Miro's Blog

As my son gets ready to start school, I wanted to surprise him with something special. Over the past few years, he's developed a strong passion for chess, playing it every chance he gets. So, I thought, why not combine his love for chess with a little lunchtime surprise? The idea was to create a custom chess puzzle that I could print out and include in his lunchbox as a fun note. The Inspiration and the Challenge I had some experience with thermal printers from previous projects, so I decided to use one for this idea. The challenge, however, was to find a way to generate chess puzzles easily. Creating puzzles manually would be too time-consuming, so I needed a reliable source of puzzles. As far as I know, two major chess platforms offer puzzles: Chess.com and Lichess. Fortunately, Lichess is open source and provides access to a vast database of chess puzzles . This made it the perfect choice for my project. Turning Puzzles into Printable Images With the puzzles secured, the next st...

I’ve always been a huge coffee lover. The smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning is something I can’t start my day without. However, like many others, I often find myself pressed for time, especially in the mornings. The usual process of making coffee with my machine, while not overly time-consuming, involved pressing a few buttons and waiting around for about three minutes. It’s not a lot of time, but enough to make me think: "Can this be done faster?" So, I decided to take on a fun and slightly geeky challenge to automate my coffee-making process using a Raspberry Pi. What started as a simple idea for a hackathon at work has now become a fully functional setup that I’ve been using for over six months! The Coffee Machine Hack Here’s how I turned my regular coffee machine into a remote-controlled, automated coffee-making station: Step 1: Disassembling the Coffee Machine The first step was to carefully disassemble my coffee machine. I needed to access the internal contr...

In this article, we’ll describe how to recognize skateboard tricks using a gyroscope. This sensor is already present in most smartphones, but if you’re not familiar with it, here is a description . Before we dive in, a small disclaimer: This project originated as part of a Slido hackathon with the goal of demonstrating that it’s possible to recognize skateboard tricks using a gyroscope. For simplicity, we’ll focus on recognizing just two basic tricks and won’t consider the skater’s stance on the board. We’ll break down the problem into several smaller tasks: recording the trick, storing the data, describing the trick, analyzing it, and, finally, recognizing it. Recording the Trick Let’s start with trick recording. To obtain precise data, the device with the gyroscope needs to be attached directly to the skateboard. Place it on the bottom of the board to avoid interfering with the execution of the trick. The device should also be compact and lightweight to avoid altering the board’s cen...

A few years ago, I built a large LED screen out of empty toilet paper rolls. It was a fun DIY project controlled by an Android app, and I even wrote an article about it. But after some time, the screen ended up unused, just sitting around collecting dust. When I recently decided to check it out, I found that some of the LEDs were no longer working. I was ready to toss it out, but then an idea hit me. The Drum Set and the Spark of an Idea Last Christmas, we welcomed a new addition to our home—a drum set (Alesis Drums Nitro Mesh Kit). While setting it up and exploring its features, I noticed that it supported MIDI output, and I realized that my old LED screen could be repurposed as a visualizer for the drum set. This would not only breathe new life into the screen but also enhance the drumming experience with dynamic light displays. Upgrading the LED Screen The first step was to replace the non-functioning LEDs. I decided to upgrade to RGB LEDs this time, allowing for a broader range of...

Why A friend asked me to develop an Android app for his new Yi Dash Car Camera . The camera has impressive specifications at a very low price. He showed me the native Android app available on Google Play but needed a way to download and search video files by specific timestamps. About the Camera The camera operates on its own Wi-Fi network. To interact with it, you must be connected to this Wi-Fi. It automatically records videos, each approximately 3 minutes long, when powered on. Recording stops during downloads or settings changes. The official app also allows you to take a picture, which is essentially a screenshot from the video stream. What I Did Initially, I tried using an SDK from the camera's manufacturer, but it did not support this model. After contacting support, I learned that this camera lacks an official SDK. I then downloaded their app and examined the source code using an online decompiler , which was not obfuscated. Despite this, navigating the source code was ti...

LED Screen Made of Empty Toilet Rolls Why? The initial idea was to find a creative way to reuse empty toilet rolls while having some fun with Arduino and LEDs. I started by gluing together the first block, consisting of 4x3 LEDs connected to an Arduino Nano. As the project progressed, I thought it would be interesting to control the LED screen directly from an Android device. To make this possible, I added a Bluetooth adapter and developed a  Android app. As time passed and more empty toilet rolls became available, I continued building one block after another. Eventually, I set a goal to create a 4x4 grid of blocks, totaling 192 LEDs. As I expanded the physical screen, I also enhanced the functionality of the Android app, adding new features to control the growing display. first 6 blocks What Can It Do? Since the video below demonstrates it clearly, I'll just briefly list the features of the Android app: Draw (real-time): Allows real-time drawing on the LED screen. Toggle Ra...