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Rotary encoder based cooking timer |
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Saturday, 20 February 2010 18:10 |
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 Continuing my experimentations with cooking timer user interfaces, I stumbled upon a cute little rotary encoder on Sparkfun. It immediately looked like a good match for the project. The thing is that all cooking timers I’ve seen have either a simplistic interface requiring many clicks to set the time (like clicking the “minutes” button 50 times) or a complex keypad with way too many buttons.
At first I thought I'd need 2 axes (axis 1 would increment by 1 minute and the other axis by 15 minutes) but fiddling around with the trackball showed me that it was not necessary; that I'd just need one axis with tactile feedback (that is, a clicky switch rather than a smooth flowing motion of the controller) and some selection mechanism to switch between 1 and 15 minutes.
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Review: Dremel 220-01 stand vs. Proxxon Micromot MB 140/S |
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Monday, 15 February 2010 18:35 |
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Started fabricating PCBs at home using the toner transfer method and needed to find a way to drill them, as I am still mostly using through hole parts. Since I was pleased with my Dad's dremel 300, I thought it would be a good idea to get one for myself along with a Dremel 220-01 (220) drill stand. It took me a few minutes of painful work with the stand to realize just how bad it is for the job - it flexes, it's plasticy and it's an insult to Dremel users.
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Working with simple Trackball gestures |
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Sunday, 27 December 2009 18:16 |
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I set out to use a trackball to control an alarm clock. It seemed to me like an interesting experiment in UI and another small lesson in electronics. I envisioned using the two axes for controlling hours and minutes (separately and simultaneously) and the tracking speed to specify increments (faster scrolling would mean larger incremcents).
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Pictorial: Using a Dremel to cut prototype boards |
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Friday, 14 August 2009 15:01 |
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When I started making prototype boards, I couldn't find a Dremel accessory to help me cut the boards to size. A perfect tool would be some sort of table saw contraption, but there is no such thing. After a few experiments, I found a quick and accurate way to use the Dremel for this purpose.
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Pictorial: Perfectly flat breadboard jumper wires, every time |
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Thursday, 06 August 2009 19:12 |
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As of now, I've only been playing around with electronics on and off for a year. The amount of know how in this field is tremendous, but sometimes you find yourself struggling over the simplest of things - for example, cutting breadboard jumper wires to perfect length. After I hastly prototype something on the breadboard (using cheap, flexible, premade jumper wires) and decide to keep it there, the jumper wires I use must be flat and next to perfect. If the wires seem wavy, bumpy or somehow unaesthetic I become homicidal. Below is the method I use to aid my obsession.
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Jumper Wires: The cheapskate alternative |
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Saturday, 25 July 2009 11:10 |
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After working a while with standard 22 gauge jumper wires (the ones you buy by meter and cut yourself), I decided I deserve an upgrade. For one, the 22 gauge's inflexibility made it a pain to work with - it was brittle and not very aesthetic on a breadboard. Second, I could never bring myself to reuse a wire. It just felt wrong.
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Worry free development: An SVN tutorial for single developers |
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Sunday, 19 July 2009 21:50 |
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This guide will (hopefully) enlighten you to the benefits of using a Source Control system in your development, even if you are a hobbyist working on small projects. After a 5 minute free installation you will be able to save a snapshot of your project with a single click, allowing you to modify the code knowing you can revert your changes to any state at any time.
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