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Lego Computer Case
How-To: Save Arduino Output to Google Docs Spreadsheets
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Lego Computer Case

Mike Schropp built this Lego computer case that encloses three individual computer systems. The primary purpose is as a grid computer for medical research.

I had a veritable mountain of Legos before me to work with. I slowly started to piece together the design that I had envisioned in my head. I had planned to incorporate some clear Lexan windows into the case. I purchased some Lexan and cut it down to what I thought was the appropriate size. The next step was mounting of the motherboards. I wanted to stick with a basic design philosophy; loading in a downward direction only. The outside walls of the Lego case actually support the load and weight of the components. Trying to hang anything of a significant weight from Legos will pull them apart. This is why the weight must always be pushing them together.

In order to accomplish this I used a couple of thin pieces of aluminum bar, cut them to size, and drilled and tapped them to accept the motherboard screw pattern. These aluminum bars have the motherboards attached to them with regular PC case standoffs. The bars span the case and rest on each of the Lego walls and are encapsulated by Legos. This arrangement uses the weight of the components to apply a compressive force on the Lego walls and ensures that everything is stable. There are 4 of these aluminum bars. The first set at the middle section of the case supports the lowermost motherboard which hangs upside-down, and also the motherboard that sits directly on top of them right side up. The second set of bars sits across the top section of the case and supports the upper-most motherboard that is hanging upside-down. This arrangement of inverting the two motherboards allowed for me to pack a lot of components in a very small space.

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How-To: Save Arduino Output to Google Docs Spreadsheets

There are quite a few ways to get data from your Arduino onto the internet, but I especially like this one. Open Electronics has a nice tutorial on using your Arduino to send data to be saved into a Google Spreadsheet. The trick is to use Google Spreadsheet’s form input feature to determine its POST URL for adding data points. I like this method not only because your data is immediately accessible anywhere you have access to Google Docs, but also it can easily be evaluated, graphed, and shared right from within Google Docs. [via Electronics Lab]