JE SUIS LE MAÎTRE DE MES PENSÉES
posted 02/02/12
There... I did it! I have ordered the Replicator 3D printer, the latest model from MakerBot Industries. I also chose to upgrade to the dual extrusion version which allows to print in two colors simultaneously or to print using two different mediums. I am obviously very excited but it ships with a lead time of approximately 6 weeks... I will go completely insane well before that!
posted 01/26/12
My electronics workbench is welcoming a new digital power supply and a new digital multimeter! A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to a given project by controlling the output voltage and current to a specific value. On the other hand, a multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument with features such as the ability to measure voltage, current and resistance. I am already amazed by the significance of those upgrades!
Extech 80W Switching DC Power Supply (with its amazingly small footprint).	Fluke 115 Multimeter.
posted 01/18/12 (updated 01/26/12)
Internet without a voice? (click on the newspaper to learn more)
posted 01/12/12
There were a total of 6,437,592 correct captchas solved yesterday... and only 2000 of those were actual winners (from 56 different countries). I am certainly thrilled to be one of them! I have just placed an order of about $200 (before discount); here are a few of the items...
posted 01/11/12
Wow... I still have cramps from all the typing and I am probably going to have nightmares all night about captchas chasing me around trying to mug me! Thanks to everyone who supported me, especially Bennett, for his mysterious presence and magical touch!! And most of all, thanks to Nathan and his team at SparkFun for making it a reality!
posted 01/10/12
Free day?!? Yes... SparkFun Electronics is having their 3rd yearly free day tomorrow, January 11th! It is their way of giving back to the community and their customers. You can see a picture of me with the founder CEO of SparkFun Electronics, Nathan Seidle, by scrolling down to my post of 09/19/11! Good Luck to You all...
posted 01/08/12
I have written a simple program to communicate wirelessly between a computer and an Arduino (or two Arduinos) using two XBee modules (pictured below) at a distance of up to 15 miles! Now just imagine the project possibilities with this kind of connectivity...!!!
XBee module inserted into an Explorer which is connected to a computer through a USB cable.	XBee module connected to an Arduino.
posted 01/07/12
I now have two iPod 32gb because my "old" one was turned in to the lost & found of the Atlanta airport and I went down there today to recuperate it. Don't ask for it... because I am selling it on eBay and keeping the new one! Voilà.
posted 12/30/11
I was invited to an ugly sweater evening a couple of weeks ago. Since I do not own any sweater, I went shopping for an ugly one at Rag-O-Rama in Little 5 Points. I bought the following one because not only it is ugly but it also has a thicker area on the front making it ideal for including some kind of electronics to it for interaction purposes. I designed a simple program to constantly measure the distance between me and people or objects using an ultrasonic range finder and to control five bright blue LEDs depending on the input. So the closer I get to things or people directly in front of me, the more LEDs light up!
My ugly hacked sweater.	Close up view of the sensor and LEDs.
On the inside, you can see the Arduino board, the backside of the sensor, the soldered LEDs, and the cables connecting all components together. I sowed some parts to the sweater to make sure things stay in place.
posted 12/28/11
I just got back from the Apple Store at Lenox Mall... I had to buy another iPod 32gb. Yes, because of my lack of attention, I left it on the plane coming back to Atlanta last night... and nobody has returned it to AirTran... I hate to buy the same things twice but at the same time, I cannot live without my music.
posted 11/27/11
Driving back into Jacksonville yesterday late afternoon was different than last weekend in that there were a lot of people and police cars everywhere. After checking in at the hotel, a short walk to the Friendship Fountain revealed tons of people and kids of all ages waiting for something... As it turned out, Jacksonville hosts an annual light parade where boats of every shape and size are decorated to captivate senses and stimulate imaginations! Following the parade, fireworks were shot from river barges and bridges. I took the following two pictures (among others) from the balcony of the hotel room which offered a better view of the whole river and away from the screams and overexcitement of the little kids... What a great surprise!!!
posted 11/23/11
Sunset behind my parents in law's house.
Coming back to my car after some time spent at the beach, an egret had chosen my car to chill on! Or was it just guarding my car from bad people?!?
posted 11/22/11
I spent about 45 minutes with this lizzard! It was somewhat cooperating as I made it move and turn to get the optimum shot. Thanks lizzard!!
