Arduino Board!

I have finally taken the dive and gotten into microcontrollers (lil' computers for the non-nerd-alerts). In embedded systems (systems that use said lil' computers) you can add a small and less-smart-than-your-laptop computer to nearly ANYTHING... but for what? You can have inputs and outputs, post them to the web, make 'em wireless, robotics, twittering toilets, automate your house so that when you come home the temperature in the hot tub is JUST the way you like it... all kinds of possibilities.

Warning: This is not super complicated, complex, or something you could not do by simply reading this post. No need to feel overwhelmed with big words or wierd terms. Post questions and I will answer.

Here I will outline how I intend to use the first effort of mine: a magnetic levitation system. The hope is to one day use a magnetic hall effect sensor to sense how close a train is to the railing and feed an electromagnet using Pulse Width Modulation (commonly called PWM) to tell it how hard to pull up to the railing. Find the concept here.

So here's the first step! I got the arduino yesterday, woke up this morning and had breakfast with my folks from Oregon, and have been trying to remember everything in my ECE3090 class since then so I could have it working before going into Grand Targhee Ski Resort at 2p to bartend and serve food. I have a working system that lights up when a certain threshold is hit by the magnetic sensor.

Thanks for checkin' it out!

For those interested I also have some pictures and details here:

The arduino is the duevemilanove (italian for 2009), the LED is a standard green LED that came with a motor kit I need to solder together, and the sensor is a Honeywell ss495a. The code was stolen from a sensor sketch (an example arduino environment code) and edited to output the voltage in the console (it shows 0-5V mapped between values of 0-1023... that means 512 is approx. 2.5 volts which is what the sensor outputs with neutral magnetic fields).

The Sensor:

The Honeywell ss495a is a linear hall effect sensor. It is meant to tell you the magentic field around the sensor. There are three pins to the sensors: V+, V-, and outp

ut. If the magnetic field is very positive then it will output V+, if it is very negative it will output V-, and with no magnetic field present it will output right in the middle ( (V+ - V-)/2 OR 2.5 volts if V+ is 5V and V- is 0V). This makes it a great sensor for electrodynamic suspension (making things float magnetically).

The Code:

/Screenshot.bmp Note the raw output voltages at the bottom of the console.

It is self explanatory for most programmers but to explain it to non-nerds-for-life it sets up by setting up a serial connection with the computer, assigns variables like which pin the LED is or which analog input the hall effect sensor is connected to, and then goes into a loop which repeats every 10 ms or so. The loop reads the voltage that the Hall Effect Sensor is outputting, checks it to see if its higher than a prescribed threshold, and decides whether or not to light up the LED. Lastly it sends the raw sensor output through serial to the Arduino console. Delay 10 ms, rinse, and repeat...

A message to a father, a brother-in-law, and a soldier (all in one):


MERRY CHRISTMAS STEVE! Everyone is alive! :)

OPERATION WHITE KNIGHTS

Mission Brief: Sister and 2.5 y/o niece start traveling across the country from Mass. to OR. First plane gets late, miss second plane, barely make a plane from Chi-town to portland after a 6 hour layover, and then end up sitting in PDX until 4 am waiting for baggage and trying to get a flight to Medford which is ~300 miles south of PDX. Weather all over the country left a cluster#$%^ situation in many airports leaving patrons sleeping the night over in the airport. NOT cool with a 2 year old. This raises tension in the PDX airport and unfortunately there was a jackass working the baggage claim which climaxed in a literal riot at around 4am. The baggage claim guy said some side comment that "everyone from that flight has gotten their luggage" in front of half a plane of people who had been waiting 5 hours until 4am waiting to get their luggage who were on "that flight." People started screaming, a man threw punches, police came in, guy punch airline worker and kicks at cops, my sister and niece decide that their baggage is not coming and they need to sleep.

Mission: Traverse from Medford to Portland, OR to save stranded family. Journey might include bad weather, long driving hours, and dumb dumb people on the road.

