8Bit Product

Do you know what this is?

Yes, it is an etch-able image, but of what? This comes straight from the minds of my Microcontroller Club's members. It's the first in a line of 8Bit products, the GhostRemote. What it is a tiny device into which you program a television remote command, which the board replicates at random intervals, annoying whomever is watching the TV. So far, I have the schematic and BOM made up, and I'm going to until I finish writing the code before I publish all of the materials. I also plan to make a kit available to those who want it.

Hilarity Ensues

Today, I was filming for a new "Tools of the Trade" video, when I decided I should include a colleague of mine, Aaron Ferber. This is what happened. Just and FYI, Aaron isn't Australian.

How to Use a Multimeter

New Intro Video

To go along with the new log, I thought I'd make an intro slide for my videos as well. Enjoy the nostalgia.

New Logo

I may not be the artistic type but I think I've outdone myself with this.

Learning AVR-C Episode 3: Digital Input, Pull-Ups and Binary Math

Arduino Tutorial #3 (Digital Input)

Today we have our third Arduino tutorial where we go over digital inputs and internal pull-up resistors on the Arduino. Because of some problems I had with the video enhancement software, this tutorial, I'm afraid, isn't quite up to my standards, so sorry about that.

DubStep. Food for thought.

2 days ago, I was sitting in my Calc class and one of my colleagues handed me his iPod and asked me to plug it into the new room's speaker system to test it out with some dubstep. But rather quickly the teacher came down on us. That night in the shower, a thought crossed my mind. The speakers weren't wireless, but they did have wires. I wondered if it would be possible to modulate the audio signal from the iPod with a low frequency, high amplitude, carrier wave, send that signal through the air to the wire where it would then induce a signal that would be amplified and played by the speakers. It makes sense, I've been able to achieve a similar effect with radios and short range transmitters, so why shouldn't it work over a larger scale.

Electronics 201: Pull-Up and Pull-Down Resistors

In today's lecture, we go over the useful tool that is the pull-up and pull-down resistor.

Computer in a Suitcase

I've always been fascinated with technology of the past. Perhaps not the distant past, but definitely within the last half century. One such piece of nostalgia is the Altair 8800, what is probably the first personal computer. What I want to do is recreate that sort of device within a suitcase, it makes sense. I'm going to use the Z80 microprocessor, the same processor in the TI-83 and 84 calculators, and the Altair's switch based programming and 5 expansion ports to create this device. I'm already working on a schematic for the entire thing, but I doubt the board will be something I can etch in my backyard.

Electronics 101: Capacitors

In this lecture, we go over the analog component that is the capacitor.

Learning AVR-C Episode 2: Setup and BlinkLED

In this video we go over the setup of the programming board we're going to use throughout the rest of the series, the basics of registers and the BlinkLED program.

Electronics 201: Digital vs. Analog

In this video, we start the Electronics 201 lecture series where we look at the more digital side of electronics as opposed to Electronics 101's analog electronics.

Arduino Tutorial #2 (Blink LED)

Here is my second Arduino tutorial where I go over the setup of the Arduino IDE, drivers, and some basic programming.