It's the little things...

I added a couple of posts today: one in the Misc. Builds page, and an update to my Laptop to All-in-one project page.

I also added quick references to EVERY project page, so that you can skip to the newest updates from the top of the page. It took a while, but I think it will be worth it in the end and I hope you guys like it.

Here's some pretty tubes to look at:

As always, check out the project pages for the full story, click on some ads, and thanks for reading!

Cleaning up

I decided, after taking a photo of my workstation, that I reeeeeealy need to get it sorted out... I had two separate organizers I picked up to do just that, but they've been sitting empty for over a month now. So I spent today hacking through my main work table. I'm going to do my computer desk tomorrow. 

 Before:

I love my one armed chair lol

My iMac build and what's left of my bench 'pi

My all-in-one build is in there somewhere :)

After:

I'll post a picture of the other desk when I get it done too. 

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

iMac Update

I added a new update to the iMac Hacking II page (update #3) Check it out!

Here's a preview:

As always, check out the main project page for full details, pics, etc.. and click on some ads for me :)

New Projects! New Pages! Go read them!

I added a new page for some of the wood-based projects I've been working on! There are more of these in the works, so keep an eye out! Here are a few sample pics: as always, make sure you check out the individual page for the full details!

I also got to try out that soldering tip I re-tinned!

It's super-fine pointed, which made it perfect for this:

My USBasp didn't have any jumpers to enable the slow modes. In fact, it didn't even have traces coming from the jumper pins to add jumpers on. So, I soldered in a jumper wire from the correct pin, directly on the chip, to a ground hole that served as a via. According to the original schematic and code I flashed it with, this should enable slow mode for older avr's.
Here's a close up:

I didn't see any point in adding this to the misc. builds page, because it's not really a build or project, just something cool enough I felt I should share.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading! Click on some ads so I can make make money! I'm kidding, there's a paypal button for that ;)

GitHub

So I have a GitHub page now, where I've added a few of my arduino codes. The link is with the pages over there------->

or in the drop-down box on mobile up there ^

Touch Lamp!

So I made a touch-sensitive lamp a few days ago, so I did a write-up on it. It's on my  Misc Builds page, so go there for the detailed write up and pictures and a video and whatnot.

Also, I really like Caytee's nails this week and a big thank you to her for helping me get these shots!

AVR programming

I spent the better part of my day today attempting to repair a cheap USBasp I got on ebay last year. I say repair, but that's not really the best word, seeing that it never worked in the first place...

I am using my Arduino Uno as the programmer, running LadyAda's USBasp, which has served me well, but I have this thing so I wanted to make it work.  

I found a solution a while back, which seemed pretty reasonable. (Click here to see it!) but when I tried it, it kept not working for some reason and I couldn't figure it out.

Today though, I had a realization that I could tie the reset pin directly into the programming unit and solder it to the usb key. So I got it all hooked up and it threw a "unable to sync" error... The nice thing about the LadyAdaAvr, is that she included a manual clock on pin 9 of the arduino, which is very handy when you burn your fuses before you have the clock circuit attached. Not that I would ever do something that dumb ;)

Knowing this from all the times I've needed it, I made a jumper from the crystal pin to pin 9 and Boom! It still didn't work...

As a last ditch effort I did a full chip erase, burned the fuses (again), and then flashed it, with all this still hooked up, and It worked! It seems all it needed was a good erasing lol. 

So I have a working USBasp now, as I realize that I have no chips I need to program right now...

I'll let you all know how it goes when I get a chance to try it out!

More iMac progress!

I got the iMac to boot up! It's pretty cool :) read about it on the main page!