DIY Blacklight Tutorial now on Instructables

Created a step-by-step tutorial for the DIY Blacklight Flashlight and entered it in a cople of contests over on the Instructables web site.

Check it out on Instructables.com

The redlight version is good for finding dropped items at night without losing your night vision.

I forgot to mention some things in the video, or didn't emphasize other things strongly enough. So I felt like I needed to add some more information.








But doing a tutorial on this blog seemed kind of silly when there is a great platform with tools specifically made for creating tutorials. That's why I published to Instructables.

Sometimes I forget to mention my posts on Instructables and YouTube. My friends are tired of hearing me talk about my projects by the time I'm ready to publish them. But I'm realizing that a lot of people who visit this blog don't have weekly coffee meetings with me, so I'll try to post more regularly here and keep everyone informed.

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Tiny DIY Snow Blower - It Kind of Works

I've wanted to make an RC snow-blower for a while now. I've made or played RC vehicles with tires and treads, plus some for the air and even a prop driven Klingon Patrol Boat. But I never got around to making the snow blower attachment.

When it snowed on the first day of Spring, I realized I had let another Winter go by without working on this project. So I grabbed a plastic auger and started to experiment.

It works well enough to prove the principle, but not well enough to actually use.

The auger did move some snow off to the side, but most of the snow was moved bay the blade from the plastic bottle I used as the scoop.

The auger is scavenged out of the refill kit for a laser printer. I've successfully used it to move ball bearings, bird seed and cat food (think airsoft and automatic pet feeders). It's sturdy and easy to attach to a motor or drill. But the blades are small, about an inch in diameter, and only run for about 6" along the shaft.

I anticipated that it might be too small to move much snow. But it is the perfect size to fit on some of my RC wrecks and even the LEGO Mindstorm robot base. So I had to at least try. I was halfway correct.







It did move the snow... sort of. But not nearly well enough to make any real difference. All I want is to have an RC toy to clear the snow on the front deck. I'm not expecting to clear the driveway with this thing.

But the blades on this auger are so small that they barely moved the snow. Most of the movement came from the blade-action of the scoop, not the auger itself.

You can see how the clumps of snow got bigger than the auger. I've got to scale this thing way up before I can actually ise it for any real deck-clearing fun.

The auger did move the snow, but as the snow got pushed down the length of the scoop (plastic bottle) it clumped into chunks bigger than the entire auger. At that point the auger lost effectiveness. It tried to move the chunks, but mostly it just chopped it up and re-compacted it.

It looks like I'm going to have to make an auger with wider blades - probably 3 inches deep (6" dia.) with 2-3" between the blades at minimum - something larger and deeper than the snow clumps. Whether it winds up 3d printed or made from scrap metal is still to be determined.

I would call it a successful experiment, but not a working prototype. I learned something and have a better idea of the scale I need. After I get the auger made, I will need to figure out how to "blow" the snow - probably a more difficult problem than the auger.

And from past experiments I know that I will need some good treads on the tires or wheels. Again, scale is important. So really exaggerated treads and an overpowered blower will probably be needed. It looks like I'll need to use my biggest RC toy car just to carry the blade, but it's made for speed not power at low speeds. So looks like some gearing needs to be changed too. Maybe this isn't going to be as simple as clamping an auger to the front of a toy car after all, LOL

BTW, I didn't come up with the idea of a scale RC snowblower. There's a whole community on youtube that do really detailed and realistic versions. Check them out if you want to skip the experiments and go straight to building.

I just wanted an excuse to have some fun outdoors during the winter. Maybe by next year I will have a better prototype and be able to toss some serious airborne snow.

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DIY Blacklight made from a Flashlight

Remember how much fun blacklights are? I had totally forgotten until I made my own UV blacklight out of an old flashlight and some cheap LEDs. Now I'm running around shining the purplish UV beam onto every surface I can find.

At the same time, I modified another flashlight into a red spectrum night-vision-safe flashlight. Now I can see at night without blinding myself. It's great for night photography, stargazing and camping.

The UV blacklight really made the orange florescent eyes of this LEGO creation glow - and the silvery body looked pretty cool too.

The red LEDs created a handy night-vision saving glow. You can see what you are doing, even walk around on a moonless night without blinding yourself.

This turned out to be a very simple project, only about ten minutes of actual work per light. But it wasn't a straight path to the final product. Deciding what to make and how to do it took me a week, and filming it took a half day plus another hour after the sun set to get example shots.

I had a bunch of those pillbox style flashlights that are so popular right now. They're everywhere and you can get ones with dead batteries for a buck each. They have one big 20+ LED array of lights on the flat side and another, smaller 3-4 LED light on the skinny end. They use one button to toggle between on/off and the bright/dim settings.

