Solving a Hot and Sticky situation
In the past few weeks, life got a little bit in the way of my maker-hobby. To make sure I got my monthly doses of tinkering, I decided to take on a quick and fun one hour project this weekend: solving a hot and sticky situation.
MusiCubes:
Touch Me Four Times
It’s been a few months since I’ve finished my MusiCubes Controller. And although most of the controller works perfect, there is one issue that is still bugging me: the false positives of the touch sensors. Time to fix this!
The Fire Proof Birthday Candle
This week we celebrated the first birthday of my youngest son, Luca. So it is time for him to blow out his first candle. Of course you can't trust a one-year-old to not set the house on fire when handling a candle, so we need to solve this with some electronics.
The Ridiculous Kitchen Timer™
I’m a huge coffee addict. As for many of us, coffee is the core ingredient for my projects. And since I like quality coffee we own a manually operated espresso machine. If the grind is perfect, and you use the ideal brewing time, the coffee will be able to fuel any project. But how to measure the perfect brewing time? The Ridiculous Kitchen Timer™ to the rescue!
MusiCubes:
Touch Me!
Now that the MusiCubes tray is assembled and the RFID-sensor and LEDs are working as expected, It’s time to add the last feature of the original concept: invisible capacitive touch sensors to control the volume of the music.
MusiCubes:
Assembling The Tray
After last week’s proof of concept it is time to assemble the MusiCubes tray. Just slap on some wood glue and you’re ready to go! What could go wrong, right?
MusiCubes:
Concept & Prototyping
Most of my projects start behind my desk, Tinkering. But every now and then, new ideas come to mind while I’m not geeking. Just as with my MagicMirror, those projects and ideas are usually the best. Today I start a new project which, just as with my MagicMirror, popped in my mind far away from my soldering iron and computer: A digital music controller in an analog form factor.
A Tiny Mistery: The Odd Leds
After the previous breakthrough which allows me to program the ATTiny10 and a small delay caused by a wonderful sunny Ibiza holiday, it’s time to get the WS2812 2020 leds working on this wonderful small microcontroller.
A Tiny Success: Flashing the USBasp
Two weeks ago I posted about my experiment with the ATTiny10. A 12Mhz 8-bit micro controller small enough to be confused with an obese ant. Unfortunately I didn’t succeed in programming this tiny guy, so this week I continue my small scale flashing quest.
Train Automator:
Wrapping it up!
Over the course of the last few weeks I’ve been building the Arduino powered Model Train Automator. I’m sure my dad would like to start using it, so let’s wrap this project up!
Train Automator:
Designing the PCB
Since the prototype turned out to be a success, it is time to work on a more professional solution: a custom PCB. Of course I don’t just slap an Arduino and a MAX485 IC on a board and call it a day. I use this opportunity to add some nifty features to the custom board. You know, just to impress my dad.
What time is it? Father's Day!
My technical enthusiasm is probably 99% inherited from my dad. So whenever I come across something fascinating, he is usually the first person to forward the link to. A little over a year, I came across some really awesome volt meter clocks. And due to his fascination of analog meters, he liked it even more than I did. Wouldn’t it be awesome to make one as a Father’s Day present?
57.600 colorful pixels!
During one of my many AliExpress shopping sprees, I recently found a cute little 1.3" High Resolution 240x240 pixel IPS TFT display. Till now, I only used monochrome 128x64 OLED displays, so this little toy sparked my interest. Using it would be a matter of connecting it to the SPI bus … or so I thought!
Activity Board:
Take control!
In my last activity board blog post I finished the final part of the control panel. It is time to start working on the electronics. Or to use a bit more exciting terminology: it is time to work on the activity board controller!
20 years of PCBs
As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, my dad is an avid model train hobbyist. This started way before I was born, so during my time as a kid living at my parents, I contributed to some of his projects. 20 years later, my contribution could use an update.
Activity Board:
Assembling the panel
After a succesful intergration of the push buttons it is time to wrap up the front panel. With 9 switches, 3 buttons, 2 displays, 1 slide pot, 1 rotary encoder and a lot of LEDs, this includes a lot of wiring.
Shopping for Santa
In the last few weeks I spent most of my precious spare time to do some home improvement. I repainted the living room, which means I had to move away all the furniture including my desk. So no tinkering for me these two weeks. To fulfill my maker desires, I did a lot of window shopping on Ali Express and E-bay. And since X-mas is just around the corner, I hereby present you my IADNTBBDIWI-list! (I Absolutely Don’t Need That, But Boy Do I Want It!)
Activity Board:
Push the button!
Now that the activity board casing is done. It’s time to start the wiring of all the components. A tedious job which I take way too serious.
It's getting hot in here!
If you are a regular visitor of my blog, you might have noticed a slightly longer period of inactivity between my regular posts. In the past weeks I’ve exchanged my soldering iron for a nice juice on a sunny and warm beach. Regular visitors might also know that the mail man usually leaves me a nice package to come home to after my holiday. This time was no exception.
Electrocard:
Writing The Software
Now that the hardware part of my Electrocard is done, it’s time to start working on the software side of my electronic business card.
Electrocard:
The Design
Ever since I have my own company I wanted to have a PCB business card. Of course I wouldn’t be the first, but it would definitely give a nice touch to my company’s identity. And since I wanted to give KiCad a good try anyway, why not go for it?
Automatic Curtains:
Debugging my curtains.
Ever since I’ve finished the first prototype of my Automatic Curtain project one and a half years ago, the curtains have been running without any issues. Unfortunately, that came to an abrupt end this weekend.
The Train Controller
A while ago my dad and I were discussing the best ways to control a small model train. As a seasoned model train enthusiast, he was looking for the best way to control a single track train. As an additional requirement, he wanted to show the trains’ speed on a small display … Challenge accepted!
Activity Board:
Adjusting the Switches
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the Activity Board I’m building for my son. Since I want this panel to use a 5 volt power supply, i needed to tweak some of the buttons I’ll be using.