Scott Sloane Blog

Well I have been making slow but sure progress on the Arduino Moodlight.

Well finally an update on my Arduino Moodlight. I recently purchased and Arduino Nano 3.0, lamps, and soldering equipment. Unfortunately, I recently upgraded to windows 7 64-bit and in the process seem to have lost all of my sketches. A minor setback I know, as Arduino is intended for rapid prototyping it should not be too difficult to get back to where I was. I am very pleased with the Arudino Nano. It is smaller than the Micrel M5451 but packs the same punch as the regular Arduino. I am excited to get some work done on this.

Well I am currently involved in the great post-graduation job hunt. Yesterday I interviewed with an organization I am very interested in. Currently they are my top choice as far as organizations I have applied for. The interview could have gone better. I feel like I possibly was more nervous than I intended. I hope that I was still able to convey the confidence that I have. I should hear back from the hiring manager tomorrow with a definitive answer.

An interesting thing happened to me today. A friend and I were discussing FPGA’s and as it would turn out he had a spare board and a getting started book that he was willing to lend me. So now as it seems I get to learn how to use FPGAs. This is a very cool thing for me. I am intrigued and excited.

Well yesterday was the big day. I attended my own commencement ceremony. It was wonderful. My parents and some of my friends came out to cheer me on as I received recognition for completing my baccalaureate in Business Administration in Management Information Systems. I am so incredibly happy right now. The passage of one stage of my life to another was absolutely surreal. I feel like a million bucks right now. Though things are far from perfect, in that I have no job to go to at this point, it has not impacted my feelings of accomplishment and joy.

Ahh thanksgiving. This is the day where we are supposed to give thanks to all the things we appreciate. Clearly this task is not really possible. But we do our best to remember everything that we are thankful for. Let me just make an attempt at one right here and now:
1. Family (parents, siblings, Hannah, future in-laws)
2. WSU and my impending graduation
3. Improvements in the economy
4. Not having a job lined up, but knowing it is going to be okay
5. Arduino!!!!! <3
6. My friends

I believe I have made some progress on design for the lamp. There will be a center piece, 1 cube, containing the Arduino and M5451s with a pair of LEDs. Then there will be two three cube side lamps each containing three pairs of LEDs and two pairs of wall washing LEDs. This brings the total to 11 pairs of LEDs which is right in line with the M5451 design. I am trying to figure out if I want to drop the number of M5451s down to one and just run the LEDs in serial. This would minimize the amount of effects that could be done, such as plasma, but would simplify the wiring.

After a few weeks with the Arduino I must admit, I’m impressed. The level of abstraction is extremely high which allows for very rapid prototyping. So far I have a bunch of LEDs breadboarded out with Micrel MM5451 as a shift register. I currently have individual control over each led with software based PWM for color mixing. I also have a mode switch button installed with debounce. Currently none of the color routines on the prototype well be in the final version as they are not designed with the final project in mind, so view them more as a proof of concept.

Well my electronics have been arriving in the mail. So far my M5451 ICs from future electronics and my RGB LEDs from Ebay have arrived. However, my Arduino starter kit is still in the mail. Interestingly enough, I was expecting the Arduino to arrive via FedEx today and didn’t even know the M5451s had shipped. Yet the Arduino is “out for delivery” and the FedEx truck has already stopped by with my M5451s. I am guessing that I will see him again later today.

I just ordered my first microcontroller.