This is a module I’m working on for the son of a friend. It’s an ISD1932 Voice Record Module from Sparkfun driven by an Atmel AT90S4433 microcontroller. The micro is currently hooked up to a tilt sensor and will be shortly connected to these piezo vibration sensors. It’ll trigger the lightsaber sounds as the module is moved around and bumped.

Posted
July 29th, 2010 in Light Saber Sound Module
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You can get anything you want in New York, as long as it’s not “home in a reasonable time”.

Posted
July 29th, 2010 in New York
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Posted
June 21st, 2010 in New York
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You might have already played with the humble potato battery, but these guys have found a way to create a SUPER potato battery; by boiling the potato.
Press release here
You know, given the increasing use of biodiesel (which can be made from used cooking oil) the fish and chip shop may be the gas station of the future…
Posted
June 21st, 2010 in Recycling
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Posted
June 16th, 2010 in New York
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My arm is recovering nicely. I’m still in a brace for a couple of weeks but I can now rotate my wrist enough to almost touch type normally again.
And that’s what I’m doing, having abandoned the StumpTronic as soon as I could. I’m happy with the solution I came up with and this would definitely be the way to go if I was permanently injured or had chronic RSI. It also kept helped me work faster than I could have done without it, not least because I didn’t have to look at the keyboard at all.
I imagine that in a month or so I would be typing at almost normal speed; the reason that I was slow is that for every keystroke I had to think about whether I had to press the button and about the correct finger movement. This was exactly the process I went through when I taught myself traditional touch typing and so it would be only a matter of time before I had it down pat.
The only real change I would make is to replace the Shapelock with the Sugru. The assembly moves with each keystroke and the hard Shapelock would rub against my skin. Sugru is much softer and would be better for longer term use.
Posted
June 15th, 2010 in One Handed Keyboard
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Recycling plastic bags into plastic
This would probably work for plastic bottles also.
Posted
June 14th, 2010 in Recycling
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I’m out of the splint and into a brace. My fingers have room to move which is great but my arm is pretty swollen and very weak. I got yelled at by my physical therapist for lifting my arm just a tiny bit so it’s really not ready for action yet.
Luckily the Stumptronic 2000 is working well. My typing has really improved although it’s still only about half as fast as I normally type. It’s comfortable and I can rest my left hand on my lap while I type.
I also put stickers on the keyboard showing the mirrored mode.

Posted
June 7th, 2010 in One Handed Keyboard
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The buttons had some sharp edges so I hit them with a Dremel. Also glued the Shapelock on.

Posted
June 1st, 2010 in One Handed Keyboard
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Not bad. I’m typing this post using the mod and although I have a way to go, I am touch typing. I added some Shapelock to stabilize the buttons on my finger.

Posted
June 1st, 2010 in One Handed Keyboard
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