Friday fun: Arduino 101 - The LED

Well my curiosity got the better of me and I finally decided to order an Arduino microcontroller board. It should arrive some time next week. If you are not familiar with the Arduino the take a look at this introduction video from makemagazine:



You can find out even more information about the Arduino at: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/02/howto_tuesday_arduino_101_blink_an_led.html

While looking for Arduino videos I came across another introductory video, "Intro to the Arduino", but it was just a little too goofy even for a Friday Fun post though you may want to check it out.

I guess I am going to have to brush up on my C programming, and that's a good thing. I will also be checking out the Processing language too. I'll try to post more as I make progress with the board, and hopefully I'll post more than once a week.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday fun: Mysterious Lightbulb Hack

Here's a great project from Kip Kay that's perfect for all you Uncle Fester wanna-bees - The Mysterious Lightbulb Hack:



For more great projects check out Kip Kay's Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/Kipkay

Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday fun: Evil Mouse Prank

So you have an old ball (analog) mouse, a pager motor, and coworker who's in need of some serious pranking? Well makemagazine has a great project for you - The Evil Mouse Prank :



Check out the PDF for this project at the URL below:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/04/weekend_project_evil_mouse_prank_pd.html

Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday fun: Ghost Phone

Friday fun for this week is another great weekend project from makemagazine that is ideal for this upcoming Halloween - The Ghost Phone:



Build one of these and you'll have lot's of fun, even when it's not Halloween. You can find the PDF for this project at the URL below:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/weekend_project_ghost_phone_pdf.html

Have a great weekend ~ Jim

CircuitCellar: Sci-Fi Inspirations

Just a quick note that the latest issue of CircuitCellar arrived in the mail a few days ago, and as always it was loaded with lots of geek goodies! One of the treasures in this issue is the PRIORITY INTERRUPT column by Steve Ciarcia entitled "Sci-Fi Inspirations" where he writes about how the original Star Trek influenced many technologies that we take for granted today. Some good examples are the Cell Phone, the PDA, and Large-View Screen.

Give the column a read, and I think you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Cheers ~ Jim

Friday fun: USB Motion Detector

This week's Friday Fun features a USB Motion Detector project from makemagazine that with a little extra tweaking and coding could be put to use this coming Halloween:



You can find the schematic and other information here: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/02/weekend_project_usb_motion_detector.html

Have a great weekend ~ Jim