News @ Suspect Devices

Tag: thing a day

  • 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.

  • Day 14: Thing 14: Remote Arduino Programmer.

    (Archive of : http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/14/day-14-thing-14-remote-arduino-programmer-failed/)

    I have been so happy with the programmer that I have been using that I wanted to add this capability to the xbee rf modules that I built a few months ago. I wired dio0 to both send and recieve boards and put the cap on the output side and wired up a reset.

    Then I figured out that the data passing would require updating the flash on both boards and that that required a windows based PC. (LARGE PILE OF EXPLICITIVES REMOVED HERE) I moved the passthrough to the rts/cts pairs which the old firmware is supposed to support met NOOOOO!

    If I built it but it doesn’t work yet did I make a thing?

    UPDATE: 25feb08 I found an old ob900 (I have like 15 old omnibooks in various states of running) that was running W2k and upgraded the firmware on both radios. I will test them out after I have had some sleep.

  • Day 13: Thing 13 — Mold

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/13/day-13-thing-13-mold/)

    Today I made a MESS.

    Really, I made a rubber mold for casting resin .

    I was given a section of a large display recently that was made up of 6 5×7 led modules. The modules were embedded in epoxy with the lenses built into the front. As most of the led drivers I have are 8×8 (and over $10 apiece) , building displays with the modules wastes a third of the driver. I thought I would try to build 8×8 arrays using the leds I got last week. I took one of the 5×7 arrays and pressed it into some DAS air dry clay and made an 8×8 pattern.

    Then I attempted to make a positive using an expensive clear plastic material that I have never had much success with. After two attempts to get a decent positive I decided to try a wax positive using a large candle that was left in my apartment by the previous tenants. This was successful and so I went to make the mold.

    The a part of the mold compound was so thick that it was almost impossible to work with. For a long time I wasn’t sure that it would set. But in the end I would up with a fairly decent mold. Tomorrow I will get some casting resin from tap plastics..

  • Day12: Thing12 — Helmet Taillights

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/12/day12-thing12-helmet-taillights/)

    One of our local dorkbots put an arduino in a bucket the other day and I got inspired to put one in my head bucket.

    I lined the two largest holes in the back of the helmet with foil tape (for ducts) and then built two boards with leds and mounted in the area with my head. I glued a 4 pack of rechargable AA batteries on the top and plan to mount the 5000 mcd led in the front in the next day or so. While I am testing it the arduino run time board is taped to the outside but I plan to mount a really bare bones arduino under the battery when It is done.

  • Day 7: Thing 7: TA8080K Motor Board

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/07/day-7-thing-7-ta8080k-motor-board/)

    TA8080K

    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.

    Board

  • Day 5: Thing 5 — Frame for internal Combustion

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/05/day-5-thing-5-frame-for-internal-combustion/)

    Seen Better DaysI 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.

    Frame

  • Day 4, Thing 4 Aduino (adaboot) Programmer.

    (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.

    “I need to just build one of these. “

    The finished productModifying Sparkfun Board.to fit in the boxthe input sideflea assemblyblinkin lightsin placetest runTranslucencedone

    So I did.

    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!

  • Thing 3 (tiny45 emulation using the Arduino)

    (Archive of: http://www.thing-a-day2.com/2008/02/03/thing-3-tiny45-emulation-using-the-arduino/)

    Target projectA 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.

    Wha La!
    Wha La!
    Wha La!
    Wha La!
    Wha La!
    Wha La!