September meeting - DIY hack project ideas
I was thinking keep it simple and maybe go with the electronic hardware equivalent of a hello world program and just get some blinking lights going.
We could use Arduinos or something like those FT232R USB to Serial converters or something else.
I don't think the actual project is that important for this meeting. It's more for the benefit of folks who haven't tried this stuff before. The main goal of the meeting would be to just have some fun and maybe generate ideas for a real collaborative project.
???
Thanks for your reply, Scott. I thought my previous email would be posted to the forum automatically. Perhaps not...
Here's what I was thinking would be a good introduction to hardware hacking (and I am someone who could use such an introduction): hook up a USB-serial adapter to your laptop and use the command line (via /dev, presumably) to control power to the serial interface, which would be hooked up to an LED, speaker or some other device that produced noticeable sensory input.
You have indicated previously, and reasonably, that lighting an LED is not much of an accomplishment. But I think it could be a good introduction to controlling a serial interface, which (correct me if I'm wrong) seems to be a pre-requisite for most of the cool things you're doing with the BeagleBoards, Gumstix and other SBC's.
-Bogart
On Jul 23, 2010, at 10:36 AM, scott-ellis wrote:
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I have a breadboard and LEDs. What kind(s) of power source would we need, in terms of voltage? Or does it matter? With the Serial-to-USB adapter, (the kind where you have to solder the serial interface), what would you solder on to it? Headers?
On Jul 22, 2010, at 1:46 PM, scott-ellis wrote:
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