The first prototype of the XBee LilyPad open-source wearable radio has arrived and is working properly. All the lights turn on, the connections are just great and getting a proto in hand has spawned all kinds of new ideas. The push for the next version is to move all the components out from under the […]
XBee LilyPad First Prototype Read Post »
7 in 7 is now a fond memory, so the participants got together and did a little post-mortem evaluation on the scheme. The week was clearly an overall success. Everyone felt that 7 in 7 got their creative juices moving and provided motivation to attack projects that in some cases had sat on the to-do
This is a second draft of the XBee LilyPad that Kate and I are working on. It adds some noise filtering and decoupling capacitors to help with reliability. We’ve also added LED outputs so users can tell if the XBee is on, associated and receiving information. There’s currently solder jumpers on these lights, so that
XBee LilyPad Second Draft Read Post »
I created a breakout board for the Lantronix MatchPort embedded WiFi module a while back and didn’t get around to posting the board files. The breakout board is needed to go from the 2 mm pins on the module to the 0.1 inch pin spacing on a solderless breadboard. I recommend using female headers to
MatchPort Breakout Board Read Post »
Let’s talk about Josh Karpf. Josh and I both went to Oberlin, where we did our undergrad. The majority of my memories of him are of his flyaway Warholesque hair and a minority are about the unusual objects he kept in a pencil cup. Anyway, a number of years after we graduated I was perusing
Vegan Pork Martini Read Post »
We work with the LilyPad open-source wearables system and the XBee radios a lot at ITP, so Kate Hartman and I decided that it was time to put the two together. My Friday 7 in 7 project was to create a XBee LilyPad board, the first draft of which is pictured above. There’s probably going
My friends and family are always coming and going. I sometimes follow their flights, especially when they are showing up at my door, or departing on a life-expanding adventure. It’s easy to do if I stay in front of the computer with a web page open. However, when I’m at the computer I’m usually working
Desktop Flight Tracker Read Post »
There’s plenty of clock projects that use the open-source Arduino microcontroller platform, but to my knowledge, none of those projects are themselves officially open-source. So as a quick one-day project for 7 in 7, I started creating clock code that anyone can use and extend for their own projects, under the Creative Commons license. So
Open-source Arduino Clock Project Read Post »
I really don’t know why, but in college my good friend Dan became obsessed with clam gum. An odd obsession of course because clam gum didn”t exist. I guess he just thought it would be funny if it did. As of today, Clam Gum is real. For my 7 in 7 project I hacked a
For my first 7 in 7 project I created a prototype for a proximity maintenance device. This is a radio-enabled bracelet or necklace worn by two individuals who do not want to become separated in a crowd. As long as the devices can maintain radio contact, nothing happens. However if the individuals move far enough
Proximity Maintenance Device Read Post »
