The OnTime alarm clock is a DIY mod that automatically turns your alarm on and off when you get into and out of bed.
The entire project costs less than $10 in parts and is simple enough for a novice to build in one sitting, yet useful enough to become a mainstay in the bedroom.
Has it really been almost five months since my last post? I guess the blog never lies. My absense has not been for lack of effort, however. I’ve been incredibly busy over the last several months, although I did manage to slip away from it all long enough to make it to the Maker Faire back in October.
The Maker Faire was a surreal experience, and it really energized me. I returned home from the Faire with a ton of exciting ideas. Unfortunately the reality of school, work, and family caught back up to me and I found myself sidelined again.
Now we’re at the end of the year; a time of reflection. And while I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to achieve greater things, I am very proud of myself for what I did accomplish. I’ve been interested in electronics for over 10 years. This year I finally took my first baby steps toward converting that interest into something tangible.
I am very pleased to say that my next project will be available later this week. The project has already been completed, and I’ll be spending the next couple of days documenting the process and generating the schematics. I think you’ll find this project falls right in line with my previous undertakings: sort of amusing, kind of neat, and a lot of fun.
Here’s wishing you and yours a safe, and happy holiday season.
Tim
In response to some of the concerns about the safety and difficulty of BongoPong, I’ve decided to (re)build the game, with the intention of making it a little more accessible to the masses. The rebuild will eventually include the ability to use the device with PC games instead of the Velleman Pong kit.
The image below shows all of the nesessary components required to build your own BongoPong:
New features of the BongoPong (re)build:
I’ll be practicing on the board throughout the night, we are currently in the middle of a typhoon with 118MPH winds - so I do not have to work the rest of the week. Videos should soon follow.
Honestly, this is what it’s all about. A new line of Wii accessories has been announced at E3 this year, one of which is a balance board. The commercial Wii accessory obviously uses safer (read: less interesting) pressure switches to register your weight distribution when standing on the mat. For those interested, there is already an article on instructables about how to build your own.
Either way, this feels like a victory for me. BongoPong is really nothing more than a proof of concept, and the real proof of that concept is the Wii Fit balance board.
For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting my release of official build instructions and/or schematics, I decided to whet your apetite with a basic parts list. I had refrained from releasing this information due to the additional cost incurred from buying individual kits.
I also posted instructions on how and where you can get your hands on the source code for those parties interested in updating and extending the code base. Hit the link for details.
My latest project, BongoPong, is an entirely new (I think) form of interactive gaming that forces players to really get off the couch and into the game.
Check the BongoPong project page for more details and videos galore.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. What kind of device did you use for USB communication?
A. The module that I used for the prototype is a pre-programmed Delcom USB chip. They are standard Cypress USB controllers that have been pre-loaded with firmware from Delcom. For the purpose of prototyping, I used a simple USB Interface Board, which is available from Electronix Express.
Q. Did you create the USB device drivers from scratch?
A. No, the drivers, along with sample source code for multiple programming languages, are available for Windows, and Mac OS X. There are several drivers for Linux available on SourceForge [here, here, and here].
Q. Do you mind if I port your code to another platform?
A. Not at all. The entire project will be open source very soon. I have not released the source code yet because it is embarassingly poor quality at the moment. I am actively seeking people to assist me in writing code. Please email me if you would like to help.
Q. Can I see the schematics?
A. Of course! The schematics will also be open source; just as soon as I make them. I designed this project by piecing together parts of different projects. So no real schematic exists at this time. I spent the entire day last Sunday completing tutorials on gEDA and Eagle CAD. Hopefully I will have a schematic to show soon. I am still a beginner in electronics, so I’m actually learning all of this myself as I go along!
Q. Do you have a timeframe for completion?
A. No, I’m sorry. I have a full time job, and I attend university full time. I will work on TrafficStop as much as my schedule allows. That said, the best way to motivate me is to email me and tell me how much you enjoy the project! Knowing that people are out there waiting for me inspires me to move forward.
Q. Have you considered selling this?
A. The thought has crossed my mind. I did a little research earlier this week, trying to get a feel for how much it would cost me to get this off the ground. I am thinking about offering a kit with custom PCB and required comonents so that you could assemble the stoplight quickly yourself. If you would be interested in purchasing this as a kit, please let me know.
Q. How much did it cost you to build?
A. Too much. I built the prototype using anything I could get my hands on quickly. In some cases this worked out to be a cheaper solution, but not always. I estimate that if I were to build another one today it would cost me around $35. That’s including $20 for the original blinking traffic light on which the project is based. It would cost much less if I were buying the parts by the hundreds.
I am overwhelmed by the positive reactions that TrafficStop has generated from the community. TrafficStop has been featured at HackedGadgets, Engadget, Make: Magazine Blog, SWiK, and even translated to Russian. This site received over 3,000 visitors last weekend, and continues to serve hundreds of unique requests daily. Thank you all for your support!
With all the emails rolling in, I felt obligated to let the community know where I stand with the project, and take a minute to answer some questions.
Last night I started working on a windows version of the software using Microsoft Visual C# Expres. C# is surprisingly intuitive, and I should have some software worthy of release later this week (crossing my fingers) All of the software will be released as open source. It is my sincerest hope that other interested community members will continue to help me develop this project.
Here are a couple of screen shots:
After months of waiting, I am pleased to announce my very first electronics/DIY/hacking project; TrafficStop. I modified a novelty “Blinking Stop Light” and gave it some USB goodness. I also wrote a simple Mac application that interfaces with the light and changes the light based on your current workload. Please have a look, and feel free to let me know what you think!