All posts by Windell Oskay

About Windell Oskay

Co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Learn about microcontrollers at TechShop in 2008

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Starting next week and over the next few months, I’ll be teaching several different self-contained microcontroller-oriented classes at TechShop, at different levels of skill and with different emphases:

 

 

  • Soldering Project: Build a Micro Readerboard
  • Soldering Project: Build an AVR Programmer
  • Seminar: Introduction to AVR Microcontrollers

The classes are held at TechShop, a San Francisco Bay Area “open-access public workshop,” located just off of 101 in Menlo Park, where you can go use a wide range of tools to make things, and take all kinds of classes.
   

Soldering Project: Build a Micro Readerboard

This is a fun little soldering class, suitable for anyone with a bit of soldering experience (even youngsters), where you can customize the phrases in and build your very own LED Micro-Readerboard. It’s a cute little thing that spells out a preprogrammed messages (e.g., your name), one letter at a time, on a single-character alphanumeric display. In the class, you get to choose what messages to put on your readerboard, solder it together and take it home. It’s a neat, self-contained project that’s a great example of what you can do with a little AVR microcontroller. This is an intermediate soldering class; a little bit of prior soldering experience is assumed. The class typically runs about 90 minutes, but soldering experts will finish more quickly and we’ve reserved space for two hours just in case. Class size is limited to 5 students.

This class is scheduled to be given

  • Saturday, 2/9/08 1:00 PM
  • Saturday, 2/23/08 4:00 PM
  • Saturday, 3/8/08, 1:00 PM
  • Saturday, 3/22/08, 4:00 PM

Sign up here.

 

And speaking of AVR Microcontrollers….
Seminar: Introduction to AVR Microcontrollers

ATtiny2313AVR microcontrollers are powerful and versatile single-chip computers that cost only a few dollars each. You may have noticed that a number of our interesting projects are based around these, using them to make smart little toys and machines.

This class is aptly billed by TechShop as “How To Use AVR Microcontrollers in Your Projects.” Indeed. We’ll be bringing along a number of our cool AVR-based Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories projects from to show off some of the things that you can do with these little marvels, and how you might go about doing it.

Formal class description: “AVR microcontrollers are powerful, versatile and inexpensive single-chip computers that are remarkably easy to program in C, using entirely free and open-source tools that run on Macs, Windows, and Unix-like operating systems. In this practical introduction to AVR microcontrollers, we’ll take it from the beginning so that you can get started using them for your own cool projects. Some topics to be covered include: different types of AVRs and how to pick one for your application, getting a programmer, installing software tools, how to get started actually programming them, and how to download and run your code on the microcontroller. Class format is a one hour lecture followed by show-and-tell demonstrations and ample time for questions.”

This class is scheduled to be given

  • Tuesday, 2/5/08 6:30-8:30 PM
  • Saturday, 2/23/08 1:00-3:00 PM
  • Monday, 3/3/08, 6:30-8:30 PM
  • Saturday, 3/22/08, 1:00-3:00 PM

And speaking of programming….

 

Soldering Project: Build an AVR Programmer

USBtinyISP, assembledIn this class you will solder together, test out and get to take home a USB programmer for AVR microcontrollers. With this hardware tool and free cross-platform software, you can use your computer to write code for and program these little one-chip wonders.

This is an Intermediate Soldering Project; you must have prior soldering experience. You are encouraged, but not required, to bring a laptop along. (If you do bring your computer, you should have a chance to install the necessary software and test it out with your new programmer.)

Class size is limited to 5 students.

This class is scheduled to be given

  • Saturday, 2/9/08 4:00-6:00 PM [Full!]
  • Sunday, 2/24/08 2:00-4:00 PM — Just added!
  • Saturday, 3/8/08, 4:00-6:00 PM [Full!]

Sign up for these and other TechShop classes here.

This entry was posted in Education, EMSL Projects, Microcontrollers and tagged , . Bookmark the Permalink.

New goodies at the Evil Mad Science Shop

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10 mm LEDs   10 mm pink LEDs
10 mm pink LEDs   10 mm pink LEDs

Big, bad, beautiful and bright 10 mm diffused PINK LEDs, just the thing to help you make that ultra-geeky Valentine’s day gift! Seriously hard to find. Cheaper than diamonds.
[Product page]

(Remember: What better way to say “I love you,” than with the gift of doped semiconductors exhibiting radiative recombination properties?)

 

22-pin dip socket
DON’T FEAR ART.

High-quality black and white vinyl stickers, 8.5″ x 1.5″, $1.00 each. [Product page]

Lots of people are apparently afraid of LEDs and wires. Show them that you aren’t.

 

And some less flashy goodies:
using lead forming tool

Resistor lead forming tools, as seen in this article.
[Product page]

 

 

ZIF Socket

20-pin DIP ZIF sockets. Cheap.
Perfect for programing ATtiny2313’s or other small DIP microcontrollers.

[Product page]

 

Also recently added, for those of you that find this sort of thing exciting: surplus 22-pin sockets and 10-pin headers. (Yow!)

This entry was posted in Everything Else, Evil Mad Scientist Shop and tagged , . Bookmark the Permalink.

