StickBot V2.0 – Untethered!
We finished up PopsicleBot StickBot with a couple of 555 timer circuits to allow it to roam freely and untethered. It was a lot of fun to build, and even though it’s not the fastest walker or the simplest design, it…
Tag geek
DMD: Dual Motor Doohickey (Modular RBBB and TB6612FNG Driver Board)
Here’s a small, inexpensive, modular, and easy-to-customize motor controller I’m working on that incorporates the Modern Device RBBB ($13), and Pololu’s TB6612FNG Dual Motor Driver Carrier ($8.50). If I fry or want to retask the brain or the driver or…
StickBot: A Simple 6-Legged Walker
The goal was to crawl on the cheap, and what’s cheaper than popsicle sticks craft sticks and fishing line? Next we’ll wire up a 555 circuit so it can roam untethered, but until then, here’s how to make one of your…
Convert a Computer Power Supply into a Benchtop Supply
Here’s a great video from Phil Levchenko over at Jumper One that explains how to convert a computer ATX power supply into a bench-top power supply. I’ve had an older ATX supply by my desk here for the past couple…
Kilburn Highest Factor Routine in C#
To mark the 63rd anniversary of the first stored computer program to run (June 21), I rewrote the original code in C# last night, both using the original algorithm (that was never intended to be efficient) and using a more…
BBB versus RBBB Arduino: Comparison of Similarities and Differences
Modern Device offers a couple of fantastic, low-cost, bare-bones Arduino-compatible boards and kits, called the BBB (Bare Bones Board) and the RBBB (Really Bare Bones Board). The BBB is larger (yet still 1/3 smaller than the ArduinoDuemilanove), and the RBBB is…
How to Intercept WCF Web Service Reponses and Manually Deserialize Them
We were using a web service that wasn’t quite up to interoperability standards. When attempting to use the service from .Net, we saw a number of errors and warnings related to the how the response is deserialized. In particular, .Net seemed…
Electronic Component Abbreviations
Here’s a list of common abbreviations for electronic components on circuit boards (PCBs). AE Aerial (antenna) B Battery BR Bridge rectifier C Capacitor D, CR Diode DSP Digital signal processor F Fuse FET Field effect transistor IC integrated circuit J…
Fixing/Tightening the Flash Mount (Hot Shoe) on a Canon Digital Rebel Camera
If the hot shoe (flash mounting point) on your Canon Digital Rebel camera is loose, then your flash might not be stable on the camera or operate properly. It may not be immediately obvious how to fix it. This video…
$2 Hot Wire Foam Cutter
Here’s a hot wire foam cutter that I made from scraps, following a general design I saw in Make magazine a couple years ago. I picked up 20 feet of 30-gauge nichrome (nickel chromium) wire on ebay for $2.09, shipping…