The Notebook

Sunday Roundup

First: I did get the button controls added to the random number generator. The left-hand button selects the number of faces desired on the die (4,6,8,10,12,20,99) and the right hand button rolls the die. The min and max values for each face (0-99 for 99, 1 to n for all the others) are stored in arrays. It rolls and increments reliably, but the randomness of the number is sketchy and highly dependent on noise on the board. I'm not posting video yet because of the embarassing number of repeated rolls.

Second: in spite of the problem with the randomness, I am building a permanent version of the board on a prototype board. This is my first time building out a prototype board, especially one of my own design. I had a moment this week where I realized it was a lot like writing a program... You can't just expect to *know* how to get everything to work the first time you try. You have to layer your steps so that you can see and fix problems before they become permanent. I'm currently having a problem with the insulation melting on the jumpers I'm using, so the build is on pause until I can pick up some teflon tubing to use as insulation.

Third: One of the things my Dad tried to teach me -- which we had much conflict over -- is the principle of beginning where you are. I had hoped to get a couple of xBee's in SparkFun's giveaway this week, but I was one of the 69,000 some odd folks who clicked and didn't win. So instead I'm working on interfacing a keyboard with my Arduino. The principle of starting where you are comes into play because while there is an ideal keyboard out there for something like this, I don't want to spend $40 in an auction or $80 new for it. So then I was going to go to a thrift store and pick up a used keyboard. And then I realized I have used keyboards already -- in particular a cheap Microsoft one which I gummed up with a Coke and then replaced with an ergonomic keyboard. So my new project is going to be learning about serial communication over a USB interface and building a lookup table so I can do keyboard and/or keypad input for Arduino projects. I'm using this Instructable for guidance.

Labels: ee, project, roundup

posted by Anne @ 8:13 AM