I made this one thing (sort of) following the steps found here: Aaron Alai’s EMF Detector. As I didn’t happen to have the right resistor lying around (and didn’t want to scrounge through my parts) it only sort of works. I guess I could tweak the code and such, but I’m still just starting to learn this Arduino it’s still sketchy at best.

Robotics has been a passion ever since I first found BEAM bots (made by Mark Tilden). I’ve made a few different ones, but never had the frame of mind to photograph them. Living in Norway, having no RadioShack or even something similar…Scrounging from older projects is the way of life. I have to order parts (which is normal) but they take forever to get here and they’re NOT CHEAP. Even the simplest little beam bot takes parts that equal +/- $50!

I bought the Arduino Duemanilove and the Protoshield from eBay, at a total cost of about $27, including shipping to Norway. That’s pretty cheap in my opinion. When it came time to use the Arduino the first time, that was as simple as can be. I downloaded the latest software from Arduino website, and installed it. Running Windows 7 there’s a feature that installs all (ok, most) drivers automatically. I read the guide and prepared to install the drivers. When I plugged in the Arduino the first time, the computer thought about it for a few seconds and then it was all ready to go. I didn’t have to do anything. It told me it had assigned the Arduino to com4 and upon selecting com4 and the correct board in Arduino IDE, I was ready to upload.

If you like tinkering with microprocessors but you feel it’s costly and too complicated.. Buy this thing! I used to play with PIC micros and tried to use the ASM language, but felt it was too hard. I’m a trained computer technician and I’ve been a software programmer and web programmer, but this was too much to get a simple little micro to work. This thing uses what looks very much like C/C++ and it’s filled with great possibilities!

If you, like me, enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together (might not be in the original shape/way/form), this site is a must-read for ideas.

Someof the ideas and videos are superb. It’ll take you into a whole new mindset and should inspire you to start making and/or modifying your own stuff. One of the neatest ideas I came across, is this retrofitted oldstyle handset to include bluetooth!

Now, you should have a basic understanding of electronics and disassembling before you try some of the stuff. Even still, there are some great projects to fit even the greenest of “hackers”.

Had it not been for my workroom being a mess (I mean REAL mess), I might have dug out some of my old stuff and started a project or two this weekend. Being a bit under the weather, I just couldn’t get myself to start the cleaning process but I’ll have to start that real soon. I got the inspiration to do some tinkering again, reading the site and watching a bunch of the videos.

Be sure to bookmark makezine.com for future visits. The site is updated regularly.

All the tanks are doing wonderfully and fish are growing well. The JD’s are slow growing, but the PP’s are “monsters”. They’ve been out of danger for some time now, as they’re much to big to be prey. Hoping the JD’s will kick in shortly

On a whole other note: I’ve never really been much of a gamer, but recent events have got me to endeavor into this world.  I’ve never had a computer that was built for games, but during the last year or so I’ve had the urge to build one. Last week I finally did it, and this time I put the effort into making it reliable for games.

Specs and all that sort of thing might just come, if I find the time.

Well, now I’m off to bed getting far to little sleep but hey… That’s one thing I’m used to!!!