PIC Programming

I've been trying to figure out how to program Microchip's PICs in order to create peripheral devices for the BOE-Bot such as stepper motor drivers and such. This has proven to be much more difficult than I had hoped. Apparently I need to get a degree in computer science to be able to achieve this. That, or I need to spend around $250 on a PICbasic Pro compiler to match the ease of use of the Basic Stamp. I've been trying to learn C but I haven't found any helpful websites that teach C programming as it applies to PIC devices. Perhaps I'm just being impatient and want it all to be uber simple like the Basic Stamp. Hopefully sometime soon there will be an open source Basic or Pbasic compiler for PICs. Then I can accomplish what I want to do without having to pay college tuition to advance my hobby. I've got to surf some more forums to see if I've missed one where someone writes tutorials that apply to beginners with little or no experience programming... wish me luck.

Sparkfun's Triple Output LED RBG on the BOE-bot

I bought a few doo-dads from sparkfun.com a while back and finally got around to playing with the triple output LED. It works like any other LED only it has four leads instead of two. I always forget what is the anode and what is the cathode, but regardless it has one lead that goes to ground and the others go to the output leads from the BOE-bot, with a 470 Ohm resistor to drop the voltage down to a level that won't fry the LED. Please note that the red portion of the LED had a lower max voltage than the green or blue. I ignored this and used the same LED circuit I had used in a previous BOE-Bot LED excersize. It hasn't killed the LED yet so I think it will live. Anyway I wrote a little code using pulse width modulation to fade from one color to another. It works pretty well. I'll see if I can post the video I took of it working. See the code below:

'RGB LED Changer

' {$STAMP BS2}
' {$PBASIC 2.5}

counter VAR Word
DO
FOR counter = 1 TO 100
PULSOUT 9, 1000 - (10 * counter)
PULSOUT 11, 10 * counter
PAUSE 5
NEXT
FOR counter = 101 TO 200
PULSOUT 11, 1000 - (10 * (counter - 100))
PAUSE 5
PULSOUT 10, 10 * (counter - 100)
PAUSE 5
NEXT
FOR counter = 201 TO 300
PULSOUT 10, 1000 - (10 * (counter - 200))
PAUSE 5
PULSOUT 9, (10 * (counter -200))
PAUSE 5
NEXT

LOOP

Cheese Stuffed Hamburgers

I know, I know, Kraft had this on a commercial. So it isn't an original idea. Maybe I just wanted to document my attempt at it. Is that alright with you? Why are you so judgemental? Here it goes:

Step 1

You need to add some junk into the ground beef to add flavor and help retain the moisture. Here I add breadcrumbs, my special spice mix, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.










Step 2

To keep it all together and reduce the amount of melty cheese that escapes from the tasty burger, add an egg to the mixture.

Step 3

Mix it altogether. Yeah sure, you could use that fancy Kitchenaid mixer that sits on your counter begging you to turn it on and let it make some delicious foods with it, but where's the adventure in that? I say, put your grubby hands right in there and mix it together like a real man.


Step 4

Give some meat to the dog. Seriously, he's been staring at you with his crazy eyes for a while now and your starting to be more than a little frightened.

Step 5

Roll the meat into little balls and then press flat into thin meat discuses... diski?


Step 6

Fill with glorious cheese. Yes, that is cheese. No, it isn't butter. Mmm, butter burgers.


Step 7

Place meat discus B atop discus A.


Step 8

Pinch around the edges of the diski to seal the goodness.


The result is some bigass meat patties that look like normal hamburgers, but lurking inside is a cheesiness that will shock and amaze you.

**************WARNING**************

Cheesy goodness must be allowed to rest for a minimum of 5 minutes after cooking burgers or cheese with be in its "liquid hot magma" phase and may cause severe burns.

DIY 5G Ipod USB Charger

I've seen several USB charger projects online and these work well for most devices that charge off of USB, but never quite worked for my fifth generation Ipod. Most of these chargers are based off of the LM7805 voltage regulator, in order to step a voltage down to the 5V required for USB. What these designs lack is the data in-out signal that tells the 5G Ipod that it is a high power USB outlet. I recently found a suggestion online to use 4 equal resistors to make a voltage divider to supply a 2.5V signal to each data line on the usb connector. Check out the thread where I found it here for more details. Anywho, I used the bread board on my Parallax BOE-Bot to prototype the circuit for testing. You may notice that there is no LM7805 on this circuit. That's because the BOE-Bot has one integrated into it, which sped up my testing. After verifying that I did indeed get 2.5V on the data lines I plugged in the Ipod. Previously the Ipod needed to be reset in order to charge on such a circuit, but now it charges as if it were plugged into a real USB outlet. Now I just need to figure out if the LM7805 will hold up to the rigors of being wired into my truck's 12V power so that I can make a charger to integrate into the Ipod car dock that I'm slowly designing.

