Bits and Pieces
2011-Mar-17, Thursday 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeIt is St Patrick's Day today, so I'm celebrating it in my own rebellious way. By working a bit on projects.
First up; the Crepe wrap-dress. I finished up another mock-up of the bodice. I decided there was simply too much fabric across the bust, and instead of trying to take it out with darts I'd cut a size 10 across the chest, and graduate out to a size 12 at the waist. It didn't fix the darts, they're still dimply. However, the back of the bodice seems to fit better than the size 12. The arms are a little tight now (but many people mentioned that), and I'm not sure if it's any better or worse on the front, except that the side seams seem to gaping strangely. But, a plan; maybe a fourth mock-up, size 10 back, size 12 front and waist, and to just give in and make my darts go well above the apex? I'll mull it over.
Then; I soldered. I picked up the RGB Wave kit and a blue LoL Shield (that's lots-of-light-emitting-diodes) at MakerFaire.
The RBG Wave kit has many different kinds of components, but it's real easy to make up; just follow the instructions. I haven't gotten around to reprogramming it yet but the basic program is plenty fun. Though now I'm regretting not buying three, because it's the 'wave' changing colour that I liked in the first place. Oh, yeah, basically, it has an IR LED that emits, and an IR receiver that measures changes (think LDR), so when you wave your hand in front of the board the RGB LED restarts its sequence.
For the LoL shield it's the other way around. Only a couple of kinds of components, but loads of them! It's a 9x14 grid (126 LEDs, plus a couple extra in the bag just in case), basically a low-res LED screen. I found it easiest to add the four corners LEDs first, so that I had a stable flat base to add the rest. I'd add in all the LEDs for one column, cover with a bit of sticky-tape so they wouldn't fall out as I turned them over. Solder one leg down the length of the column, remove the sticky tape, straighten the LEDs, then solder the other side. Trim the leads, then repeat with each of the other columns. Add the headers, and place a bit of electrical tape over the Arduino's USB connector.
Then I programmed my Arduino with the example programs, it's very nifty! I downloaded the beta v0.2 library, extracted to /usr/share/arduino/Libraries, then loaded up the examples. LED 13 on my Arduino is causing ghosting, so I'm going to have to remove that before it's perfect :)
Other than that I soldered male-male headers onto my XBee Explorer board so I could use it with less annoyance on my breadboard. I was a little surprised that it didn't come with them, but I suppose not everyone uses breadboards ad infinitum.
I couldn't find my MiniPOV kit, or my perf (?) board to solder up the white-noise generator. So they're still on my to-do list.
Oh, and because you mightn't have seen them yet, here's the MakerFaire UK 2011 badge, now proudly living on my bag. It's an RGB LED with integrated timer, its patterns change seemingly randomly. It is so cool it managed to get anyone who wanted one to sit down and learn to solder!
First up; the Crepe wrap-dress. I finished up another mock-up of the bodice. I decided there was simply too much fabric across the bust, and instead of trying to take it out with darts I'd cut a size 10 across the chest, and graduate out to a size 12 at the waist. It didn't fix the darts, they're still dimply. However, the back of the bodice seems to fit better than the size 12. The arms are a little tight now (but many people mentioned that), and I'm not sure if it's any better or worse on the front, except that the side seams seem to gaping strangely. But, a plan; maybe a fourth mock-up, size 10 back, size 12 front and waist, and to just give in and make my darts go well above the apex? I'll mull it over.
Then; I soldered. I picked up the RGB Wave kit and a blue LoL Shield (that's lots-of-light-emitting-diodes) at MakerFaire.
The RBG Wave kit has many different kinds of components, but it's real easy to make up; just follow the instructions. I haven't gotten around to reprogramming it yet but the basic program is plenty fun. Though now I'm regretting not buying three, because it's the 'wave' changing colour that I liked in the first place. Oh, yeah, basically, it has an IR LED that emits, and an IR receiver that measures changes (think LDR), so when you wave your hand in front of the board the RGB LED restarts its sequence.
 |
For the LoL shield it's the other way around. Only a couple of kinds of components, but loads of them! It's a 9x14 grid (126 LEDs, plus a couple extra in the bag just in case), basically a low-res LED screen. I found it easiest to add the four corners LEDs first, so that I had a stable flat base to add the rest. I'd add in all the LEDs for one column, cover with a bit of sticky-tape so they wouldn't fall out as I turned them over. Solder one leg down the length of the column, remove the sticky tape, straighten the LEDs, then solder the other side. Trim the leads, then repeat with each of the other columns. Add the headers, and place a bit of electrical tape over the Arduino's USB connector.
Then I programmed my Arduino with the example programs, it's very nifty! I downloaded the beta v0.2 library, extracted to /usr/share/arduino/Libraries, then loaded up the examples. LED 13 on my Arduino is causing ghosting, so I'm going to have to remove that before it's perfect :)
 |
Other than that I soldered male-male headers onto my XBee Explorer board so I could use it with less annoyance on my breadboard. I was a little surprised that it didn't come with them, but I suppose not everyone uses breadboards ad infinitum.
 |
I couldn't find my MiniPOV kit, or my perf (?) board to solder up the white-noise generator. So they're still on my to-do list.
Oh, and because you mightn't have seen them yet, here's the MakerFaire UK 2011 badge, now proudly living on my bag. It's an RGB LED with integrated timer, its patterns change seemingly randomly. It is so cool it managed to get anyone who wanted one to sit down and learn to solder!
 |
