On Hedgehogs, Arduinos, and Projects from the future

So today I loaded my first program onto an Arduino! I have been meaning to play with microcontrollers for a while now but I never got around to it because I never knew what I kind of project I would do. Last week that changed when my new pet arrived. Meet Sonic



He's my new pet hedgehog! (No, I didn't name him that although I would be lying if I said I hadn't seriously considered it) And according to various sites on the interwebs hedgehogs are rather sensitive to temperature changes. Seeing as I live in Canada that might turn out to be a problem... So I decided to use this an excuse to jump into arduino programming and build a HEdgehog Monitoring System 9000 (HEMS © ) I’m going to start by logging and tweeting the current temperature but I’d like to add other stuff like heater control, food dispensing and maybe a webcam of some sort.

In order to accomplish this I needed to pick up some materials. Here’s what I bought:

• Starter kit for Arduino (which includes a thermistor for telling the current temperature)
• Ethernet Shield for Arduino (for tweeting about the current temp)
• 9VDC 650mA power supply (so I don’t have to leave my arduino plugged into a computer)

It cost me about 130$ including shipping and taxes and stuff from robotshop.com

My first project was to make an LED blink. From what I can gather LED blinking is to micro-controllers as “Hello World” is to computer programming. Setting up the arduino editor/compiler/manager tool is stupidly simple and I’ve done it on all 3 operating systems. Linux was easiest, Windows required me to install a driver and Mac OS X didn’t seem to want to guess device to use.
[pic of thing]

The blink tutorial was stupendously simple. Here is the code:

/*
 Blink
 Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

 This example code is in the public domain.
*/

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {                
 // initialize the digital pin as an output.
 pinMode(led, OUTPUT);    
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
 digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
 delay(1000);               // wait for a second
 digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
 delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}


You don't even need an LED see?

 

You can also use an LED. I was a little hesitant to plug an LED directly to the board because this tutorial claimed I needed a 220 ohm resistor, another said 330 ohm and a final place didn’t even mention resistors! I decided to just plug it in and... it didn’t explode! Huzzah!

Next I tried lighting up the LED while attached to a breadboard! But how do I breadboard? Does the current flow horizontally or vertically? Are both sides of the board connected? After a lot of futile googling the following image which answered pretty much all my questions

(this is the bottom of a bread board, with the back cover plastic shaved off)
After the HEMS? Who knows. But the following is a list of the Baron's projects, or at least, the ones that could make use of an arduino:

-laser turret

- enhanced sensory perception devices (wifi, cell reception, magnetic north)

-door lock logging mechanism

-key logging spy device

-brain tank coat rack (long story)

-USB game controller

-rfid listener and spoofer

-fridge logger

-security system

-laser mic

-auto rebooter for server

-noise maker (mario noise for toilet flushes, metal gear solid noise for door nob)

-earthquake detector

-hammock rocker

-geiger counter

-brain controlled cat ears

-signal jammer

-electric cello

-guru vending machine

-dragon egg

-bluetooth necklace

-heroes of might and magic alarm clock

-Tahnok & Baron

PS: (Why are they called breadboards? According to this comment:
Originally, breadboards were just that — wooden cutting boards. You’d put brass thumbtacks in them, and solder wires to those
Who knew?)

On Go, and ongoing

Go is an ancient oriental board game. I recommend everyone should learn how to play because it's amazing. I decided to make the vcr/dvd player on my floor multipurpose, and put a go board on top
Materials to make a go board: 1. Flat surface 2. Sharpie 3. Ruler

Part of the Christmas loot I received was a dremel head set. I hadn't used it yet so I thought "wouldn't it be awesome if all the lines were slightly engraved? 3/38 lines and 20 minutes later I decided that my dremel wasn't ideal. But at least 3 of the lines are engraved!

If You have a short attention span, stop reading here, the rest is fluff.

Reasons you should learn to play go:
-it's relaxing
-it builds your mental faculties
-in feudal japan, any samurai worth his steel was trained to play go like a master
-kung fu movies start making slightly more sense

All for now,

-The Baron

On Creating a Voltaic Cell

Baron here.  Shame. That's what I feel about how poorly this particular experiment went. The goal was to make a voltaic cell that didn't suck. I failed. Twice actually. The first time I used pop cans. I figured "oh, well these things are made of tin right? *first mistake* I'll just polish them with steel wool *second mistake* then use nails as the other electrode *third mistake*. I guess I should go to the kitchen to try and mix up the most acidic solution I can *fourth mistake*.

 

   
     It turns out pop cans, as you
     probably know, are usually a
     steel-aluminum alloy coated in
     tin. Not surprisingly, not only
     did the steel wool rub off this
     tin, it introduced two new
     types of electrodes (Fe & Al).

This abomination is onion and balsamic vinegar, blended. It smells worse then it looks, and it looks worse then troll blood.

Thought it would be a good idea to grind the rust off the nails first. turns out that was a waste of time too.

0.11 volts Max.        

