Category Archives: Projects

Just FYI… Is my Optune Device “on”?

So this isn’t a woodworking item, but it’s back in the electrical stuff. Yep, I still am being IMG_4347monitored for GBM4, although so far nothing has shown back up. I have now been on Optune for nearly 3 months. I’m trying to keep things on and running all the time but have had a couple of setbacks. When my device is turned on with power cord or battery, it boots up, then settles into a “ready to go” mode with a single beep. Sometimes I forget to hit the “GO” button (or hit it just  a bit too soon) and don’t actually turn on the treatment. So to accommodate this, I’m trying to build a little device that runs independently of the Optune, but just pays attention to the “GO” status. A rough video showing this behavior is here.

 

The two “computer” parts are the arduino microprocessor board and a color sensing reader. I put some code together to read the sensor, and detect when the blue lights dropped below what I considered to be “on”. I’ve added a little piezo electric buzzer to make a sound when the blue lights seem to be off (in other words – an alarm that says CHECK IF I’M ALL THE WAY ON BEFORE YOU GO!) And as you can see, I’m migrating the build from the large stuff, to a smaller rendition, so it’s lighter, the battery lasts longer, and I can incase it in a pen tube from the shop to protect it.

Pen Making (abuse)

There are two cool basic IMG_3727 models of pens that have the sensor tips for use on tablets/phones that I really like. I thought at first from the catalog shots that one version was better for males and one for females. Since I have had such a strong correct feeling all my life I was pretty sure I was wrong again – and was proved so by the folks that were receiving the pens. So, I make both types available and let receivers choose. I had backordered about 30 pens so I set down to do them in sets of 10 – however, I ended up ordering 40, and did a set of 10, a set of 15 and a set of 15. More or less. I distributed pens during the creation, but used the time to focus on prep and finish to optimize my production. And like the sex choice – optimize is not the right word here. Continue reading

Just being lazy…

Not that there is anything in particular going on — I’ve been puttering around but haven’t been updating the blog simply due to time restrictions due to work. I’m traveling again, but may be done for the remainder of the year now.

I have more beer openers to do, the book case for kindergarten is still waiting on the sewing portion to get done and I am lining up a bunch of pen gifts for the holidays. I have not started design of the cabinetry my daughter has asked for specifically for her dining area (she want’s a coffee bar type set up). I will be using sketch-up in detail there again and hope to get into that very soon.

Oh, and we (I) may be setting up a hand tool club at the Leesburg Va Woodcraft. I expect that will happen after the start of the year. A bunch of things will happen then – including bench and toolbox construction classes as part of the change to the class line-ups. I’m going to spread out classes, I hope, to let folks expand across the year, rather than just having me repeat the same intro classes all the time…

Pen Decorator on Adafruit Show and Tell

Last night I got into the show and tellShowAndTell   session sponsored by Adafruit. You can see my part starting at 7:11 (yeah, I choked on a few things) here  I stated I work at Woodcraft – which is true, but it’s part time on Saturdays. I have a full time job with Amdocs doing computer consulting. Ah well, I’ll blame it on the hot studio lamps and make-up team…

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