Ebony and Ivory

Initial parametric testing of baselines looks to be a success.

For further research on the tunes (I promise).

The little servo that could.

This test was conducted to test the output torque on the little servo included in the Sparkfun kit. I cannot say I'm disappointed. Yes, the golf ball is for science. In light of this, Snooter Magruder has elected to use servomotors in the robotic arm vice the previously decided (and disappointingly tested) stepper motors.

Fun with Strippers

I found some 4-strand alarm wire at Lowe's. It's 22 gauge solid-core, and perfect for this project. All we have to do is strip the ends a bit, and the rest of the wire is contained in the sheath. The strippers I'm using need a bit of lubrication, but work well enough if you fiddle with them long enough.

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.