How things have changed since the last time I did an update. In just the last week we’ve gone from relative freedom to a state of semi self-imposed lockdown. We’re certainly living in historic times.
Nonetheless, I work from home, and still have a number of assignments to complete, so I continue to stay busy for the time being. Here’s some interesting material that I’ve published recently for your perusal:
Hackster.io: James Bruton’s Compliant Robot Gripper
Without explaining the whole thing here, YouTube hacker James Bruton built a robot gripper that’s able to exert a set amount of force on a variety of object sizes. Rather than use advanced load cells, he’s using a very clever mechanical arrangement. Check out the whole article and video here.
Arrow.com: Arduino PWM
Pulse-width modulation is fairly straightforward once you understand it. An Arduino or other board pulses at a set rate, and the length of time (width) of each pulse dictates a simulated analog value. That’s the short story, but there’s a lot more that you can do with it, as I explore here. On a related note, I show how to make an R-2R resistor ladder for actual analog voltage output in this post, though with only 4 resistors, the resolution is a bit limited.
Twitter Highlights:
I thought these photos of my disassembled headset turned out nicely. Took them with my Moto G7, which seems to allow optical zooming with its dual cameras. It’s not the best phone out there, but superb for $200. You can find the headset here for $20 [Amazon], and like the phone, they’re probably not the best, but a good value IMO.
All electronics seem to be on the right, so perhaps switching sides of the body would help with reception problems. I also recently showed off my little garden, which has become a pretty practical thing to have these days. Less practical is my PCB light follower robot below, which I’ve been working on for some time. Expect a full video eventually!
YouTube Video Spike?
Speaking of videos, I thought this was rather interesting. My Plastic Storage Case Organization video from January 15, 2019 saw a huge spike in views for some reason (relatively speaking). Stats attribute it mostly to “Browse Features.” Strange, but I’m not going to complain. Embedded below for your perusal. Feel free to give it a thumbs up if you think it’s worthy 😉
Final Thoughts:
As noted in my last post, one of my goals this year is to design/order/build 2 working PCBs. I could stretch and say that the light follower above counts as #2, but there were a few issues I had to sort out. I made some improvements and ordered a new version from OSH Park, so hopefully I’ll have something really cool to show off soon. I can then at least check that one off my list.
Stay Safe:
So for now, stay safe, stay healthy, and hopefully you can stay at home. Maybe you can improve some of your skills, work out a bit more, or any number of pursuits you’ve been putting off. You can of course get email updates on what I’m doing here if you scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Things are certainly grinding to a halt worldwide, but hopefully in a few months society can mostly pick up where we left off. Having lived through a number of hurricanes, preparing for a potential disaster isn’t that new to me. What is new though is that the entire world is affected. We can’t ride it out by driving a few hours, we just have to wait and see what happens.
All the best to medical professionals who we’ll have to rely on, to the people working on a vaccine, people running stores, and all the support staff involved in all these endeavors. What you do always has a huge impact on our lives, but now, it seems, even more so!
*Note Amazon link is affiliate