News @ Suspect Devices

Tag: daily thing

  • Day 28: Thing 28: Charley plexed display

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/28/day-28-thing-28-charley-plexed-display/)

    Today I made the software for some hardware that I built a while ago.

    The origional question was if I got 15000 leds for next to nothing and it costs 4-15 per 8×8 array (with the 4$ solution also needing 4 to eleven additional parts) to drive them are we getting anywhere? I looked at 2 solutions before realizing that the leds were to dim to do much of anything that interested me. One solution was to drive the led rows with cmos shift registers and sink the columns using TPIC6 based shift registers.

    The other solution is called charlyplexing.

    The idea is to multiplex a series of leds in a way that maximizes the leds per io pin avaliable. The led connections are paired and driven one at a time depending on the direction of the output pins. The remaining pins are tri-stated out of the way. It is a pretty intense software complexity vs hardware problem.

    As only one led in the array is on at a given time, multiplexing the leds into an array reduces the brightness significantly making my near free leds impractical for this application. (These are 5×6 array, the fonts i used were for 5×7 displays)

  • Day 27: Thing 27: The last of the 4 led arrays

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/27/day-27-thing-27-the-last-of-the-4-led-arrays/)

    And then there were 4. Since this is finally the end of this particular resin.

    I also went to get the right casting resin.

    Now to wire them up….

  • Day 25: Thing 25: AntiSocial(ism)

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/25/day-25-thing-25-antisocialism/)

    I went to radio shack about a month ago and bought an utrasonic distance sensor made by parallax called a ping))).

    I have been feeling cranky and anti social lately so I thought I should make something that didnt want to be bothered.


    I am considering adding an air horn for people who dont respect its limits but think that the neighbors might not appreciate it much.

  • Day 24: Thing 24 — Mouse Whiskers (touch sensor)

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/24/day-24-thing-24-mouse-whiskers-touch-sensor/)

    Two weekends ago Aidan and I went to radio shack and he was looking at these $9 bug bots which have a sound sensor, two touch sensors (antennae) and 6 legs. He was very interseted in both the walking mechanism and the touch sensor. We decided that we should add one of those to his arduino based mouse (A168).

  • Day 21: Thing 21 — Fred 644 (an attempt to port Arduino to another processor)

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/21/day-21-thing-21-fred-644-an-attempt-to-port-arduino-to-another-processor/ )

    I wound up on the bus for much of the day so I took my laptop and ported the arduino “Core” to atmel’s Mega644 which has 4 times the memory of the new arduino as well as almost twice the number of pins avaliable. When I got to the bootloader I failed. This was a bit ambitious so I suppose I shouldnt be suprised. I will do another thing and post it here if I don’t get the bootloader working by the end of the month.

  • Day 19: Thing 19: Bead Work LED array

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/19/day-19-thing-19-bead-work-led-array/)

    I think this takes the jewelry wire influence a bit far. I used a  set of glass beads to space an insulate the array wires.

    In the end it was almost too pretty to embedd in the plastic.

    These are getting amazingly tedious and I am dissapointed in the resin that I am using for this batch however I am going to do one more of these and wire up the array.

    In the mean time I just keep singing the “Light Bright” jingel from my childhood.

  • Day 18: Thing 18: CD Hole Based circuit board.

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/18/day-18-thing-18-cd-hole-based-circuit-board/)

    I havent made a circuit board in ages. I was thinking that if I made circular pads for the leds they might make a decent reflections for the display. I made the etch mask for this out of the holes for press on cd lables and 1/8″ engineering tape.

    In the middle of this I realized that I need to get some more tinning solution.


    I plan to cast this in less expensive fiberglass resin once I have finished the 4 panels.

  • Day 17: Thing 17: Soldering Iron Timer Redux

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/17/day-17-thing-17-soldering-iron-timer-redux/)

    Today I really made Space and time (The appartment was getting a bit difficult to get around in).

    So this is a make up entry.

    After oxydizing the first tip on my new weller I decided it was time to build a new soldering iron timer (and one for my glue gun as well). This is a bench junk project. It is mostly from scores at Wackey Willies (RIP 2007). I had a 4 channel Solid State Relay board with 3 channels populated and a small pile of outlets (I have plans for most of them :). The transformer for the digital power supply is from an old clock radio. At present the buttons turn on the Soldering Iron and Hot Glue Gun and it stays on for about 10 minutes (The arduino doesnt support the RTC crystal that all of the x8 family has attached to Timer 2).

    The big button on the right turns everything off. There is a front pannel which I will program to give some status (the leds on the board are two burried to really use for on off status at a glance). Also there is a set of buttons on the panel (currently unwired) to allow for timing adjustment and other future planned functions.

    I would also plan use this to adjust the temperature on the iron.

  • Day 16: Thing 16: Headbucket Headlights (more things that go blink in the night)

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/16/day-16-thing-16-headbucket-headlights-more-things-that-go-blink-in-the-night/)
    I went to the hardware store to replace the tip on my new Weller soldering iron after discovering that Radio Shack did not have a suitable one. At radio shack I picked up two 1100 mcd leds. On the way back I went to the art supply store to see if they had copper small enough to work with the led arrays. They told me about a bead supply store downtown so I went I bought some silver coated copper wire and made anouther led pannel. (it looks like I have enough resin to make 4).

    Then I went to putting the leds on the front of my helmet. If they arent too police blue, I am finally legal.


  • Day 15: Thing 15: 8×8 Led Array Panel (Another thing that Goes Blink in the Night).

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/15/day-15-thing-15-8×8-led-array-panel-another-thing-that-goes-blink-in-the-night/)

    Yesterday I went to Tap Plastics and bought some resin after working on the programmer (yesterday’s thing).

    At dinner last night (which saved me from pulling my hair out for the entire evening trying to get virtual pc to flash the xbee modules from my mac) I was complaining that I have had a problem engaging the current zeitgeist and writing new (poly punk) music. It was suggested that perhaps it was because I was too focused on things that go blink in the night.

    So today built an 8×8 panel using cat 5 wire with the insulation trimmed back. After experimenting with the resin I was able to cast this using the mold that I made wednesday.

    I am relatively happy though it is a little time intensive.