7:10a:
Dad: "BEN! You want to go to Portland to pick them up?"
Me: (thinking in my head) if I go I get to see my niece first and possibly have a big adventure. On the negative side I might die of a horrid snow accident.
Me: "yea... let me wake up"
Dad: "Be ready in 5 min"

7:45a:
We've been on the road for 25 min and we are beginning to the conditions getting bad. We should of seen it coming...

8:10a:
Dad's a champ driver and has it under control but there are people with no chains and rear wheel drive passing our 4 wheel drive pickup and are destined for disaster. It's all fun and game until...

8:13a: (i totally estimated the time and 8:15 would of been too perfect...)
two laned highway road in the snow. We're on the left and in front of us is a yellow nissan xterra who has no clue what he's doing. On the right is a big f-350 pulling a trailor full of some kind of equipment. The xterras right wheel catches some snow, he over corrects, and starts on what appears to be a hollywood stunt. He slides a perfect 180 degree turn pulling a u-turn in front of the big truck and ends up parallel parking backwards on the other side of the road he started on and everyone involved is going about 45 mph. One look at his face and I knew the truth: his pants were loaded with an explosion of "I-nearly-died"

8:20a:
2nd car in the ditch. The is one of many.

8:23a:

There IS a road in the picture. One of the funnest parts of not having lines on the road is that you get to "make them up" according to my dad. Average speed of snowy part of trip: 15 mph

8:56a:This one had been abandoned for awhile I guess.

2:30p:
We arrive and pick them up. Miraculously the luggage was standing the in the baggage place like they said and my niece had somehow been the angel of all things traveling: no hissy fits, calm the entire time, and sweet. My sister was exhausted and we began our return travel. Was it all worth it? You tell me:


10:23p:
We arrive back home after a 15 hour mission to rescue the fam. Everyone had napped at some point. The niece has energy but we're all retiring to sleep VERY soon.

DEBRIEF:
Mission time: 15 hours
Miles Traveled: 585
Time spent not driving: 1.5 hrs
Cars found in snow related accidents: 8
Casualties: 0
Accidents: 0
Happy Families: 1

MISSION COMPLETE

Danger is My Middle Name
Greetings!
So i got some new Pajamajama's from my mama and they're awesome. Unfortunately/fortunately they're only christmas time PJs:
In addition to THAT awesome fact I also made the newspaper around here. Mt. Ashland is the skiing resort around here and apparently they knew I was coming and they prepared appropriately: the mountain opened up that day, a newspaper guy interviewed me and my buddy Will (my "pal"), and the bar was fully stocked.
Here's the clip in the newspaper which he clearly outlines my dangerous lifestyle... :)

And for the full article go here
I think it's like the 3rd time I've ever been in the newspaper so it's really exciting for me! I mean... they're lucky they got the interview I was so busy.
If you were wondering what they o-so-awesome scenery was looking like I snapped a picture from halfway down the mountain. We went off in the woods on our snowboards to write out names in yellow snow and while I was waiting for my "pal" to find his way out of the forrest I sat on my frozen butt (my jacket didn't fully cover my pants and so all of me was covered except of course, my ass), called one special person, and took this picture:






Isn't that scenery incredible? It was clearer earlier in the morning but you know I didn't think to take a picture.









Lots of people ask about my pops out here so I decided to post this exclusive shot of us near the entrance of the resort. You can spot the lodge in the background and the fact that I squinted everywhere to see right. Didn't even know I was doing that all day...



And now for the story of 2008:
Will is my buddy who was my BEST friend back in the day (think 1st-4th grade or somewhere in the range). We both lived in Greystone Court way back when, were nearly inseparable, then I moved away for California. Some visits back home to the SoOre and we saw each other a handful of times. The last visit we can remember was 7 years ago. SEVEN! We had nearly completely forgotten about each other and then I come back to visit after a 3 year absence in Oregon and decide to find him. His mom and my folks out here are fellow Rotarians and so a few phone calls later here we are meeting up for the first time in 7 years.
He used to be shorter than I was and now he's 6'1" with a DEEP voice. Neither of us recognized each others voices or faces when we met up.