Tales from the Auxiliary

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The Evil Mad Science Auxiliary is a public group on Flickr for anyone to add photos that are (at least marginally) related to posts and projects from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
Lately some fantastic photos and projects have shown up in the group, so we thought that we should stop and round up a few– not all– of the great things that we’ve seen there.

The photos below were taken by their respective owners; click on the individual photos to get the full story.

DSC_2180

 

A dark detector built by cyenobite, using a tiny battery holder.

 

Joule Thief 1

 

 

 

Beautiful Joule Thief light by Jimmie Rodgers

 

 

 

Rewired 16seg POV display: Shift registers!   

Adam Greig has been having fun with AlphaPOV. (Results here.)

 

Macro shots with light ring   Bristlebot version IIBristlebot version II   Cheapest bot on Earth

Francesco (Flickr user fdecomite) made this amazing army of BristleBots, photographed with the help of his spiffy LED ring light. He even made some excellent videos of the little guys in action.

 

LED arrays   Homebrew toy blaster effects
progress

Steve Lodefink has been busy building up this set of electronics for an extra-spiffy handlheld blaster. Based on 555 and 4017 chips, it has some elements in common with our little cylon circuit. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s done!

 

SP_A0133   SP_A0130SP_A0112

Channon (Flickr user plik the geek) is building up one of our interactive LED kits.

He also decorated his office printer with an overly honest label. (Coincidentally, we also did this to our own office printer.)

 

 

Finished circuits!

Speaking of interactive LED kits, A Oli Wood contributed this fabulous time exposure of his completed circuit.

So… If you’ve got pictures or projects that were in some way inspired by our projects, we would as always love to see them in the Auxiliary. And to everyone who has contributed, thanks for your cool pictures!

This entry was posted in Electronics, EMSL Projects and tagged , , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

Linkdump: January 2008

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One Hundred Percent EDIBLE Googly Eyes!

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Nilla is watching you.Googly FSM
After more than a year of painstaking directed research by our Experimental Foods Division, we have finally achieved one of our most important longstanding goals: the production of edible googly eyes. Like many other great inventions, it seems almost simple in retrospect, but in this write up we walk through the process and show you how to make your own.
Continue reading One Hundred Percent EDIBLE Googly Eyes! →

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Play with your food and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

How to organize your Lego bricks for efficient building

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Messy Lego

If you spend any time at all with Lego, then the sight above is probably a familiar one: a giant bin full of assorted Lego bricks and parts. As a kid, this was about the pinnacle of my organizational skills (hey, they’re in a box, right?) but I’m sure that in aggregate I wasted several years of my life pawing through boxes like this trying to find the next piece that I needed.

Twenty years later I have Lego again, but much less tolerance for digging through piles. So how can we make things better? In this article we show off some of the tricks that we use to keep our stacks organized, so that we can spend our Lego time building efficiently, not looking for bricks. (Warning: article is image heavy!)
Continue reading How to organize your Lego bricks for efficient building →

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Bristlebot: A tiny directional vibrobot

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Enterprise

The BristleBot is a simple and tiny robot with an agenda. The ingredients? One toothbrush, a battery, and a pager motor. The result? Serious fun.
(YouTube video here.)

The BristleBot is our take on the popular vibrobot, a simple category of robot that is controlled by a single vibrating (eccentric) motor. Some neat varieties include the mint-tin version as seen in Make Magazine (check the video), and the kid’s art bot: a vibrobot with pens for feet.
Continue reading Bristlebot: A tiny directional vibrobot →

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Last minute Evil Mad Shopping and Projects

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Lit up segments spell out the letter M   Segments visible

Time to make some LED Micro-Readerboards as ornaments for your tree this year? Watch the short video introduction to see what they do: display a message one character at a time.

This is one of the open-source holiday electronics projects that we released last year. Our up-to-date build instruction are here, including source code. We also have an FAQ about this project, a page of technical data about it, and a discussion forum if you need help with it. The version 2.0 kits (which are still available at the Make Store) use a seriously awesome ultra-high brightness, deep red 16-segment alphanumeric display for long battery life.

As of today, you can also buy the LED displays alone– just the thing for your own custom microcontroller project, alphapov display, name tag, or ornament.

[Product Page]

Jellybean versus the mechanical mouse
Next, the Interactive LED Panel Kits (as seen in the interactive LED coffee tables that we designed with Because We Can) now come with these beautiful black printed circuit boards. Pictured above, JellyBean combats a mechanical mouse on a table made with a special-order kit that has all green LEDs.

Quite a few of these tables have now been built and there’s even a new instructable from Deadly Computer about the process of building one. During the past month we’ve slowly caught up with the huge waiting list to get a kit, so it’s much easier to get one now. We have even made up some extras of the most popular kit combinations (8 panel with all blue LEDs or blue + white LEDs), which are available in stock to buy right now, shipped to arrive before Christmas to US addresses.

[Product Page]


bugStickers

Finally, we have some new multipurpose stickers for sale. Quite possibly the best gift in the world for the software developer in your life.

“These handy stickers will increase the visual appeal of many different items. If you happen to take them to any big box electronics stores, please bring your camera and post pictures in the Evil Mad Science Auxiliary.” We’re waiting for those action shots.

[Product Page]

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