This rainbow appeared before me as I was driving... so I pulled over, grabbed my camera, and took a picture of it. Wow... that's deep!
posted 11/21/11
This week's first stop was Jacksonville on the way down to south Florida. It was nice to stay in Jacksonville as I had never actually spent time there. The temperature was absolutely perfect and I really liked the open spaces and the many bridges connecting with the Southside. I will be there again next Saturday for one more night on the way back up to Atlanta!
Above is a morning view of the St. John's River from my hotel room on the 19th floor! Notice how the Alsop Bridge's middle section has risen to allow for the passage of a boat!!
A night view of the Friendship Fountain on the Southside of Jacksonville with the Alsop Bridge in the background. I had to jump a fence to get on top of a small maintenance building in order to get a better point of view...
Another view of the Friendship Fountain with different colors going on. Wherever you are, the Alsop Bridge really stands out at night with its bright blue lights going on! I love bridges and I love this LED-like blue!!!
posted 11/11/11
Once again, happy 111111 which will not happen again for another one hundred years and I am certainly not going to be alive for it. Hmmm... I wonder what the iPhone is going to look like in year 2111. BTW, today's date looks a lot like a binary number... if you're thinking 63 you win!!!
posted 11/09/11 (updated 11/11/11)
I have finally finished putting a computer together from used parts to run in the classroom as an addition to our reading table. This computer is running a French version of Ubuntu Linux and I have installed some software for basic development (HTML, Arduino, etc). It will be connected to the Internet and is 100% unlocked (as opposed to our Fedora Linux thin clients) which means you can use it to its full potential. It is a Pentium 4 running at 2.80 GHz with 2 GB of RAM memory and 160 GB of HD space. I am only waiting for a screen from tech support which should come in early next week! In the meantime, here is a screenshot of its desktop.
Below is a screenshot of the oscilloscope as an example of a digital signal. This is a visual representation of a "g" being pressed on the keyboard. Since digital signals are binary (0 and 1) in nature, they are quite easy to interpret. I have marked the signal below with its respective binary reading 1100111. Converting this number to decimal gives you 103 which corresponds to the letter "g" on the ASCII (American Code for Information Interchange) table (see your accents sheet). So why would I want to read characters being pressed on a keyboard?!? Well I really don't know. It is simply an example...
posted 11/02/11
My electronics workbench is welcoming a new Atten digital oscilloscope! An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages. They are commonly used to observe the exact wave shape of an electrical signal.
posted 10/31/11
Happy Halloween to you all! The black magician has not yet spoken from the kingdom of eternal obscurity... Send your picture and see what the magician looks like in his scariest spells! السلام عليكم
posted 10/29/11
That's what I call the perfect temperature for hiking! Whatever you are doing out there these days, make sure to take the time to tilt your head up and appreciate the warm colors that fall is bringing us... Now let me get back to my computers ;)
posted 10/18/11
Wow... I have just gotten this new part in today called the Magician Chassis and even though I haven't done anything with it besides putting it together, I am already amazed! This is basically a cheap ($14.95) and simple robot platform that comes with two gear motors. The chassis has a variety of mounting holes for sensors, controllers, etc. The only thing you have to do is hook up an Arduino and program it!! I am getting a lot of cool ideas for a possible legoless, microelectronics club for next year...!
posted 10/15/11 (updated 10/16/11)
As several of you requested, here are the steps to get your light graffiti started: - Set your dSLR camera to manual mode. - Set the aperture to a higher number which decreases the amount of light coming in.    (You might have to try a few different values to get the right aperture). - Set the shutter speed to 20 seconds or whatever number of seconds you need to draw. - Put your camera on a tripod or any steady surface to prevent it from moving at all. - Set the focus to manual because the camera will have a hard time focusing in darkness.    (Turn the focus ring until sharp before you switch the lights off). A good option is to turn your camera timer ON so that when you press the button to take a picture, you have time to walk around and position yourself. If you cannot figure out how to change any of those settings, refer to your camera manual (you can also access it online at www.your-camera-brand.com). Remember that any light source works and that you can download a free multicolored flashlight App onto your smartphone. Have fun and make sure to send me some of your best shots!!
posted 10/11/11
My main computer was hit by a heat stroke over the weekend caused by the malfunction of the CPU radiator. The computer automatically shut itself down as its temperature reached over 100° Celsius (the boiling point of water). The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is somewhat the brain of the computer that performs instructions at a very high speed. Since its speed generates a lot of heat, it is crucial to cool it down to insure its proper functioning.
