Monthly Archives: May 2013

RGB display for timer

Posted on May 30, 2013 by

Today I spent some time thinking about possible simple products that I could market while I continue to work on my robot. One thought that came to mind was a color-coded illuminated egg timer. It would have an RGB LED … Continue reading →

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VU Meter Blues

Posted on May 30, 2013 by

This microphone break out board does not work, maybe because it needs some capacitors and resistors. So next I’ll try the one that Sparkfun is offering. BTW, I guess someone was in a hurry when they packed the box at … Continue reading →

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Flicker Object Detection

Posted on May 29, 2013 by

Can a small robot detect objects by flicking a light on and off? If so, then all I need to do in order to add object detection capability is add a small lamp to my robot at a cost of … Continue reading →

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A lamp for Grisbot

Posted on May 28, 2013 by

If Grisbot is to detect nearby objects by flashing a light on and off, it will need to carry its own lamp. So I went to Radio Shack and bought a few candidates. (NOTE: The packages shown on the right … Continue reading →

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Object detection by photocell

Posted on May 27, 2013 by

A photocell is a poor substitute for a camera, but it’s a lot cheaper too. So the question for grisbot is whether a photocell is sufficient to detect an object nearby. Here’s one possible solution. Suppose an object — say, … Continue reading →

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Business Lessons from Chocolatier

Posted on May 26, 2013 by

Chocolatier is a business strategy simulation game where you are a chocolate maker in the nineteenth century. You travel around the world gathering ingredients and recipes, then have your factories make the chocolates, which you then travel around the world … Continue reading →

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Rewiring to streamline reprogramming

Posted on May 25, 2013 by

Each time I re-program Grisbot, I have to move the ATMega328 microcontroller chip from the robot to the Arduino platform and then back again. It was difficult to pry the chip on and off the breadboard each time because several … Continue reading →

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