Blogs

This how-to concerns making an adapter to hold a flashlight on a standard gopro mount. It allows you to mount a flashlight to a helmet or anywhere else you’d need a securely mounted flashlight. There are a few 3D-printed gopro flashlight holders on thingiverse.com, but they all seem to be either bulky or fragile and all require a screwdriver for installation and removal. My design uses a gopro mount, is secure, and forgiving to abuse. It uses velcro to accommodate many different flashlight and makes removing the flashlight very quick. ...

Most dedicated film scanners don’t scan negatives as well as your camera. If you spend anywhere between $50-$200, you’ll first spend a few hours reading polarized Amazon reviews and end up with a cheap plastic scanner with a little sensor and quite average resolution. For better quality you have to jump up to $500+ to get a professional quality scanner. They are usually quite slow and designed for scanning just a few pictures then bringing them to Photoshop to touch them up. ...

A simple guide to checking the shutter count, power on count, and flash fire count on a Lumix LX100. Find the full resolution image here.

At first glance, adding a typedef to a struct in C seems to complicate the definition. However, it simplifies the declaration of the structure. This is not always recommend, as it can add a layer of obfuscation. Structures Here is how a normal structure is defined in C. #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> struct Cat { // defining Cat structure char name[20]; // members of Cat structure int age; int weight; }; int main() { struct Cat myCat; // declaring Cat structure, myCat strcpy( myCat.name, "Cleopatra"); // setting member values myCat.age = 4; myCat.weight = 10; return 0; } In the example above, notice declaring myCat on Line 11 is “struct Cats myCat”. We are about to see how typedef will shorten this. ...

I usually forget bitwise operators, basic variables, and functions when coding in Atmel Studio for an ATtiny or ATmega project. Normally, I look at some of my old code for reference. This is my focused and consolidated version of the important building blocks. Contents I/O Registers Bitwise Operators Delays Interrupts Program Memory PWM I/O Registers DDRx - Data Direction Register - Configures each pin as an input or output. The 0th bit refers to the 0th pin of the port and the 7th bit refers to the 7th bit of the port. PORTx - Data Register - The value of the pin, used for reading input or writing output Pxn - The nth bit of port x. PB0 refers to the 0th bit of port B and PE7 refers to the 7th bit of port E. x - letter (e.g. B, D, E, F, G) n - number (0, 1, 2, … 7) Note that you still should refer to the datasheet for the specifics on these registers and how to set their values. ...

I had a hard time finding this online for free. This manual is for the following models: Kawasaki KZ CSR 250 1979 Kawasaki KZ CSR 250 1980 Kawasaki KZ CSR 250 1981 Kawasaki KZ CSR 250 1982 Kawasaki KZ CSR 305 1981 Kawasaki KZ CSR 305 1982 Click here to download. Enjoy

This was for a pair of outdoor speakers in front of KMNR, my college radio station. KMNR was receiving complaints for having the music too loud at night. An Arduino checks clock and adjusts volume using digital potentiometers This post is a walkthrough of the design and implementation. Design I interfaced an Arduino with a RTC (real time clock) to get the time. The RTC is Maxim’s DS1307 and it should last 17 years on it’s backup battery. It communicates over I2C and you can find already written code here. ...

While this is not my design, this is my analysis and derivations. I used this in my sound reactive lighting project. I had only one op-amp to spare for a triangle wave generator, so I couldn’t use the popular two op-amp design. For those who are not interested in the details, you can find the final formulas in an example here. Overview view this circuit simulation here ...

I spent 3 years in a 5 bedroom house in Rolla Missouri. I kept careful track of finances for the first 2 years. Bank Account I setup a new bank account for the house. When I say ‘house’, I really mean the 5 of us roommates and our house, but I say house because our house is pretty special to us. It’s the house. Every month, we write checks or use paypal to get our monthly rent into the house bank account. All bills are written through the same bank account. As we graduate and new students replace our spots in the house, we add their names on the bank account, transferring the ownership. ...

In the winter of 2013, LED strip lighting hit its tipping point - a big rise in popularity. A year beforehand, in 2012, I had an idea to build a controller for LED strip lighting. A sound reactive LED controller to make the lights get brighter on the bass notes. Biggest problem - I didn’t know how to make one. I finally started getting comfortable with electronics in 2014. ...