Author: Keegan

TaW: Week 9 – Gadgeteer Temperature Logger

It gets cold in our office as for reasons unknown the AC unit appears to be binary; on as cold as possible or off, heat is an unknown concept to it.  To that end, and to see how cold an erratic the temperature is in our office I threw together a .NET Gadgeteer based temperature logger.  It records the temperature and relative humidity to an SD card every thirty seconds but also hosts a simple webserver to allow for on demand readings by anyone in the office.  It was a nice break from screaming at the list of errors the TFS Integration Platform had been throwing at me for the proceeding days…

To speed things up I took examples of code from Mike Dodaro and Stephen Jonston‘s blogs, if you are fans of Gadgeteer these are two blogs you really should keep an eye on.  In fact, I’ve covered some of Stephen’s work in the past with the payload system he developed using the Gadgeteer platform.

My data logger using the temperature and humidity sensor for the obvious reason; an Ethernet module to allow for on demand readings and time synchronisation; an SD card for storing the log; and the usual USB power/GHI Spider mainboard combo.

The code can be found here and requires the latest firmware and SDK from GHI, as of the date of the post that is.

TaW: Week 9 - Temp Logger Photo
Mounted on cardboard using cable ties, quick and simple.

TaW: Week 8 – Dad’s Birthday Card

Unsurprisingly my Dad had a big part in shaping my life, he is a structural engineer by trade and has been running his own business for around 40 years now. My first day of school I was driven there on a crane (I shit you not!), I grew up in a workshop with a couple of MIG welders and more kit than most Hackspaces can shake a stick at and where most kids were building dens out of wood, I used scaffolding.  The most important part of shaping who I am is that he never taught me to weld or use any of that kit, he saw early on that if he did I’d follow in his footsteps and he didn’t (still doesn’t) want that for me.  His work has him outside in all weather, working his arse off, even now.

When I was eight or so, he bought an Epson EL-2 and had a friend of his teach me to use DOS.  Over the years my skills with computers and electronics grew to the point where I now have a degree in Computer Science and ended up working at Microsoft for six years.  He was way ahead of the curve, I still want to learn to weld though…

For years I’ve made my parents birthday cards but today is the first I’ve hand painted.  He intends to retire before too long, his definition of “too long” varies, but one of the hobbies he intends to take back up is sea fishing.  This seemed only appropriate;

TaW 8 - Sea Fishing

Sleep and the Creative Mind

Like many creative people, I don’t find sleep easily.  This is a common theme among those for whom their mind is their instrument and as I lay in bed last night starting into the darkness, trying not to think of the latest crazy thing to do next to add to my list of projects, a thought slipped into mind I believe is worth sharing.

116 amLast week there was a Horizon special on the BBC regarding insight and creativity, the latest theories in neuroscience.  For those in the UK, or for those visiting, here is a link to the show on iPlayer.  One of the theories put forth is that moments of insight, clarity, epiphany or EUREKA! moments seem to occur when the visual cortex is not being stimulated.  They suggested that to stimulate creativity you should put yourself in an environment where you aren’t visually stimulated.  One piece of advice is to ensure you don’t have anything resembling a face or to avoid being around people too as our minds are hardwired to pattern match faces.

For years I’ve wondered why my mind goes into overdrive as soon as my head hits the pillow and I’d always assumed it is related to environment.  When I lived with my parents, at University and for years afterwards in shared houses my room was also my study and living room.  The idea that spending so much time, active and awake, in the same room you sleep in has long been suggested as a link to not being able to switch off.

I’ve also lost count of the number of times I’ve been sat on the sofa, in a bright room, watching people on television and find myself falling asleep.  Five minutes later when I hit the sack, my mind is running a mile a minute.

As I lay in the dark last night attempting slumber, with little to no light in my room and nothing to stimulate my visual cortex it occurred to me that the darkness itself may be the cause of my creativity and of my sleepless nights.  The question is, if true then how to avoid this state of mind?  If the sight of faces can subdue the creative process then I’m wondering if a randomised slideshow of faces could be the antidote.  My reasoning is that if the mind automatically pattern matches faces then a series of randomised portraits would constantly activate these areas of the brain and may assist in quieting the creative areas of the mind.

Hell, it’s worth a try.

