• Driving to Bring A Hack!

    Elecia White • 05/23/2016 at 00:10 • 0 comments

    I'm out of time so I must be finished. Chris made a video.


  • It looks like a wire factory vomited on my desk

    Elecia White • 05/21/2016 at 20:43 • 0 comments

    That's normal. At some point in my projects, the wires get out of hand. It usually means it is time to take stock of what I'm doing and simplify. I'm happy to say that is not the case here. I'll be adding more wires with abandon.

    Also, I took out the motor and its haptic feedback because the neopixels were unhappy with how it dirtied the power. However, I added a sound effects board so now I'm playing ridiculous audio snippets from movies with robots in them.

    All the non-removable parts of the board are currently glued and drying. Once I add the crazy control wires, I'll take a few pictures, maybe even solidify the control structure and put it up.

    Of course, it is due tomorrow so I may have to put it in its little box instead of writing more.

  • What will the wires do...

    Elecia White • 05/14/2016 at 16:01 • 0 comments

    30 GPIOs in the LPC11U24. Four are outputs:

    • p5 MOSI will be for the NeoPixel strand
    • one for the speaker
    • one for the motor

    That leaves 27 for wires that can be pulled out to change the behavior.

    Six inputs for color with two each for red, green, and blue. If both are in, then that color will be off. If one is in, then half on, If neither, then full on. (If all LEDs are set to be off then it will be very softly on, white.)

    Two inputs for blink method: blink selected color to full white (00), blink selected color to black (01), blink to random (10), and blink to the opposite color (not all the bits),

    Three wires for timing of the blink, where if there is only one of the wires in (doesn't matter which), it will not blink. The remaining five timing are in seconds: 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0.

    Ok, so 27 - 6 - 2 - 3 = 16 inputs left.

    I'll need a sound selector. How many sounds can I do? Various clock ticking sounds (say 4), silence (a couple slots of that), and any music I can pack into a frequency/duration array. So at least three wires, maybe four.

    What to do with the remaining twelve inputs. Hmmm... I did say I wanted a motor. I was just going to vibrate it when a wire is pulled out. I suppose like sounds, I can do a frequency/duration thing. Three wires for that.

    Nine remaining inputs. I have eight LEDs on the NeoPixel strand. I want to have one LED always on. But that could take up seven inputs.

    And I think leave I'll leave the remaining two open. For future expansion.

  • Constructive Destruction and Superheroes

    Elecia White • 05/14/2016 at 04:10 • 0 comments

    I like breaking down boxes. A nice box cutter and a bunch of boxes that need to be made flat can help dissipate my crankiness. Years ago, after a satisfying session in the store room as I worked though a bug in my head, I mentioned this to a coworker at a job. He looked baffled. Another colleague came up and we bonded over the idea of constructive destruction.

    Last week, I was in a black mood, breaking down the debris of Amazon packages, and was reminded of this episode. Some times I just want to burn the world down. I suspect everyone has these feelings. Channeling them into improving my environment is better than the many other ways I could handle them.

    Unrelated, a few nights ago, I was watching cartoons with my husband. J'onn J'onzz reached into an evil robot's head and pulled out a fistful of wires. The robot's behavior changed as it died. J'onn looked satisfied. A few minutes later, he admitted to Superman that he was having a good time wreaking havoc.

    And that was the moment I realized I wanted to make something new for OSHPark's post-Maker-Faire Bring-a-Hack dinner. This was far more joyful that it sounds. I haven't been wanting to do anything technical lately. Work is currently boring. Writing has been fraught. The podcast can be fun but occasionally feels chore-like. When I dig a hole of unhappy busyness, I try to make it both deep and wide.

    Now, through, I have an idea for a personal project. It should be a quick build, as much craft as code, but the possibility of amusement is high.