If you don’t know what tone matrix is then check out a flash applet based application. It works really amazing. And I believe to replicate it on hardware isn’t easy task at all especially with AVR ATmega328 microcontroller.  But here it is a 16×16 LED matrix working as it has to. Each routine is written in assembly language to push processor to the limits.

It generates sound patterns according to sensors activated and these can be modified with four potentiometers. Tone matrix has lots of modes pre-programmed and even well known Game of Life. If make a little improvements with sound quality – this could be a perfect toy for everyone.

Rock fans and Guitar Hero lovers should be interested in this project as this is a Rock Band player that actually decodes Xbox 360 video output and sends button pushes to beat bots.

Well there is some math behind this, but the fact is that controller analyses video signal and determines when notes pop out. Project is designed around ATmega644 microcontroller running at 16MHz and is put on a custom prototyping board. When put in to nice guitar case – it becomes pretty attractive instrument.

Prototyping is essential when developing new microcontroller projects. If prototype isn’t very complex then a simple breadboard setup can be fine or convenient development board with easy connections.

The board is pretty simple with only few common components. Probably the most interesting and handy thing in it is that there are 3 through-hole connectors dedicated for each MCU pin. It also has all standard parts like power LED, reset button, SPI. This board can be a fast kick in – especially for MCU starters.

Wireless internet is almost everywhere but not always it is easy to catch quality signal. It is all about antenna design and positioning it. If you are too lazy to position antenna take a look at following project where simple solution and common found parts made simple bi-quad antenna auto-position itself to access point.

Device is built around ATTiny2313 microcontroller that controls an old scanner stepper motor via ULN2003A. It seems that hardware part is finished while software is still under way. Hardware part is written mostly in Russian but I guess this is not big deal with auto-translator.

I believe that there are many situations when using regular computer mouse isn’t handy due to lack of good surface. Why not to give a try to tilt mouse. The main idea of following project is to build a mouse that doesn’t use any flat surface but any location. It uses totally three ATmega644 microcontrollers that are split in two main boards: transmitting and base. Transmitting device is an actual mouse that reads two accelerometers to detect motion and sends data wirelessly to the base board.

Base board consists of two ATmegas where they split various tasks including USB connectivity, wireless receiver and TV mode. Why TV mode? Well seems that there is enough power left to do some fun stuff like creating a simple minesweeper game that enables to play on TV screen by using a tilt mouse. So, tired of computer – switch to TV for a game.