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Mushi Reviews Episode #1

0
1 month ago
by Pascal in ,

First episode of Mushi (虫) Reviews where I review the Stepper Motor 28BYJ-48 and ULN2003 Driver from icstation.com.
http://www.icstation.com/product_info.php?products_id=1400

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Super Macro Photography

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5 months ago
by Pascal in

Hello everyone, as some of you may know, I’ve always had a passion for insects from a very young age and it’s showing itself in the kind of photograph I like to take! From the first time I got my hands on a digital camera, I’ve always been a big fan of macro photography. Back in 2003, I had a good old Canon Powershot A70 and was able to take some pretty good shots with it.



Then I took some pictures with a Canon Powershot A640.


I decided it was time to upgrade and got myself a Canon Rebel T2i in 2010. Every year I was buying new things for it like macro extension tubes, a Bower Macro Ring Flash and more recently a Raynox DCR-250.

I’m using the 31mm and 13mm extension tubes on a Canon EF-S 55-250mm lens.

The Raynox DCR-250 enables me to zoom 2.5 times more so that I’m able to fill the entire frame with the insect only.

On top of that I’ve added the Bower Macro Ring Flash which enables me to take pictures with good depth of field between F/25 and F/32 which is crucial when dealing with a slim focus line.

The only drawback of the macro ring flash I’m using right now is that it really brightens some parts of the insect too much as we can clearly see the ring of light reflected right off. To fix this issue I would need to get a diffuser.

Here’s the result of some super macro pictures I took this week-end with this setup:

Montreal Mini Maker Faire 2014

Montreal Mini Maker Faire 2014

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7 months ago
by Pascal in , , , ,

Went to visit the Montreal Montréal Mini Maker Faire today ! Saw cool projects. Here’s a video I recorded from the event:

Mini ELM 327

Testing the Mini ELM327 OBD II

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9 months ago
by Pascal in , ,

 

This is the Mini ELM327 V1.5 OBD2 II Bluetooth Diagnostic Car Auto Interface Scanner HE.
I tested it and it works very well.
Useful to diagnose your check engine light problems and get a lot of informations about the sensors of your car.

Pascal Guay Space Concordia Astronaut Assistance Rover

Space Concordia Astronaut Assistance Mars Rover Capstone Project

1
9 months ago
by Pascal in , ,

My final project at Concordia University is over, it has been a great experience working with an interdisciplinary team of software, mechanical, electrical, computer and industrial engineering students! I was responsible of programming the embedded computers on board of the rover. The embedded programming was mostly done in, C++ and C# and the operator user interface was done in .NET / MVVM. The Arduino Mega was used on the robot to interface with the multiple sensors and servo motors along with a Pico ITX board in charge of communicating with the operator’s main computer and streaming the cameras.
Here’s an article talking about it on Concordia University’s website: http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2014/04/01/running-on-ice-snowandmars.html

Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation kit

New Project and Review for New Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Evaluation Kit for Robotic Vision Project

2
10 months ago
by Pascal in ,

I want to announce that in the upcoming week I will review the new SAMA5D3 Xplained board and try to interface a camera to it in order to give vision to my robots, something I can’t do usually with the Arduino UNO or MEGA alone.
I will surely use the OpenCV library on it and try to interface a robot platform with it.

For more information on the Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Evaluation Kit, make sure to visit these links:
http://canada.newark.com/atmel
http://canada.newark.com/atmel/atsama5d3-xpld/dev-board-sama5d36-cortex-a5/dp/07X2224?ost=ATSAMA5D3-XPLD
http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/sama5d3xplained?CMP=PRR-GLO-14-0003

Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained evaluation kit specifications

Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained Hardware

arcade11logo

Arcade 11 & TAG Open House at Concordia University

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10 months ago
by Pascal in , ,

Last week I visited the Arcade 11 & TAG Open House at Concordia University, there were many different experiments involving games and we tried out most of them. It was a fun experience and hoping there is going to be a Montreal Joue festival next year! Here are some pictures and a video of the event:

servosdofarduinosensors

Working on an Arm / Stabilizer Prototype for a Mars Rover Robot

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1 year ago
by Pascal in , ,

I’m currently participating in the University of Utah Mars Rover competition. I made a small prototype of what an arm or stabilization system could look like on the robot.
Material: three 9G micro servo, one 9 DOF IMU, an Arduino Uno with a Sensor Shield V5.0 mounted on top

Here’s a stabilizer mode instead of an arm mimicking mode, useful to keep certain objects stable while they are mounted on a moving vehicle encountering bumps and obstacles.

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THL W8 Smartphone

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1 year ago
by Pascal in

I just received a THL W8 Smartphone. Here are some pictures and video of it.

Unboxing:


Here’s a video sample I recorded with it:

Robot Dog Project

Robot Dog Project

0
1 year ago
by Pascal in

 

Here is my current Robot Dog project, the goal is to make it autonomous and do various tasks.
It’s based on an Arduino, I plan on combining a beagle bone to it later.
For now it can only track objects and it has basic movements capabilities.

Robot Dog Project

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