some things still need to be done.

forehead piece