Let the tips roll
S1axter's Tech Log of Crazy Stuff
It took a few days but the tips are starting to roll in.
Thanks go out to Hakeisu for submitting the Spring 2007 University of Colorado Senior Capstone project page. There is some really cool stuff on here including a project to make a device that acts as both the starter and alternator of a car.
Check it out: http://ece.colorado.edu/academics/ugrad/expo/spring07.html
Years past: http://ece.colorado.edu/academics/ugrad/expo.html
I've known about EmbeddedRelated for a while but don't think I ever made a post about it. Well Mike B dropped a tip and enlightened me on my error. EmbeddedRelated is a site dedicated to all kinds of embedded systems, using a forum like structure.
Take a look: http://embeddedrelated.com/
Bill R dropped us a tip today about a sweet piece of software that allows you to use a WiiMote as a media player controller; BlueTunes. I downloaded the app and the software worked no problem, even with my older Win2000 using BlueSoleil setup.
BlueTunes: http://home.comcast.net/%7Ebluetunes/
BlueSoleil wiimote: http://www.wiili.org/index.php/HowTo:BlueSoleil
Thanks to all, the tipsters are entered to win the Olimex PIC-MT from SparkFun Electronics. If you find a cool site, drop us a tip and enter to win!
Alright, so now I'm back in the US of A and it's time to start something I've been planning for a while.
Yah I know I am obsessed with keyboard mods. It's probably because I have a keyboard fetish but I didn't say that outloud. I found a easy EL wire mod tutorial for those who would like to add a little flash to their boring keyboards. It doesn't take much time and is very inexpensive. The only problem with this tutorial is the fact that the guy runs another wire off of his keyboard to the main pc for the power. I would try to pull the power off of a usb bus if that is what your keyboard is using. That would take a little more effort doing the conversions etc. 
This was posted on Make today and it really caught my eye. I remember when I was younger finding some wooden staves and spray painting them to look like lightsabers. I'm sure tons of other people have cobbled together 'lightsabers' and ended up beating the crap out of friends or younger brothers in the back yard. This DIY lightsaber setup is cheap, cool looking, and since it's made of plastic probably won't hurt as much as 1inch wooden staves :-P.
I stumbled upon this project while I was looking around for some neat projects to plan for in the future. This Talking time and temperature alarm clocks core is a PIC16F876A programmed in C (with the CSS compiler), the EMIC text-to-speech module and a 4 digit SLED4C serial seven-segment display module. This would be a great project to get back into the some small scale PIC or Microcontroller applications, and will teach you some handy C functions that can be used later down the road. 
Looks like airport security thinks a microcontroller programmer is dangerous to domestic US flights. This guy was flying out of South Dakota and was not allowed to take his modified microcontroller programmer on the flight with him. I find this slightly ridiculous, it's a tool, not powered, not plugged in, not capable of anything. To be fair the blog post says that it wasn't the programmer that was the problem but the added resistor and RC circuit on the device that made security concerned. Sometimes I do forget that most people look at electric circuits as voodoo but come on, if someone is an embedded designer/technician on a business trip, can explain what the addition is and why it is there (with all supporting math) why not let them pack it in cargo. Isn't it great when some lay person gets to say 'I don't know what it is so it must be bad'?
It looks like a tie on the poll between PIC and AVR. There are strong supporters on both sides as a quick Google search with show.
