LED Matrix Hourglass Timer

I was intrigued by a recent project I saw that used two LED matrices placed diagonally to create an hourglass. The animated movement of the LEDs seemed a good simulation of the sand particles moving through the hourglass.

As is common, the project emphasized on how the hardware was wired together, which is trivial, without much explanation of its more challenging/interesting software aspects.

Additionally, most of the solutions I saw used an inertial position sensor to determine the position of the matrix, which seemed overkill for the simple functionality required.

So I decided to explore this topic and here is my solution.

Old Time Automobile

Most years I try to use up woodworking offcuts by making a batch of wooden toys to donate at community ‘giving’ Christmas Trees.

The toy I make most frequently is an Old Time Automobile that I found plans for decades ago. It uses small pieces of wood that are easily sourced in a scrap pile, and I think it looks great.

This post provides plans for this toy and describes how to put one together. Maybe you can make one and give it away too.

Taming Workshop Vacuum Hose Hell

Like many hobby woodworkers my wood shop doubles up as the garage which, limiting the amount of permanent ‘installation’ for equipment. This includes dust collection, and for many years I have been working with a single generic workshop vacuum moved between each source machine’s dust port.

Over many years the number of tools I own has multiplied and most of them seem to have uniquely sized dust ports. Recently I reached a point where I had enough and decided to tame this Vacuum Hose Hell (VHH) of adapters and connectors that made it all work and decided to do something about it.

Weighing Stuff (HX711 weigh scales ADC) – Part 2

In the first part we looked at the HX711 hardware for implementing weigh scales systems.

This part will cover how software interacts with the hardware, requirements for a library and how to write a weigh scale application.

Weighing Stuff (HX711 weigh scales ADC) – Part 1

If you search for ‘Arduino’ and ‘weighing’ you very quickly come across the HX711 board module and an associated world of strain gauges and load cells.

All this looked interesting with some learning along the way. The result is that I took a dive into the subject and ended up with some new knowledge and ideas for the future.

In this first part I cover the hardware requirements and in the next how to write software to implement a weighing system.

A Display Framework for Scoreboards

Scoreboards seem to be quite popular as beginner projects but the results are often very specific to the hardware used and very ‘hard coded’ to the original purpose.

It seemed to me that there are some parts of this style of application that are generic and probably independent to the type of scoreboard (sport and/or hardware used). I wanted to explore which parts and how this could drive a generic framework to create and update any scoreboard.

DIY Thread Burner

A thread burner is a tool used to cut and melt the end of polymer-based threads (polyester, nylon, etc.) and paracords. By applying a very targeted application of heat, thread burners efficiently melt the last little bit of thread sticking out after the thread is clipped. They are also used to melt the knotted ends of threads to prevent the knot from loosening or untying.

For some time, I have been using a commercial thread burner to seal my leatherwork stitching but have become increasingly irritated by the large number of AA batteries it consumes. There has to be a better way to do this, so I decided to make my own.

Drag Race Start Lights

I fell into an internet search rabbit hole and came across ‘Drag Racing’ start lights. I had seen references to these on the Arduino forum and they looked interesting enough, and followed well defined rules, to be a relatively simple project for programming practice.

Here’s the result from an afternoon of tinkering.

Rock/Paper/Scissors Arduino Game

Rock/Paper/Scissors (RPS) is a game using simple rules and a circular winning strategy that I thought would be interesting to code. Additionally, there is an element of suspense/anticipation to the game that adds to its enjoyment, and I challenged myself with trying to capture this part of the experience as well.

So, during a few of the many recent rainy days I decided to spend some time seeing what I could do with an Arduino Uno, some tact switches and a few LED matrix modules.

LDR or LED for Laser Detection?

While researching how to detect a laser beam configured as a tripwire I came across a number of ‘recommended’ ways to do this. I decided to test the two cheapest viable options – an LDR and LED – to see which would best suit my needs.