I don't have childhood friends really. Like many I've moved around and some of those friendships have fallen through the cracks. I'm blessed to find my friend again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

More photos from the house in OR:
Here's the view of the Rogue River from our BACKYARD:I freak out because I can't believe it. It's a nature zoo AND we're we live. I don't deserve it.
And secondly this is where I saw it from and how I got there:
That bench is an oooooold wooden swinging bench that is frightfully romantic and the atv shifts with your left foot making it WAY too much fun. Nearly killed myself on it playing slip n slide on the road :)
Hopefully you can see the snow. It's a winter wonderland around here. I wish I could take each of you with me and maybe one day I will. Happy Holidays from here in the big OR.
love,
me

the new Oregon Trail
the new trail consists of a long day of flight from ATL to Dulles to Denver and finally to Medford, OR. It's a winter wonderland here

I guess its the perks of living in a winter paradise. So my christmas begins here :)
As I told one special lady... don't be jealous.
I love all of you.
-me

What a Trip!
Boone, NC. Home of App State, BT, and The Cookout and neighbor to Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mtn. (aka LTR's Middle Earth), and the cave thingy with blind fish. Had I owned a camera this post would be exploding with fabulous pictures but I'll leave you with two: one that is my new background that was edited with my w580i in-phonesoftware and the other is Grandfather Mtn. where we conquered earth, danced on the ice, took our "falling off the cliff" pictures, and I tried to wrestle with a Black Bear but couldn't because "the pathway was icy"... lame! We DID see an otter make a fool of us and two cougars (not the good kind) growl. And o yea, a 3.5 ft golden hawk. I'll throw that one in too.
If you look hard at the mtn photo ==>
You can see some crazy figures on the ridge. That'd be us! Keep tuned for more photos via bloggin' or FB.
Love to all my friends in Boone and especially to anyone who actually reads this :)
-Me

1,729 Reasons to Celebrate

The book-of-face reports to me that I know 1,729 well enough to call them friends. Jigga wah?!

I'm switching back to the Sony Ericsson w580i because my data plan on the crackberry got cancelled making it essentially useless and my phone told me I have 463 phone numbers. Jigga who?!

The book-of-face also tells me I have a grand total of 1279 pictures of me, 16 videos, and 21 invites to events (despite me trying to answer all of the ones I had a week ago).

You might call me cocky for pointing out the big numbers but if you refer to the title of the post I call them out for a much bigger reason than to pet my unique ego.

I've been reading a book called The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is a great n easy read. It reminded me of when I was a wallflower. There are a grand total of 3 or 4 people who know me know who knew me then but I was really a wallflower. I was totally stuck in my head. How did I go from the kid who spent his recesses walking alone and thinking to this 1,729 number? How did my social side get switched around like that? I have no idea but now I think of myself as a "connector" and know so many names of folks it makes me giggle.

Well none the less and always the more I wrote this to take a moment, reflect, and celebrate at the many moments, lives, and relationships that have made my moments, life, and relationships so rich. If these things were currency (and one day they will be) I'd be wealthy. There's not really an appropriate time to point all this out so this time will have to do, eh?

I praise God and thank all of you who've had any effect or impact on me, small or large, positive or negative... thank you for being you to me.

I'm now going to attach pictures of masses of people in which you can find me... kind of the way I think of myself at times.

Here's to the communities who've shaped me and the friends I love.

You are part of me.