These rounded box lights are super handy and I already have at least one of them at every work station, car and backpack. Then I got several more in a donation box and I started to get the itch to modify some of these excess ones into... into... well something.

My original idea was to use these new ones as light sources for my macro videos, like my teardown or jewelry-making tutorials. I hoped that I could combine several of the LED arrays into a single larger light-panel - maybe even put a dimmer circuit into the combined array to make a "real" video light.

But I noticed that each of the flashlights had a slightly different brightness level, or color (temperature) or a different coverage pattern. I thought maybe I was imagining it. But after opening a few of them I realized they were all different. They had different wiring and PCBs and different LEDs.

All that is no big deal if you're just using it for a flashlight. But using them as a video-light would create a blotchy, random light source - not what I was hoping for. I want a smooth, even and color correct light for my videos, not a random quilt of illumination.

I also realized that, even though they are blindingly bright as a flashlight, they were both too dim and too harsh for my needs. Even four of them combined didn't provide enough light to make a difference in videos except in the most close-up shots. It's astonishing how much light you need for high quality video.

With large, high quality, dimmable video lights available for less than $50 I couldn't justify making a version that wouldn't work well. If I'm serious about improving my videos I should just buy a good pre-made one and keep filming.

But I had opened all these cases and I needed to make something so I could feel better. I thought about making an IR version so I could use my phone camera as a night-vision scope. I have a few IR LEDs that I use for remote control projects. But when I tested them they were all too dim for the camera to see (unless pointed directly at the camera.) I can get the powerful illuminating versions of the IR LEDs very cheap, but I wanted to make something right now.

I do. however, have lots of red LEDs and some UV (blacklight) LEDs left over from previous projects. And I knew these LEDs were all 5v safe so they would work with the flashlight's 4.5v (with inline resister) without further modifications. I decided to replace the small 4xLED strip with my own LEDs. That way, I still had the big 20xLED white light to use as a flashlight. And the four LEDs for something else.




I cut out the existing strip of LEDs and arranged the new LEDs into a parallel circuit, then soldered them together using the long leads already on the LEDs. It's one of the simplest and oldest ways of making a circuit.

And it worked!!! In fact, it worked really well. The blacklight makes objects glow from several feet away and the red LED version is bright enough to see the ground well on a moonless night, but is dim enough not to night-blind me.

I'm very happy with the results. I have several more of these flashlights and I'm thinking of buying some of those strong IR LEDs to make a true night-vision illuminator (torch). And there is plenty of room in the case to include a small Arduino microcontroller. How about a variable speed strobe light, or maybe some RGB LEDs for making a custom light show.

I think I've found a great, inexpensive platform for experimenting with portable light sources, so stay tuned for more projects with these handy little flashlights.

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DIY Thermal Vision Camera for < $100

Now, you too can see heat maps of human bodies or car engines like Predator - or identify cold spots and drafts in your house like a home-energy expert. And with a little DIY electronics knowledge, you can do it really inexpensively.

Although the sensor is only an 8x8 array, you can interpolate the readings to emulate a finer grain, and with a little coding, adjust how the temperatures are shown.

A big price-drop on Panasonic's AMG8833 8x8 Grid-EYE thermal sensor array has finally allowed hobby electronics suppliers to create a fun and useful thermal camera at a price everyone can afford - less than $50. Compare that to the more than $250 for a FLiR dev board with an 80x60 grid.

As you might expect at this price point, there are limitations. The sensor is only 8x8 pixels and has a range of less than 25 feet (7 meters). You will not be able to identify enemy paintballers from across the battlefield, and you can't get a full-house image of your heat loss. It requires a brain (Arduino or RasPi) with I2C, libraries and a graphics screen. Most people reading this probably already have a microcontroller and screen, so that's no big deal. But faster processors will give you smoother video feeds.

Here's a great teaser video from Adafruit on how to make this into a cute camera version.

Looks cool right, then see the full tutorial and make one of your own.

Adafruit has two versions of the sensor module: a tiny breakout board (item# 3538) and a Featherwing daughter board (item# 3622) made to snap right into any of their Feather boards. And of course the best thing about getting the Adafruit version is their high quality libraries and well written tutorial. They even have a tutorial on hooking it up to a Raspberry Pi

Sparkfun has also released a breakout board (SPX-14568) from their experimental SparkX labs. It uses their QWIIC connection system and also has a library for Arduino.

