New electronics

I was warned that once I entered the realm of the Arduino (I have the Arduino Mega 2560) that I would be addicted… They were wrong!  [not really, but I don’t want them to think me weak] — the truth is that they are very addicting.  Once I followed the tutorials by newbiehack.com microcontrollers were very easy.  In fact, I have a few more microcontrollers coming from a trusted source just so I can experiment with the smaller size and pin counts for some projects this summer involving the kids (think Geek Dad series, but more electronics).  I now have a Nintendo DS touch screen that I can’t wait to break into and wire up… unfortunately, the breakout board I needed didn’t come in so I’ve got to wait.

I have even gotten to the point that I have several emulators for AVR and Arduinos so I can work on them outside of the hardware environment.  I am also the Mayor of RadioShack in my town on foursquare.

I am quite addicted!  I need to fix my AVR programmer and make some sort of breakout board to program the new ones coming in.

I have started designing, but am waiting on some very cheap parts to build some breakout boards like those on embedded-labs.

I’ve updated my Titanium Appcelerator libraries, but not my Android libraries.  I’m expecting to use my old Eris HTC and Android sdk with iOS and Appcelerator to make some apps to interact with the AVR microcontrollers.

I don’t know if I prefer the PIC or the AVR, but since I was able to get the AVR working (the Atmega328p) first, I’ve been much happier with the results and therefore, I’ll probably stick with them (at less than 4 bucks each, they’re 1/5 as cheap as the javelin stamps I was working with and I can buy other AVR microcontrollers for a lot cheaper, so I’m going to stick with them).

As for other portions, I’ll be working on the LCD breakout board once the female header pins come in so I can wire it up directly and swap LCD screens as needed.  I may need a smaller tip for my soldering iron, the one I have is ginormous and doesn’t fit into tights paces well.

In any case, the SD card breakout board, the LCD, the Nintendo DS screen and the microcontrollers will come in handy for some new additions to the 3d printer when it’s finally on its way.

I need to order some female TRS audio connectors, but I can’t find any from a reliable source, yet.  I need them to build a new hardware interface for trooping.  I’ve designed it, now I just need to build it (once the parts come in.)

This was originally supposed to be a blog about the 3d printer and laser scanner, but I think it’s going to turn into all hardware, programming and the like for the 3d printer, laser scanner, and this summer’s projects with the kids