Solder : Time™ Watch

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Andy
Solder : Time Watch

Solder : Time Watch - A kit you solder yourself, or ready made.

Debuted at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, we created this watch to let your ‘inner geek’ shine.  Soldering isn’t one of your talents? Well, we have these available assembled and ready to wear as well.

This started out as a project, where we just simply wanted to make a watch.  What we ended up with is our first ‘wearable’ kit.  Surprisingly the Solder : Time has universal appeal; younger folks just ooo-and-aww, and inquire where they can get one. Even people in their golden years have had impressive praise.  ”This is a great product for people who have trouble seeing small numbers.”

You can order one already soldered, or in kit form here: SpikenzieLabs.com

Encased in four layers of laser cut clear acrylic, all of the circuity is easily seen, top, bottom, and sides.

We developed a special algorithm for uniformly lighting the display as bright as possible but where it is only lit for a few seconds each time the button is pressed. The result is amazing battery life for the included CR2032 battery.

Optionally, you can badge-clip it to your clothes, computer bag, or anywhere.

Want to turn the Solder : Time into a desk clock? No problem! Jumper the pads for the ‘always on’ function.  Supply the Solder : Time with 3v (pair of AAA, or AA batteries) and it will always be lit. More of a hard core hacker / modifier? The Solder : Time PCB has extra pads broken out to access the RTC over I2C, pads to access the ICSP to  reprogram the controller PIC, and even one extra pad connected directly to the PIC.

If you’ve arrived here by way of ubergizmo.com, and you’d like to save 5$ on one of these watches,  use discount code : solder5time in our online store. SpikenzieLabs.com

Posted in Computing, Education, Electronics, Interesting, PCB, SpikenzieLabs, kit, laser | 5 Comments

Closeup of Piranah LED

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Andy

What I did here was wire up a piranah tri-color LED, and for a resistance, I used a piece of anti-static chip foam. (The type that we put chips on when we are making kits)

Shot these photos with a really close up macro lens, to capture the 3 distinct parts of the LED that give off different wavelengths of light.

Posted in Electronics, SpikenzieLabs, flickr, kit | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Arduino & Flight Simulator

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Andy

Down in New Zealand, Jim of Jim’s Page has crafted one of the most ‘home made’ – DIY looking flight sims I’ve ever seen.  Interfacing with an Arduino for a variety of IO, and he’s got his own software that communicates it all.

Check out his Arduino link, he shows how to use the Arduino MEGA in a really cool way

Posted in Arduino, Electronics, Flight, Inside, Interesting | Tagged | Leave a comment

EasyTransfer Arduino Library « The Mind of Bill Porter

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Andy

The purpose of this library is to make it easy for the everyday Arduino user working on projects with multiple Arduinos communicating with each other and sharing data. I had many people ask me for the code I used in my PS2X library example that sent PS2 Controller values wirelessly to my SAGAR robot. It got to be tiresome answering the questions and I had an idea to write a library to help the inexperienced with micro controller communications. This is a easy to use and no frills way to send data between two Arduinos.

EasyTransfer Arduino Library « The Mind of Bill Porter.

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Geared Motor Emporium

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Andy

When you get a broken ‘not worth fixing’ All-in-One Scanner / Printer / Fax, there is an amazing opportunity within.  On the outside, it is a broken office garbage.  On the inside, a wealth of supplies for the DIY tinkerer, and you can dispose of the rest in an environmentally friendly way.

Came across a broken Canon MP580 all in one the other day.  I could tell that buried deep inside, I would find some awesome motors, and possibly more.  After peeling off the layers of plastic, here is what I managed to source out.

A variety of DC motors, 2 Stepper Motors, 1 Solenoid, LCD display, Speaker, Optical Encoders, and a slew of different gears, for tinkering at another time.

Posted in Arduino, Component, Electronics, Inside, Interesting, SpikenzieLabs, flickr | Leave a comment

The Shield Dock™

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Andy
The Shield Dock

Shield Dock

The Shield Dock™ [SPL-018001]

The Shield Dock is a super versatile prototyping shield.  The Sheild Dock can be used in many different ways. Think of it as the multi-tool for your Arduino projects.

It can be used with a traditionally shaped Arduino, as a prototyping shield.

As a pin break-out for your other shields to a breadboard, or built into a permanent project.

Dock a Sippino, and you get the same power as a traditional Arduino at half the cost.

There are a variety of ways to put the Shield Dock into action, more info & complete kit description here.

Posted in Arduino, Component, Electronics, PCB, SpikenzieLabs, kit | Tagged | Leave a comment

Femtoduino: an ultrasmall 20.7×15.2 mm libre Arduino compatible board | Varesano.net

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Andy

Femtoduino

Femtoduino: an ultrasmall 20.7×15.2 mm libre Arduino compatible board | Varesano.net.

By using the QFN32 version of the ATMEGA 328p, 0.05″ connectors, 0402 components and removing everything not strictly necessary, I’ve been able to design and hand build an Arduino compatible board which is very small (20.7×15.2 mm) and ultra light (2g) but has exactly the same computing power of the Arduino Duemilanove or UNO.

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Botcave vending machine by night

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Andy

Spotted our Drum Kit Kit AI as one of the items for sale.

This is absolute genius.

Check it out at the Botcave

Would take a few quarters to actually make something pop-out, great candidate for a paypal connected machine.

Posted in Arduino, Computing, Electronics, Interesting, SpikenzieLabs, Uncategorized, flickr, kit | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fun augmented reality app

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Spike
Augmented, originally uploaded by Spikenzie.
I really get a kick out of augmented reality applications. The photo above was made using an iPhone and a free augmented reality app. The photo on the left shows the target that the app uses. After looking through the iPhone display for a while, I’m always surprised to see that model is not standing there when I move the phone out of the way!
The app comes from the Empire Isis web sight. Empire Isis is a music performer from Montreal. She created the app because she wants her listeners to be able to interact with her in new ways that performers have never done before.

Posted in Apple, Interesting | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The ‘Hand Drummer’

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Andy

Over the past few weeks, I was thinking.. What would be a small portable & cool interface for the Drum Kit Kit AI.

What is on the board?

If you have yet to see this really cool (Arduino based) Product of ours, it is a mashup of an Arduino, and our original Drum Kit Kit.

Here is a quick YouTube video, of an Acrylic Hand Drummer interface for both of the Drum Kit Kit’s. The key to getting it to work, (an the part that I spent the most time developing) is the sliver or rubber hose that is pinched between tapped acrylic pieces. This creates a vibration reducing hinge that stops the other piezo sensors from picking up a ‘false hit’.  Within the sketch, I trimmed the sensitivity to be optimal.  Since the original code for the Drum Kit allows for individual piezo sensitivity, this works incredibly well.

Another thing that I learned was that the ‘shorter throw’ digits, both thumbs & pinky actually needed to be a little more sensitive, as the shorter amount of ‘throw’ yields a smaller signal.

Lastly, it was revealed that being a total Rockband Ace on my PS3, doesn’t mean that I can tap out beats that impress.  I’ve shown this to a few musician clients at the Labs, and yes, with musical talent, this sounds much more impressive.  Enjoy the video.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment