The big news of the day is that the Suzuki Cappuccino is back on the road again after three years spent dormant in the garage. It needed two new sills, two new tyres, two new brake disks and a number of other small repairs. The repair turned out cheaper that I had originally been told, because the repairs to the inner sills didn't need the ( 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... )

Wednesday started with a meeting with my Masters project supervisor. All went OK, but I'm still finding it hard to get properly motivated. Rest of the day spent following up on that and preparing for the Dorkbot Hack Day. The theme is "mobile music", and that leads to Arduinos running music-generating code. Also a trip to the UWE library in search ( Read more... )

I start a new job on Monday week. I should be happy to have had an offer in this "economic climate", especially one that lets me take one day a week to finish the Master's. But I'm not looking forward to it at all ( Read more... )

Lots of stuff going on, but still feeling frustrated by lack of progress. The Uni module on Machine Vision starts next week, so that'll be something to look forward to. But they still haven't got the radio-controlled car yet! We ordered it in mid-December and now I have an e-mail saying the order has been cancelled or something! Argghh ( Read more... )

It's been a funny old week ( Read more... )

I showed off a little circuit at Dorkbot that I'd made up on a breadboard. It's basically just a brushless DC motor from a CD-ROM drive, hooked up to three comparators and some LEDs. The three hall-effect sensors in the BLDC motor generate about 150mV, and change polarity as the motor is turned by hand. This makes a contactless rotary position ( 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... )

Popped in to the Uni the other day, and found that I have passed three of the four courses that I had to re-sit in August. One of those essays just didn't make the grade, the Mechatronics one in fact. In principle, I could re-take the course next year, although I doubt I will. Wish I'd taken the Machine Vision course instead now ( Read more... )

The four referral courseworks are done and handed in. The deadline expires at 2pm today, so I'm just in time ( Read more... )