I'm building a DIY version of this Tengu thing ( ) for my first full project.

I've got the LEDs for the eyes in and programmable, and have the face matrix assembled but that's not yet programmed. It will eventually be hooked up to sensors to react to the environment as well.

So far this weekend I've spent a lot of time relearning C and especially pointers. Matrix and timings for the rest of the animations will be challenging, too. Trying to fit everything in a few Kb of space brings me back.

::Download Flash Video::

Watching myself on video makes me realize I really need to work on my um's. :(

Here's a video of what it should end up looking like, although mine won't look so polished:

On a slight tangent from yesterday :)

Don't break a window with a brick and your bare fist. I'm an idiot.

Next time I'll wrap a shirt around my hand! I think taking a photo of my hand afterwards is due to Paul's blogging influence. He's my blogspiration.

So, my boss has been on sick leave for 6 weeks or so with cancer. It was actually treatable and I think his prognosis was at least somewhat hopeful. Last night was the first night he was home alone, and today no one could get in touch with him on the phone.

I volunteered to go to his house to check on him, but there was no answer and he is not well enough to drive so eventually I broke in through the window. He'd committed suicide last night and I found him on the floor.

I guess it was better that I found him instead of a family member, but still... not the way you want to last see someone. Too late for me to do anything about, I wish there was more I could do.

He was the best boss I've ever had, and a friend.

Goodbye, Luke.

So, this is just the getting started lesson from this page: although I did deviate in the programming a bit to use functions instead of nested if-blocks. It's supposed to be a bike safety light (although not in a pretty / finished package).

Nothing special, but it is flashy and blinky so I made a video of it working.

::Download Flash Video::

I finished soldering together my microcontroller board and the prototyping shield which fits on top. The microcontroller board you can't see in this photo, it's the first layer.



Soldering is a lot of fun, it turns out.

Now, the little switch on top of that board I can read from inside of programs on my computer, like so:



Not bad for a first little project.

I'm going to construct some camera triggers, so that I can take pictures from sensors like motion, heat, laser, etc.