DorkbotPDX people doing strange things with electricity

I plan to go camping a lot in the summer and to make the camping more enjoyable I decided to build a Teardrop Trailer. I created a website where I'll log the progress with as many pictures as I can, tools I use and materials. If anyone is interested here it is: https://sites.google.com/site/buildingateardroptrailer/

For the many of you who are wanting a BusPirate, here are the design files. The Schematic, the Board and the Gerbers as a zip. Please review and comment - we don't want any errors in this!

Special thanks to Monty for the DorkbotPDX logo. Who knew what artistic talent he has? ;>)}}

Also thanks to Monty, Scott D. and Greg P. for comments and suggestions while I was editing the board and Gerbering.

Most of all, thanks to Greg for organizing this whole adventure and to Jared for setting us off on it to begin with.

I have a favorite visualization that I apply to conversations. Each participant is represented by a string. Each character of the string is one hour. Activity in that hour creates a blip. Inactivity leaves dots (or comma at midnight). Here are five days of Dorkbot project blabber visualized. I share my methods in the remainder of this post.

I prepared this chart in two steps: first get the data in a file and then plot it. Let's work backwards. Here is the plot routine:

while (<>) { ($d, $t) = split /\t|\n/; $p{$t} = ("." x 23 . ",") x 5 unless $p{$t}; $h = int($d*24); substr($p{$t},$h,1) = "|"; } print map ",$p{$_} $_\n", sort keys %p;

Using Elco Jacob's ShiftPWM Arduino Library. Probably the cheapest possible way to drive lots of RGB LEDs!

After two years of service my outdoor air temperature sensor blinked out last week. Moisture was the culprit as shown here:

Various readouts in my SensorServer system lead me straight to the problem through a half-dozen layers of software. How cool is that?

Honestly, I'm more interested in how we know and trust complex measurements than knowing the temperature outside.

Dorkbot PDX would like to welcome you to the latest installment of our semi-regular presentation series:

DorkbotPDX 0x08

• When: Monday, January 30th, 2012 - 8pm
• Where: Backspace ( map)
• Who: All ages -- open to the public
• Cost: Free!

What's happening? Two great and inspiring talks <snip>

Sailing the I2Cs with the Bus Pirate

Jared Boone

Jared will be discussing I2C as a bus and protocol, and will demonstrate talking with a few I2C devices. Demos may include interfacing with an off-the-shelf accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, and/or audio codec.

Jared runs a fledgling open hardware business, ShareBrained Technology, where he experiments with devices for audio, time-keeping, aeronautics/astronautics/astronomy, motor sports, and radio.

Remote Reality via Orbduino

Travis Smith

From what started as some pretty colors and cat amusement has grown to take over a walk-in closet and has had visits from all over the world. Have you always wanted to play with a robotic arm in the exotic land of Vernowhere, from the comfort of your couch? Here's your chance!

Tech junkie, traveler, and avid Phish-head. Travis conformed to the corporate mold for 17 years before breaking free to travel and completely geek out. Viva La Dork!

OpenDork

You!

An open-mic session for those looking to show off a project, ask a question, solicit help, or incite collaboration.

"http://www.dorkbotpdx.org/workshop/arduino/cult_induction_rev8"

RSVP at http://suspectdevices.com/workshops.html