Lego Sky

Over the weekend, I had a chance to finish up a project that I started (and immediately became distracted from) several weeks ago. In our house, Paul and I have a game room. This is where the video games live, as well as other assorted geekery. We have Magic cards, D&D books, some manga.. it’s super nerdy Best of all, Paul has a Lego city on display. We had been looking for an interesting way to add light to the city, so when I saw some... Read More

R/C helicopter lights, Revision A.5

Atmel is going to personally revoke my electrical engineering license if they ever find out what’s in that yellow heat-shrink blob, but I now have a shiny new 5 gram version of my helicopter light kit =D This version has all the same remote-control dimming and strobe capabilities of the heavier Revision A. The only practical drawback is that it isn’t quite as bright.  Read More

Hardware sketch: R/C helicopter light kit

As great as it is to finish a professional-looking hardware project with optimum component choices and full design documentation, I love the feeling of sketching in hardware (or as I’ve called it in the past, improvisational electrical engineering). Despite all the faults and rough edges in today’s development tools, we do live in a world now where it’s easy turn an idea into a working prototype with very little time and money. Flying... Read More