Ok, so I haven't posted anything in a while, but I guess I am once again in the mood to keep this blog updated.

I recently started a bit on a LED kick and started building decorative LED objects. While most of the projects have yet to leave my workbench, the following is one of the finished items:




I used 90 RGB LEDs for this project, each with its own build in fade controller. Due to the normal variation in manufacturing they all run at sightly different speeds, resulting in a total of 270 semi-random dots on the opaque acrylic. The next version of this object is already in planning - a 8 x 10 RGB matrix fully controlled by a PIC16f84A micro controller. The PIC should give me the ability to program specific pattern effects, although the limited storage of the 16f84a may force me to step up to a different MCU.

So last weekend I finished a small side project from spare parts - I build a small (5x7) blue LED matrix, controlled by a PIC 16f84a. This was mostly done so I could gather some experience in programming the matrix and working with multiple output pins. For some reason I was unable to get RA4 to work on the PIC - ended up using the PB7 for that line, resulting in a bit more complex code to drive the matrix, but the end result worked quite nicely.

Now it's time to get about a hundred of common anode RGB LEDs in 5mm packaging.

Here's a short video, but keep in mind that my cell phone cam is to slow to actually capture the matrix properly.

I have owned a fair number of multimeters through out the years and I had one little pet peeve with almost all digital ones I've ever owned - no auto power off. If you left them on in the toolbox, next time you need it - guess what. On top of that they often enough require some obscure 6V camera batteries.

In my search for a new one I recently stumbled across a cheap digital auto range meter from China on one of my favorite sites, DealExtreme

$10 bucks and 2 weeks later I received the unit from Hong Kong. The meter is small, feels a bit plastic-cheap but gets the job done. The leads are permanently attached, but also store nicely in the unit itself. The unit is quite precise, has an auto power off feature (even with reminder beep!) and takes 2 AAA batteries. It is indeed auto range but a bit limited in currency capacity - 200mAh is the top.

If you can live with the current limitations, I can only recommend the unit. The size is great, it is easy to use and easy to store and the batteries seem to last forever. But be aware - no English manual included!

Another item that turned out to be part of my '$10 well spend' list is this small mp3 player. The concept is simple - plug your SD card or USB memory stick into the unit and plug it into your car power port, then listen to the song trough your FM radio.

I found this player on DealExtreme and 2 weeks later it had arrived.

The player is plastic and the display is small and crowded, but the sound quality is decent for an FM transmitter and the unit plays and skips quickly through the songs. The display, while tiny, is backlit and shows the file name and FM frequency.

I found this device to be a great way to recycle a few of my old 2 GB SD card (although it supposedly does handle SDHC) and to get some mp3 tunes into my car. For under $10 I feel that my money was well spend.