As usual, the semester got busy and the poor blog got neglected. I’m working on a longer post on my Arduino coin sorter using eddy currents, but I wanted to share a few things right now.
In early 2008, I bought a first generation Apple Time Capsule for use as a wireless router and backup system. Minus a few corrupted sparsebundles, the Time Capsule has served us well. However, I kept running across post after post on technology blogs about Time Capsules dying, so I have been increasingly careful to have other backups. Over the weekend, my Time Capsule went kaput. Upon being plugged in, the light came on for a second, it flickered, and then shut down. Being 4 years old, it was way out of warranty and so after buying another (I know that there are other solutions, but I like this one) I decided to rip apart the old one.
I’ve never had an Apple product out of warranty that I could just dissect and so this was a new experience. I consulted a few blogs, used a hair dryer to peel off the rubber bottom, and went to work. Once I unwrapped the power supply, the problem was pretty quickly evident. At least two of the electrolytic capacitors were bulging and leaking orange goo.
I’m planning to try and replace them just for the experience. My philosophy is that it’s already dead, so I can’t break anything that isn’t already broken.
As a quick shout-out, Jeff Keyzer (@mightyohm) tweeted about a great ECE student’s blog called Needs More Lasers. I really enjoyed the posts so far so check it out!
by katie on April 4, 2012
The project is continuing to move along. As you can see from the post above, today I got this beautiful Adafruit LCD Arduino shield up and running. Isn’t it so pretty? I have to admit that this whole project has been quite a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. However, I think it’ll still be a smashing success in the end. You can also see the Sparkfun photo-interrupters and the breakout boards below the display. I also got the code for those kinda working and so if I start putting the two things together, we might actually be getting somewhere.
My dining room table has turned into an electronics wasteland, it might be time to start seriously considering a workbench. My husband has been really understanding of my mess but it’s starting to drive even me crazy! Homework calls again, but I’ll try and put all the pieces of the project together this weekend. Wahoo!
by katie on March 23, 2012
I started planning for a new project this week. We started studying eddy currents in physics this week, and I read online that the principle was used to determine the identity of coins. I found a really interesting YouTube video here, and I was fascinated with the idea. I have two Arduinos sitting around so I decided to use it as the microprocessor because, well, that’s what I have. I’m ordering two IR photogates to determine the time it takes for a coin to roll down a ramp with a strong magnetic field in the middle that will slow it down according to the material makeup. I’m also ordering a 16×2 LCD output to display how long it took to travel between the two photogates and the coin identification.
I’m excited about the programming challenges of this project. I have to figure out exactly when the photogates are tripped, come up with an accurate delta t, and then compare that to a range of known values to identify the coins. I can’t wait to get my supplies so I can get started on this new project. I hope I’ll have fun pictures and updates on this project soon!!
by katie on March 15, 2012
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. The reasons for this are quite varied. First, my site was hacked. What an eye-opening experience. Previously, the security on my site was fairly minimal because I thought that no one would bother trying to break into a little personal blog. Apparently that’s not true. Some foreign entity inserted some malicious code in practically every page that resulted in a redirect to a spam page. I ended up wiping the entire site and starting over in order to make sure none of the bad code lingered. I also beefed up my security measures and learned some valuable lessons in how to systematically back up a website. It was a bit of a pain, but I think that the lessons I learned were so valuable that I’m almost glad it happened.
Second, school got crazy! A 15 hour course load of only core engineering classes with three (3!) labs is pretty rough. I’m staying on top of it, but it takes some serious time and commitment. However, I feel like I’m learning SO much this semester. I’m deep into assembly language in digital systems, and I’m loving it. I’ve been spending time outside of class on getting a really solid grasp of Maxwell’s equations (I even ordered and read this fabulous book).
I’ve also been participating in MITx 6.002x, which seems like a lot on top of my courses but it’s been so valuable. It is very similar to my classes I’m taking right now, but it takes a completely different approach. I remember when reading through Richard Feynman’s memoirs, he always emphasized that one of his most valuable tools was a different approach. When Feynman taught himself geometry and calculus, he made up his own symbols and used bizarre methods. Although this drove his teachers crazy, he went on to say that this helped him solve very difficult problems later in his career because he didn’t follow the conventional tactic. In this MITx course, they start from fundamental theory and show many different methods to solve complex circuits. I think this will be a huge advantage as I move along in my curriculum.
Finally, I have a bit of exciting news. I’ve gotten some nibbles regarding my summer internship applications! I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll have to wait a little longer to see how things pan out, but this is a huge affirmation that my hard work and dedication is paying off.
I’m currently on spring break, and I spent the first half relaxing and running the millions of errands I put off during school, so back to the books. I have four days to get some really solid studying and advance preparation done. I know it’s so geeky, but I love when I have the time to make beautiful outlines at a leisurely pace and get a few weeks ahead in reading. Hopefully, I’ll have a little more time from now on to do some more blogging about interesting projects!
