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We soldered a Teensy 2.0 to a 240V relay then attached a wig wag light to the relay in order to create a nice and noticeable way to alert anyone at the shop for various reasons.  One plan is to eventually hook this to our doorbell whenever we get one of those installed for visitors so we know to open the door for them.  Right now you have to knock really loud and hope someone is in the office to let you in.

The interface is very simple.  Hook a USB cable to the Teensy and any computer.  Then connect through the USB serially and just send it a “1” to turn the light on.  Send it a “0” to turn it off.  It couldn’t be simpler!  Here’s the arduino sketch code we used to make it work:

/* USB Relay

 This is for a teensy connected to a relay on PIN 1.
 Send it a "1" to turn it on (HIGH)
 Send it a "0" to turn it off (LOW)

*/

int pinNum = 1;
int input = -1;

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(9600); // USB is always 12 Mbit/sec
    pinMode(pinNum, OUTPUT);
    digitalWrite(pinNum, LOW);
}

void loop()
{
    if(Serial.available())
    {
        input = Serial.read();
        if(input == 1 || input == '1')
        {
            digitalWrite(pinNum, HIGH);
        }
        else if(input == 0 || input == '0')
        {
            digitalWrite(pinNum, LOW);
        }
    }
}

Here’s a link to more pictures with more detail:

http://plus.google.com/photos/116575142518321294189/albums/5705228437791855137

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Dmitriy and his rocket, Safety Orange
Dmitriy and his rocket, Safety Orange

A few of us drove down to Talladega, AL on Saturday January 14, 2012 to put the Safety Orange rocket through some flight tests at the model rocket launch event.  Dmitriy’s flight computer altimeter worked great.  It was able to pop the parachute at the perfect altitude so that it almost landed directly on the launch pad it took off from.  It was very windy that day and even blew some of the tables over where people were preparing their rockets for flight.  You can hear by the videos we took just how much wind there was for the rockets to deal with.   There wasn’t a single cloud that day from what I remember so it made it easier to see as soon as the rockets would open their parachutes and watch it glide to the ground.  I recommend going to any of these rocket launch events to anyone especially if you already have a similar hobby like RC airplanes.

Video 1 (someone’s egg-nosed rocket): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLCeSg5HIjg

Video 2 (Dmitriy’s Safety Orange flight 1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpgSovuLzow

Pictures:  https://plus.google.com/photos/116575142518321294189/albums/5697765429049993249

 

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For Tim’s birthday we gave him a chocolate chip cookie cake.  They thought Jennifer was crazy when she asked for a blank cookie cake with no icing on it.  Instead of using icing to write the standard “Happy Birthday” message we used a LASER CUTTER to etch a complicated graphical image on the cookie.  We were surprised at how high the resolution could show on something edible.  We will post the specifics on our wiki page later on the exact settings and details for the laser so anyone can do this too.

Finished laser etched cookie for Tim

Go here for the full album including video of the laser doing it’s work on the cookie!

https://plus.google.com/photos/116575142518321294189/albums/5686573042061102209