If anyone reading this is considering an Arduinome build or ANYTHING to do with electronics, you should wait until January 7th. Sparkfun Electronics (who make Arduniome button pads, breakout PCBs, diodes and about 14 billion other useful things) are having a day where you can get up to $100 of stuff for FREE (less shipping costs), so you should definitely take advantage of it to get things that you've been hanging out for.
It'll also shave a bit of a chunk off an Arduinome build!
Mo' info:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=305
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Faceplate Heads Up
It seems I acted a little too rashly on the faceplate front.
Turns out the CuriousInventor plates require a significant amount of modification to fit a Bibo PCB (which the guy who told me the CI plates were compatible somehow forgot to mention until 4 days after I'd bought the damn thing). In any case, I'll hang onto it, and try to sell it on when/if I can, and just use the CAD files that exist to fit the Bibo PCB to have an all wooden enclosure built, with minimal screws.
P.S. Clear acrylic CuriousInventor faceplate for sale for an Arduinome with Sparkfun PCBs, $30...
Monday, November 16, 2009
Quick Parts Update
Got an email from Jameco today, requesting $40 to ship the $7.50 LED driver to Australia. Cancelled it right away, as that's completely insane. I'll try to source the part locally, as littlebird may have it.
I also purchased a Curious Inventor clear acrylic faceplate as it turns out the buttons only need to be slightly modified to fit the casing, so the faceplate problem is solved! This will give me some solid dimensions to work with, so I can hopefully get a wooden enclosure built relatively easily.
The last big overseas purchase remaining is the Sparkfun buttons and the small signal diodes (also from Sparkfun, as littlebird here don't have quite enough stock). As I'm heading back home to Montreal for six weeks in just over a month, I figure that I may as well just ship them all there to save on shipping costs and bring them back with me, then start on the construction phase of things.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
LEDs/LED Driver
Decided to bite the bullet and pick up the LEDs right away (being at work attached to the internet generally means that I'll buy at least one thing per shift, simply out of compulsion and watching YouTube videos of completed Arduinomes), and figured I may as well pick up the MAX chip as well (which is responsible for driving the LEDs).
I ended up going with blue flat top LEDs (wider angle of luminacy, so it'll spread the glow around the button more easily, instead of having a point of light), rated at 4000-5000mcd. More on the resistor later, when I deal with that part of it. I bought the LEDs off of eBay from a Chinese dealer (there are countless, and the LEDs are priced really nicely). I picked up 100 of these for about $15.
Picked up the MAX7219CNG chip from Jameco.com, which I didn't realise was in the States until I got to the checkout - hopefully I don't get screwed on shipping. That said, the LEDs had free shipping, so I suppose it all evens out.
At this point, what we've got left is as follows:
To be sourced from Jaycar Electronics, my local electronics/stuff dealer (should be about $10, if Dan was right with his costings)
And the case! (Who knows how much this'll end up costing!)
I ended up going with blue flat top LEDs (wider angle of luminacy, so it'll spread the glow around the button more easily, instead of having a point of light), rated at 4000-5000mcd. More on the resistor later, when I deal with that part of it. I bought the LEDs off of eBay from a Chinese dealer (there are countless, and the LEDs are priced really nicely). I picked up 100 of these for about $15.
Picked up the MAX7219CNG chip from Jameco.com, which I didn't realise was in the States until I got to the checkout - hopefully I don't get screwed on shipping. That said, the LEDs had free shipping, so I suppose it all evens out.
At this point, what we've got left is as follows:
| Sparkfun Button Pads | 4 | |
| Diode Small Signal - 1N4148 | 70 | |
| To be sourced from Sparkfun's website | ||
| (About $55 or so) | ||
| Shift register 74HCT165 (Parallel in/serial out) | 1 | |
| Shift register 74HCT164 (Serial in/parallel out) | 1 | |
| 10Kohm, 10 pin, Resistor network | 1 | |
| 0.1uf Capacitor | 3 | |
| 10uf Capacitor | 1 | |
| 16 pin IC Socket | 1 | |
| 14 pin IC Socket | 1 | |
| 24 pin IC Socket | 1 |
And the case! (Who knows how much this'll end up costing!)
Arduinome Buildin'!
So no updates in 3 months?
Excellent. This blog is now going to (hopefully) chart the course of building a (hopefully) functional Arduinome 64. Gotta thank my buddy Dan Stork (ledlightdistrict.blogspot.com) for finally inspiring me to get off my ass and do it.
Where things stand at the moment are as follows:
I've bought the Arduino Duemilanove, the Unsped PCB shield (bought 2, just in case I somehow do something horrible to one of them) and Bibo's 8x8 buttonpad PCB.
Still to purchase are the LEDs (thinking flat top, blue LEDs), the Sparkfun buttonpads, diodes (for the LEDs), a resistor network and the other little things that will make it all work.
The biggest problem I've run into is the lack of places to find an enclosure - as my place is pretty dusty, I don't want the guts of it hanging out in the open air, getting dirty and so I'd like to have the case ready for it all to go in as quickly as possible. That said, no one at the moment makes faceplate or an enclosure that fits Bibo's PCB design (just the 4x4 Sparkfun PCB that most users who have Arduinome blogs have decided to use). I'll be trying to track down schematics, then get the plates cut and hopefully get a custom built wooden enclosure over the next few months.
No pictures yet, simply because there's nothing to show, but they will follow as things are done.
Excellent. This blog is now going to (hopefully) chart the course of building a (hopefully) functional Arduinome 64. Gotta thank my buddy Dan Stork (ledlightdistrict.blogspot.com) for finally inspiring me to get off my ass and do it.
Where things stand at the moment are as follows:
I've bought the Arduino Duemilanove, the Unsped PCB shield (bought 2, just in case I somehow do something horrible to one of them) and Bibo's 8x8 buttonpad PCB.
Still to purchase are the LEDs (thinking flat top, blue LEDs), the Sparkfun buttonpads, diodes (for the LEDs), a resistor network and the other little things that will make it all work.
The biggest problem I've run into is the lack of places to find an enclosure - as my place is pretty dusty, I don't want the guts of it hanging out in the open air, getting dirty and so I'd like to have the case ready for it all to go in as quickly as possible. That said, no one at the moment makes faceplate or an enclosure that fits Bibo's PCB design (just the 4x4 Sparkfun PCB that most users who have Arduinome blogs have decided to use). I'll be trying to track down schematics, then get the plates cut and hopefully get a custom built wooden enclosure over the next few months.
No pictures yet, simply because there's nothing to show, but they will follow as things are done.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
#7 - No I Don't Suppose [Holy Heck Update!]
Ok ok, so to the people who read this, I lied and didn't update. In my defence, you all actually know me so you could've just said something insulting to motivate me, so you're all to blame.
Reason for new post: Learned how to make analogue tape loops today. Here's a quick piece I whipped up using a single tape loop and lots of layering (Steve Reich style). Also featured towards the end is a simple delay that all the tracks are bussed to.
Hooray!
Hopefully more experimental/developmental stuff is to follow, as I figure out how to do things. Next week's project? Mobius tape loops.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I Am Bad At Committment
Apologies to the, y'know, 2 people who follow this (Codie, Bexc0r) and myself are in order. I totally didn't lose interest, just been working on stuff that I've put up at:
New stuff up here next week though!
-Hibernaut
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