Arduino Laser Turret Cat Toy

 Pseudorandomosity  No Responses »
Apr 112012
 

Laser pointer turret, x y coordinate laser pointer, overgrown cat toy, whatever you want to call it. It has been done before 1001 times over, but I wanted to do it again, for myself. The hardware part of this is extremely simple. I just switched the device from the cat annoyance post from solderless breadboard to perfboard and headers. The X axis servo is on pin 9 and Y axis servo is on pin 10. I broke the Aixiz laser module I had on there, so I replaced it with a cheapo laser pointer from wal-mart.

20120411-232712.jpg

http://www.ragingcomputer.com/2011/11/cat-annoyance

I didn’t care for the code I had written before. It just moved the laser from one point to another random point. The cats seemed more confused by its erratic behavior than amused. I figured circles would be a good idea. I swiped snippets of code and inspiration from the following forum post.

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=97984.0

I want it to turn off after 15 minutes, and reset after an hour. To add some variability, the diameter of the circle increases and decreases, the speed is random, the circle point of the circle is random too (all within certain limits).

I’ve included the code below
Continue reading »

Cat Annoyance

 Pseudorandomosity  No Responses »
Nov 032011
 

I got an Arduino Uno for Christmas last year, and of course the first thing I think of is laser pointer turret. I played with this for months while I learned the basics of Arduino programming. It was knocked apart when hail totaled my Trailblazer.

To simplify rebuilding the turret, I bought a pan/tilt kit from trossen robotics. I upgraded the laser from a wal-mart cheapo with the buttons taped. Aixiz lasers are inexpensive and very easy to use. The aluminum mount is taped to the pan tilt kit.

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/3139-Pan-and-Tilt-Kit-with-Servos.aspx

650nm 5mW laser module.3.2V 12x30mm
http://www.aixiz.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/59/products_id/302

12X30mm aluminum mount for AixiZ 12X30mm units
http://www.aixiz.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/28/products_id/99

I actually bought my laser parts through eBay
http://stores.ebay.com/aixizserviceandinternationalllc

The arduino and radio shack project boards are housed in a plastic bin I bought from wal-mart for a couple bucks. I hung it on the wall with a piece of decorative ribbon swiped from my girlfriend’s wrapping bin. I wanted to see the cats attacking the laser, so I dug out my webcam.

 

Hanging from the wall in place of a picture. Continue reading »