Great video of a full scale Portal turret. Via: Engadget
Neil Armstrong, Expert Pilot
Most of us know Neil Armstrong as the first man to step foot on the moon. Rightly so, but lost in all this is the fact that Armstrong was also a truly awesome pilot.During Armstrong and Dave Scott’s Gemini VIII mission, the spacecraft malfunctioned and set itself into a roll (starting around 19’00″ in the video above), with a rate approaching 60 RPM (1 revolution every second). At roll rates such as this the danger of humans blacking out becomes very real. Armstrong, as the Command Pilot, kept his cool and managed to stop the roll by activating the Reaction Control System, and then orienting the Gemini craft for a perfect emergency landing into the Pacific Ocean.When I say perfect, I mean perfect. The craft came …
Labor Day Weekend: LED Audio Meter
Two weeks ago I received some MAX7219 samples from Maxim. So this past labor day weekend was the perfect opportunity to try one out. I started out by assembling another Atmega Lite from Gizmoz USA. I have three of them, of which this is the second to use. My friend bought me two and I bought another one while I was visiting Portland, OR last year. These are great, cheap and breadboard usable, or good to embed in a project like I have done with my Smart Outlet. Plus you can use the Arduino bootloader. So the first thing was to get one LED to light up, which I thought would be easy. Ha! I started on Saturday afternoon by gathering my components and my large breadboard setup. Originally, it didn’t occur to me that …
Adafruit Show and Tell: 09/01/2012
Adafruit’s Show and Tell is a must if you’re looking to get ideas on various projects. Ladyada hosts a Google+ Hangout each Saturday evening in which she invites makers to share their latest projects. Today I was able to show my fume extractor. Check it out if you want to see it in action.
Renesas Future Electronics Daughterboard
After ordering the Renesas RX62N promotional development board I came across this daughterboard in the comments on Dangerous Prototypes. It can be found here, Future Electronics, for just a penny! The limit is four so I bought two. This way I can have two projects and easily swap them out. What those projects will be? I have no idea. I am hoping some of the IC’s I need to test will have a matching footprint on this board. I could also jumper it to an Arduino and use this board as a breakout. Future Electronics RX62N Daughterboard Remember, this is the bare PCB so you also need the connectors, which I have listed here. 26 Pin Male Header SBH11-PBPC-D13-ST-BK 26 Pin Female Header SFH11-PBPC-D13-ST-BK 26 pin headers for …
DIY: Fume Extractor
Inspired by this post I decided to build a fume extractor. I hadn’t even thought about it until I saw this on Hack a Day. I have wanted to do this for a while. I had some points to use, which I redeemed on a Samsung 830 SSD, so in the same order I threw in the carbon filters which was the only thing I needed to buy to build it. Carbon Filters (5 pack)http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C5HUI8 The rest was parts I had laying around. I started with an old 120MM computer case fan that was removed when I bought new quieter fans. Dirty 120MM Case Fan As part of the fan I already had some plastic filter holders that attach to the fan. I washed …
Order: Amazon Goodies
I recently redeemed my points from various programs for Amazon gift cards so I could buy a Samsung 830 SSD. Since I was ordering from Amazon, there is a variety to choose from. I decided to pick up a few things I needed for my workbench. Hakko CHP170 Micro Cutter, 16AWG Clean Cut http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000WT6FI Nice clean cuts and the blade isn’t soft like other cheap pairs. PanaVise 209 Vacuum Base Pv Jr. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CONJUM Works great and doesn’t damage your work surface. Much better than just the weighted ones. The suction cup is solid. Hakko Iron Holder 633-01 w/ 599B http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R6H9IQ Works perfectly for my Hakko 936 soldering station. Carbon Filter, ESD, Activated, 5pk for Hakko/Xytronic Smoke Absorber http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C5HUI8I added these to my cart …
Raspberr Pi: htop
In my other posts, I forgot to mention that I use htop instead of top for viewing processes. If you want to install run: $ sudo apt-get install htop and to run: $ htopIt works nicely, it’s colored, and it’s easy to use with the arrow keys.
IIS Logs Cleanup in Powershell
Back in June I was working on cleaning up the IIS log files at work but I wanted to archive them instead of deleting them, just in case. I came across this script in Powershell. http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/31db73b4-746c-4d33-a0aa-7a79006317e6 It works well but it needed the ability to archive a folder of folders instead of having to list each folder and the ability to backup previous months. So I updated it and I decided I would post it here in case it can help someone else. #Windows PowerShell Code################################################### # # NAME: compress-remove-logs.ps1 # VERSION: 1.4.2 # DATE: 20120309 # # AUTHOR: Bernie Salvaggio # EMAIL: BernieSalvaggio(at)gmail(dot)com # TWITTER: @BernieSalvaggio # WEBSITE: http://www.BernieSalvaggio.com/ # # COMMENT: Given one or more website directories, parse through the …
Raspberry Pi SD Card Backup
Just wanted to post a quick note about backing up the Raspberry Pi. After your hard work of configuring it the way you want it, don’t forget to back it up! It’s also a good idea before making any big changes. I know it’s a pain, but worth it in the end. I didn’t do it for awhile just because I was too lazy to shutdown the Pi and remove the SD card. Since my workstation is Windows 7 Ultimate x64bit, I use win32diskimager, which works really well. https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download On a side note, I should see if there is a way to do an online backup. Then I can continue to be lazy ;). My backup before switching to Debian Wheezy