I.Maker.365.

The Steampunk Light Bracer

 

 

a new beginning

Several months ago I started this blog with the high hopes of writing 365 posts in one year. But before reaching even fifty entries, I was done. Unlike most abandoned blogs that die a slow death due to lack of content, I conciously walked away from this one.

Let's call this a new beginning. There comes a point in your life when you realize that monsters don't exist, we create them. I needed to take a break. I needed to slay a monster or two.

The good news is I didn't stop making the entire time I was away. I'll try and pull some of the better projects and catch you up on what I've been making. 

 

(037) the seed cube

Every day I get one step closer to the flocking led light effect I want for a roomed sized installation. Granted it started with step 1, learn to solder competently, so there’s been a lot of steps in this process.

Over the weekend I assembled this rgb led 4x4x4 cube from Seed Studios. Assembly took a couple of hours as there are solder points all over those stick thin pcb’s. Seed’s Rainbowduino board that is an Arduino compatible controller board runs the cube with a professional multiplexed LED driver. Essentially an Arduino unit all hopped up for blinky lights.

 Since assembling the unit I have been working through software bugs. When I plug it into the usb port all of the requisite led’s light up on the board and a single red led begins to blink in the cube. That’s it. I've read on-line that several people have noted this same state when they got done assembling and finally juiced it up. They seem to have been able to work through their issues, so at least I feel like I’m on the right track.

 Getting the Arduino IDE to talk to the board is the big problem. There is no specific device called “rainbowduino”. I tried using the Uno setting and all of the 328 compatible options (at Kip’s suggestion) to no avail.

 There are a couple of hardware problems that COULD still be wrong. I took a 50/50 gamble on two resistors, wasn't sure which was the 10K. I matched the colors in the example on-line. I essentially didn’t look them up to double check, but still think I got right. The other thing is there’s a switch that allows the arduino unit to draw power directly from 3volt power source rather than the usb, again I think I got that right.

 I’ve set it aside for an hour or two, there are plenty less vexing projects. Although I did promise to have it running by the weekend, so an hour or two max, and then more poking.