Christmas on CD

A new CD for Christmas!
My wife, Lori, emailed me and said that her work had given them bad printable CD's. They were asked to make them into Christmas ornaments. She asked me if I had any ideas. Really? Me? Oh heck no... well...
If you look at my Facebook page you will find a video of my creation: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2083814074365

I printed a wreath label to keep it festive. I drilled 4 holes in the CD and installed 4 LED's. On the back is a PIC12F675 programmed to flash several different patterns on the LED's. Also there is a 9V battery taped to the back. Her work loved it! I guess it was left on all week so it was running 24/7. It now needs the battery replaced but should last longer if they shut the switch off... (did I neglect to mention the nifty toggle switch sticking out the front?) That was their favorite part of the CD! Lori has named it her "MORnamant."

Robots to Be

Just what I need... another facet of electronics. I have been looking at PICS for some time now. But I have taken the plunge and ordered parts to build a robot or two based on the PIC micro. I will be using the PIC16F690. I have downloaded and modified some HITECH C code and am awaiting some parts to arrive. I originally was going to build something similar to the BRAM using CD's. I still plan to. But as I was surfing through the Solarbotics (www.solarbotics.com) website I found their BRUTUSBOT chassis kit which is based on the Tamiya tank chassis. So, one of my robots will be a tracked robot. Too cool. I am planning on getting the basic robot up and running, adding IR and ultrasonic sensors, and installing a wireless camera. The camera will transmission will be decoded on the laptop and the images will be sent over HAM radio via SSTV. Maybe someday I'll delve into ATV as well. But that's getting ahead of things!

Working FM Satellites

Wow, working the FM satellites is a blast! It's been some time since I posted here; busy schedule with family and work. But the Satellite Antenna is finished and works well. The FT60 mounts right on the boom and it looks fairly professional if I say so myself. My first contact was near the end of April. I copied a call on AO-51 and responded. It was N9ML. I thought I was talking MILES away. Turns out I could have talked to him on our local repeater! But it was my first satellite contact and I was thrilled. I've had numerous other Satellite contacts. during this time it appears AO-51 is no longer in service. I use AO-27, and SO-50, as my main satellites. QRZ.COM logbook lists my satellite contacts. I have talked to Montana, and I believe my longest one was Ozark, MO. I do have an audio clip on my ham website: www.qsl.net/kb8m. I'll post some pictures here as well.