We've got ants in our pants!!! Or our porch.

Carpenter ants that is. Lots of them. Tens of thousands perhaps. Lots. We called Terminix and a guy named Steven came out to kill our bugs(I know that isn't very DIY but those guys can use better poisons). Anyway I ripped off some of the wall board and revealed what Steven says is the second largest nest of carpenter ants that he's ever seen. Man I hate being second... most of the time. So Steven sprayed lots of poisonous stuff and killed all of the ants we could find, but I'm sure as I do more demolition on the porch that I will find more of these lovely creatures. I can't wait.

Hello Toyota Tacoma

OK, I haven't gotten the Tacoma yet so I hope I'm not jumping the gun just yet, but I'm excited. I grabbed some pics off of the dealer's site so everyone can see what it looks like. Pretty sweet, eh? It has BF Goodridge All Terrain TA/KO's on it and everything. Those are just the tires that I'd put on if I were't so cheap. My best friend Jon and I went many places we never thought possible atop four BFG's, ignoring the fact that those were considerably bigger and being powered by a Chevy V-8, and I can't wait to see where these can take me. Most likely just to work and back several hundred times, but nonetheless, they look pretty badass don't they? Yeah, I thought so too.

Bye Bye Golf Diesel

I've finally given up on the Golf. Putting aside the fact that there are good sized rust holes in the body and that the driver's door handle is a speaker cable, the fact that parts mounted to the engine are beginning to shake themselves loose is enough for me to call it quits. I've decided that since I no longer live in a bad neighborhood, like Wooster St. in New Haven, I can have a decent vehicle again and not worry too much about it being broken into every other month or so. My friend/coworker Lee is now the proud owner of the '86 VW Golf Diesel. He'll be posting any changes to the Golf here: http://nodeep6-86.blogspot.com/. I will be replacing the Golf with a 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4WD pickup(The sale willl be final on 2/23/06), which I put a deposit on last night. Hopefully the Tacoma will be a tool in my DIY projects rather than becoming another project itself. I'll post some pics of it as soon as I can.

DIY - Practically free fix for broken car door handle

Do you own an older car on which the outer door handles are difficult to use or don't work at all? If so, I have the fix for you. My '86 VW Golf's driver’s door handle broke one morning as I was attempting to go to work. It has the old VW trigger style door handles that have a reputation for failing over time. Call me cheap or whatever you'd like, but since I paid $800 for this car I'm certainly not going to pay the ridiculous prices charged for a replacement door handle. Instead I chose to put my inventive mind to work and created a fix that cost me nothing but a bit of embarrassment when people see it. Knowing that I had some speaker cable that once went to the stereo on the CJ (the stereo had been stolen a year or so before I bought the Jeep) in the garage, I figured that I could finally find a good use for it. I tied one end to the grab handle on the inside of the driver’s door, and the other to the interior and still operational door handle. Now when I get out of the car I simply hold on to the wire loop and shut it in the door. To get in I jut pull on the loop. Problem solved and it didn’t cost me a penny.

Two year anniversary

YAY!!! I've officially made it a whole two years at my current employer. As I mentioned in my first post, I work for a major American firearms manufacturer. So far it's been a prett cool job and I've learned a great deal about surface modelling in Solidworks(for an example of what I do, see the picture of the stock model that I've made. This one will probably never be made so I guess it's OK to post it), as well as some of the ins and outs of plastic molding. I've become pretty decent at solid modeling. I'm definitely the best here(the truth is that surface modeling in Solidworks is a terribly tedious thing to do and I am the only one at here that has been subjected to this torture). Hopefully this will pay off in the future if this company suffers a similar fate to Winchester, which is closing its doors very soon. I can apply what I've learned here to product design elsewhere as well, so I should be all set. One more year and this will be the longest I've ever worked for a company. I've only been out a college for five years though, so its not like I'm a job-hopper or anything. Just three more years and my 401k is vested. I guess that's something to shoot for.

Pressure washer

Yeah, I bought one. I remembered that I had a Home Depot gift certificate for $40 in my wallet so I went to the depot and grabbed their cheapest model. It's the 1300psi model that they hide from you so that you look more at the expensive models. While it's certainly a bit underpowered, it'll do what I need it to, and was well worth the $12.97 after tax. I can think of a billion uses for the thing. Things like removing the mildew from the siding, washing the Jeep, the dishes, the toilet ... heck, this could cut my daily shower time in half. That would give me an extra 3 minutes a day to play with.

Jeep Ramble

I’m starting to get antsy to do some work to the Jeep. The oil that covers the underside is a big problem though. I need to get rid of that oil and grease before I can weld in some floor panels. I’d really prefer not to burn down the house that Lisa just bought in June. I’m not sure how I can wash the damn thing in this cold weather though. I guess I could drive it to a carwash but there is no top on it and holes in the floor so I need to wait for a warm day or I’ll freeze to death in the process. Weekends lately are spent looking at reception halls or visiting friends, leaving little opportunity to utilize the rare warm day in a New England winter. If only the days were longer so I could have just a little more time to work on the heap. I guess that I just have to keep a look out for a warm day and jump on the opportunity when it arises.

