Category Archives: thingaday

Thing-a-day, Day 21: Ordering Parts

Posted on February 22, 2008 by mahto

Today I ordered a bunch of parts that I have been lacking, including some H-Bridge drivers to drive the steppers (ST L298) and some random power transistors. It seems ridiculous, but it ended up taking the greater part of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, thingaday | 1 Comment

Thing-a-day, Day 20: Dissecting Stepper Motors

Posted on February 21, 2008 by mahto

My friend gave me some stepper motors today, so my project tonight was to take one apart and find out how it worked. I chose the one that had 5 wires, and traced out a wiring schematic. It turns out … Continue reading →

Posted in tech, thingaday | 3 Comments

Thing-a-day, Day 19: Whiteboard Bot

Posted on February 20, 2008 by mahto

While napping, I had this dream about a crazy way to make a clock face (I often think of these things). It reminded me of this drawing bot ‘hektor’ that I had read about, and I wondered how hard it … Continue reading →

Posted in tech, thingaday | 12 Comments

Thing-a-day, Day 18: (incomplete) Subsititution Cypher Solver

Posted on February 19, 2008 by mahto

Today I re-started work on a program to solve substitution cyphers. The substitution cypher is where you take every character in your message and replace it with a different character- they sell little puzzle books full of these to try … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, thingaday | 2 Comments

Thing-a-day, Day 17: Foam Pitching Machine

Posted on February 18, 2008 by mahto

This night’s creation is a pitching machine to fling pieces of foam. This was accomplished by using the flywheel and small motor from an old tape deck. The main issues were that the wooden holes became elongated, which caused the … Continue reading →

Posted in tech, thingaday | Leave a comment

Thing-a-day, Day 16: Excuses

Posted on February 18, 2008 by mahto

The only thing I created on Day 16 was a hangover. It turns out that one is not supposed to ignore the strong in the name Strong Beer Festival. Which, one should have become aware of when the first morsel … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, thingaday | 2 Comments

Thing-a-day, Day 15: Vibrating robot

Posted on February 16, 2008 by mahto

This one doesn’t really do anything useful. I call it the battery waster. Basically, its just abusing the solenoid by putting the battery contact in line with the actuator rod, so that when it turns off, the rod is pushed … Continue reading →

Posted in Ridiculous, thingaday | 2 Comments