All the tutorials I've seen so far use a graphic display. But you could display the output on NeoPixels, on a servo-array or translate it into sounds. You could draw images with sparklers. Since you also have access to the raw data you could store time lapses. Combine this with traditional movement and distance sensors for more accurate navigation for your robots, or add another layer to your home security system. If you can code, you can create anything you want.

For less than $50 you get a useful sensor that's far more than a toy - definitely worth checking out for a wide variety of uses.

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Comfort Food - An Abstract Concept

Comfort food means different things to different people. It might be a bowl of Mac-n-Cheese or a plate full of your grandmother's homemade cookies. It's an abstract concept, this comfort food, because "comfort" is such a subjective feeling.

I got to see a sick friend perk up and feel better after a stop at one of their favorite roadside diners - complete with original 70s era décor and an ambience of continuing after-school employment. This place is classic.

My friend's food choices might not have been what a doctor would have ordered for gastrointestinal distress (it involved chili, cheese and lots of fried items), but the positive affect of the food was undeniable.

The kind of place where "all the way" means mustard and ketchup - perhaps to match the bright original décor.

Or maybe it wasn't the food itself that had the positive affect. Maybe it was the childhood memories of family and friends and high-school escapes that helped my friend feel better.

Either way, there is still a place and a function for the few genuine roadside diners remaining in our landscapes. Adding some checkered tiles and reprinted posters might help a chain restaurant get more customers. But it's the real mom-and-pop ships, with the third generation of kids from the same families doing their stint at the register and fryer, that established that original emotional connection and still give the chain shops their meaning.

These old diners might not have a clever name for every burger variation (it's a hamburger with ???, not an outdated car brand) but the people at the register might know (because they know you) that extra mayo means a LOT of extra mayo, and they know to leave the fries in a little longer because you like them crisp.

I think that's what made my friend feel better, visiting with something unchanging and familiar when they were wondering if they were ever going to feel normal again. Just being in the diner and seeing it so eternal and unchanging confirmed that. yes, things would continue and some things can still be counted on.

BTW, I have no history or emotional connection to this place - I was just there for the food... but my fries were extra crispy, just like I like them.

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Welded Washer Bowl - Flawed but Finished

Admit your faults and make the best of them. That's true for personalities and projects. I tried to make one of those spectacular bowls made out of welded washers and the project failed horribly because I have a flawed personality.

I have already described how I painted this bowl in a previous post. In that post I promised to "tell the story of my own idiocy." So here is my official, "I fail a lot too, so you have no real excuse not to try making things, we all fail, just do it" post for this month.

Good idea, bad execution - just add some spray paint.

I looked at how-to videos on YouTube and thought, "Hey, that's simple enough - I can do that." Well I couldn't do that, but I do have some legitimate reasons why this bowl isn't as pretty as the ones on Pinterest.

First, I only had a few hours of stick welding experience. They had taught me how to do horizontal, vertical and overhead tee-welds using the same thick stock and forgiving 7018 rods. We had about half of a class left free at the end of the short course and the teacher said we could do our own projects.

I had some washers that were too big to use in even my largest jewelry or other projects, so I said I wanted to make a washer bowl. The teacher advised against it but let me do it anyway, perhaps knowing that public failure after a strong warning is also a good teacher.


The teacher, a patient and skilled mentor, knew that I should wait until I had access to the MIG machines in the next round of classes. The YouTube videos also used MIG. But I could lay down a 6" multi-pass bead so obviously I could do anything.

Hah!

The poor suffering teacher did the best he could, handed me some 6013s and warned me that they would sputter and splatter and be generally more fussy than the 7018s, especially on coated metal.

He also mentioned that the washers were much thinner than the stock we had been taught on, so I needed to be careful not to burn through the washers. He also warned that the washers were of various thicknesses, so joining thin to thick ones would be different than the single thickness plates I was used to. And he also noted that welding a tiny joining face would feel different than the solid metal plates we had practiced on.

Sure, sure.... dude I can lay down a bead 85% of the time and barely stick it on starting. I'm good to go.

He was right. I was wrong. The bowl sucks. I learned a lot.

First time welding metals of various thicknesses and sizes plus first time using 6013s gave... ummmmm... various levels of quality in the welds. You can see the results of my learning curve by comparing the upper right quadrant with the rest of the so-called bowl.

All I have to do is use the same speed and settings as I did on the thick plate stock, right? Wrong... I burned through most of the first few tries before I even knew I had a spark. These thin washers don't act anything like what I was used to.

Still not the prettiest welds, but at least I didn't burn away more metal than I deposited.

Everything the teacher warned me about turned out to be accurate. You can tell which part of the bowl I started with. It's the part with drippy holes where the weld should be. As I started adding more washers though, I realized I just needed to tack them, not lay down a bead.

