Once I win the lottery this will be all I do all day long. pic.twitter.com/F0TAEJDyEP
— Tanner Stokes (@TannerStokes) March 27, 2018
Categories
Category: Arduino
Categories
The latest obsession
See the GitHub repo for a parts list, wiring diagram, and Arduino code.
Wired up and running 
With the project box wrapped up like a present 
The housing for the NodeMCU 
Two sets of power strands come from the NeoPixels into the box. Both + and – are black to stay concealed. 
Wiring up the barrel connector 
NodeMCU is attached to headers 
Soldering up the inline power 
Soldering quick disconnects on the ring 
The time has come: My 2009 Mac Pro has been retired and replaced with a 2016 MacBook Pro. Not only has the temperature in my home office dropped about 4°F, but I can now run the latest macOS, Xcode, and Docker, which I need for work (for that money stuff). I held on to the Mac Pro as long as I could, though, and I can confidently say that the “cheese grater” desktop is the best machine I’ve ever purchased.
A new setup presents new challenges. One issue I’ve found is switching states between “docked” and “undocked”. I put this in quotes since Apple doesn’t have a true docking station solution. Because of this it’s way too easy to rip out the USB connectors when “undocking”, which could lead to a dirty removal of a volume (e.g. something hasn’t been flushed out of cache to the actual hardware yet and data is corrupted / lost). Since I have a Time Machine drive connected at my desk, this can happen if I don’t remember to eject it from Finder.
I think this process would be easier with an external button to do the work for me before disconnecting the laptop. Currently in the hack phase, I’ve wired up an Arduino with an RGB pushbutton that communicates to a macOS app. When it’s time to undock I simply press the button to unmount all volumes and get visual feedback that it’s safe to pull the plugs…
I plan to do a more thorough write-up on my plasma-ball project, but for now here’s the video, some pictures, and a link to the repo.
Experimental code: https://github.com/twstokes/arduino-gyrocube
It’s not a serious competition until you’ve put a microcontroller inside your gingerbread house. Since we were going for the Charlie Brown theme, I ripped apart and adapted a musical card that played ‘Linus and Lucy’. I also rigged up some LEDs to blink with the music. Video below the pictures.
Pretty stoked to finally get one! So far I’ve dissected an old RC car and turned its wireless receiver board / remote into a volume controller for my Mac. I foresee many cool projects…
