PeterDavenport

Discontinuing this blog.

2011-05-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

I am switching blogs to posterous.com they are a better format and I will be able to get out information quicker there. Please follow me at peterdavenport.posterous.com.

Arduino O-scope

2011-04-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

How does one cope without an o-scope? If you have the SFE Color LCD Shield you do have an oscilloscope! Using a analog pin 2 (re-definable, just change the code: val1 = analogRead(2);), the screen, and the code I have written you have a very basic portable oscilloscope.

You can download the code here.

"It's an 8 Bit Christmas Charlie Brown!"

2010-12-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

So to get in the Christmas mood this year I used math, a 8 bit processor(arduino), and SparkFun's Color LCD Shield! The result was, well, this thing:

Anyway, if you want to join the festivities you can pick up an Arduino and LCD Shield at SparkFun and you can download the code here.

LCD code and sumo-bots

2010-09-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working on a code library for the Color LCD Shield I designed. I finished it and wrote a manual for it, you can download them here. The library now supports line drawing, square drawing, and string drawing.

In other news, I have been working on setting up sumo-bot workshops with the Tacoma Robotics Society. Check it out here.

Old books are good books.

2010-08-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have been reading some older electronics books lately and have found older books to often have better information than those that are newer. Notable on the list is Computer Architecture by Foster, the TTL Cookbook by Lancaster and Radar Fundamentals by Wheeler.
Most of these books are extremely outdated (i.e. Computer Architecture is before floppy disks and monitors) but they allow for the background to be learned and this is easily applied to modern systems.

Been away and got sidetracked from electronics.

2010-07-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have been away from home for a week with my church so I have not been hacking awesome things lately. I did do some smithing though. I was inspired to make this knife. Basically I cut out the rough shape out with a plasma cutter, ground it into shape, tempered it, and finally added the handle.

Apple seems to like Make.

2010-07-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

I was looking at ipod touch prices yesterday when I came across Make Magazine featured as a demo site on the touch. They seem to be moving up in the world.

Back from alaska

2010-07-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well, for the last two weeks I have been in Alaska. I was helping a Christian radio station replace their boiler system and partially install a phone system.
When I got back I had a bunch of old parts from the radio station and three packages had arrived in the mail. Here is a picture of the stuff I got:

Anyway, I should have some projects posted up soon in regards to all these new toys.

Start of summer vacation.

2010-06-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

School is over so my 3D printer project has advanced rapidly. I soldered together a stepper motor driver on a protoshield that I etched.
I have been collecting printer parts for about three years so I was able to get a lot done on the 3D printer with all my parts.

Here are some of the pictures:

The large metal object is a jack/lift of some sort that I am using as a base to build the printer with. The lift part I am using for the Y axis.

I hacked parts from a scanner into a Z axis. I hacked another scanner for the X axis on top of the Y axis table.

So far the X axis and Z axis work although the Z axis is painfully slow. The motor might be made for higher voltages so I should try running it at 24V and 36V.
The Y axis will need quite a substantial motor and needs to be repaired a bit but I like how it is working out so far.

I started a blog!

2010-06-21T11:45:00.001-07:00

Well, It's about time that I started a real blog. So for my first post I will give you a quick bio.
After I was born my parents and I moved to Alaska to work at a Christian radio station. My Dad was the station engineer so I was always around electronic equipment and various tools. I was given a Radio Shack 100 in 1 electronics kit at an early age. That started off my interest in electronics. After living in Alaska for eight years we moved back to Washington where I was born.
On my 11th birthday I got my ham radio license. About a year later I was introduced to make, 3D printers, and the Arduino. I bought an Arduino kit, soldered it up and naively tried to directly drive motors from it to power a 3d printer.
When I was thirteen I sent a design to SparkFun for the product that became the Ardubot. The next year I started work on what is now the Color LCD Shield.
Just a few months ago I started the Tacoma Robotics Society.
So now I am fifteen, trying to make all sorts of cool stuff. I hope you like my blog!