Remember when I wrote about Cheap Arduinos? Well, if you do, maybe you remember the Diavolino.
The Diavolino is a damn cheap Arduino clone, coming in at about $13. (I say “about” because if you want some headers, or a battery pack, or a chip socket, it’ll run you another few bucks… but still, you can get away with just $13 for the base kit.)
Even though I said there was an “extremely detailed assembly guide” there were a few places where I got slightly confused, mainly just in the “power options” section. (I wasn’t even drinking when I put this kit together, unlike the last kit I built.) Since I got the Diavolino with the 3 x AA battery holder for $1, it was simple to just go with that option. Obviously you’ll need a FTDI USB-TTL cable to connect it to your computer to program it. Again, leaving out the on-board USB makes this kit nice and cheap. (I did get a socket for the chip, as I don’t like to solder chips directly into place.) My only real complaint is that, even though the board looks cool in red and black, it can be a little hard to read the type on the board to locate the correct pins. Then again, I tend to prototype in dimly lit rooms.
I got this kit put together in about 40 minutes. (In fact, I even made a time lapse video showing the assembly.) This seems like a pretty simple kit for a beginner. In fact, I could see the Diavolino being used as a kit put together in a class for people wanting to learn soldering and basic Arduino programming. (As long as you can send them home without an FTDI cable.)
The Diavolino appears to have been designed knowing that in being low cost, a few sacrifices had to be made, and I’m OK with that. If you know how you want to use it, it shouldn’t be an issue at all. (This one is destined for a robot.)
Time Lapse Bot did managed to make it out to the Grand Opening at the Milwaukee Makerspace, though he was somewhat neglected when up against Egg-Bot and Drawbot…
Can’t all the robots just get along!?
This is a video about ice melting.
Yes, I’m totally serious, because as you probably know, I only make serious videos.
Actually, this video came about when we had the big snowstorm back on February 2nd, 2011. Everything was shut down, so the Doctor and I stayed home and did a whole lot of shoveling. We also played in the snow a bit, and she brought in these huge icicles I knocked off the house. We put them in the sink to melt, and as usual, I figured I should put Time Lapse Bot to use and record things. Little did I know it would take so long…
It took 27 hours for the ice to melt. It probably helps that our house is usually between 55 and 60 degrees. If you see any water splashing onto the icicles, it’s just due to the fact that I had to wash dishes at some point. Other than that, we were able to pretty much leave them undisturbed, though next time I’ll probably set things up in a tub in the basement.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this video of ice melting… even though it took 27 hours to film it, you should be able to watch it all in about 20 seconds.
This was 100% my wife’s idea. You see, we have two cats, and because her cat seemed to be losing weight (and because my cat eats like a pig) we were concerned that her cat was not getting any of the food we left out all day long. So when I was told to “Get your time lapse thingy!” I sprung into action and set it up to capture a day’s worth of footage of the cats eating food.
We learned that my cat certainly eats a lot (but doesn’t eat all the food) and my wife’s cat is getting a chance to eat throughout the day, so I’ll call this experiment successful.
