5May2009 – old stuff that may still be useful
This salvaged bit with 5 pots was from a Sony monitor I believe.
It was another straight-forward reverse-the-board job…
Arduino 101 meetup prep – day 2 – twirly knobs
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Arduino 101 meetup prep – day 1 – LCD display
4May2009 – old stuff that may still be useful
Thought I should figure out a few things about this Duemilanove board before the Friday meetup. To that end I rummaged through my lab to collect a bucket of parts that might illustrate some fundamental “peripherals” people might like to see connected to an Arduino. Collected LEDs, switches, pots, an LDR, a VU gauge, a hall sensor, a servo, an L293 h-bridge, and an LCD from an old printer console, shown here:
But before you get to this, you need to…
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Arduino 101 meetup prep – day 4 – reflective infrared sensor
7May2009 – old stuff that may still be useful
Here’s a reflective infrared light sensor I salvaged from a printer. In that application they are typically used to detect the presence of paper, which is way more reflective than the dark plastic insides of the printer. These can useful for detecting light and dark surface transitions in projects like line-following-robots. Only 2 resistors are required to hook this up to the Arduino…
You find these in all sorts of machines that handle paper including faxes and photocopiers too. The sensor is usually on a small PCB to facilitate mounting in its host machine.
Arduino 101 meetup prep – day 3 – piezo!
5May2009 – old stuff that may still be useful
By request: hooking up a piezo buzzer to the Duemilanove to make sound.
A piezo element is just a bimetallic sandwich, usually circular and stuffed in a small case, that bends when you put a voltage across it. If you alternate between, say, 5 volts and ground across the piezo, then the ensuing bending creates waves in air which we call sound. Some piezo units come with built-in drive circuitry that will create that alternating voltage for you: just hook up power and ground. Most that I salvage are just the piezo element, so I need to provide my own wave.
You can find piezo elements in old modems, fax machines, microwaves, printers, telephones, pagers, PC mainboard (BIOS beep), seatbelt warning buzzers, smoke detectors (triple lead, super-loud piezo with feedback), etc. Pretty much anything that has an annoying beep. You will also find piezos in many dollar store toys, but they are invariably of lower quality. We find tonight’s piezo in a humble modem.
A few Phillips screws later… (I really love this vintage of hardware, early 90’s, beautiful boards, DIP package IC’s, scroungable parts abounding, but I digress)
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BOX Art + Jazz + The Registry Theatre == Friday Win
Oil on board – “Newton’s Progress” – David G. White
David G. White and I took his latest two paintings down to The Registry Theatre last night to be hung for the Friday Feb 3 opening reception at 7pm. The Registry show is one of those year-round BOX-initiated engagements that continues to give BOX artists show-and-sell ops beyond the BOX Art Show & Sale. You can get a peek at the art for free, but for the jazz show at 8pm you’ll need to pony up a well-spent $22. Chatting with Lawrence McNaught, Director of Programming and Development at The Registry, he said it’s going to be a killer show featuring the Bernie Senensky Quartet doing Take 5 – The Music of Dave Brubeck. The piano will blow your mind.
Grab your tickets online, or at Centre In The Square box office, or you can take your chances at the Registry door. See you there.
Artists support THEMUSEUM at The Brush Off
Local artists came out in force to support THEMUSEUM Saturday night at The Brush Off event. This live painting event was AWESOME, and you’ll be kicking yourself if you missed it. The artists generously donated their time and also donated the work produced, with all proceeds going to THEMUSEUM. The fabulous (and I do mean fabulous) Wyndham Art Supplies from Guelph came through as a massive supporter, providing paints, stretchers, and easels. That store will blow your hair back.
For the thumbnail pics of all the works produced (above), you’ll find the artist’s name in the alt text if you hover your mouse cursor over the image. The artists were:
Chris Austin
Meredith Blackmore – 1st prize!
Elizabeth Goose
Nik Harron – runner up!
Jennifer Janik
Leanne Lang
Sang-jin Lee
Stephen Levigne
James Nye
Luisa Pariselli
Carmen Peters
Laura Renwick
Raine Shen
Heather Soeder
James Spencer
Stela Topolcic
Todd Tremeer
Michael Vickers
David G. White – my brother from the very same mother
Want to support the artists? Click through on the links above and buy their work! The average Canadian artist makes only $8000 per year, so these local makers really need our support. They seem like the least-affluent group to be tapped to give stuff away, so massive props to this crew for making it happen, regardless. Hopefully future events will adopt a model where the artists get paid, as seen with the BOX Art Show & Sale and Art Allies . Everybody’s gotta eat.
THEMUSEUM sold 175 pre-event tickets and then a whopping additional 175’ish bought tickets at the door ($17). The bar sold out of mixed drinks halfway through the night from the heavy and unexpected traffic. One of the paintings donated for the silent auction was bid up to $400, and all were a bargain, starting at $50. Hopefully a revenue positive night for THEMUSEUM.
Click through for an unreasonable number of pictures from the event. My photos are available for sale. Interesting trades considered…
Evidence of Human Life–post malaise
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Tagged EHL, urban exploration
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What can you make with a laser cutter?
A pretty freakin’ cool clock, for one thing.
I popped by kwartzlab last Tuesday for their open night to check out the new laser cutter, funded by CEEO. James Bastow was there with his latest project: a word clock, inspired by a design from other makers. This is exactly the kind of project that becomes far more feasible once you have access to a laser.