I just finished assembling the Velleman Pong kit. This is a very interesting little kit that (as closely as I can remember) faithfully replicates the worlds first commercially available video game on your TV. This was the most advanced kit that I’ve tackled thus far, and I’m pleased to report that I assembled the entire game on my first try with no cold solder joints, and without ruining any components! I know this is hardly cause for a parade in my honor, but it’s progress.

My impatience seems to be my biggest fault thus far. I think assembling kits can be an invaluable experience, you learn how to solder, you see how different components interconnect, and you can even learn som techniques for PCB layouts.

Unfortunately, I want to start creating my own designs. My head is overflowing with ideas, I just don’t know where to begin.

I have much so to learn, and sometimes it seems like an insurmountable task. I have to constantly remind myself that even the simplest kits are typically designed by electrical engineering graduates, and appreciate what I’ve learned instead of chastising myself for what I don’t.

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I just got my Flytech Dragonfly earlier this week. In case you haven’t heard, the Flytech Dragonfly is a Radio Controlled ornithopter produced by Wowwee, the maker’s of the Robosapien.

An ornithopter is a device that flies by flapping it’s wings, similar to a bird, or in this case; a dragonfly.

Let me just say that this thing is amazing. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but the little fella’s extremely durable. I’ve crashed mine at least a hundred times, and it’s even withstood my cat’s faithful rendition of King Kong.

With a price point of $50, you really shouldn’t miss out on this.

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I recently purchased the Mini-POV3 from Make: Magazine. It’s a fun little kit designed by Limor from www.ladyada.net. The Mini-POV is a simple microcontroller-based kit which flashes 8 light emitting diodes in such a way that when waved through the air, a customized image or message appears to float in front of the viewer.


The Mini-POV was my first attempt at soldering… well anything. I was a little discouraged when building this kit, because I could only get half of the LED’s to light. I spent several hours trying to troubleshoot the circuit with a volt-ohm meter. I determined that I must have had some cold solder joints. I attempted to re-solder nearly every component on the board to no avail.

Frustrated, I shelved the project for a few days while I worked on the “Build your own electronic game kit” mentioned in my previous post. The “lessons learned” from the electronic game kit led me to suspect that perhaps I had ruined the diodes in my Mini-POV kit from excessive heat. I desoldered the components from the board, and re-connected everything on my prototype board. Okay, so it’s a Radio Shack 300-in-1 Learning Lab, that thing is freaking awesome.

At any rate. Everything worked well on the prototype board, unfortunately I did some damage to the Mini-POV printed circuit board during the desoldering phase. This weekend I’ll head out to the local electronics store and pick up a small pre-fabricated board and give it another go.

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For as long as I can remember, I have been enamored with Milton Bradley’s classic 1978 electronic game “Simon.” If you’re old enough to remember when Michael Jackson was still a black man, then there’s a good chance you share my pain.

For me, the game of Simon represents the epitome of excellent game design. The game is simple, elegant, and wildly addictive. But don’t take my word for it. The game’s designer, Ralph Baer, was presented the National Medal of Technology by President George W. Bush in February 2006, for his “groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development and commercialization of interactive video games.”

Several years ago, while learning to use Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) to create programs for my cell phone, I did so using his pioneering design. Later, when I was learning Python, I used the PyGame API to bring his brainchild back to life one more time.

It was only fitting that my first electronic project should be the same. A few weeks ago I ordered Make: Magazine’s “Build your own electronic game kit.” a simple Simon clone created by Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studios.

Last weekend I had the chance to put my soldering iron to the pads. The game, while incredibly simple to assemble, provides beginners like myself with an opportunity to solder something that is both useful and productive. Both of which are required criteria when you need to convince your significant other that you’re working on something “important.”

That’s not to say I didn’t experience any setbacks. It seems that I’m prone to “overheating” the LED contacts and damaging the diode. While that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick trip to the electronics store, next time I’ll be sure to leave the LED a centimeter or so from the PCB.

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Welcome to my most recent blogging effort. Unfortunately, these things don’t usually work out too well for me because my interests change so dramatically from day to day.

I’m a 28 year old defense contractor, and I still haven’t decided what I want to be “when I grow up.” You see, I have this obsessive personality disorder. Okay, maybe it’s not a disorder in the clinical sense, but it should be.  When I undertake a new task or project, I live my life for it. I think about it 24/7, I lie awake at night fantasizing about it, and eventually, I burn out on it. It’s a vicious cycle of priority juggling that results in unnecessarily low productivity. When I return to a previous project, sometimes years later, I have to relearn many of the same topics from day one.

My entire life, I’ve had this sort of desire to change the world. To leave my mark in some way. It’s not that I’m arrogant, not at all. I really couldn’t care less if my name is remembered. I just want to accomplish something that changes the way people live, work, or love. We have no idea who invented fire, or who invented the wheel. Yet their simple discoveries have touched each of our lives personally. I want to be that guy.

For the last 10 years I’ve been trying to convince myself  that the military lifestyle was a stepping-stone to bigger and better things. I just haven’t decided what those better things are. My entire life I’ve allowed myself to be held back by my own irrational fear of failure. I’ve wasted so much of my life worrying about what won’t work, that I’ve never taken the chance on what “just might” work.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by electronics. Now, thanks to Make: Magazine, I’ve discovered an exciting new world full of people doing the kinds of things I want to do. The most compelling aspect of Make: isn’t the amazing home projects, or their anti-establishment beliefs. It’s that every issue of Make: Magazine reads as if it were written just for me. They publish articles about how to overcome the fear of failure, or why you shouldn’t be discouraged because other people are doing more exciting projects than you. It’s like finding out that you’re not alone. Many of these people are just like me, with a laundry list of failures, setbacks, and hardships. But they keep doing what they love. It’s time for me to get in on the fun.

So I’m keeping this blog as a chronicle of my failures, my successes, and most importantly, my progress. I hope to look back on these entries some years from now, and feel proud of what I’ve accomplished.

Who knows, maybe someday I can change the world in some small way, and if this blog serves as a reminder to even one would-be engineer that everyone has to start somewhere, well maybe that’s all the change I need.

Enjoy!
Tim

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