2021-04-05: Rover Hardware Lessons As I was putting together the Rover v2, there were quite a few lessons along the way, mostly about …
2021-04-02: LIDAR v2 Design Now that the Rover v2 base is working and driving well, I am turning my attention to the new LIDAR …
2021-03-30: Driving Rover with an Xbox Controller Before jumping to the PID implementation and eventually autonomous driving, I wanted to make sure …
2021-03-29: Improving XBee Delivery Protocol I spent a bit of time today improving the data delivery protocol I have been using with the XBees. I …
2021-03-15: Visualizing LIDAR Data I had my first try at visualizing incoming data from the LIDAR tonight. Good news is that it worked, …
2021-03-09: Designing Rover v2 I made some solid progress on the v2 design of the rover during last week and finally assembled an …
2021-03-07: PID Tuning Experiments I spent the last few days experimenting with PID algorithms and tuning parameters for straight …
2021-03-03: Driving Straight for Real Using PID After implementing the simple straight driving sample for the rover, and integrating the XBee …
2021-03-01: XBee Protocol Design One of the goals of the self driving rover project has always been to have it controlled by a base …
2021-02-24: Driving Straight I made some OK progress on the driving unit last night. I finally got the T connector for the LiPo …
2021-02-20: Visualizing LIDAR Data I had my first try at visualizing incoming data from the LIDAR last night. Good news is that it …
2021-02-19: Encoding DC Motor Steps Now that I have successfully encoded the stepper motor position for LIDAR, I turned my attention to …
2021-02-15: Encoding Stepper Motor Position I finally ran into an issue that I have been dreading for a while: Encoding the actual position of …
2021-02-14: Stepper Motor Success After a few days of struggling with stepper motor controls, I finally got everything working …
2021-02-08: Stepper Motor Hell I got the stepper motor working tonight. This was significantly harder than I expected. I had …
2021-02-08: Notes on LIDAR research I have been researching various ways to build a radar for robotic projects. I already have a Garmin …
2021-02-04: ZoomBox ZoomBox is ready! I designed and printed the top part and fitted the arcade buttons in. I wanted the …
2021-02-03: Designing with Fusion 360 Despite my initial aversion to it, Autodesk Fusion 360 is truly an amazing tool. The combination of …
2021-02-02: Zoom Mute Controller with Arduino I had a very informative hacking session tonight and quite a few trips down rabbit holes. I decided …
2021-02-01: Wrapped up the weekend with a successful test of the Bluetooth controls on LED Rainbow. M changed …
2021-02-01: Finally found some time last night to place the screen with battery status monitor on the vacuum. …
2021-01-31: Rainbow Protocol Made surprisingly good progress on the Bluetooth implementation tonight. Built a simple iOS app that …
2021-01-30: Bluetooth Rainbows Decided to add Bluetooth control to the LED Rainbow. Every once in a while we need to change the go …
2021-01-29: Pretty happy with the progress I made on the workout timer this week. Rotary encoder control feels …
2021-01-29: Workout Timer Initial Steps Made some good progress on the workout timer tonight. I have been coding for Arduino for years but I …
2021-01-28: New Project: Workout Timer Started work on a little side project: A workout timer. I need a simple timer during morning …
2021-01-27: Still have a long way to go, but I’m proud of the improvements in my soldering. Lots of lessons …
2021-01-26: Decided to make the jump and learn Fusion 360. I have been using Blender and as much as I like it, …
2021-01-25: I could watch this thing tick all day. Weirdly satisfying!
2021-01-24: After several minor adjustments, got the first successful version of the flipclock running well. …
2021-01-23: Had some issues with the flipclock. New digits look great, but they didn’t fit in the original …
2021-01-22: Designed and printed a motor holder for a new project I have in mind. Going to experiment with …
2021-01-21: Flipclock digits are assembled! They are looking clean and beautiful. I will be assembling the full …
2021-01-20: I have some soldering to do this weekend so I decided to improve my setup. After much searching, I …
2021-01-19: Started to plan out the PCB design for my handheld vacuum’s control unit. Display will show battery …
2021-01-18: Added some logic to the LED rainbow so it dims slowly over the course of the hour before turning off …
2021-01-18: Finally finished the LED rainbow project! After much tinkering, I gave up on the Trinket and hooked …
2021-01-17: Trinket Woes and A Prototyping Lesson I also managed to get an RTC module soldered on to the LED rainbow I designed for my daughter …
2021-01-17: Flipclock prototype is working well. Had to modify the front panel design and reprint, but now it’s …
2021-01-16: This weekend’s project: Building an old school flip clock from scratch. I based the prototype on …
2021-01-16: Really excited about blogging again, after so many years. I have been thinking about journaling for …