The cooling device I use is a CoolerMaster V8. While I love building computers from new parts, I don't quite enjoy dealing with dusty parts as much. After disconnecting all cables from the back of the tower, I laid the beast on its side to begin the operation which involved removing pretty much everything to get to the base of the radiator. The procedure took about 2 hours after which the computer was back to consciousness!
Here is the main part of the CM-V8 after taking it apart. You can see the aluminum fins linked by 8 diagonal up-rise heat pipes. It has a net weight of about 2 pounds and is 6.4" tall so don't think about putting one of those in your laptop!
posted 10/07/11
Since I started doing light graffiti several years ago, I have inspired a lot of students and friends in the process... The evenings are getting cooler which is the perfect temperature to go around town doodling! I am not at all considering myself a pro but I will be working on it through fall so stay tuned for my possible progress...
posted 10/04/11
I finished putting my binary clock project together last night but it was past my bedtime so I couldn't post this until now. The only problem I ran into last night when I plugged it in for the first time is that time was running a bit too fast. After thinking for a few minutes I realized that this was caused by the fact that I used a 20MHz resonator in my project as opposed to the 16MHz one on the Arduino board. It took me about an hour today to figure out how to change the bootloader to the corresponding speed and re-burn the chip to insert it back into the DIP socket of the clock. Now you can practice your binary skills!
The final product! I guess I have to cut those four screws... they are obviously too long! In case you don't understand binary numbers, the time shown here is 7h15...
Here is a view of the back which is the essential circuit board (version 2) I designed and produced. The two push buttons are for adjusting the hours and minutes.
It took me a while to wire the LEDs because I had to sort of measure the length of cables I needed for each LED depending on their position on the front panel to minimize the mess in there.
The prototype version of the project with the microcontroller still running on the Arduino development board.
posted 09/19/11 (updated 09/25/11)
I don't regret one penny fuelled into going to the New York World Maker Faire! On top of going to New York City, which is by itself always a pleasure, the actual event had a proportion much bigger than anything I could possibly have dreamed of!!! I came back last night with my head full of prospect ideas....
A 6h45am east view of Manhattan from my hotel room. This picture was taken through a thick window... just FYI.
Left: Nathan Seidle, founder CEO of SparkFun Electronics, where I have been an active and dedicated customer for years. It was great meeting him and talking about ideas and future projects. You can watch a video of the story of his business as a guess speaker at Google in Mountain View by clicking here!!! Right: Bre Pettis, known for his DIY podcasts for MAKE and a founder of MakerBot Industries, a company that produces, among other things, an open source 3D printer. I was somewhat disappointed when Bre informed me that Schuyler (see 09.10.11 post) was not present at the expo... but he did reinforced the fact that he is an awesome kid with so much potential! (Please notice that I did not take the two pictures above...)
Compilation picture of some of the main areas of Maker Faire expo.
This sign was located in several areas at the expo and by scanning the QR code with your phone, you would get an App installed that was quite useful for the event!
Non-commercial 3D printers are becoming more and more popular in the open-source community... and not only can they print in plastic but also... (check out the picture above)
I had to very quickly grab my camera to take this shot as the subway was zipping by this graffiti-laden building in Queens, New York! Once again, this picture was taken through the window of the subway which was not only dirty but heavily scratched.
posted 09/14/11
I got the idea of making a binary clock after several students asked me why I didn't have a clock in the classroom. Since I wear a watch and have a computer on my front table, I never had the thought to hang time anywhere. You can expect one soon but it's going to be out of the ordinary... Here are some of the steps I have gone through in designing and producing it so far...
Left: Rough draft sketch of the electronics involved in putting this binary clock to work. Right: Computerized schematics of the original drawing using Eagle CadSoft
Left: Circuit board layout with electronic components shown. It was designed with Eagle CadSoft once again. Right: Board layout ready for printing. The blue traces are the bottom layer and the red ones the top layer. The green areas are the pads where the electronic components will be eventually soldered to the board.
From the computer to the copper clad board... here is the printed circuit before etching.
Final fully etched printed circuit board (PCB) showing the dual layers. There are only three steps left: putting the PCB through the drill press, solder all components to the board, and program the microcontroller (the brain of the clock)! Stay tuned for the updates coming soon!!!
posted 09/10/11 (updated 09/18/11)
It was great to spend several hours at the Atlanta Mini Maker Faire at Georgia Tech today with my friend Peter. I also really enjoyed running into Sam C. (SMS 2009), Samuel L.(SMS 2010), Beau M. (SMS 2008 - Arduino amateur) and Bret D. (SMS 2003 - now studying at Tech himself). It surprised me that Bret easily recognized me after so many years! The lesson is: If you see me out there in society before I do, you better come to me and say hi! FYI: although I saw a lot of little kids there, I didn't see any Lego "robotics" product... get it???