Later that evening, feeling mildly pleased with myself for actually getting a voltage I though, "lets see what voltage a "spit cell" (a spit soaked wad of paper between two different coins) makes. That's when I felt depressed about my wasted hour, because then I made a voltage of 0.28 in about 20 seconds. This is what I made the next day:

It's 3 voltaic piles, same idea as a spit cell except multiplied a couple times over. This one also took me about an hour, and again I felt depressed that I'd wasted a lot of time because this puppy cranked only 0.5 volts at maximum.  In hind sight, I've learned a lot. And gained a new appreciation for the batteries re-charging on my wall, powering my phone, laptop, electric shaver, wireless headphones, car starter, remotes... it's impressive.

-The Baron

On The Path to Embodying Pure Evil

I've been meaning to make it abundantly clear to people that;
1. I'm not to be trifled with and
2. Experimenting with how far I need to go before people start calling the happy home on me.
The following is by far my best attempt to come of as a dangerous psychopath in a long time. You would not believe how fun it is to call up an old friend (who you are aware is getting into taxidermy as a hobby) and offer to drive around and pick up road kill for giggles. It's fun. Ignoring the intrinsic hilarity that swerving off the highway for a dead animal entails... ignoring the fundamental comedy that is trying (failing) to walk non-nonchalantly down a busy road while carrying a partially crushed rodent.... I had a vested interest in collecting dead things. Namely, I want to make my shiny new xbox into a bone horror. That is, I'm looking to harvest the bones from these animals and turn the xbox, and a controller, into something that a necromancer might call his cigar box. Here is the state of that project:

Blurry night time picture of a freshly dug grave

I've buried the animals we found hopefully bellow the frost line so that they will continue to decompose over winter. With any luck, in a couple months when the ground above it has become soft enough to dig again the meat and organs will be gone and I'll be able to dig up bones that I will wash, bleach, and work into an xbox design. At the moment I may not have enough dead matter to complete the project (2 raccoons and 1/2 a porcupine). We shall see. In the mean time, click below for pictures of dead things and gore. Consider yourself warned.

GORE

GORE

GORE

-The Baron

ps. if you clicked on the links, the answer is gravel.

On The Goggles That Saw The Apocalypse

Baron here. Check these out:

Notice anything? That's right! They're dusty, covered in scuffs and probably have a story behind them. Here's the story, and if you're interested I also mention how I polarized the lenses myself! (spoiler, I cheated).

These goggles were bought in Princess Auto. They were bought as cool looking safety goggles, listed as metal working goggles, because they could double as motor-cycle goggles and only cost 9$. Good times. The foam starts to come off the back and I plastic-glue, super-glue, epoxy and eventually burn it back on every time it falls off. More good times. 

And then the unthinkably wonderful happens: I am given a ticket to Burning Man. My first thought? 

I NEED GOGGLES.

Being broke, I dug through my limitless piles of junk and found these. They weren't polarized. Here's what I did:

I watched Captain America in 3D kept three pairs of the silly glasses they give you. You'll hear about what happened to the other 2 pairs later. What happened to one pair is I pried the lenses out of the plastic and super glued them in to the inside of the lenses. That's it! 3D glasses are polarized by virtue of the technology they are based on. Oddly this means I can use these for watching 3D movies. Good times. I also crammed modelling putty into the ventilation holes because when you're in the desert, in a dust storm, you want air tight goggles, or something close.

These bad boys were on my face and head all week. They watched me carve my soul up in the temple of transition, they watched packs of zebras on bikes pedal past pirate ships. They watched fire dancers groove to the imperial march while I ate Thai food FROM Thailand. Top that Salvador Dali.

-The Baron

On The Voice Changer Gas Mask of Demonic Charisma

Baron here.  I have another project here for you today. I built a voice changer into a gas mask. Photo evidence bellow.

 Believe it or not this is a very common project (1, 2, 3, 4 examples).  While some of these good people used expensive gas masks and left it's filtering capacity intact, I used a painters mask and an kit (from here).  Construction is pretty straight forward.  If you have any questions just ask in the comments.

-The Baron


PS. Why demonic charisma? Turn your voice down an octave with this program and get back to me.

On Armoured Swim Wear

Or, the bikini of champions. Ladies and gentlemen, Mostly ladies, I present to you my progress thus far on an unfinished project. The Chain Maile Baithing suit. To start with I am not an expert. Experts are found here (along with pictures of beautiful women in chainmail bras). Not only am I using the most basic ring pattern and one kind of ring, but I'm also just going to sew appropriately shaped patches onto an actual bikini. Cheating, essentially. Here is the photo evidence of my progress to date.

