Category Archives: Electronics

Open Source – Non-Invasive Glucose Meter Project

Title_NIRCGMProject can be followed via Hackaday.io, Click here to view it.

I’m sure we are all now aware of the rapidly increasing epidemic that is Diabetes. I myself am part of those statistics. That is just my way of saying I also have it. We’re all just statistics to our healthcare systems. We’re not individuals where they care about how our lives work and if they’re actually able to help or not. They look at some statistics, and then make everyone conform to the average. I personally don’t agree with this practice. Humans are not the same, we are all different. One thing that works for one group of people, isn’t going to work for another group. We need variety in our choices on how to manage our personal lives for a number of reasons. One of those major contributing factors in this is money(isn’t it always?). In North America alone there are many people struggling to pay for their medical expenses and have a lower quality of life because of it. Test strips alone are a huge nuisance on a person who is managing their Diabetes. Knowing this information, and the fact that it also directly affects me as well, I decided to look into other methods of glucose monitoring. Video after the jump.

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#MicrosoftBandStand Giveaway 1 of 2

MBCS_giveaway

One giveaway after another! I guess its that time of year. I will try to do a lot more of these because they are pretty fun and people love getting free things! Raffle is at the bottom of this page!
I will be doing 2 giveaways of the Microsoft Band Charging Stand, each consisting of 4 different coloured charging stands from Shapeways. This time you can win red, pink, purple, and blue.  Click More to see the raffle (at the bottom) and some videos of the stand!

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#PIDDYBOT DIY PCB Giveaway.

PIDDYBOT PCB
I have 5 bare PCBs that I will be sending out to some lucky winners. They are for the PIDDYBOT so you can build your own! The raffle is below, requires you to follow on twitter, you can get other entries by tweeting about it as well. You need to use your email to sign up, but I won’t email anyone about anything other than this raffle. This is a trial run for me using RaffleCopter, so hopefully it goes smoothly!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quick Fix: Estes Proto X Motor Replacement

protoxfixmotor-8title The other day one of the motors died out on my most used desk toys. It provides a nice 6-7 minute break when I remember that it has charged; it needed to be fixed ASAP(it keeps me sane through all the work). This one was very quick and easy. Anyone with a steady hand with a bit of soldering skill could do it. When I say “quick” I mean literally less than a minute to replace a motor on the Estes Proto X Nano.

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TI CC11X 868/915mhz RF Breakout.

 

PCB-

After looking around for some eagle files for the CC110L, I failed to find anything that was as simple as”copy and paste”. I found the design notes for it and decided to create my own breakout board for testing. For those who don’t know, the TI CC11X are a series of low power RF modules. They are used in the Anaren boost pack and are great for low power RF projects. There are a bunch of development boards to work with but there are no open source eagle files(that I could find) for easily placing this module into your project. I just finished and ordered a set from OSHpark. If you’re brave(I haven’t tested them yet) you can order a set for $5.00 for three,by clicking the link above or using the eagle files below. Its up to you to check the files yourself. Or you can check back in a month when I have had time to test the board layout. Be warned the design calls for 0402 components, which I have used in the eagle files. Click more to get to the Eagle files!

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Speaking at the Wearable Technologies Conference

Wearable Tech. Conference

Wearable Tech. Conference

Just got off a Red-eye flight this morning in Toronto after spending a week in San Francisco to attend the Wearable Technologies conference. What an awesome experience! The Conference was great, there were so many great networking opportunities, and I met some cool people. This was by far the largest audience I have ever presented to, and I feel like it could not have gone better; though there were some hiccups along the way…

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Reverse Entropy: Candy Sorting Machine Gift

Titlecandysorter

Every so often while browsing the internet I will come across a project  that I absolutely have to make. When I stumbled upon IVC’s Candy Sorting Machine, this was absolutely the case. When my girlfriend eats skittles, she does so by colour – don’t ask me why, she just does it that way. When I watched the video of the candy sorting machine on YouTube, I knew it was going to be the perfect gift for my girlfriend for her birthday. Since this was going to be a gift for someone I really wanted to create it as if it was a consumer product in terms of design. I wanted it to be simple to use and designed so anyone can just turn it on and and it will sort. Video and pictures after the Jump!

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Wearable-Technology Conference in San Fran!

Ring Blinking

On the 8th and 9th of July 2014, there will be an annual wearable-technology conference held in San Francisco. I believe this is the 12th conference Wearable Technologies has organized. This year I have been asked to speak at the conference about my Peltier Ring! You can see the details about the conference here:

http://www.wearable-technologies.com/events/wearable-technologies-conference-2014-usa

I am very excited to see all of the new technologies that will be shown at this event. Also excited to go back to San Fran. If anyone – makers, hackers, fans – want to see the ring and are not able to attend the conference, please let me know, I will be exploring the city all week and networking as much as possible! I would love to check out some hackerspaces as well. If anyone knows the hot spots, let me know!

 

 

Past Project: DIY CNC Mill – Pictures

TitleCNC

I would say that this was probably my very first project in the field of robotics. When I was finishing up my last year of high school – maybe 2007? – somewhere online I discovered a world of DIY CNC machines; I had to make one myself. This is a little blast from the past since just today I rediscovered the following pictures. This was such a fun project and I learned a lot from it. Sadly after I finished it, it didn’t get much use. I had power supply and table alignment issues, and a lack of funding to fix it. The best part of this project is the inspiration it gave to my friend, John Grimsmo. After seeing it, this got him into CNC machines and he is now running a successful business using them – http://www.grimsmoknives.com/
Hit more to see more pictures of my first hacked together CNC machine.

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Quick Hack: LiPo Battery Improvements


I have inadvertently broken the solder joints on a few of these batteries just from using them on a couple of small projects. It was time for that to stop. A quick video of what I do to prevent the solder joints from breaking, and how to make the connectors be less aggressive in their plug. 20 seconds out of your day to reduce the wear of the batteries.

All these LiPos are from SparkFun.