Maniacal Labs
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Random Photos
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Fun with the MSGEQ7 Graphic Equalizer Chip
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Raspberry Pi QuadTempProbe: Temperature Measurement and Logging
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24x24 LED Matrix Build
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Open Source PCB: ATTinyX5 Dev Board
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NeoPixel Glass Skull Lighting Effect (A.K.A Mr. BlinkySkull)
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Sunrise Alarm Clock - Prototype
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Meter Clock: Keeping "Current" Time
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Polar Giraffe Update
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NC Maker Faire Teaser
I had a 24-led NeoPixel ring lying around being useless, so I decided to make it do something less useless. As is typical, it became a clock. Not an original idea, sure. But these rings are well-suited for clockification. The blue ‘seconds’ lights will fade around the ring once per minute. There’s some mapping logic to determine where the green ‘minutes’ light should go. Hours is straightforward enough if the clock is showing 24hr time.
Read more…Not much today. Just a pair of videos from some testing I’ve been doing with the MSGEQ7 Graphic Equalizer Display Filter chip. The first one shows the waveform of the analog output of the chip. The second video shows what happens when you take that output and parse it out to a bunch of LPD8806 lights. If these experiments go any further, I’ll do a more in-depth post with code and schematics and stuff.
Read more…A friendĀ asked me a few days ago if I knew of a way to remotely monitor multiple different points of temperature, log the data, and generate an email alert if sensor reading went out of bounds. Since I happened to have a ‘project-in-progress’ with just that goal, I decided I should finish it. Or, rather, get it to a working state. QTP_Complete
Read more…This project was briefly teased before, but it seemed like a good time for more details. Originally conceived as a coffee table build,it quickly morphed into what will eventually become a wall hanging and has been a test-bed for a lot of my LED work. Having worked a great deal with a variety of these digital LED strips, I noticed that in most cases they were manufactured in 0.
Read more…While the standard Arduino (especially variants like the Pro Mini) truly is a lilliputian computing device, even it sometimes seems like trying to swat a fly with a sledgehammer. Sometimes you just need a few I/O pins for a status light, timer, tiny sensor, etc. Enter the ATTinyX5 series of chips. The ATTiny25, ATTiny45, and ATTiny85 have 8 pins, 6 I/O and 2048⁄128, 4096⁄256 and 8192⁄512 bytes of flash/RAM respectively. The ‘85 can be had for just over $1 from sites like Mouser.
Read more…Awesome skull-shaped vodka bottle plus Arduino Pro Mini plus NeoPixels equals: I’ve had this (empty) bottle of Crystal Head vodka for a while. Admittedly I mostly bought it because the bottle was really neat and I wanted to make it light up. Up until this point, I was using a small version of the RGB clock to illuminate it. It was a neat effect, but not very bright. It was time for an upgrade.
Read more…While I rarely sleep past 6am, or sleep at all for that matter, my wife does require an alarm clock from time to time. After a recent few days of her alarm going off right in the middle of a R.E.M. sleep cycle she mentioned a desire for a more gentle alarm. I’ve seen those sunrise alarm clock lights many times before, but they but they are a bit pricey and she didn’t want a light that would be right next to the bed.
Read more…MeterClock_LitUp I’ve seen a few meter clocks in my travels of the web, and I love the idea. A few days ago, I decided that I must have one of my own. Such began the “How to do it” pondering cycle.
Read more…First off, hopefully after the end of this month, activity on the site will pick up a bit. We’ve got some neat projects we’re working on that would definitely be worth sharing. So yeah, look for more soon! In the mean time, here’s a quick look at some updates I’ve made to the Polar Giraffe. Those who were able to see it at Maker Faire NC commented on how the the gondola was floating in mid-air.
Read more…Just a quick teaser for the upcoming NC Maker Faire on June 7th. These are just some animation tests for my new LED display. It’s a 24 x 24 pixel LED matrix built from LPD8806 LED strips and mounted on a 24” x 24” sheet of acrylic. The animations are generated by some python code running on a Raspberry Pi. LPD8806 Matrix
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