-The Baron

DIY Megaman Energy Drink Tank

"This internet deserves a better class of geek, and I'm going to give it to them." -J0k3R

1. Get your favorite energy drink and some steel wool.

2. Rub can with steel wool until your can looks shiny and blank.

3. Tape top of can so that lip is covered

4. Spray paint black.

5. Place tape over selected areas.

6. Spray paint blue

7. Allow to dry

8. peel off tape and place in fridge

9. Conquer over all live.

-The Baron

On Balcony Gardening Containers

Lots of things have happened since I moved to Montreal. I've begun learning Fire dancing, I've started a parkour group, I'm joining a hacker space, I'm learning 5 languages, and the list goes on. But rather then tell you about all this (I'll get around to it once I am massively successful) I'm going to show you what I've done to make a balcony or rooftop gardening container. Why? Because that's what anarchists do. They fight to remove their reliance on the corporate dynasty.

Step one: assemble your materials. You will need:

-plants or seeds that will grow things you want to eat!

-2 ice cream buckets (we got ours free from a student run ice cream parlour at Mcgill!)

-cloth cloth. go sacrifice a shirt to the rag gods.

-soil

Tools!

-a multitool or utility knife

Step One: Stab it in the bottom! That is make drainage holes in the bottom of one of the buckets.

Step Two: Cut strips of your cloth and shove them through some of the wholes. Let them hang out both sides far enough (you'll get the idea). These (in theory) facilitate moisture transfer.

Step Three: Place this bucket in the other bucket and stab holes about an inch and a half from the bottom.

Step Four: Fill that bad boy with dirt!

Step Five: Plant you plants (or seeds) and water them!

Step Six: Wait. I'll let you know when I'm done that step.

More Later!

-The Baron

Thing's I've learned about making wooden foot wear.

So you might ask, "Baron, did you make wooden foot wear? That sounds rather foolish." and you would be half right. You see, Japanese platform sandals, or geta, are in fact awesome. They are the only form of open foot wear I can accept. And they worked for hundreds upon hundreds of years in Japan. Ideally they look like this:

But of course, I'm not a skilled craftsmen and I used what I had laying around. Hence this:

Yes, that is pine 2X4. Yes, those are tire inner tubes and nails.

Things I learned:

1. Use light weight material. Pine is not light weight. At all. It isn't strong, it isn't light weight, it doesn't even have a nice texture. Don't use 2X4's.

2. Place your toe holes very carefully. I put the left foot hole to close to the edge and my big toe is forced off the sandal.

Honestly that's it. Except for this:

3. Bicycle tire inner tube make excellent straps for sandals. Really.

More photos:

-The Baron

Punching Bag of Great Justice

I have this quest to customize or modify everything I own. I dislike how you can go out and find something identical to what I have. So I change it. What would you do with a punching bag? Isn't it obvious? What would Tyler Durden do?

Simple. He'd find/make/print/cut stencils of all the peoeple he would want to fight. So that's what I did.


Finding stencils of people and characters you hate (or love for that matter) is actually harder then you think, so I used gimp and made the above to cut out. The punching bag is made of a heavy but porous material, and I happened to have a fabric marker. So I cut



I used the fabric marker:



I gloated;



And then I proceeded to open a can of My classic Whoop ass.
Also, the characters I chose should demonstrate that I intend on being in a super smash brothers game.

In order to determine what faces would go on there. Here were the contenders:
-sarah palin
-bush
-sephiroth
-jiggly puff
-kirby
-Kadaffi
-Freud
-your mother
-Tyler Durden
-Tyler Durden
-hulk
-bowser
-Gaston
-hitler
-fruit fucker
-alien
-a zombie
-general Bison
-kernal zod
-hanibal
-darth vader
-hook
-terminator (robot)
-govenator (arnold)
-predator
-voldemort
-Tyler Durden
-Locutus of borg
-Shatner, William Shatner
-pyramid head
-charlie sheen
-golum
-keauna reeves
-sauron
-shredder
-Decepticon logo
-megatron
-George Lucas
-skeletor
-cobra
-Vegeta
-sponge bob square pants
-myotismon
-team rocket

-Tailor Dresden

PS. for all you Kirby lovers out there... it's the thing I love hitting the most.

New Use for Old CPUS's

So I had this old Intel CPU on my shelf, and it had been thrown around and molested by sheep so it was never going to to work ever again. I also had incense laying around that was needed to make my room smell like hippy as oposed to dirty hippy. Intersection of need and opportunity led to this:

From On Everything and Nothing

Turns out that if you have a stick of pure, high quality incense (that is, it doesn't have a wooden core and doesn't have a stick coming out the bottom) you can just push one end of it into the pins and it sticks. If you are using cheap incense (shame on you for buying at the dollar store) then I suggest you drill through the centre of the chip and make your self a digital Zen incense holder. Any comprehensive carbide drill set will have the size you need. This is an improvement from my old incense holder where I was simply using stick tack to hold the bottom of the stick. the end would never burn, it was unstable, and a little messy:

From On Everything and Nothing

That's all folks!

-The Baron

ps. those sharp among you will realise that my last post was supposed to be my last post. Turns out Google and I made nice again: they were bowing to pressure from the oppressive regime of the US government and have since been involved with fighting other oppressive regimes. when the people are ready to fight, so too will Google be ready.