I’ve been busy. General business…not so much free time business. Here is a brief run-down of what is in the works: Item: Environment updates I am in the middle of re-purposing my computers. I have three flavors of Linux that I use on a regular basis. Gone will be that setup, along with all dual-boot machines. I am going to dedicate my Mini9 netbook as my ‘work at work’ machine…my old 17" Dell will become my bench computer for my electronics projects…and my slick 15’-er will be my couch computer slash backup unit. All will run Ubuntu 10.10 with Gnome for the time being. I am toying with online storage options, so that I can drop files to and from my Droid without using swantron.com’s server space. More to come on that. Action shot…updating the Mini 9 from Ubuntu 10.4 Netbook to Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop… Bonus from above…real time apt-get Arduino V0022 action Item: PIR sensor work on the Arduino I actually had a little POC put together last week, before the system reboot. I made a generic little alarm, using the passive infrared module and a piezo. Once I can get the Arduino IDE up and running on all three boxes, I’ll snap some pics, clean stuff up, and let it rip. Stay tuned. Item: General EE work. I’ve been tearing apart all sorts of stuff. Two CRT TVs, some media players, etc. I didn’t document much, but managed to keep from discharging some big ass capacitors. For the win. The goal is to locate points of failure, and swap out components on the board level. This all stems from the flat-iron failure…for which I’m searching for a replacement switch and diode. Pretty cool. That is about it. It looks like my wireless on the Mini is non-functional. Great. I’m off to track down an ethernet cord.

Winning.

Demolition phase: complete I feel like a space cadet…too many things in flight. Component central over here.

Katie’s flat iron failed…TO THE RESCUE! Pull that sucker apart… Burn mark…oh snaps…TO THE LAB! Blown switch…NOW WHAT! I’m going to try to bypass the switch, as it only functions to toggle a LED. Maybe I will find a switch that will fit the board…I have enough crap laying around this joint.

That title is misleading. Between shit-ass dogs and overzealous project managers, I am pretty much fucked. At least I have my lunch break to recharge the colloquial batteries. WiFi, Arduino, interesting view, and relative silence. it is like a little mini-vaykay. I wonder if anyone would notice a make-shift cubical in the mezzanine area…very tempting.

One more use for my beloved Honda… …keeping my ’lab’ functional in darkest winter. I am very ready for Spring, but am still cranking out some projects. With marginal success. See above; see below.

Six pounder. Who needs paper? Not I.

So, I’ve formalized the solar cell project I have been poking at for a while. I managed to clean up my code and mess with some initial conditions, etc., and now have a fairly solid proof of concept for a solar cell-centered night light. As was the case in my first few runs, my sketch incorporates a five second initialization phase. This acts to set both relative minimum and maximum values which act to provide “full light on” and “full light off” values, respectively. The generated power from the solar cell is read in to the Arduino via analog input, and the LEDs are driven via digital outs. The rest is some simple math that transforms the range of the analog signal into a digital range of zero to two hundo fifty five. It’s giant-ass-text-having snippet time!

// Solar LED IO // Joseph Swanson | https://swantron.com // 2011 // Define constants const int sensorPin = A3; // Solar cell Pin const int ledPin = 5; // varuiable LED Pin // Define variables int sensorValue = 0; // wipe read value int sensorMin = 0; // set initial min int sensorMax = 1023; // set initial max void setup() { // turn on Pin 11 LED…indicates calibration period begin pinMode(11, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(11, HIGH); // stay lit for five seconds while (millis() < 5000) { sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); // adjust for real max if (sensorValue < sensorMax) { sensorMax = sensorValue; } // adjust for real min if (sensorValue > sensorMin) { sensorMin = sensorValue; } } // end Pin 11… calibration period finito digitalWrite(11, LOW); } void loop() { // read the solar cell analog sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); // apply a little calibration to the sensor reading // bit from example sketch at http://arduino.cc sensorValue = map(sensorValue, sensorMin, sensorMax, 0, 255); // set constraint for outliers with respect to min/max sensorValue = constrain(sensorValue, 0, 255); // fade the LED from one to 255 analogWrite(ledPin, sensorValue); } Pretty straight forward. On to the vid… It’s web2.0-too-many-script-ass-calling embedded video time!Not too bad. Again, I used an Arduino Duemilanove and a Solar World panel. I might try to further this concept by incorporating my 120V switch and getting a lamp up in here. Stay tuned, as always.

If you would have asked me a year ago if I thought there was a need to wear a watch, I would have told you no. More specifically, I would have told you, “why would a person purchase a watch, when it is pretty much a given that there is a cell phone in the pocket of said buyer?” I would have had a valid point. Well, I can give you two reasons. Reason number one: fashion. Yawn. Not my style. Reason number two: cell phone might die. Yawn. My BlackBerry lasts forever. Flash forward to right now…I wear a wedding ring and have a phone that lasts about four hours on a charge. I need a watch. If I was to head out watch shopping right now, there is no doubt that I would buy a Invicta subaqua watch. Without a doubt, the coolest looking watch I have seen to date: In all honesty, that thing is sweet. I really dig black and silver…cite my SS as evidence. Clean, subtle, and sophisticated. Not to mention the whole sub-aqua thing. Pretty much can’t kill this thing. So, if I am to make a move to be on time, where should I look to buy my beloved Invicta subaqua? Easy. Blue Dial. Check out this price. Two hundred, sixty seven…down from nearly nine hundo. Beat that, I dare you. Hit that link, see for yourself. Great watches at greater prices…while you do that, I’m going to put my Droid 2 back on the flipping charger. It has been three hours.

I spend all day staring at screens. Be them my work monitors, (also know as “the twin twenties”) or the hi def screen on my mobile phone, (Droid 2, also know as “the D2”) I have screens all over the place. When I get home, I have two large flat screen televisions and a bunch of laptop computers. Honestly, screens everywhere. A side effect of swimming in screens is immediate access to the time. Work computer…time in the bottom left. Debian laptops? Time on the upper right. I have my netbook saving vertical space, so the time on that guy displays in the lower right. My droid spits out time all over the place…TVs are the same with the touch of one button. Everywhere I am, there it is. Has technology rendered watches useless? No way. Watches are awesome. There are a few different routes you could take with something like this. You could buy a stylish watch, or a watch that will serve a purpose of some sort. Or, you could grab something like this: (my new favorite, FWIW) I am digging Military Watches right now…good engineering, nice style. Like the one pictured above. The Tracer H3 is a serious machine. MB-Microtec H3 Tritium Illumination. For sure. That is not messing around. I am very impressed by the 200 meter capability of this watch. Very cool. Hit that link to see for yourself…that site has some awesome watches…good prices too.