#first spin

Ordering a book from the dreaded ‘Big River’ company, I was lured by the ‘on your list’ bait and, of course, bit. The item was a CD I’d removed from an order months ago, something that had caught my attention but not fully hooked me in. On a whim, I added it to the cart; it was cheap and I am probably down to 79 hours of music yet to be played. The book arrived yesterday; so did the CD. The album…

Love Regenerator and Steve Lacy, "Live Without Your Love"

Okay first, let's get our names straight. The slinky house anthem "Live Without Your Love" is being released by Love Regenerator, the new-ish alter ego of one Mr. Calvin Harris, who was born Adam Wiles. Ya following? Good, because Wiles is the name that the future dance music titan used when he submitted his early tracks to the venerable U.K. house music label Defected. "Live Without Your Love" -- a collaboration vocalist Steve Lacy -- is the first Love Regenerator track to feature vocals and is also Wiles' (and Calvin's, and Love Regenerator's) first-ever Defected release.

A press release for the track calls it "the outcome of a long-held ambition for him. His love and respect for the U.K. house music label goes back over 20 years when he first submitted his demos to the label well before his success under the moniker Calvin Harris." We like everything about it.

So technically this is post 601, and usually every 100 posts I come out with a synthesis of the projects we are working on and what we've finished!  Woohoo for 600!  I think it took longer to get to post 600 than the others but life has gotten busy busy!  So here we go!

Youtube - One video a week on Wednesdays where we give updates on projects that we’ve been working on as well as demonstrate other DIY projects.

Twitter - The most convenient way to see what we’re up to in a given day.  Our projects and updates always get tweeted to this twitter account.

IRC Chat - We chat here everyday and pretty much just stay logged in.  It’s got some of the most brilliant, kind, generous, and hilarious people, and our zombie apocalypse survival team consists of these guys. 

Live stream - If you’d like to chat and watch when we’re live streaming, this page is it!  When we’re working on our projects live, you don’t need multiple screens to chat with us.

Original Music - For nearly a year, we put out an original song every Sunday that we wrote, produced, released by ourselves.  The soundcloud account ran out of room, and we needed more time :).  But the old songs are still there!

ZombieTech - It’s a weekly podcast that we release on Thursdays where we talk to engineers, scientists, inventors, and cool people in general on technologies that can help us survive the zombie apocalypse :).  A lot of fun to be had by all! 

First Spin - This is also a weekly podcast that we release on Tuesdays where Whisker and Roy Eltham help me learn how to program for the first time (with no prior experience) a Parallax Propeller microcontroller and in Spin. 

The Store - So of course we’ve had to get a lot of stuff in order to be able to do some of the things we do.  And if you ever see anything you’re interested in, you are more than welcome to peruse the store to go about purchasing it.

Donations - And last but not least, all of these projects do cost money and time.  If you feel what we do is worth supporting, feel free to donate!  We’ve had people donate parts/boards/electronics they didn’t want, but also money.  These all help us get projects done and pushed out onto the interwebs so others become inspired as well.  We want to thank SO many people who have donated their time, money, and even parts to us.  The help is so much appreciated.

Projects:

1) Ham Radio!  The Ham Shack is up and looking awesome!  I've made 3 QSOs and pretty much need to get back to it, and soon!  Oh man I haven't even made a post with the final look.  Here's a video of it until I get to that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPinlOKmdf0&feature=plcp

2) Duck Room - Still sitting there, still as a work room.  We have the wood to put on the walls, but I'm a little hesitant to clean there.  There are a LOT of spiders, and I hate me some spiders.

3) AI - We are very very excited to announce that we will be starting on an OUYA game called POND.  Whisker, Roy, and I are working on this and hopefully early next year we'll have something to show for it!

4) Studio Instruments Projects:

So something we’ve still been meaning to get to work on is converting our Wurlitzer 206a into a 200a by adding a vibrato circuit to the board.  It’s still on the backburner, but it’s in the queue!

We still need to take some time to properly tune our piano and do any repairs necessary.

These projects haven't really been touched yet as we think we'll get a professional to tune the piano since it's so old.

5) SID Organ - The organ is still there, still needing to have a cheekblock made and all that, but since we have so many other instruments, this one's kinda taken a back seat for now.

6) Electronics - So I've gotten a LOT of footwork done in terms of getting Parallax modules to work on a basic level, and my latest conquest was getting all of them to work wirelessly with XBees.  I'm actually pretty proud of that particular project :p.  My heart project needs to be done in Kicad and I think I'm going to look at a tutorial for that since I don't know much about the software.

7) Bookshelves - I have some bookshelves that I’ve been working on that need to get finished.  But right now I’m having some logistical issues…yes, still :p.

8) Robotic Camera Jib + Studio - So the camera jib structure is up in the ceiling portion of the studio.  The studio desk is done, the office desk in the studio is done, the set up of our equipment is done, and the acoustic panels are done too!  Here's a video touring that all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoOhOMwGoc0&feature=plcp

I feel like there are a LOT more projects, but things are slowly becoming more and more done.  *thumbs up*

Thanks to @savagecircuits for his detailed answer to this question that was asked in response to our First Spin episodes on Ping Sensors:

"I received a question via e-mail in regards to the most recent first spin regarding the function of the PING))) sensor. I just wanted to clarify the point made and the question. The question is, "When the PING))) times out, is the return value unique and meaning it is past the range of the sensor?" This was based on the statement in the podcast that when a timeout occurs, the PING))) brings the signal pin low and that this value/range is, "well beyond its maximum distance for measuring". To clarify when the PING))) times out, it is at the maximum range it can operate. So the value is considered the maximum range value, not well past that value. The timeout occurs at 18.5mS. In trying to find the point of confusion I also sensed there was some confusion as to the operation of the PING))) and the result of not bringing the signal pin low. Again, for clarification: To use the PING))) your microcontroller must trigger the signal pin by bringing it high for at least 2uS (typically 5uS). Once the signal pin goes low there is a holdoff time of 750uS to allow for the microcontroller to prepare to have its I/O pin become an input and detect the rise of the signal pin, which happens when the ultrasonic burst has been transmitted.

Here's where things can vary depending on the MCU...the question was why can't you just make the pin an input? Well you can. An internal 10K pull-down resistor on the PING))) will return the signal pin back to its low state when not driven high. The potential problem is that a microcontroller fast enough to get the pin to an input and read it may in fact see a high before the pin is pulled low. However this depends on the microcontroller and the code. As stated, there is a holdoff time and if the MCU takes more than a few uS to be ready the pin will go low on its own.

The above paragraph was because the normal function of letting the ping sensor know to work is to set the pin as an output, send 1, send 0, then set the pin as an input.  I originally wanted to know why we couldn't just set the pin as an output, send 1, then set the pin as an input.  Roy had mentioned this was poor electronic practice, and I believe Chris is saying essentially the same thing.

Once the signal pin is driven high by the PING))) the time it remains high represents twice the flight time (round trip) to the object, so one half of that is used to calculate the distance. It might also help to know that the signal pin has a series 500 ohm resistor to protect the I/O pin in the event of a programming error that might cause the PING))) and the MCU to be driving the signal pin at the same time. I hope this helps clarify some points on PING))) operation."

Many thanks for the points of clarification Chris and hopefully this helps to flesh out some of the details involved in Ping operation.  I know it's a simple sensor, but there's still quite a bit going on!