43oh Secret Santa - 2013

[Rei Vilo 695]

 

A compact WiFi radio for my models!

[Rei Vilo 695]

[ILAMtitan 86]

I received a message from my apartment complex on Thursday that a package had arrived, and thinking it was some coffee I ordered I actually put off getting it from the office.  When I picked it up, it was a clearly marked ThinkGeek box, and not my coffee at all.  Inside was a Build-On Brick Mug!!  Oddly perfect since I'm the guy in the office with the Legos in his cube,and I almost bought one a month ago.

https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ee3c/?srp=1

 

 

 

 

I decide to christen it with a quick light saber duel since I didn't have any coffee; still waiting on that package.

 

 

Thanks @@spirilis !!

Edited December 22, 2013 by bluehash
[ADMIN] - All posts must be uploaded to 43oh.

[bluehash 1,581]

Thoughtful!

[Kat 7]

Dear Secret Elf,
 

Thanks you for the Beagle Board & Book ...

I got a good chuckle out of the letter also

Thank you very much

[cubeberg 540]

Not sure if he's on the forums or not - but my secret santa was Garrett Mace!  A string of WS2811 LEDs and a ChronoDot!  I'll have to look at supporting the ChronoDot in my VFD clock library - see if it's any more stable than the LP's crystal.

Thanks Garrett!

[spirilis 1,265]

Oh man, the ChronoDot is highly recommended IMO.  I have been using one of those in my wife's car for 1.5 years now with an Arduino-based auxiliary dashboard.  It's still correct down to the darned minute comparing it with my cellphone.  Very nice RTC--Maxim DS3231, it has a bank of capacitors inside and a temperature sensor that it uses to periodically re-tune the caps for its XTAL to produce a temperature-compensated highly accurate time source.

[bluehash 1,581]

Not sure if he's on the forums or not - but my secret santa was Garrett Mace!  A string of WS2811 LEDs and a ChronoDot!  I'll have to look at supporting the ChronoDot in my VFD clock library - see if it's any more stable than the LP's crystal.

Thanks Garrett!

As in Macetech? I had no idea he was on. Enjoy!

[cubeberg 540]

Oh man, the ChronoDot is highly recommended IMO.  I have been using one of those in my wife's car for 1.5 years now with an Arduino-based auxiliary dashboard.  It's still correct down to the darned minute comparing it with my cellphone.  Very nice RTC--Maxim DS3231, it has a bank of capacitors inside and a temperature sensor that it uses to periodically re-tune the caps for its XTAL to produce a temperature-compensated highly accurate time source.

That's impressive!  Definitely no temperature compensation in my code

 

 

As in Macetech? I had no idea he was on. Enjoy!

Yep - that's right!  Me neither - maybe he'll make some MSP430-based LED shades

[spirilis 1,265]

That's impressive!  Definitely no temperature compensation in my code

 

I'm no professional in this field of course, but, I regard that RTC as the gold standard to go to if I need something usable "right now" that's supremely accurate (beyond tapping GPS or something).  The DS3231 itself has its XTAL built in, and it's in SSOP form factor, so the bare chip looks easy to integrate into your own projects (though the ChronoDot makes for a good breakout for prototyping).

[macegr 10]

Haha, cubeberg...glad you liked the stuff. Honestly it was based on what I could access at the time...just moved everything to Dallas so it was pure chaos around the house. I do like the ChronoDot...once I spent hours building up a pair of custom USB-I2C bridges to communicate to a ChronoDot and a DS1337 using libusb; wanted to track drift versus the ntp daemon over a few months. I had to scrap the project because after a few days, the data was useless....the ChronoDot plot looked like a horizontal line and the DS1337 plot was a vertical one.

 

The LED shades are modular and the front panel is controlled over I2C, so I fully plan to make a 430 version and possibly a couple other uC variants. 5529 is making it a lot more attractive for this application. But for now the main challenge is getting any of them made at all, hinges and assembly time are blockers.

 

I got SMD component measuring tweezers from rachp, they will definitely come in handy!

[bluehash 1,581]

Haha, cubeberg...glad you liked the stuff. Honestly it was based on what I could access at the time...just moved everything to Dallas so it was pure chaos around the house. I do like the ChronoDot...once I spent hours building up a pair of custom USB-I2C bridges to communicate to a ChronoDot and a DS1337 using libusb; wanted to track drift versus the ntp daemon over a few months. I had to scrap the project because after a few days, the data was useless....the ChronoDot plot looked like a horizontal line and the DS1337 plot was a vertical one.

 

The LED shades are modular and the front panel is controlled over I2C, so I fully plan to make a 430 version and possibly a couple other uC variants. 5529 is making it a lot more attractive for this application. But for now the main challenge is getting any of them made at all, hinges and assembly time are blockers.

 

I got SMD component measuring tweezers from rachp, they will definitely come in handy!

Awesome G. Mace! Welcome.

Your shades are awesome. @@LariSan was flaunting them at  last years San Mateo Maker Faire.