Project | MintyBoost

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:54:13 +0000

LadyAda sells a pretty neat kit to allow you to give your USB gadgets power from 2 AA batteries. To create the “Boost” (save for batteries) The capacitors, IC Socket, schottky diode, etc.. took roughly 10 minutes to solder onto the PCB using these instructions, and another 15 minutes and 2 Altoids gum tins to give it the “Minty” part. Note: I spent the better part of 2 days locating these gum tins in the midwest. Eventually I found them at CVS of all places.

A couple of test gadgets; iPod touch (Gen2), G1, iPod Shuffle seemed to work just fine. The tin does get hot, and there is a buzzing and hissing noise that emits from the tin. Perfectly Normal.
From the F.A.Q

“How many charges/hours of use can I get out of a MintyBoost?”

This question is hard to judge because every device has different power usage. However, a simple way to calculate approximate run-time is: take the size of the internal Lithium-Ion battery (for example, many iPods have 750mAh batteries) and divide 1000 by that number. So for a 750mA battery, 1000/750 = 1.3. The MintyBoost will fully charge the device about 1.3 times, as a best case. Remember, this is only an approximation and has a lot to do with the quality of the batteries you use (expensive alkalines v. cheap rechargables) and the internal circuitry of the device for recharging the battery.

I would suggest this for anyone needing a quick burst of juice on the go. This is also a nice beginners soldiering project.

As always, comment with questions or contact me via twitter.

Project | Programmable LED Matrix

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:20:47 +0000

625 LEDs? 156 Giant RGBW Pixels? 1500+ solder points? Arduino programming? Check, Check, Check and Check. Sounds awesome doesn’t it? It sure does, but WHAT does this thing do? What are the applications? Why would someone want to build this? Keep on reading.

Bottom line is: I wanted to make something cool for my Sons room. The project had to have 3 requirements. 1. It had to be interactive. 2. It had to be hackable. 3. It has to be neato. Enter: Peggy2

I won’t make this post a full blow how-to on the build process. If you have questions, or if there are enough comments on how and why then I will create the guide.

Cute. So whats the point of this post?

I wanted to show pics during the build process, and demo videos of what it can do. I have big plans for this device, so keep watching this post as I will update it with Ardunio sketches, videos and project plans. With that out of the way, lets dive in.

Wow. That’s a lot of stuff.

I let all the parts sit at my house for months before finally taking the time to put it together. I chose to build this by filling up the LED bank (625 total). I opted for clear 10mm LED’s, however, this device will accept any size. I wanted the flexibility of leveraging giant “pixels” (RGBW) later on. This will come in handy with animations and diffusing. Besides, I did not want a static image, and a solid color seemed so… boring. I purchased all the LED’s from eBay, and had decent luck with quality. Out of 625, only about 15 were unusable for various reasons. You may notice a few missing from the board.

Putting it together.

Honestly, the biggest time consumer with this project was spent bending resistors, LED wires, and clipping them all. I spent a total of about 10 hours (rough estimate) on this project.

Enough already. Where are my Pics and Videos.

Here are various shots and videos through the build process.

TTFN.

This was a really fun and VERY easy project to make. I am only scratching the surface, the real power of this device lies within the Ardunio platform. If I were to make one change, it would be to Swap the clear LED’s for diffused ones. Email me with any questions, or comment below.