Macro lenses are great fun for electronics:

I've also nearly finished the current big, time consuming project that's been stopping me from working on anything else - so expect a big post on it some time soon!

I've been trying to make electronic fireflies for ages now, and most of my previous attempts involved RGB LEDs, and one of them per ATtiny13 with code to flash a random colour now and again. This was always going to be a pretty expensive method, but after seeing http ...

I guess my new project has officially started! The PCBs I ordered from Golden Phoenix arrived today, a day short of two weeks from when I placed the order.

They've turned out really nicely, and I especially like the black soldermask. I plan to reflow solder the components on ...

I know I got them months and months ago, but I've only just had time to actually do anything besides work. While I do have a big project coming up (but not really at the point where I can write about it), I did finally make the PCB for ...

The twelve nixie tubes (and corresponding driver ICs) I ordered two weeks ago arrived today from http://tubes-store.com in Russia. They were beautifully packaged in two layers of foam and a cardboard box from some kind of kid's milk in Russia. All the tubes are intact and in ...

I'm off to Mongolia for a month in only five days, and one of the toys I'll be bringing is a Nerf Vertex, basically you throw it and it whistles as it moves and you can catch it and all that fun stuff.

It does have one problem ...

This is my first prototype robot. A friend and I got together and he taped stuff to cardboard while I connected wires up and then we wrote a basic program and the prototype drove!

This version literally just drives forward until the ultrasonic sensor detects an obstacle, then it turns ...

I've finished the lightbar controller!

This device analyses the music it picks up via the electret microphone, then flashes the LEDs in time to the music. It's encased in the box SparkFun sent me the microphones in, since the box was just begging to be used as a ...

I'm having a play with robotics stuff now, and one of the first steps was to get something moving.

I ordered some cheapo servos from ServoShop UK and had a play, they work fine.

However, to use them as easy-to-drive motors for wheels and stuff, you need to modify ...

Well, the second matrix for my LED message board arrived today!

It took a little change in the code to get it working with two matrices, but now it rocks!

Check out the video of it in action: