Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

14 Apr
2012

Gaggia Classic Disassembly and Cleaning

I recently purchased a used Gaggia Classic machine on Amazon. After realizing that it was not as “lightly used” as the seller denoted, I took apart the entire machine to clean it up. I’ve written this guide as a teardown guide, but feel free to read it from bottom-up to get a clear understanding of how to assemble this machine. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions or information to add.

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30 Jan
2012

Arduino Leonardo – Interrupts

As of Arduino 1.0, interrupts are not supported on the Arduino Leonardo. I’m working on a project using the atmega32u4 with the Arduino IDE which needs interrupt support for both software serial and frequency counting, so I investigated ways to add interrupt support for this device. I began by checking out the Leonardo pins definition file to see what was missing for interrupt support. Long story short, I ended up copying the macros for interrupt bitmasks/registers from the Teensyduino project, which has a mega32u4 target board. In addition to modifying the pin definition header file, I also needed to modify WInterrupts.c—swapping out the default AttachInterrupt() and DetachInterrupt() funcitons with those from the Teensyduino project.

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9 Nov
2011

ZonCoffee v3 PCB

The first prototype ZonCoffee v3 boards have arrived and are nearly up and running. I’m currently porting the code over to Arduino 1.0, as this board uses the Arduino Leonardo bootloader. Read on past the break for more info on the new board.

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9 Oct
2011

Repairing a Sigma 24-70 EX Lens

I acquired a free Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens that had a few issues–namely, autofocus was broken and the zoom was incredibly hard to turn. After using the lens in full manual for a while, I determined that I would attempt to repair it.

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25 Sep
2011

DIY Cheap Reservoir Irrigation

When you’re trying to grow a bunch of plants in a field where a water source is lacking, things can be a bit tough. Hauling water on-site is a very arduous process, even with a tractor/trailer full of buckets. After hauling 5-gallon buckets to water blueberry bushes for months, we began to work on a better reservoir irrigation system that was cheap and easy to automate with expandable capacity.

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28 Aug
2011

MNL: Networked LED Lighting

MNL is a multi-node high-power RGB lighting system. It consists of a controller (PC or embedded system) and multiple light nodes networked with RS485. The first prototype nodes are up and running, and we will be developing the second revision of prototypes in the coming months. Read on past the break for more information.

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22 Jun
2011

tinyRGB – an i2c LED driver


tinyRGB is a minimalist blinkM-compatible high-current i2c RGB LED controller consisting of only 10 basic components. The board is small and inexpensive, can be fabricated for as little as $1/board, and can easily be assembled by hand with a total component cost of around $3.

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2 Jun
2011

ZonCoffee PCB

The ZonCoffee espresso PID controller board has been fabbed!

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4 Apr
2011

RGB Multi-Node Lighting

This project uses the open-source i2c RGB LED controller firmware “cyz_rgb” to create a modular high-power lighting network. The network is controlled by an Arduino, which scans the network for nodes controls them autonomously with onboard scripts, manually via serial console control, or over the serial computer-control interface for interaction with programs on a host machine.

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5 Jan
2011

ZonCoffee Hardware

The Eagle schematic for ZonCoffee is included after the break. Note that this schematic still has a few quirks, but it should be accurate to the best of my knowledge. I will post the Eagle project once the design is finalized.

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Gaggia Classic Disassembly and Cleaning

Gaggia Classic Disassembly and Cleaning

I recently purchased a used Gaggia Classic machine on Amazon. After realizing that it was not as “lightly used” as

Arduino Leonardo - Interrupts

Arduino Leonardo – Interrupts

As of Arduino 1.0, interrupts are not supported on the Arduino Leonardo. I’m working on a project using the atmega32u4