If you want to learn more about the MakerBot Industries 3D printer (pictured above), watch "Why I Love My 3D Printer" presentation from 10 years old Schuyler St.Léger (pictured below) and if you have an hour to spare, watch his "3D Printing - Tutorial"! He is young, amazingly knowledgeable, and funny!
posted 09/05/11
What a beautiful dark and rainy day... Since you are reading this, you probably noticed that the website has a new look! After many years of bright yellowness, I have decided to change colors to a more neutral and modern feel. I have also spent quite some time redoing texts and logos for an almost complete makeover! I hope you digg it...
posted 09/04/11
My project this weekend was to dismantle the easy button to add a microphone jack and a recording button then rewire the whole thing to play custom messages! I have wanted to do this ever since Staples came out with the button... The memory added can handle up to 20 seconds of audio and the 9 volt battery upgrade gives the speaker an incredible amount of loudness! I had to use a Dremel to cut a bigger opening for the battery and shave off some plastic inside to fit the add-ons. I wonder who will get to record first...
posted 09/02/11
I will not be able to join everybody for Bar B Que Palooza this year as I am going to be in New York City for the weekend, geeking around at the world's largest DIY festival! If you don't subscribe to Make Magazine, Maker Faire is a showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness from robotics and electronics to arts and crafts. I am always looking for new ideas and to meet new people on the scene... so I can't miss this expo!!! I will obviously take lots of pictures!
If you are curious about the Maker mindset and the whole DIY concept, come hangout for FREE at the Atlanta Mini Maker Faire on September 10th from 10AM to 5PM in the parking lot of the MRDC, on Georgia Tech's campus. (Map) Is Gervais going to be there? You better believe it!
posted 08/29/11
Several of you have recently commented on the fact that the only people visiting the FMC's website must be SMS related... Well to show you how it is not the case, I have posted below a screen capture of recent visits to the website. As you can see, visitors from quite a few different countries have stopped by! For some of them, you can even see what they searched on Google in order to find us...
posted 08/25/11
In case you didn't notice, our Foreign Movie Club is now ranked #1 on Google in the whole wide world!! IKR...!!!
posted 08/21/11
I don't watch TV so what is better than a weekend project to do something constructive?!? As you know, I love technology and do much with electronics and microcontroller programming... so here is a simple sun (or light) tracker I designed with an Arduino board for a solar panel to always be in the optimum amount of light. The panel is not hooked up to the rotating servo yet but the important part was to program the three photocells to detect their respective level of light, compare, and rotate according to the highest level read. Now that the prototype is in place, it is a simple thing to swap the pink foam for the actual solar panel! Go green!! If you are curious and interested in getting started with Arduino and your very own projects, visit the Arduino website and find out how tons of people (kids and adults alike) are creating projects of all kinds!!
posted 08/08/11
Summer has run to an end once again. Welcome and welcome back to you all... I hope you enjoyed yourself and are ready for another interesting and fun school year! Besides working on several computer and electronics projects at home, I also spent time in Florida, Chicago IL, Lexington KY, and the north-western area of Wyoming. Here are a very few pictures I took this summer!
A view of the Tetons on the way back to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Excelsior Geyser Crater hot spring in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming! The steam is surprisingly hot when it hits you...
Grand Prismatic Spring... which is the biggest spring in the US and one of the 3 biggest ones in the world. It sits right next to Excelsior Geyser Crater (see previous picture) and you can actually see it with all the steam rising from it. The Grand Prismatic Spring board walk for tourists doesn't give you much of  a view at all so I went to the other side and climbed a steep mountain to be able to get this shot.
Another form or type of spring is called "mudpot". Yellowstone is an active geothermal area with a magma chamber near the surface with active gases such as steam, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide. Here is my best shot of one... you are lucky not to have the stench with it :)
About to set up for a shot yet again... what could I have possibly been babbling about?!?
posted 08/08/11
A summer sky from my backyard! I spent about 2 hours taking pictures of lightning throughout the whole evening. I obviously didn't stand out there in the rain much but would set up and shoot in between storms. I captured several... here is my favorite one!
Older posts

 

email