Jim Wink's Make Blog

Here is a photo of a project I started a while back. I took an old Logitech web camera we had sitting around, removed it from it's case and sandwiched it between two small sheets of Acryllic. My reasoning here is it would be easier to attach that to a servo than the weird sphere casing it was originally in. Really, I think it just looks cooler that way. The servo is bolted to - well through - a plank I had in the garage. I think it's left over from building the deck. A plank, yes. Probably green-treat or some such. If I could've figured out a way to get duct tap on it, I probably would have. Anyway, behind the web camera is an Arduino Duemilanova (168) - the original/first one I got. It's connected with some simple wood screws through the board. Underneath all this, on the other side of the plank is a Power Switch Tail . This nifty little device is a bit like a really short extension cord with a switch. Regular 120 volt house current goes in one end and comes out the ot...

Axman Surplus is awesome. I've been thinking of building a CNC . There are a number of articles on the web that'll walk you through building a CNC, including this one on how to build a desktop CNC . That one, in particular, could use a tool I already have - a Dremel. Anyway, a CNC is complicated. There's a whole language used for communicating with CNC's called g-code , that is pretty much a complete mystery to me. Then there's taking 3-d models and converting them to g-code, and probably any number of details I don't have figured out. It'd be a bigger project than I've tackled so far. But like anything, I've got to start somewhere, so I figured I'd start with equipment I already have. In this case I'm referring to the Motor Shield I got from Adafruit . I built it a while back and then set it aside and never used it. So I figured this was a good time. I'd already figured out how to run a servo on the Arduino, but the Motor Shield has p...

It should come as no surprise that I am still somewhat obsessed with my accelerometer. I've stated earlier that I'd like to create a lighted juggling ball that changes color as it rotates. This should be a simple task with an accelerometer - three axis, three colors, mix 'em and you're done, right? Maybe not so much. I won't rehash previous posts, but I will say I am really close. I should, however, explain my criteria: Rotation should change color of the light, obviously At a minimum, there should be shifting between the 3 basic colors: red, green, blue I'd prefer 6 colors total, with the other 3 being mixes: yellow (red/green), aqua (green/blue), and purple (blue/red) I'd like to get some nice fading as it switches between colors, but as I'll point out later, this is somewhat hard The light intensity should never change - all on, and never off I'd prefer it if there wasn't much white - all colors on - showing I already have code on the Arduin...

So far in this blog I have not posted at all about what I do for a living. I've only posted about one of my many hobbies. But today I ran into something I wanted to share. I could go on and on about how I could share it (Facebook, Yammer, emails to hapless co-workers, emails to hapless friends, drone on and on to my wife about it) but I won't. Much. Instead, I'll post it here. Here where it can quietly sit where few, if any, will see it. But I can always go back and get a chuckle about it. Anyway, what I do for a living is write software. I am a software engineer. I've created software in a number of different languages: Pascal, COBOL, C++, Visual Basic, Java, C# - probably others I am forgetting - and I've been doing it for over 17 years now. Strange, but true. This blog is about stuff I make. Software is stuff I make, right? Okay, boring stuff I make - I'll try and keep it to a minimum. Anyway, I'm currently contracting at a company that uses Oracle (10g?)...

I had to do this. Partially because I could, but also partially because I needed a quick project. I hadn't done many projects recently (well, summer, duh) and I needed to do something easy with some real impact. Even if I wasn't sure who in the neighborhood would get the joke. I live in the 'burbs - a lot of non-geeks out here. I decided to do some real soldering on this one. I wanted to create a unit I could keep for later if I wanted to use it. I started with a pile o f red LED's I had liberated from a set of Christmas lights. Many of these LED's came pre-equipped with their own resistor. I'm not entirely sure why, though I've noticed during my forays with the RGB LEDs that the red typically wanted lower voltage. I settled on 12 because its what I could comfortably fit in a Radio Shack proto-board. The LEDs with the resistor seemed okay with the 5 volts the Arduino put out without having issues, but the remaining non-resistored ones were rather bright oth...

The origins of the idea, we think, were with our daughter Evy. She wanted to be Princess Leia this year for Halloween. She has fairly long hair & we thought we could probably do the iconic hair buns fairly easily. The outfit that goes with it would be, hopefully, simple (for Jeanette) to make. From there we figured it'd be an easy jump to get Sean outfitted as Luke. I'm not sure where the idea came from that we, their parents, should dress up as... well, their parents. We think Evy eventually decided that this would a cool thing for her parents to do. Jeanette spent many a late night at her serger sewing machine, first with their costumes and then (probably more hours) working on ours. The result was just fantastic. I only got to wear mine twice, but I think Evy got to wear hers to 5 different events. Jeanette and Sean, both in costume, joined Evy on Friday for Evy's school party. We then all wore our outfits to a 40th birthday party of a friend of mine from college. We...

I think it's going on 14 years or more when I first had the idea: a lighted juggling ball that changes color as it rotates. Seriously - 14 years. I'm fairly sure of this because I told my girlfriend at the time (who eventually became my wife) and she made a prototype. But I get ahead of myself. It was always LED's that did the lighting, of course. It was also a ball. This is important to note as juggling equipment comes in many shapes and sizes. It is lighted from within, hopefully evenly. As this ball (or many) rotates it changes color. Hopefully it is bright enough to be seen from a far in a dark theater and it's obvious that the color is changing. It's not crucial that the juggler be able to control the changes, but that might be a nice option. When I told Jeanette (afore mentioned wife) she made a prototype for a class she was taking in college. It was just after we had started dating - I think during her Junior year. Second half she says, and it was for a physi...