Project: Biodiesel Processor; Post #1

My coworker Lee and I decided about a year ago that we both wanted to make a biodiesel processor. For those of you not familiar with biodiesel I'll give you a summary: Biodiesel is a fuel that is derived from vegetable or animal oil, which can be run in any diesel engine. Basically you take veggie oil, add some lye and methanol; heat it up and mix it well, and voila! you have biodiesel. A majority of the plans that we've found on the internet have recommended using a water heater as a reactor vessel, due to the fact that they are well insulated, have a thermostat controlled heat source, and can be found in working order for free. Lee and I happened to stumble onto just such a water heater on our way back from Wendy's one lunchbreak, so we tossed it in my Golf and headed back to work. We then proceeded to hook up a pump and rewire it to eliminate the top heating element because it would not be submerged in the oil at all times and is therefore a fire hazard. Anyway, as you may be able to tell from the picture, it isn't quite finished and it has been sitting like that for several months now. Eventually we hope to finish it up and find a restaurant that would be willing to donate some greasy goodness for us to run in our beaten up diesel VW's. This project is currently on hold. There are too many others that need to be completed first. I think that the CJ gets top priority, because I've expected the Golf to die for more than a year now and I need to free up garage space to fix up the Golf's replacement, a 1981 VW Diesel Rabbit Pickup. Somewhere in between these projects I hope to turn a three-season porch into a year-round sunroom, get married to my nearly perfect fiance, and try to keep our new house from falling apart around us. It should be a pretty exciting time.

Project, Codename: CJ; Post #:1

The first project that I'll post here is my 1982 Jeep CJ-7. For those of you not familiar with the CJ-7 it is Jeep's predecessor to the Wrangler. The CJ is a great vehicle - especially if you are handy with a wrench. The first thing you need to know about CJ's is that they leak fluids... always. You can replace every seal and gasket in the vehicle, but there will be something that will start leaking as soon as you finish. Jeep enthusiasts typically say that their CJ is simply, "marking its territory". If that is true, my CJ has claimed a large part of New England as its territory, so all other cars beware. Even with the many leaks that plague my CJ, rust is the biggest problem that I face in keeping this bad boy safe and road worthy. My friend Jon owned the CJ before me, and installed a carpet to make the CJ seem a little more civilized than it did with the interior being the same metallic brown as the rest of the Jeep. The only problem with the carpet is that it prevented water that entered the Jeep via the missing or nonfunctional door gaskets from escaping. This caused the floors underneath the carpets to be constantly exposed to water, thus turning them to that lovely compound that car enthusiasts like me dread so much; iron oxide. I despise rust so much. My poor VW beetle was plagued by it as well, and someday I will do a frame-off restoration of that, but right now the Jeep takes first priority. I'm not sure whether or not I will be able to do anything resembling a frame-off resto of the Jeep, but I absolutely have to take measures to remedy the rusty areas in the floors and prevent rust from eating any more of my poor CJ. Pictures of the rust can be seen on my flickr site by clicking the title of this post.

DIY Stuff

I like to do DIY projects. Sometimes they actually work. Sometimes the only thing that they accomplish is wasting hours and hours of my time. Regardless, I still like to figure out how to do things without having to pay someone to do it for me, especially when there is somethign that I could learn in the process. Besides, as my friend and coworker Lee likes to say, "When the apocolypse comes, you'll be glad you know how to do these things yourself." Alright, he may never have actually said those exact words, but if you knew Lee, you'd know that that pretty much sums up his DIY mentality - that, and he's a cheap bastard like me. Some of my DIY projects are home improvement related, others are car repair and restoration related, others still are electronics related, then somewhere one the fringe are things like biodiesel processors and wierd projects that I find on the internet and seem exciting to me. I'll do my best in this blog to keep you informed and updated on all of these projects. Hopefully I can do so in an informative and entertaining way.

Post numero uno

This is a picture of me. OK, so it's a picture of me back in college when I had long hair, or any hair for that matter, and I look nothing like that anymore. Regardless it still reflecs my personality pretty well. I'm a little wild at times and oodles of silly. I'm a relatively socially liberal guy(unless of course you live in The Peoples Republic of Cambridge, Massachusetts where I'm considered a right wing conservative), but I am a design engineer for a firearms manufacturer; which to most liberals is a deadly sin. I won't elaborate any on the company I work for, for legal reasons and such. I don't intend this blog to be a political soapbox of any kind, nonetheless I must say that none of the view expressed here are endorsed by my employer... now that the legal disclaimer has been written lets get on with the blogging.