MonoFab SRM-20: IBeacon Demo

by kotobuki

1.3K83

Intro: MonoFab SRM-20: IBeacon Demo

This an example of customizing a "SRM-20" milling machine that was exhibited at the international DIY festival, "Maker Faire Tokyo 2014", which was held at Tokyo Big Sight on 23rd and 24th of November, 2014.

Artisans customize tools they use depending on their goals and then master those customizations. While there are demands for customized machining tools, it is by law that manufacturers are held liable for their products, thus they have no choice but to prohibit Makers from making changes to their products. As a way to overcome this dilemma and to establish a better relationship between the manufacturers and Makers, the manufacturers could provide APIs to their products, allowing Makers to freely customize the products.

The SRM-20 is one of the "monoFab" series products, a machining tool, launched by Roland DG Corporation in September 2014. It is equipped with a slot that can mount a board for the open source hardware "Arduino", and, using the manufacturer's provided library, its functions can be easily expanded.

STEP 1: Insert an Arduino Uno Board and Add a Beacon Module

Prepare components

  • A MyBeacon Fun module
  • An Arduno shield (e.g. https://www.switch-science.com/catalog/991/)
  • An Arduino Uno board
  • A 2.2k Ohm and a 3.3k Ohm resistors for a voltage divider

Connect as follows

  • Connect the VDD pin of the beacon module to the 3.3V pin of the Arduino Uno board
  • Connect the GND pin of the beacon module to a GND pin of the Arduino Uno board
  • Connect the MODE1 and WAKE pins of the beacon module to the DIO 7 pin of the Arduino Uno board via a voltage divider by the 2.2k and 3.3k Ohm resistors

STEP 2: Upload a Sketch to the Arduino Uno Board

  1. Grab a sketch from https://github.com/IAMAS/monoFab/blob/master/ibeac...
  2. Upload the sketch to the Arduino Uno board

STEP 3: Create an IOS App to Detect the Beacon

STEP 4: Done!

  1. Turn on the SRM-20
  2. Open the cover of the SRM-20
  3. The app will notify of the action
  4. Close the cover
  5. The app will notify of the action

3 Comments

BurningRiverLabs 9 years ago

I tried really really hard to figure out what adding an ibeacon to this device will accomplish. I didn't download the arduino sketch, but what functionality are you adding by doing this? It looks like you're just detecting proximity, which can be done with JUST an ibeacon attached to it somewhere, no? I'd love to know more. Thanks.

BurningRiverLabs 9 years ago

Update: Didn't see the last part. So it just notifies your IOS device that the cover is open. Got it.

kotobuki 9 years ago

Yes and this is just an example. You can read more statuses via the API, so you can get notifications when your machine stopped due to an error while working.