Presto Chango
December 8, 2006
Yay! The RS232 to TTL level shifters from Spark Fun arrived today. That means I can build what I hope will be a PC-based sniffer for the Honda Music Link.
But first? Dinner.
Category electronics
NYT
December 6, 2006
Hmm, someone writing an article on vehicular iPod integration for the New York Times just emailed me with some questions about the Honda Music Link. My answers may have been a bit much, but I hope he got what he is looking for.
The name the person who wrote is Jim Motavalli and he appears to be a fairly frequent writer of enviromental-type stories, with many contributions to the NYT. It’ll be interesting to see what the final story is like.
Wow. Snow.
December 4, 2006
Woah, snow!
I sure didn’t expect to find that when I looked outside after walking upstairs. Looks like this area has received it’s first substantial snowfall. Yes, there was the weird squall a month or so ago, but that melted within an hour.
Actually, looking further, the all of this area is forecasted to get a good bit of snow.
I think tonight, after I’m done with some electronics work, will involve a bunch of hot Thai curry and a nice beer for dinner.
Oh, on a side note, would any of you be interested in buying my USB oscilloscope? It seems that I don’t need it. I want US$150 for it, shipped to anywhere in the world, via First Class mail (aka Airmail). Photos of it can be seen here (photo gallery retired).
Sequentix P3 Wooden End Cheeks
November 15, 2006
My Sequentix P3 with the wooden end cheeks installed.
(Click for more…)
Yay! My Sequentix P3 is finally complete! This afternoon I was surprised to find one of the typically labeled packages from Sequentix waiting in the mailbox. I’d been waiting for the wooden end cheeks for the P3 I’d finished a few months ago and they are finally here. I’m really, really happy with them, too.
As you can see above, they make the sequencer look really finished. This project can also now be considered totally, completely finished. Yay!
mikroElektronika’s EasyPIC4
November 7, 2006
mikroElektronika’s RTC for the EasyPIC4 (and others).
(Click for more photos…)
I know that most of you don’t care, but here are some photos of the mikroElektronika EasyPIC4 which arrived today, along with some other PIC dev tools: mikroElektronika EasyPIC4 (photo gallery retired)
reactable
November 6, 2006
HobbyLab USB Oscilloscope
October 25, 2006
Inside of the HobbyLab USB Oscilloscope
(Click for more photos…)
Today a USB Oscilloscope from HobbyLab arrived. The nice thing about it is that it also has a logic analyzer build in. So, if things go as planned I’ll hook it to the Honda Music Link tonight and start picking apart its serial data.
Also, I’m moving photos of things I’ve acquired (purchased, traded, or otherwise come into possession of) into a photo album called Stuff I’ve Acquired (photo gallery retired). Thusly many of the links down below have probably broken. My photo gallery is long overdue for a reorganization. It’s become difficult for me to find things.
Cypress PSoC
October 12, 2006
Cypress PSoC ExpressEval Kit (CY3210-PSoCExpEVK)
(Click for more photos…)
Thanks to LJ’s new AJAX-ness breaking and the built-in autosave stuff failing, I just lost what I wrote here. So, I’ll try again:
Upon arriving home from work today I found a small box on the porch. Upon opening it I remembered that last week I had ordered a eval kit for Cypress’ PSoC Express. I had figured that it would just be a CD or something, but it turned out to be a lot more. What I received is the package you see above, containing two CY3210-PSoCEVAL1 boards, a CY8C29446 PSoC, a CY8C27443 PSoC, a 9V battery, cables, jumpers, and everything else one could need for getting familiar with PSoCs.
Thus far I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with PSoC Express. It’s a bit clunky to work with, but in a few minutes I was able to bang together a blinking LED, the turning on/off of LEDs at various positions on a pot, latching an LED on or off with each button press, etc. It’s really quite nifty.
If you’re interested in seeing more photos of the eval kit, take a look here: Cypress PSoC ExpressEval Kit (photo gallery retired)
If you’d like one, they can be acquired from Cypress’ Get PSoC site.
PCBFABEXPRESS Update
September 14, 2006
Huh. So I just got off the phone with Shiva at PCBFABEXPRESS. After discussing the problem with him and explaining that four of the five boards appear fine and only one was bad, he understood that this is simply a manufacturing defect. He said that he will take a look around PCBFABEXPRESS’ backstock and see if there are any more copies of my board available. If one is, he will send it out right away for me to take a look at. If not, he’ll have another run of five boards made and will send those out to me.
This is looking a lot better. Of course, my PCBFABEXPRESS Review has been updated accordingly.
DIY Peoples
September 13, 2006
I was talking with someone who purchased one of my pieces of x0xb0x artwork, who is also building a MIDIbox SID, and who also is finishing up a 9090 and he pointed me to this site, entitled Anodizing Aluminum At Home. Seems pretty straightforward. H2SO4, NaOH, a 12V power supply, and a hunk of lead.