My New Office / MadLab Is Almost Done

The last of the major construction, the pour of

the 4th floor slab, is being completed today.

This is the rooftop of a 3 story building. It will have a
garden and party area, only accessible from the 4th
floor of our home, which is next door.

The floor below this (the 3rd floor) will be home to
my new office / Mad Lab. The floor space is 33
square meters, so there is lots of room. On the
west end, to the top-left of the picture, will be
a private patio with a BBQ grill. The east end,
to the bottom-right of the picture, will have
a terrace. The only access is from the 3rd
floor of our house next door. Should be nice.

 This is the office patio on the west side.
I can't wait for the first BBQ.

PIC Micro-Controlled Cat Ball

Creating a PIC Micro-Controlled Cat Ball

Two flashing LEDs, Piezo Speaker for sounds/music, vibrating motor.

Optional IR receiver for IR remote control.

Battery powered

Required Parts:

PIC12F1840

8-Pin Socket

Perf Board

.1uf capacitor

2 Bright Blue LEDs

2 270 ohm resistors

Piezo Speaker

Vibrating Motor from a PSONE controller

FET switch from a PSONE controller

6-pin female single row header

Blue wire

Solder

Plastic cage-type cat ball

Rechargeable battery (+4.5V-+5.5V)

Optional Parts (for IR remote control):

40khz IR receiver

100 ohm resistor

270 ohm resistor

Small IR remote control

Modified Leakfrogs

I have six leakfrogs in our flat to protect against water damage. Sometimes more than one goes- off at a time, and I have to run around checking each leakfrog. To make things simpler (and to make the frogs more entertaining), I added LED eyes to each frog that flash when the leak alarm goes off.

Easy hack - two LEDs and a 220 ohm resister and some wire. The hardest part is disassembling/reassembling the little buggers.

PIC-Based Amplifier Interface

I've been working on this for a while. It is a PIC12F1840-based Amplifier Interface. The engine is a PIC12F1840 - an 8-pin device with lots of cool features. It interfaces to an HEF4015 for the buttons, has an IR receiver input, and communicates to the LCD screen and audio processor through an I2C interface.

I was trying to integrate a radio module, but the module I had developed a short to ground on the SCLK line.

I have an (ugly) case for it to go in - it has one stereo output and 3.5 inputs (MP3, VID, AUX, and a stereo plug in the front that switches into the AUX input - for plugging in your MP3 player).

Almost there. Just cleaning up a few bugs.

Iron Man Chest Arc Reactor

UPDATE 12.1121:
A newer version (V3.00) of the Iron Man Chest Arc Reactor is here.
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Update 12.0811:
A new version (V2.00) of the Iron Man Chest Arc Reactor here.
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Component side of the board.

Main components are 17 bright blue LEDs, a PIC12F1860 PIC12F1840,

an IR receiver, current limiting resistors (for the LEDs), an ICSP header

for programming the PIC, and a large green capacitor.

Circuit side of the board.

Mainly lots of wires and the power connector.

 

1 minute movie of the functionality.