Jun 24
TimUncategorized
As luck would have it, I stumbled into the local library a few days later and noticed a novelty store stoplight hanging on the wall. The lights flashed randomly, and it ran on typical wall power. I was relieved to know that such products actually existed, and that I would probably be able to modify it relatively easily. Unfortunately I had absolutely no idea how I was going to drive 117VAC lights from my 5VDC USB port. I decided to worry about that later.
I went home that night and started searching for stoplights on ebay. There were actually quite a few of them listed, but most of them were being offered by dodgy distributors in Hong Kong. I’ve had bad run-ins with those organizations on ebay before.
I decided not to buy a light that evening. At this point I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to actually complete the project anyhow. What on Earth would I do with that atrocious thing if I couldn’t hack it into something more useful.
Jun 24
TimUncategorized
Astute readers will notice that I first posted a link to the Electronix Express USB Interface board on my Tumblog way back on Mar 27, 2007. That’s how long this idea was kicking around in my head before becoming a reality.
I haven’t updated my Tumblog recently, but it generally gives a pretty fair indication of what types of projects I have brewing in my head.
Jun 24
TimUncategorized
I had this idea for a USB controlled stoplight, but I still wasn’t quite sure where to begin. I decided to pick up a simple USB development board, so that I could learn the basics of controlling a USB powered device. I stumbled across this USB Interface board from Electronix Express. The board makes use of a pre-programmed USB controller chip manufactured by Delcom Engineering and comes with USB drivers for Windows.
The greatest thing about this board is that it’s so simple. This board looked incredibly easy to build, troubleshoot, and replicate if necessary.
I was sold.
Jun 24
TimUncategorized
Work is becoming increasingly frustrating. For those of you who don’t already know me, I work as a database administrator for the US Marine Corp. More specifically, Marine Corp Logistics and Supply Battalion. While working with the Marines usually has it’s share of perks, my patience is being worn thin as of late. This is mostly because the Marines don’t understand exactly what I do for a living. They find it hard to imagine that someone actually gets paid to sit in an office and make sure things run smoothly. They’ve had every opportunity to understand. In the past 6 months, every single time that I’ve missed work due to an official function or vacation, turmoil ensues. By now it should be very clear to all involved that I am a vital asset to their organization. Apparently it’s not.
Three or four times a day, someone will barge into my office with some menial request to fix something minor. Maybe their barcode scanner isn’t working; even though there are dozens more to choose from they feel compelled to stop whatever they are doing and tell me about their dilemma. Since my job doubles as wireless network engineer, system administrator, and C programmer, it’s hard to tell what I might be doing prior to the interruption. To the Marines, it all looks like I’m screwing off.
One day I noticed that the amount of work I was doing was directly proportionate to the number of running programs I had on my system. I noted that when I was really sitting in the air conditioned office, screwing off, I would have only one or two programs running. Usually Firefox, and one secure shell terminal. When I was busy, my computer would have so many windows open that each of the icons were but tiny little slivers across the windows task bar.
I immediately started to think of ways that I could identify to the Marines that I was busy. I wanted something that would actually monitor my actions, and warn the Marines that I was indisposed so they would not break my concentration while mentally working my way through a recursion, or thinking of how to best query data from three tables with no primary keys. (hey, I didn’t write the system!)
The problem, I noted, was that I needed something non-technical. Something anyone could readily recognize without putting much thought into it. Not that Marines are stupid, they’re just trained not to think for themselves. “A big red stoplight is the only thing these guys will understand.” And TrafficStop was born.
Jun 24
TimUncategorized
To the one reader out there, who I don’t know personally, who actually reads this blog from time to time – I apologize for my continued absence.
That said, it is with great pleasure that I announce my very first electronic/hacker/do it yourself project: TrafficStop.
Now that TrafficStop has reached the point where I feel comfortable publicly sharing it. I would like to post the complete development journal. I wrote the journal in hopes that others could learn from my mistakes. It is a chronicle of mistakes made and lessons learned.
Thanks for sticking around (all one of you).
Tim
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