It’s been a while since I did any work on this project, but I pulled out the components the other day and started to look into the Bluetooth connection between the Raspberry Pi and the Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE board. It turns out to be complex and on the whole not very well explained how to make these devices talk to each other. In the final analysis it’s not actually that hard – but you have to do a…
There is one thing in life that you can count on: AI is going to be bigger and happen sooner than almost any of us expect. Autonomous cars are perhaps the most visible implementations of AI, but it’s creeping in everywhere. From personal assistants (Sirri, Cortana, Alexa etc), to administration jobs (IBM’s Watson), and now – design and engineering. Have a look at this article about a team who have applied machine learning to automotive design: http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/how-artificial-intelligence-could-design-your-next-car-20170228-gumxy6.html From the…
As part of my ongoing upgrade to my photographic stage I decided to add a magnifier on an arm to it. My eyesight is ok, but when you are dealing with small electronic components it’s sometimes not enough and some artificial help can make all the difference. I bought a cheap 100mm magnifying glass on a fold up stand. I also scrounged up an old broken desk lamp (think Luxor Junior). A little bit of hacking, some stainless steel,…
I have had some further thoughts about the design for the Midnight Clock and wanted to jot them down. Functionality: Doesn’t turn on at a set time Turns on four hours after its “biphasic” button is pushed Could use two short strips of warm white LED stuck back to back which would allow it to be inserted into an existing lamp like the (decorative) salt lamp that I have Should have a second button that just turns it on and…
I include Google ads in this site to generate some income from my project work and the effort of documenting it. Now, many of you are probably running ad blocking software in your web browsers – I certainly do, so I don’t blame you if you do. However I learned something important tonight: Google can sometimes serve up some freaking awesome ads! I am still working on eliminating the personal dating ads (I have managed to kill the awful…
I love sleep. I really love a good long sleep and waking feeling well rested. It’s not the easiest thing to do though these days. Our lives are so busy, there are so many demands and temptations to stay up late and get up early. As the Bon Jovi song goes: “Until I’m six feet under / Baby I don’t need a bed / Gonna live while I’m alive / I’ll sleep when I’m dead…” I love staying up…
I may still be waiting for my 3D printer to arrive, but in the mean time, the components for my HUD were waiting in the mail box today! It included a Rasberry Pi model 3 B, an Adafruit Feather Bluefruit (bluetooth enabled Feather development board) and some headers for the Bluefruit. So now I’m ready to push forward with this project and get the electronics finalised. Once the 3D printer arrives, then I can start working on housings for…
There is something about Englishmen and going REALLY fast. They seem to be very good at it. Both the engineering involved in building land speed record cars and driving them. The current land speed record is held by Andy Green, driving the ThrustSSC (that’s: SuperSonic Car) and yes, ThrustSSC did break the sound barrier on land on four wheels with an average speed over one mile in two passes of 1227.986 km/h. Any way you look at it, that’s insanely…
Ok, today has been an interesting day for discoveries. I was thinking about the limitations of having to have a wired connection between the helmet and main unit on the bike and it got me thinking about Bluetooth and wireless options. The first thing I discovered (which I wasn’t aware of) is that basic Bluetooth modules (and slave and master pair) can be readily inserted in place of a serial connection between devices. Unfortunately I don’t think that this…
Another old project that I recently dug up and want to complete is this REALLY powerful invisible infrared spotlight. I chose 940 nanometer infrared LEDs for the job as they are completely invisible to the naked eye. I should insert a WARNING here: If you are thinking of replicating this project, you need to be aware that it is uncertain if very powerful IR light like this can damage the retina in the eyes of humans and animals. Therefore,…