What an exciting time!
That is the foremost thought in my head during the last week or so. We have a new President elect of Sigma Pi, I get to start transitioning (for the first time ever) a role of mine to another, a new phase is coming for the fraternity, my life is going to be changing fairly rapidly in the course of the next year or so, @ is full throttle and ALSO has a new President elect, we just celebrated 20 years of having a presence on campus, winter break is setting up to be a great (and expensive :( ) one, I get to see my family!, I'M GOING HOME TO OREGON SOON, we have a new President elect of the USA.... where does the list end? Nowhere, that's where.
With all that being said it is also a stressful time for me. Finances blow, my love life is never fully satisfying or fully fulfilling (?) unless I have a real, monogamous styled relationship (and the bar has now been moved higher than ever), school is relentlessly beating me to a pulp, and that whole "real life" thing that's coming up is killin me.
Well, that's pretty much the updates. I'm trying to be productive and living fully. ciao.

and then life gets the shits...

sorry about the title. It's a bit graphic :)

I have a project based class that I forgot I had a project due today. There goes 8% of my grade. Skipped classes today for almost no reason. Scary to anyone else? Shouldn't be. I'm sure there was a reason it's just not coming to me. I wrote a poem-ish thing about smoke today which was a great relief to write. I've never liked smokers (cigarette or weed... hookah is OK :) but I have I've always gotten a strange sensation when I see a camp fire's smoke, incense, or hookah smoke.

Anywho, been reading an interesting book, the fraternity is going great (president elections coming up next week!), and been taking life one day at a time. Graduation is within grasp... now what?

Time to get back to it instead of writing about it ;)

Smoke

with its passionate embers

smoke reminds me of life

it's dead ashes tell the story

of battles fought and love's long strife

who cannot see what the fire wishes to be?

rarely does the smoke not dance, prancing in and through it's space

revealing the invisible and indivisible forces of wind.

with smoke I peer into the greater being

slowing time just long enough to let me dance too

sometimes I think smoke is the answer to conquering the 4th dimension

and of its seduction?

imagine out of my mouth white bed sheets flowing

always rising, always changing, but dancing to the words that come.

as they grace the air of my words, as they ride the rhythm of my breath

I feel the fire's warmth deep inside my chest.

breath in deep. breath in long. breath in life.

now breath out slowly enough to see the moment that just past.

Smoke is just as fleeting as life, as time, as the moment.

Weekend Warrior

The news lately:

Last weekend I was caught in Allen, Tennessee at Lake Dale Hollow with dear friends Tauna, KD, Moffat, and friends. Papa Aspley wasn't in for the ride so we couldn't pull the house boat out which was ight but the only blow of the weekend was NO jetski/skiboat.  No wakeboarding naked, no pulling my arm out again, no throwing folks off the jetski, no sunset runs... it might have been a safer move but most who know me know I don't favor such silly moves. All this meant that we were kept to the choices of staying on the houseboat or taking out the kayak... more choices than I even needed. We spent hours sunbathing, reading, playing games, going on kayak adventures, and sneaking in drinks. Mad props to ms. tauna. I LOVE going up to that houseboat.

This weekend I tried to keep low but ended up partying both nights so sunday is again the catch up day. Recruitment for SP is at an all time critical moment so I have to push hard and rope em in. The pressure of SP is sometimes crippling in a very unique way which has taught me a lot about how to work under pressur. It's not like the kind of pressure you get when you have a project due. It's a pressure with no tangible end in sight. Sure the new year leaves me titleless in SP but that doesn't mean anything as of right now in releaving the pressure. Only increases it.

School's some TOUGH stuff but since thats redundant I'll leave out the details.

Love to my friends. I'm learning to embrace these relationships because it actually fuels me most of the time even though I'm scared of working myself tired then trying to give energy to my friends.

Brazil: 8.5 months

 

It doesn't seem like much from the photo but the house boat is INCREDIBLE. Thanks to my friend tauna for the invite. If you're my fb buddy you can dig through my photos and find an album from 2-3 years ago from my last trip here. INCREDIBLE. also got one of the worst injuries of my life from that trip (refer to shirtless picture from around that time... look at the arm... the whole arm...)... if you want to know the story ask me.
Alright. just keepin' the friends updated.
-me
i am at lake dale hollow in tennesee/kentucky. How swanky.
picture time!