Category Archives: Workshop 88 Stuff

Possible Glass Curtain Gallery presentation

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Jim

I got kind of excited by the prospect of giving a talk at Glass Curtain Gallery about how artists and hackers could work together, and demo some of the sensors and outputs we could show them how to control with … Continue reading →

Posted in Artist / hacker synergy, Workshop 88 Stuff | 2 Comments

Little electret mic preamp

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jim

Russ said he had trouble using a bare electret mic as an input device in his Arduino 201 sensors class.  I hope to help by making up a couple of simple mic preamp boards.  There was an initial prototype, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Workshop 88 Stuff | 5 Comments

Major progress on LED display

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jim

After another evening at W88, there’s some good progress on the display.  First, there are four boards running in the display that I didn’t have to make!  I did etch them, but Bill and Karl ground them down to size … Continue reading →

Posted in Scrolling LED, Workshop 88 Stuff | 1 Comment

Bluetooth module breakout

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Jim

This is just a quickie to provide a way to connect to a Bluetooth module for Russ’ chording keyboard.  I found a datasheet and an Eagle lib with the footprint.  Unfortunately the pads didn’t provide enough area outside the “half … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Workshop 88 Stuff | 3 Comments

First 6 latch boards for scrolling LED display

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Jim

Jim Harvey and I got together at the space 2/16 to test and install the first 6 columns’ worth of latch boards.  First step was to test them.  That was a very good idea, since there were some bad traces … Continue reading →

Posted in Scrolling LED, Workshop 88 Stuff | 11 Comments

Reflowing LEDs/resistors on heated build platform

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Jim

The heated build platform being built for the Makerbot at W88 should help avoid problems with prints warping.  It didn’t ship with the optional LEDs (and resistors) to make it look cool, but I had some and offered to install … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflow soldering, Workshop 88 Stuff | Leave a comment

First hot plate reflow attempts

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Jim

Dan, Jim (from FSI) and I did a first round of surface mount reflow soldering tests on my new hot plate at the space Tuesday evening.  Results were excellent – even better than I’d expected. I chose a hot plate … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflow soldering, Workshop 88 Stuff | 5 Comments

ISP cable for Tiny 85 (and more!)

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Jim

I got the cute little 8 pin Atmel AT Tiny85 working with the Arduino IDE by following steps and hints in this post and playing with a couple of different core libraries. At under $3 each, this chip is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Tiny 85 stuff, Workshop 88 Stuff | 7 Comments

Led Tester

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Jim

I put a couple of minimalist LED testers together out of junk parts for the space.  9V snaps harvested from dead 9V batteries, old but not dead 9V batteries, some female headers and resistors.  The header and resistor are soldered … Continue reading →

Posted in Workshop 88 Stuff | 3 Comments

Scrolling LED Display

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Jim

Russ’ post of a link to a one-wire serial-parallel latch to drive 16 LEDs from one pin on a micro reminded me I had an old LED display we might rebuild into something useful.  It was from work maybe 25 … Continue reading →

Posted in Scrolling LED, Workshop 88 Stuff | 1 Comment