This is an archive.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/09/day-9-thing-9-my-sorry-bot-version-2/)
I have a bot I hacked together out of an overgrown sorry piece that I found. This year I plan to make it into a production maze solver. In order to do that I built a perfboard prototype to work out the placement and details.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/08/day-8-thing-8-place-holder-for-rotation-sensors/ )
Today I made 2 new pieces of things but not the new thing that I had intended as todays thing today. So for now the the y axis that I built for a future drawing machine, and the limit switches that I added to the etcha sketch mechanism will have to do. The etch a sketch mechanism along with 3 of the other robots need rotation sensors. I plan to build them out of the ir emitter detector pairs that all of the check readers have.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/07/day-7-thing-7-ta8080k-motor-board/)
I have long been annoyed with how the l293s require 3 pins per motor to drive them and traded a couple of on hand mega8s for a bag of these toshiba parts. They are 1 amp motor drivers and perfect for some of the things I am working on for thing a day.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/06/day-6-thing-6-motorized-etch-a-sketchr-mechanism/)
Several years ago I took apart an Etch-A-Sketch and took notes on the “complicated pully system” inside. have wanted to build one of these since then. With this and several other projects in mind I bought a small pile of Tamaya pully sets. (this project ate most of 3 of them)
This turned out to be a bit more complicated that I origionally thought. I wanted to use the check reader motor mechanism that I have a pile of them but mounting them turned out to be less than straight forward. once I got through that I had to repully and thread each axis 4 or for times. My first attempt at the pivot point was a small disaster as well. However we persevered and there it is. Tomorrow my thing will probably be a motor driver board to use with this.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/05/day-5-thing-5-frame-for-internal-combustion/)
I have a painting that I did almost 10 years ago called internal combustion. It was done on blueprints fixed to foamcore. The piece is about 40″ in diameter and has been moved 8 times. It has clearly seen better days. I wanted to build a frame for it. As it is a radial engine like in an airplane I thought a cowling would be an appropriate shape. I dumpsterdove some pipe insulation and cut a circle in some foamcore. My head is still a little messed up from the contact cement but it is done.
 |
 |
 |
 |
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/04/day-4-thing-4-aduino-adaboot-programmer/)
I was using the programming half of a a bulky prototype that I have been working on to program one of the mice from Day 1 and I looked at the pile hanging precariously off of the coffe table and thought to myself.
The programmer is based on the Auto-Reset Hack and the AdaBoot bootloader. The reset is pulled by putting a capacitor on the DTR line of the serial interface which is also the bootloader interface. Most people put the cap on the Arduino but I put it on the programmer (where it belongs). This programmer was built using the ftdi ft232rl breakout board sold by sparkfun. I had to trim it down to get it to fit in the pretty blue box i bought at Tap Plastics. The chip out of the box presents two of its 4 gpio (general pourpose i/o) pins to indicate when serial is being sent and recieved. I wired a pair of very bright leds that I had to them and then tried to pipe the light to the corners using some translucent plastic tubes and hot glue. It looks pretty cool!
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/03/thing-3-tiny45-emulation-using-the-arduino/)
A while ago I started working on a flapping wing mechanism using voice coils taken our of hard drives. To drive them I built a set of boards based on the Atmel tiny45. After getting the basic motion down I wanted to use a light sensor to detect motion so that they would only move when something was around to watch them.
Rather than developing on the tiny45 itself, it seemed that the Arduino with its bootloader and built in serial port would make a good emulation platform. All I needed was a “pod”. I scrapped a daughterboard from an old checkreader (that I have a small pile of) and made two out of it.
The last photo is the Arduino connected to the target.
(Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/02/day-2-ikea-inspired-stackable-box/)
Today we only broke 1 tool.
As preparation for moving out of my storage space I went to IKEA with my g/f and spent 100 that I didn’t really have. I got the idea that I could make them cheaper. I went to the hardware store and got an 8 foot section of drywall corner for $1.50. I originally wanted to do boxes that were “compatible” but realized that I had scrap that allowed me to build the main part of the box with only 2 cuts. (this is important as I only have a scroll saw) I was going to build a second box but the blade wandered and broke so I called it a day.
(Archive of http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/01/day-1-25/)
Today we made 4 things, and broke 2 soldering irons.
I recently moved out of my storage unit. While putting most of the boxes into my hall closet I realized that there was a ledge which would make it a no brainer to put in a shelve. So I cut down some laminated boards that I dumpster dove last year and rounded the corners off of
them so I wouldnt hurt myself coming and going. I hot glued the edge of the laminate around the corner so It looks good as well 
My son and I have been working on modifying a pair of Tamaya wall following mice. After some thought and discussion we decided to build both of them out using the arduino and the motor controller boards that I had built for this purpose previously. My main soldering iron went out in the morning when I was preparing these. My spare went out in the middle of the second motor contoller board. I should move the soldering iron timer up on my to do list.
(Archive of http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/01/26/to-do-list/)
For starters I thought i would sit down and see if I had more than 30 things on my to do list that I could do in a day or less. I got stuck fast. Most of the things on my to do list are multiple day projects. So I will list some of the things that are on my bench.