User:DavidCary

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Welcome to my little corner of Open Circuits.

I think I first stumbled across Open Circuits on 2006-03-01. I had been starting to set up a electronics-related wiki, but since this one was already here, why bother?

Feel free to leave a note on my talk page.

I created the WikiNode.

scoreboard clock[edit]

I have been handed most of a classic basketball scoreboard.

Each digit on scoreboard has 20 incandescent lamps:

   * * * *
   *     *
   *     *
   * * * *
   *     *
   *     *
   * * * *


I hope to someday turn it into a clock and get it listed on the Unofficial Registry of Giant Digital Clocks".

Should I divide up each digit into 7 segments, like most digital clocks, or should I add more hardware so I can control each lamp individually? --DavidCary (talk) 22:50, 10 October 2015 (PDT)


Open Circuits wiki[edit]

In 2013, the OpenCircuits wiki went offline for a while, during the handover when I was trying to take over maintenance of the OpenCircuits wiki.

Oops.

There's still a few things not quite right -- after I thought I had completely restored the wiki, the "Open Circuits:Community Portal" doesn't exist at all, but I can see through the Wayback Machine [1] that there used to be a discussion there. I wish I knew what else needs to be restored.

Some ideas for possibly improving the OpenCircuits wiki:

Electronic projects[edit]

(Should I move these to dedicated pages such as electronics workbench, etc.?)

wind turbine maximum power point tracker[edit]

moved to maximum power point tracker

thermal imaging[edit]

David Cary did some work thermal imaging parts on a PCB a few years ago. I hear some people say you can see stars in the daytime with a (far-IR) thermal imager. I'm thinking about getting my own thermal imager. Perhaps something like:

cheap-thermocam: an arduino project[2] via "DIY Thermal Imaging System for under $200"[3]

anti-spam[edit]

see spam.

I prefer public communication so I avoid the problems associated with (the perception of) back room decisions.

--DavidCary 18:03, 4 February 2008 (PST)

electronics workbench[edit]

What exactly do I need for "normal" electronics development? I have a pile of stuff, and I have a wishlist of more stuff ... I hope to document which things are important to have, which things are useful but not immediately necessary, and which things ended up just gathering dust.

I wish there were a place like TechShop somewhere local.

  • filing cabinet for all the miscellaneous bits of paper. If at all possible, I attach instruction manuals to the actual tool -- but if that is awkward, I stick the instruction manual in this filing cabinet.

data collection network[edit]

I'm building a "data collection network" that may end up with hundred of microcontroller sensor nodes, piping data into a PC. This may turn into a serious medical diagnosis tool.

POV display[edit]

(moved to POV display)

Full-color LED lighting[edit]

I'm planning to build a silly little toy with 3 LEDs -- one for red, green, and blue -- to show how "additive colors" work (a "color wheel"). (I might just extend it to have a whole spectrum of visible and infrared LEDs, and a prism to show the little spikes in the spectrum that LEDs generate).

"Red, Green, and Blue LED based white light generation" by Muthu, Schuurmans, and Pashley (2002) http://www.advancetransformer.com/uploads/resources/LED_White_Light_Issues&Control_-_White_paper.pdf

LED illumination applications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode#Illumination_applications

"How Many Red, Green, and Blue LEDs to make White" by Don Klipstein 2001 http://members.misty.com/don/ledrgb2w.html

LED Color Shifting http://hackedgadgets.com/2006/02/14/wireless-led-color-shifting/

"PC Card" PCMCIA[edit]

I maintain the unofficial PC Card FAQ.

I'd like to move it to a wiki. What would be the best wiki to put it on? Open Circuits?

-- DavidCary

Open Circuits Sysop[edit]

Whee! I'm a sysop at Open Circuits! The power -- it's rushing to my head! --DavidCary 15:20, 23 February 2007 (PST)

Me too ( thanks to you? ). How can I use my power, release the hounds. I am open to suggestions as to how I can help, right now I am just going to read up on what a sysop can do. russ_hensel Feb '08


Hi David, will be nice to have antispam measures :).

--RafaelOrtiz 18:00, 28 October 2007 (PDT)

Hi David can you give me some block IP rights ?

--RafaelOrtiz 13:17, 18 November 2007 (PST)

Hi David, I noticed that a bunch of open circuits is just a placeholder. I'm effectively retired so I can probably help contribute to this Wiki by expanding a bunch of the sections, but the spam here is really way out of control. I look at the revision history and I see a good 10+ spam edits per day. Don't you think it's time to try requiring a logon to make edits? I thank that would really reduce the spam. Asking people to use a human controlled e-mail address is not that much. It's not like people need to give their real name and address or anything. I think you will find that more people will be willing to contribute if the spam problem is handled. Eliminating the spam is more of a problem at this point then getting people to contribute. It would also free up your time to focus more on real editing. Mzoran 19:38, 12 December 2007 (PST)

strange and bizarre serial protocols[edit]

It seems like many people can't resist building yet another custom proprietary communication protocol. I'm polishing up a list of the 22 most common serial communication problems. I'm also making a collection of various communication protocols. I'm most interested in protocols that are (a) simpler to implement and simpler to understand than TCP/IP, (b) don't use "too many" pins on a microcontroller, and (c) avoid most of the above 22 most common problems.

I am beginning to suspect that it may not be possible to avoid all 22 problems unless the protocol is at least as complex as TCP/IP.

Also, I think that 4 pins on the microcontroller seems to make the hardware and software the simplest -- it's possible to squeeze communication to fewer pins, but either the hardware or the software (or both) will be more complicated.

Some "simple" protocols:

  • SPI
  • UNI/O single I/O serial bus -- seems to contradict my earlier suspicion -- the hardware is simple (connect a I/O pin on the MCU directly to the I/O pin on the EEPROM), and the software doesn't seem very complex.
  • ... more to come ...


from russ_hensel[edit]

I think some of it is forum vs wiki. I like the wiki format better, if I have a long answer I would rather post on open circuits and link to it. For a while I would send an email to people's site that I linked to to try to get more traffic and contributions here. I think some of it is ego, there is more ego in a forum. For now I just try to talk up open circuits as much as i can in my other posts. Open to more better ideas.

Russ

--

from Alan: Hacker Wiki Radio[edit]

Hi,

My name is Alan, I am a web developper and a music junky. I am working on music web project. We are building a network of local wiki radio, where everyone are DJ and contribute the music ambiance, the local information page and the general atmosphere.

I am writing to you because we are promoting indie artists and are looking for feedback, on features that would most suits them, from people with a hacker mindset.

Here is the url: http://muurje-project.appspot.com

Do not hesitate to write me an email. I am more than eager to give you details. Thank you for your time

Hoping to hear from you

Alan

restore[edit]

restored from archive.