I can’t believe how far I’d managed to go in one day. I wired up a 3×3 LED matrix and started testing some codes. I made sure that the coding is expandable for bigger matrices so that I could easily modify it for my light panel. I used the 2D array method for update the…

So I started writing the test codes for the matrix and sure enough, found myself lost in a whole new game. There are several ways to address a LED matrix. You can store frames in byte arrays and call them up (much like a animation) or address each LED in a matrix (turnledon[x,y] for example)….

So I have settled on a 6×8 LED matrix (14pins) for the bar display. I purchased some white LEDs off dealextreme for dirt cheap at 10 cents each. The reason I did not go for a full RGB matrix is mainly time and money (what else, really?). With the Arduino and various other hardware/supplies, I…

So I have decided on a VU meter for the bar table. I did some quick searches online for ideas and it seems that most projects only measure the overall volume. This might be a problem as I do not know the average volume of the room during the formal, so I will have to…

Now that Ticki is done, I have time to work on more school related projects as well as revisit some of my old projects. I pulled out a project I started in September from under my bed and reworked it to be an electronics game score keeper for Magic The Gathering (a trading card game)….

I promise you I did not plan to finish Ticki right around the same time I post my 50th, but a package with a new RTC arrived yesterday and it just seemed right. I am really happy with how the final product turned out, but I still have more ideas for the future, so Ticki…

Remember how I said that I was going to replace the battery on the RTC and finish the clock? Well, that’s a no go. I went and bought some CR2032s today and wired it up to the RTC and nothing happened. The RTC chip is most likely fried during the prolonged circuit shortage. Now I…

I finished with the time and date settings, so now I can focus on other random functions. I was originally thinking of adding a counter but I didn’t think it would be really useful as I did not have a buzzer on Ticki. After seeing a digital dice project on Hackaday, I thought it would…

In the interesting of saving pins, I used a simple voltage divider to have three buttons read by one analog pin. This meant that debouncing is done entirely in the software. Since one the the buttons is for mode and the other two for adjustments, they require different levels of debounce. The coding I have…

I finally finished the hardware rework for Ticki and this time I was extra careful with all the soldering and testing. I still ran into some unknown problem with the apostrophe LED (I need it for the degree symbol when measuring temp), but that was fixed by nudging the solder pin a little (probably a…

Yesterday I desoldered the segmented display and the wires to the main board. Ticki is back to what it was a month ago, for better or for worse. Now that I have all the parts I need to finish the project (minus a way to wire the temp sensor), I am feeling a little nervous….

Remember how last week I thought I burnt out a LED in the display? Well, I managed to do that today. F*#@! I guess I will get to use that replacement display after all. Talk about a yo-yo day, up and down.