Song Says It All

Ok, well, maybe not ALL. More coding was done with the color detection system including an LCD output. Currently, the input is a rheostat with the wiper being sent to the analog input of the Arduino. Once the actual sensor housing is built, the sensor can be properly calibrated for colors. After this, it's on to all of the moving parts.

For your enjoyment.

Private Parts

Hooray! The parts bought with with a private account arrived today! And I think they work!

Do Arduinos Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Snooter Magruder Color-Sensing Computer is ALIVE! A successful test using an RGB LED and a photosensor correctly identified the colors of a few objects. Next up will be coding limits for each color range, and designing an LCD screen output for the color names to display on.

This is why we don't have nice things.

This weekend, a perfectly good 5-disc CD changer was sacrificed to the Sparkfun gods. Here is a timelapse of the reckoning.

All in all, lots of nice buttons, some resistors and capacitors, motors, an IR sensor, and some gears were obtained.

Just Me and My Erector

Tonight the team experimented with a multitude of materials and ideas for the prototype. I used an Erector set in an attempt to make the claw of the robot. I also apparently used a potato to film it.
-S

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio...

... and this fellow of infinite jest has set to creating prototype bits and pieces using balsa wood that he has laminated himself.

 Balsa wood has the properties of being light, and when laminated, strong and rigid.

(It's also incredibly satisfying to pretend you're a martial arts master and smash it to smithereens.)

Thrift Store Treasures

Today, I found an Erector set at Savers in NH. I never had one as a kid. The Erector set has a bunch of really nice versatile parts, or at least I hoped. It was $15 and the box was heavy, so I hoped that most of the parts were there and not just replaced with rocks. I bought it and took it home. When I opened the box, every single part was still vacuum sealed.  Checked the price on Amazon, it books for $150 new. Now I know why I never had one as a kid. I think I'll put that one down in the win column.