TaW: Week 7 – Dual Prototyping Board

Currently working on three things at once to be unveiled over the weekend but realised I needed MORE POWER and thus a second board, I threw together this board to host an Arduino, a Netduino with ECG shield and a breadboard.  Made from a Patron XO Café box and a couple of bolts, there’s a hint if ever you want to buy me something. 😉

 

Week 7: Dual Prototyping Board
Week 7: Dual Prototyping Board

Origin Story

jedibowler.com, now with added back story!  I’ve just imported the posts from my original blog on WordPress.com which included some of my earlier projects.  They may be a bit of a mess and the categories are all out of whack but good to have it all under one roof.

One project I’m going to have to revisit is The Jukebox, there was a nasty electrical issue which fried the motherboard so it is currently mothballed pending a rethink.

Let there be light!

Everything is Incredible and Why We Make

A friend of mind posted a link to a short video about a man in Honduras who has been building a helicopter for fifty years.  He hasn’t had an easy life for reasons explained in the video but his determination hasn’t faltered.  Watch it and see for yourself;



Everything is Incredible, Film About a Disabled Honduran Man Who Has Been Building A Homemade Helicopter from Tyler Bastian on Vimeo.
Some of the comments in the video and the thoughts it raised really rung true, this fellow has a goal and regardless of everything he has gone for it.  Some may feel him foolish but I admire his conviction, I’ve a project that I’ve been planning since I was 14 and 16 years later I’m two years into it.  After watching that video my timescales have shifted but it’s also reminded me that it isn’t going to build itself.  For anyone who watches the video and still doesn’t understand then give this video of a speech by a personal hero of mine a watch;


I can’t explain why we make better than Adam does in that video and in this one line;
“It doesn’t matter what you make and it doesn’t matter why, the importance is that you are making something.”

My next post should feature an Arduino, a piezo buzzer and an EKG monitor.  Why you ask?  Why the hell not.

Air Ambulance Challange Update – £2508 raised!

Now that the deadline for what I’ll get waxed has passed, I can confirm we’ve raised £2508 including GiftAid!  This means in about two hours time I’ll be getting back, bikini, crack and my legs waxed.  Bikini was substituted for sack as apparently it hurts as much as the sack getting waxed but without risk of tearing…  ::shudder::

The charity page will be open for another month but even after that the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust will still need help, click through to their page to see how you can help without putting yourselves through what I’m about to!

There will be a suitably censored video posted at some point over the next few days and I’ll be celebrating/drinking to forget this evening at The Alehouse in Reading.

 

Thanks to all those who have donated, spread the word and otherwise helped with this fundraiser.  It’s been an odd ride but successful for it!

Keegan

Controlling a Syma S107G with an Xbox 360 Controller

As a tie in to my No ‘Air Ambulance Challenge, a sponsored body wax for the local Air Ambulance charity, I’ve decided to upgrade my old project by swapping the RC car out for a Syma S107G.  If you enjoyed this post, please donate a few quid or whatever you can here.  It’s for a very good cause and as it’ll put me through a *lot* of pain you can be sure I’m not asking for my health!

I tried to implement the IR protocol in C# using the .NET Micro Framework for the Netduino but it proved more than a little tricky to get the timing right.  As there are a few implementation out there for the Arduino I decided to stand on the shoulders of giants and build on top of existing code, two in particular.

http://www.kerrywong.com/2012/08/27/reverse-engineering-the-syma-s107g-ir-protocol/
http://abarry.org/s107g-helicopter-control-via-arduino/

One thing worth of note is that my helicopter uses Channel B, as you can see in the comments in my code (heavily based on Kerry Wong’s) it is easy to switch between the two channels.  For the serial control aspect I implemented a similar method as with my Netduino project and in Andrew Barry’s implementation.  For the Xbox 360 Controller interface, I updated my previous application to listen for the trigger for the throttle and the right analogue stick for pitch and yaw.  I had some fun when I got the values backwards and I slammed the copter into a wall.  Thankfully they are built tough to survive kids and geeks alike…

The IR emitter is  a 500Ohm resistor inline with a pair of IR LEDs, connected to Pin3 on the Arduino.  Video demo below;


Xbox 360 controller interface to enable control of a Syma S107G.
Xbox 360 controller interface to enable control of a Syma S107G.

You can find the code here Syma360.