Tons of software that has a lot of value is given away freely and openly: it’s called open source software. This is nothing new. But how does it apply to real, tangible stuff? Until now it didn’t at all. The incredible, invaluable SparkFun is changing that with their Free Day.
On January 7th, 2010 orders up to $100 are free, free, free (minus shipping). That is what I call real money (currently, eventually will be pocket change, if things go to plan). Nobody does that, nobody. And admirable act from folks at SparkFun, who’ve provided the essential parts and pieces for projects to me and many others for years.
I couldn’t resist. I’m, and have been, a happy Droid owner. Here’s what’s good: apps in the background (so can keep Pandora rocking while using other apps), awesome large, high-res screen (480×854), 5MP camera, and it also makes calls.
Being a software developer I’m excited about making innovative apps for the Android platform. The mobile app opportunity is large and relatively wide open, and while the penetration of Android in terms of market share is low it is and will grow quickly now that it’s backed up by great hardware. Look for my apps in the App Market Q1 2010.
It’s all about scale, in this case time: when you slow things down you find out things you wouldn’t know otherwise. This is why I need a high speed camera.
From the previous post you can see that the hardware design is complete in the form of a schematic, which only specifies how things are connected but not in a specific physical layout. That’s done in the separate step where you arrange the parts and connect them, according to the schematic, using board (as in printed circuit board or PCB) layout software. I’m using the free CadSoft EAGLE which works very well for both schematics and layouts.
Nothing fancy, a two-layer design making a roughly 2“x3” board. This will go right on the central platform of the quadrotor. Already sent out to my go-to board manufacturer Advanced Circuits which take my files and make a high quality circuit board ready for parts assembly.
Things that fly are neat, and pretty useful. I really like neat so I’m building something that flies: a small-scale quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV. It’s conceptually really basic, just a cross with four motors at the ends that provide lift and by changing the power to each motor allow you to control where in goes. Simple.
The hard part is figuring out how to control it. In fact its too complex to be controlled by a human operator alone. Thus the main problem is to write some smart software that either helps stabilize the quadrotor or flies it with no human input. There’s a whole engineering field devoted to solving issues involved in controlled highly dynamic systems: control theory, my new friend I’ll surely be getting very familiar, if not quite intimate, with.
But not just yet. Before the software comes the hardware needed to run it. And for something flying through the air you need sensors in every direction to tell you what’s going on in terms of your motion. A 3-axis linear accelerometer and a 3-axis gyrometer are what’s needed (and sufficient), as seen below in the schematic (Click for a closer look). Those plus a microcontroller, power supply and wireless module.
Halloween is tomorrow. Just in time I’ve completed a little project that I call Ping Pong Pumpkins. Simple idea: power an LED with a coin cell battery (ala LED Throwies) and put inside a decorated orange ping pong ball and you have a mobile electronic jack-o-lantern (an iPumpkin?).
It’s as unique as you make it and a fun, quick little way to decorate. Did I mention it’s portable? Have a happy Halloween.
327 feet tall, 2.6 million pounds of thrust, zero to Mach 1 in 39 seconds. The NASAAres I-X test rocket, part of the Constellation program for the next generation of spacecraft. Launched 11:30AM ET yesterday morning.
The experimental method is useful for figuring things out, but it is time consuming. Luckily many people like to share their results thus avoiding unnecessarily redoing lots of work. This is especially good when it saves my time (my time being very valuable). So I’m glad I found a recent exploration of powering LEDs just by connecting them to a small “coin” battery, which is not unheard of (see LED Throwie) but not the standard procedure in most circuits. Happily the findings are good news.
Normally when you don’t stick a resistor (something that stops too much current from flowing through a device) in series with a LED the LED starts to burn and short out: not good unless you like the smell of burning plastic. But small 3 volt batteries like those used in remote controls and so on have an internal resistance in them which prevents a death of flames for a LED attached to them. Additionally, with a white LED that needs about 3 volts to light up the basic circuit (LED + battery) will stay lit for over a week. That’s the key piece of info I required.
That’s precisely what I needed to know for my Ping Pong Pumpkins project which I will be treating the world to this Thursday in a make-your-own event. It would be some trick to have them not last through Halloween.
[
