Quiet your fan please, I’m working.

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So I got a new power supply this last week, and thats a good thing right? It’s 0-30 volts, 0-5 amps, programmable, voltage and current limiting, and LOUD!!! The loud part had to be fixed, it was driving me batty! So the first thing I did was crack open the unit and get the size and voltage of the fan, went to my favorite computer parts website and found a ’15dB’ fan that looked pretty good, and it was only $11. And 5 days away. (It was the weekend and I’m to cheap to pay for speedy shipping on a fan.)

I then remembered I had about 12 different 80mm computer case fans under my other work bench. I fired up all of those and selected the quietest one. I went with the one I had to save 5 days of extra noise and 11 bucks. It was a quick swap out, no blinky, microcontrollers, or even passive circuit mods, but a welcomed simple mod to my ears. 🙂

RGBW LED Controller

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Control your blinky!

Hi everyone, I am happy to announce that I have completed my RGBW LED controller kit and it is now for sale! This kit is a LED controller that features an embedded ATmega328 with an Arduino bootloader for easy programming, 4 channel LED control with dimming, 5 or 12 volt output, IR receiver, XBee header, RS-232 or TTL serial I/O, 2 push buttons, 12 pin extensions for all unused pins (6 analog and 6 digital), and power and channel LED indicators. You can control 5 or 12 volt LED’s via serial with adjustments to the level of any channel with ramping to the desired level, rate of ramping, color cycle start and stop, rate of color cycle, length of stay on each color during cycle. Fans and motors can also be driven with ease. You can buy one for only $35 with the Paypal link below! Be sure and also visit the complete assembly tutorial! Power supplies, RGB and white LED strips, FTDI Friend or FTDI Cable and XBee’s and XBee adapters are available at Adafruit!

Version 2.2 is shipping! Please go to the assembly page for details.

Automation Intro

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I wanted to give a tour/crash course on automation systems, so I put together a video showing some of what an automation system can do. I ran through everything kind of fast, so I will do more videos getting into more details on specific functions of sub systems, like lighting, audio, security, etc. This video also shows my RGBW Controller working in my house. 🙂

The system I have is an HAI Omni Pro II. I have been installing automation systems since 2005, and they have proven to be an awesome choice.

For a future project, I would like to replace the Omni with a BeagleBone. 🙂

Overcoming Incomplete.

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Some of my uncompleted projects..

I have seen a pattern with some myself as well as other creative people I know. You get inspired, create something awesome, and after you get it working, you go to finish it up. Finishing it up could mean, enclosing a project, transferring to PCB from breadboard, or even writing sheet music for a song. Your’e geeked, you created an awesome thing, it’s the best ever, and now it’s time to make it shine and show the world. And then it happens.. Continue reading →

Give some knowledge away!

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Teaching my son.

I bought my son a electronics snap kit about 2 years ago, and quickly completed some projects that were in the included book. This was fun for us, a good start, but there was more. I began teaching him about series and parallel circuits, passive components, and different types of sensors. I then said, “Without looking at the book, build a flashlight. OK, good, now build a fan with a switchable light. OK, now build a…”           Continue reading →