We’re dreaming of sunshine over here (it’s cloudy and misty on our peninsula), so to give us some glimmer – we’re having our SUMMER SO BRIGHT SALE! Make your summer a little brighter with our LED Matrix Links! Click the image to check it out! Or jump ahead to see it in action… Just finished a project using the LED Matrix Links: http://www.mobilewill.us/2013/07/msgeq7-sfe-and-led-matrix-links.html Click here to see a video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK1vzTQoZjk Head on over to https://www.tindie.com/stores/FriedCircuits/ to redeem a discount for your next LED project! Warning: sunglasses are unnecessary to wear with this sale, but recommended. It adds to that cool factor. And as certified geeks in misty, cloudy weather, we know cool.
New Domain Name
I finally got around to getting a domain name. You can use either listed below. http://www.mobilewill.us http://mobilewill.us
Blogging from 37000ft with GoGo Air!
Just wanted to drop a quick post, just to say I have blogged from 37000ft. Currently flying over Utah to Dallas from San Francisco with a final destination in Dayton, OH. Thanks to GoGOAir I am able to do this. Their service works pretty well and enjoying it. I do have to say that web browsing is great but doing a speed test not so much. I was getting less then .3Mbps which is nothing compared to normal mobile broadband which is what you are supposed to get. Of course it could be just the amount of people using internet right now. Its a full 737 so lots of people on board. Currently we are traveling at 540Mph. I will have WiFi on my second leg and on the …
HBRC 9th Annual Tabletop Challenge
During the Maker Faire I attended a presentation about ROS, Robot Operating System. During which I heard about HBRC, Homebrew Robotics Club. Finally I had come across a group of other people that worked on robots at home. I attended my first meeting Wed, May 25th. Here is a link to their site if you are interested.http://www.hbrobotics.org/ This past Wednesday was 9th Annual Tabletop Challenge and potluck. For the potluck my Girlfriend and I decided to get creative and come up with some sort of robot or Android inspired idea. In the end we ended up with these. Can you tell what they are? Post a comment below what you think.
Maker Faire 2011
It’s been four years since attending my first Maker Faire, and this year was great! Each year there are a lot of awesome projects, robotics, electronics, DIY, and the like. This particular year was even better since I am now becoming increasingly familiar with DIY robotics. I felt that I was able to relate to a lot of the content more so with having worked on my robotics project. Below are a few pictures and videos of some of the projects I saw at the faire. Microchip’s ChipKit: http://www.microchip.com/chipkit Listening to Massimo Banzi (Co-founder of Arduino) and Chris Anderson (Editor and Chief of Wired Magazine) Surface ocean research robot(not sure of the name): Google’s SKPR bot: Master Chief: DIYDrones and their ArduCopter: Testing …
Kid in a Candy Store
Where I live there isn’t any electronics stores, any “real” ones anyway. There Radio Shack and then about an hour away is Fry’s Electronics. Both don’t have much as far as components and actually have noticed Radio Shack has more than Fry’s for components. Last Friday I was talking to a co-worker about the lack of stores and what I needed for my robot. Then he mentioned Santa Cruz Electronics. The website could use some updating but I started to get excited that there might be a place that has most things I would need. Its about 45min from the house but only 20min from work. This is perfect. Saturday I wasn’t really planning on going but we wanted to get out of …
Windows tells you to hard power off?
I have repaired computers for many years and dealt with many users and I don’t know how many times I have told someone its not a good idea to hard power off your computer. Fast forward to Windows 7 and now I guess its okay to do. I usually have a lot of applications and browser tabs open so I dislike restarting and get annoyed when I forced to for updates or stability. Good thing Chrome is really good about restoring tabs! I think computers should be able to update and restart parts as need so you don’t have to ever full restart. I am one who keeps my system on 24/7. You never know when you need something. Last …
WiFi/Xbee Robot Background
I have always wanted to have a WiFi controlled R/C car of some sort. The idea started when a coworker sent me this one, Roboteq VIA WiFi Robot. If he reads this I think he will know it was him. This was about early 2000 and I added it to the list of projects I wanted to try, another one being a GPS controlled glider. Upon research I realized it would probably cost close to $1000 to build. I didn’t think the cool factor was worth that much. Flash forward to 2008 when I moved to Monterey, CA and became an NGC employee. Upon getting to know a few coworkers I came to hear about the Maker Faire. For the past 3 years …
Another Blog on the Interwebs
After some time of resisting, I have finally succumbed to my first blog. For a while I had resisted some of the online services such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogging. Most of them were created out of necessity to access something or follow something for an event. The same happened for this blog. I have always been into projects at home and more recently have wanted to share them with friends, so my GF, suggested I created a blog. I had thought of other ways like Facebook or my own site as I am the DIY yourself type and rather create/host my own stuff. Problem is exposure and uptime. So I decided to go with the blog option. A few …