Author Archives: engineerzero

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About engineerzero

Once and future engineer.

Arduino and Phototransistor

Posted on December 10, 2011 by engineerzero

Here is the experiment with the photocell replaced with a phototransistor, the NTE3034A. Here is the flashlight OFF data from the Arduino IDE serial monitor: Here is the flashlight ON data: This phototransistor is actually designed for infrared, so I … Continue reading →

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Arduino and Photocell

Posted on November 6, 2011 by engineerzero

This is an experiment out of the Getting Started with Arduino book. As you can see, an analog port is connected to a circuit with a photocell (Radio Shack part 276-1657) and resistor (220 ohm). I used a flashlight to … Continue reading →

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Arduino Monster Robot

Posted on October 30, 2011 by engineerzero

For Halloween, I thought I would try to make a glowing monster mask for my budget arduino robot. Here’s the original, somewhat overly ambitious plan that I made: Since I already had the robot, the first thing I had to … Continue reading →

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Budget Arduino Robot Upgrades

Posted on October 20, 2011 by engineerzero

I’ve done some upgrades to my arduino robot. The change that seemed to help the most in the accuracy department was to upgrade the wheels. The potato chip container lids were kind of flimsy, so I replaced them with hard … Continue reading →

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Budget Arduino Robot Project

Posted on October 14, 2011 by engineerzero

Given the problems that I was having on using GIRC (Graphical Interface for Robotic Control) with RC toys, I decided to build my own Arduino-controlled servo-driven robot. Aside from the electronics, the body probably cost less than five dollars. A … Continue reading →

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Seattle Maker Faire: The Case for Magnuson Park

Posted on October 7, 2011 by engineerzero

(NOTE: The Seattle Mini Maker Faire will be held at the Seattle Center on June 2-3, 2012. For more information, please visit the official web site at makerfaireseattle.com. As for this blog entry, I like the pictures of Magnuson Park … Continue reading →

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Servo Command!

Posted on October 3, 2011 by engineerzero

“Servo Command!” is a computer program written in the Processing computer language to control a continuous rotation servo via an Arduino interface. I got a lot of the information out of books on Processing and the Arduino, then modified it … Continue reading →

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GIRC: Graphical Interface for Remote Control

Posted on September 18, 2011 by engineerzero

GIRC is my program to operate a remote-control vehicle via computer with a graphical user interface. The program is written in Processing and an Arduino is used for the hardware interface. Here’s a screen capture with the path being drawn … Continue reading →

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Elenco Amerikit Learn to Solder Kit Review

Posted on September 11, 2011 by engineerzero

I got this kit because I wanted to brush up on my soldering skills. This is when I was about a third complete with the project. The rows of dots on the right are for practicing soldering before you actually … Continue reading →

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Quake off Vancouver Island

Posted on September 9, 2011 by engineerzero

I live near Seattle and I didn’t feel this thing at all, but this has been an active year for earthquakes and so I like to keep track of these things. BTW, the PNSN web page lists the number of … Continue reading →

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