Excited, I ripped open the package to find my Raspberry Pi. The packing looked like it had been run over but my Pi was still intact. Yay! First thing I realized I needed to find a power source and a SD card. After some digging I just ended up using an iPad power adapter with a cell phone micro USB cable. I was going to use my Galaxy S power adapter but I didn’t want to run it close to the limit of 700ma. For some reason I thought I had plenty of SD cards around, but I guess not. Luckily Best Buy had a 32GB Sandisk Ultra class 10 available in store for $27. Perfect! Raspberry Pi packaging, amazing it wasn’t damaged For the most part I hard …
The Pi has Arrived
Just received a UPS email that my Raspberry Pi has been delivered! Unfortunately I am stuck at work at my desk. I can’t wait to get home and taste my Pi. I will be sure to post my unboxing excitement and where it takes me. I have no idea what I am going to do with it as this point, but it should be fun. Comment below if you have ordered one and if you have received it. Update: The Pi is awesome! I was able to get it up an running and ready to start playing. I will post about it in the next day or two.
Web Site Bugs Fixed
At last, the mysterious web site bugs have been fixed! Thursday night I got the urge to work on the robot website. It was more of me wanting to add my smart outlet to the site. I will post about the smart outlet soon. I had two bugs on the site, one of which I’ve had for a year. Bug #1This bug I have had since the beginning of the web site. Whenever I would receive data from the Robot/Arduino to display on the web site, the string would be cut off. For example, if it would say something like “Current Power Usage” instead I would get “Current Po.” The same for the Robot if it would say “Left” I would get “Le” or something like that. Also, I would …
Windows 8 Release Preview Released Early
Windows 8 Release Preview is available now. “Until now, it seemed like Microsoft was gearing up to unveil the almost-final Windows 8 Release Preview in the first full week of June, just in time for what is sure to be the world’s premier Ultrabook trade show. As it turned out, though, the folks in Redmond couldn’t contain their jubilation any longer: the company is now rolling out the Release Preview several days ahead of schedule. The update, free to anyone who wants to try it, offers a few notable enhancements, including a trio of new apps, a “Flip ahead” browser gesture, Flash support and a couple of updated multi-monitor features. A few heavy hitters like Wikipedia and Box.net are also using the …
Blink Grid SMT
While browsing the Maker Shed at the Maker Faire, I came across the Blink Grid SMT and I instantly thought this is what I have been looking for. For awhile now I have looked for a kit to practice surface mount soldering. Until now I’ve tried to win a FreePCB coupon from dangerousprototypes.com but haven’t won yet. Good thing someone misplaced it at the Maker Shed since I didn’t see the bin with SMT kits. Here are a few pictures of the build process from yesterday and a video of my first time doing drag soldering. The tip I used for drag soldering I won from dangerousprototypes.com. Thanks, Ian! The kit is designed by Wayne and Layne. For more information visit www.wayneandlayne.com. …
YawCam
Last month I decided to improve the streaming software for the video feeds from my robots. Thus far I have been using Active WebCam which I’ve had good success, minus a few things. So I set out to find something else. I decided to revisit YawCam which I had tested in the past but for one reason or another I decided against it. This time though, I decided to give it a try and see if it would work for my robots. YawCam has gone through some updates since I used it last. It is actively supported and used. Getting multiple webcams to work isn’t the cleanest solution with YawCam but it works. My main selling point is that I was able to stream video …
ArduGate: Controlling Arduino with web browser
Here is a cool web app for controlling the Arduino UNO from a web browser with JavaScript. ArduGate: controlling Arduino with web browser
Maker Faire 2012 Pictures
Here are some more pictures from the 2012 Maker Faire 12′ Robotic Human Face from Face Foward Giant Polyhedral by Zome Builder Brolly Flock sculpture by FLUX Foundation BeagleBone Sketch during ‘State of Arduino’ Atmel project with DFRobot’s 4WD Chasis Journalist from Wired Magazine with a signed Arduino Uno Code for the Z-Wave Library Robot from the Microsoft Booth Instructable LED “Light Bright” The new Maker Faire Robot How a bird flies presentation/simulation Raspberry Pi Founder Eben Upton Blurry Raspberry PI with HDMI Adapter Do you have any pictures? Share them! Also, check out Engadget’s coverage.
Maker Faire 2012 has Ended
Now that I am back at the ranch office, I can post the rest of the pictures and tell you about all the exciting things that took place at the 2012 Maker Faire. There is so much to cover I don’t know where to start. I should start out noting that this year both Jenn and I volunteered. We did this for a few reasons, one was cost as we have a wedding and some other things coming up. Secondly, we wanted to be more involved and so we figured this would be a great opportunity. She found the Maker Corps via an email and I had seen a blog post by DFRobot asking for help. So we both jumped at the opportunity. The …
Raspberry Pi @makerfaire
‘Raspberry Pi Founder Offers Tips for Programming Super Computer’ Look at the size compared to the HDMI adapter. Eben Upton Raspberry showing off its graphics capabilities Raspberry GUI