This is a new version of my Tengu clone. This time on a printed circuit board (PCB). I have them produced by Olimex and I am very pleased with the quality. The PCB worked on the first try and has some minor issues only.
Today my first PCBs arrived. Hooray! For me, this is definitely like reaching the next level in DIY technologies.
BlinkM is a smart LED, developed by Tod E. Kurt from ThingM. In a way it is a cousin of the Programmable LED. It is a microcontroller with an attached RGB LED. The idea is to implement PWM to control the color and brightness of the LED and put it in the controller. That means you have an abstraction level to make your programming easier. You can simply order “fade to red” or “fade to blue”.
TV-B-Gone is pure subversive fun. If you don’t know it, it was invented by Mitch Altman and it is a universal TV remote control with a single button, the power button. You can only switch TVs off. No longer dumb advertisements everywhere you go. Just switch them off. Extra portions of fun in a MediaMarkt.
Just another fine device, well suited for DIY.
You know you could buy notebook sleeves in every size and color. But how many selfmade notebook sleeves have you seen?
I got my material from a shop that sells surf equipement. They were so kind to give me three old surf jackets for free. Some zippers were broken or a bit rusty but the neopren was fine.
I don’t own a sewing machine but my mom has one. 
Arduino is a great prototyping platform and most of you probably know already about it. If not, check out the Arduino pages and the Arduino playground and dive into it.
A couple of month ago I ordered my first Arduino board. It was one of the Diecimila revision. As I often try something on my breadboard, I found out, that it can get troublesome to connect the Arduino with the breadboard over and over again. Others found that out as well and have solutions for that. An Arduino clone that snaps nicely onto your breadboard, e.g. Boarduino or RBBB.
So what to do if these boards are far away across the ocean and it is holiday season everywhere? You may have guessed it, we build it on a prototype board.
Thilo and I have been in Berlin for the last three days from 27th to the 29th, attending to the 24c3. It has been the first time for me beeing there. The 24c3 is one of the biggest events in Germany and Europe where geeks and hackers get together to talk, to hack and to have fun. It is a pitty, that I found out that late that there is such a cool event every year taking place only some hundred kilometers away. Anyway, I will be there again next year.
Christmas is coming closer, so here is my contribution to put you in the right mood.
It is a blog hitcounter, that rings a bell. Literally. It puts a smile on your face, every time someone hits your blog. And it is a great way to annoy your colleages or your girl friend.
It consists of an Arduino board, a bell, a servo and a couple of lines of code in c, python and php.
Back in March I published my first instructable called Programmable LED. The idea was simple, have a device that is able to record and play back light sequences. Light sequences are recorded with an LDR, a light dependent resistor and played back with an LED.
After a while some users at Instructables began to rebuild, modify and improve the Programmable LED. Ok, that’s what Instructables is all about, to share and to distribute, but it was astonishing to me, how it worked.
This is a gallery of these derived and improved versions. Kudos to all the builders.
I just finished the tengu clone on a prototype board. Here are some pictures.
adsg says: agds