Be quick with the stick young grasshopper.


So most of my welding problems turned out to be personality flaws. Luckily for me, I am also stubborn.

But I own spray paint, so all is not lost..

The bowl is way too ugly to use inside, not even worth grinding down. It will never grace the table at a dinner party where I casually say, "Why yes, thank you... but I didn't buy it... I made it myself in my first welding class." Nope, not gonna happen.

But maybe if I add enough coats of paint I can find a place for the so-called bowl in a remote corner of the yard.

So if it's not good enough to display in bare metal, maybe some spray paint will help hide the errors.

It's still not pretty enough for use inside, but maybe add some sphagnum and some ferns, set it outside, way back in the corner of the yard where no one ever walks.

If ivy is the best friend of bad architects, a large mass of ferns may become the best friend of a bad welder.

And just so you know, the teacher did come to look at the bowl and said, "Hmmm, that's not as bad as I thought it would be." He, of course, knew exactly where I started welding and where I started to understand just by looking at the welds. I think he was just happy that he had managed to teach me enough that I could learn from failures and adjust - not well, not fast - but still learn and adjust on the fly.

I might be an idiot, but the teacher is an extremely skilled welder and also a really good teacher. I also took the Intro to MIG class and learned a lot - both what I should do and, like this project, some things that I think should have worked but didn't.

I've made fun of myself a lot in this post. But I should point out that the teacher also helped me learn how to successfully weld basic components in a reasonably proficient way. Repetition, knowledge, examples, repetition and more repetition means that I can actually do some basic welds. I am grateful for his patience and help, his insistence that I stick to the basics until I could do them well, and then allowing me to fail in such a way that I learned WHY he insisted I do it a certain way to begin with.

Seeing the results of doing things both the right way and wrong way is good preparation for when I don't have an expert to ask before every weld - which should be very soon (hint).

And finally, to those five artist friends who keep talking about taking a welding class but never do (you know who you are) --- you see how bad I am at it and I've shared it in public. Now get over to the local community college or trade school and take the introductory class. It's cheap, it's fun and it's actually pretty easy if you follow directions.

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Hack Your Game Controller - Part #1 the Teardown

Everybody dreams of hacking their game control pad and making it control something else. Maybe to run their RC car, a robotic arm, or maybe their home theater system.

Other folks need to mod their controller so they can use it better. Not everyone has full use of both hands, yet most game controllers require two hands. What if you want to reconfigure the buttons and place them elsewhere, or turn them into foot pedals.

Either way, the process of modding requires a medium level of electronic knowledge and some crafting skills. There are some good tutorials out there for hacking specific controller models to do specific things. That's great, but what if you don't have that specific controller. Or what if you want to do something different than the what the tutorial shows you.

I've seen too many people start modding their controllers and then stop because their model or their needs are too different from the tutorials. Also, I don't know of any good generic introductions to hacking and modding game controllers.

I was one of those people who gave up the first time I tried it, and it has taken me more than three years of tinkering with electronics to learn enough that I can take parts from multiple tutorials and mix them together to work with my controllers. Now it all seems so simple, not even worth writing a tutorial on.

But I recently saw another person starting the learning process and remembered how overwhelming it could be. So I thought I would do a series of simple videos to help get newbies started - to teach enough of the basic concepts so that they can pick out the useful parts from other how-to guides.

The first step is look inside some game controllers. Then poke around and notice the differences and similarities in various models. That's what this video does - we tear down three old game controllers and have a quick look around.

(Or go directly to the YouTube video on my channel)

Just cracking the case and looking around can be really scary for first timers. Having buttons and switches falling out, not really understanding how it all works, where the electrical signals come from or where they go - it can be overwhelming.

Remember back to when you didn't really understand the difference between digital and analog signals, and you didn't "just know" which components did what. That's who these first few videos are designed for. So be patient, the real fun stuff is coming up after we cover the basics.

In this video we salvage a few parts, just cut them right off the PCB and leave the wires dangling and unconnected. Savage!!! The next video will explore how to re-use the parts we scavenge in this video. We'll look at the buttons and the joysticks and get a better understanding of digital versus analog signals.

We'll even explore how we can hook these salvaged parts up to an Arduino microcontroller. And all these concepts will be useful if you want to simply relocate buttons using your existing controllers.

As the series grows I will make a project page. There is a lot of good information out there on modding game controllers, so as the concepts are introduced I will link to these videos and tutorials.

If a few of you crack the cases of your controllers and rip parts out to use elsewhere, then this video will be a success.

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