Blog
Build logs, project notes, and write-ups from the workshop.
- Affordabot Build #2: Installing the Breadboard, Motor Driver, and Battery Pack Mounting an Arduino Nano and TB6612FNG motor driver onto a mini breadboard, then Gorilla-Gluing the whole assembly into the TI Launchpad box chassis — the innards of a cheap robot taking shape.
- Cheap DIY Arduino Robot Chassis — Cardboard Box, Tamiya Gearbox, and Zip Ties A robot chassis for under $10 in new parts: a cardboard box for the frame, a Tamiya twin motor gearbox for drive, and zip ties for everything else. Here is the build, the design logic, and why cheap and fast beats precise and slow when you are still figuring out what you want.
- Wiring a 1602 Character LCD the Parallel Way — Arduino, MSP430, and Standalone The HD44780-driven 1602 LCD is the universal $2 display that works with everything. Here is the complete parallel wiring across three platforms: Arduino Uno, TI MSP430 Launchpad, and a standalone MSP430G2553 chip with voltage regulators on a bare breadboard.
- How to Whiten Eyes in Photoshop the Easy Way A five-minute portrait retouching technique using Quick Selection, a layer copy, and an opacity dial-back — works in CS3 through current Photoshop and most versions of Elements.
- HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor with the TI MSP430 Launchpad and Energia The HC-SR04 runs on 5V. The MSP430 Launchpad runs on 3.3V. Here is the two-jumper trick to pull 5V from the Launchpad itself, the Energia pin assignments, and a distance-to-tone sketch that turns the sensor into a theremin.
- How to Hack a TowerPro MG995 Servo for 360° Continuous Rotation Turn a sub-$10 metal-gear hobby servo into a high-torque gear motor that runs straight off an Arduino — no motor driver required. Full walkthrough of the physical mod, the resistor-divider trick, and the calibration step nobody warns you about.
- Arduino Nano Unboxing and Soldering the Headers (Meduino Clone) Three Meduino Nano clones arrive from eBay — same ATmega328P as the Uno, but small enough to live on the breadboard. Here is how to solder the headers so it actually stays there.
- Program a TI Launchpad MSP430 Like an Arduino with Energia The TI MSP430 LaunchPad costs $4.30 and runs on the same code as an Arduino — thanks to Energia, a community-built IDE that ports the Arduino framework to TI microcontrollers.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock: Closing It Up (and a Battery Polarity Surprise) Fitting the completed LED matrix into the Lite Brite housing, connecting the Arduino, discovering the battery connector is backwards, fixing it, and watching the clock finally run on battery power.
- Arduino Lite Brite Clock — Building the Colon Segment How the blinking colon between hours and minutes is wired into the hand-built LED matrix clock. Covers dedicated column placement, row participation, and 500ms blink timing.