I've had another disappointing trip in the City-El electric bubblecar, with the batteries failing once again just as I arrived at the charging point at Cabot Circus in central Bristol. I was very gentle with the throttle all the way down there, and I was able to take the shorter route now that Filton Avenue has re-opened. But the car still didn't ( Read more... )

I've been trying to tidy up the house a bit recently, and have had limited success. One of the things I've dug out from under the piles of miscellaneous crap is the video camera stand. It's an Elmo EV550 AF "video presenter", which means that it has a video camera (PAL) that can be used in much the same way as an overhead projector. It has lights ( Read more... )

Today, I went over to the Uni to get on and do some stuff. I've been over there before, and spent all day getting nothing done. I've also stayed at home and got nothing done. But today I was firm with myself and gritted my teeth and ordered the CAN-bus AVR microcontroller modules that I need in order to make an autonomous robot vehicle. I refrained ( Read more... )

Since my last posting, I have sent the scrap metal on its way to be recycled, via the local "civic amenity centre". Why that can't just call it a tip, like everybody else, I don't know ( Read more... )

It's been a while since I posted an update here, so there's quite a bit to catch up on ( Read more... )

Today, I thought I'd have a go at some macro photography using a technique that was the subject of an article in the latest Make magazine. The idea is to take a shadowless photo of something small, by placing on on a sheet of (clean) glass, which is supported above the (plain white) background. I needed some photos to illustrate an Instructable ( Read more... )

Today, I have been mostly at the Uni. I am now much wiser about the intricacies of the CAN bus that I was this morning. I might even, just maybe, give the PIC chip a second chance -- at least, the DS-PIC chips ( Read more... )

I've now upgraded the Slackware Linux on the big IBM laptop to 12.1, the latest version. I've also installed Firefox 3.0.3, again the latest, and OpenOffice 3.0. All seems to work very well. And now that I have the special binary files of firmware, I can use the other WiFi cards, too ( Read more... )