Author Archives: Jim

But I marked it so that wouldn’t happen!

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Jim

Yeah, I use unpolarized connectors.  Good old 0.1″ headers are cheap, small, plentiful, and I’m pretty comfortable using them.  For the power/I2C bus in the dollhouse, they were an obvious choice.  But because they’re unpolarized (OK, unless you make them … Continue reading →

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Bandsaw light

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Jim

The bandsaw has needed a light since day 1 (which was a long time ago).  I did a quick and dirty – and not very effective – hack with a clamp-on lamp, but it was behind the saw, and didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Pollywogs/Recyclers Tom Pauer Hilton

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Jim

This is some background and history of the Hilton Micro 75A Tom Pauer bequeathed to Pollywogs/Recyclers.  It lives at Arlene Klemp’s house and she graciously schleps it out when we have visiting callers for either/both clubs. Bill Haynes complained about … Continue reading →

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Adventures with the Workshop 88 Cupcake

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Jim

Driven by both my desire to be able to 3D print stuff for myself and desperation at needing to be able to do reasonable 3D printing demos for the schools and libraries that are asking us to do them, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Cupcake 3D printer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Arduino 301 class post mortem

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Jim

The 301 class went well, but far from perfectly.  Despite scheduling the class for 3 hours instead of 2, I was once again overly optimistic about what I could get covered, and left a lot undone. Of the original outline … Continue reading →

Posted in Workshop 88 Stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Quick and dirty heat sinks

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Jim

I’ve been pushing a couple of audio amp chips to get as much out of them as I can for another project.  While the expected duty cycle is low enough that I can probably get away without heat sinks for … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Rf starter's gun | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Tiny85 ISP cable mini shield for Mega

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jim

Well that was embarrassing.  I thought I could knock out a quick mini-shield for an Arduino Mega to use as a programmer for Tiny85s (or most any other AVR chip).   I did, and it works, but only after two iterations … Continue reading →

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Tiny85 class

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Jim

I finished the second run of the Tiny85 class Saturday (1/25/14).  It was pretty good, but as before | always there was room for improvement.  I’ve been using Freemind for the official repository of ideas, todo lists, lesson plan etc, … Continue reading →

Posted in Tiny 85 stuff, Workshop 88 Stuff | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Protected: Speaker and amp testing for RF starter’s gun

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Jim

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Kleenex box weights

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Jim

It’s annoying when the Kleenex box lifts up as you pull out a tissue because the box is almost empty. Some heavyish scrap taped to the bottom fixes the problem.  The one on the left is about 6 ounces; I … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments