Month: January 2022

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Pi Radio – It’s Alive

I had mentioned the Pi Radio project to my co-teacher and he was pretty enthusiastic about working on it. Since he is the coding expert, I decided to let him work out those specifics, while I work on the CAD aspects and building the project once the electronic portion is complete. Today he successfully coded the Raspberry Pi to tune to different internet radio stations using a rotary encoder, which will mimic using the tuner from the radio to ‘tune’ to different stations. Additionally, he has incorporated a second rotary encoder for volume control. Everything seems to be working now, but still some work finalizing the code and electronics.

For my part, I’ve started putting the entire radio into CAD in order to make all the new interior components to hold the new electronics. I’ve finally finished recreating the outer housing, and took a quick photo to show how well it came out. Looks just like the real thing. Next, I need to create some new components for lasercutting and 3D printing.

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Tetris

When our current seniors were freshmen we began building a large format Tetris game. They mostly helped with wire organization and basic construction. The basic layout of the project is grid of C channel holding a 5 x 7 matrix of bright LED square panels which were donated to the Robotics shop from the MBTA. With the COVID pandemic the Tetris Rig, as its come to be known, has had little work done to it. This year, however, a senior, who was one of the freshmen who first began working on the rig, decided to return to the project and get it working.

This student, Dylan S ’22 has spent most of the year reorganizing all the wiring, creating new PCBs, and writing code to make the rig fully functional. Today was the first day we were finally able to play the game using a small controller he built. It’s really incredible how much work has gone into this project and how incredibly well it performs. There are still some modifications that are going to be made, but it was a solid milestone to mention for today’s post. Video and images below.

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LED Light Box

For our sophomores we have a few standard projects they all work on individually. These include the LED Light Box and SumoBot projects. For each project students are expected to complete their projects using their own CAD designs, as well as making their own PCBs and designing the circuitry from scratch.

Unfortunately, for our current seniors, due to the COVID pandemic, they were unable to work on either of those projects, as they spent nearly a year and half learning remotely. Luckily, they are back in the building this year, and working hard to catch up on some hands on activities they missed. One student is now close to completing his LED Light Box, and it’s beginning to look very professional. I’m not sure what the inspiration for the acrylic is, but it came out really well. We use a raster technique for student designs on the back side of the acrylic and mirror the design so it looks backwards on the surface it is being laser etched into. When you turn the acrylic over, the design is in the correct orientation, and looks very clean behind a few millimeters of acrylic.

There is still some finishing work to be done on this particular LED Light Box, but it’s a nice example of projects coming out of our shop. Our current sophomore are beginning their lightboxes right now, which generally begins with finalizing their circuitry on breadboards and then milling their PCB boards on our Bantam Tools mills. Enjoy the photos and video of the project below.

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Test Drive

Spent the morning watching soccer and then worked out on the treadmill. Ash and I then took a drive to Peabody to test drive a Tesla. I’ve done a test drive before, last September, but wanted to give it another go, and Ash was interested in seeing what all the hype is about. We took a short drive along the highway, parked for a bit to play with the screen, then headed back to the Tesla store. It was a quick drive, but a lot of fun. Very much looking forward to getting my new car.

I think we were feeling a bit stir crazy, so after driving home from Peabody, we decided to hop on the T and head to The Quiet Few for dinner. We feel comfortable going there as they have been one of the few places that demands a vaccine card for entry. We were able to grab a seat at the bar and just relaxed for a few hours before heading back home. Ended the weekend with the chihuahuas on the couch. More serious content tomorrow.

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Lazy Saturday

It’s probably possible to do less than I did today, but I doubt it. Spent most of the day on the couch with the chihuahuas watching soccer. Hugh was getting ready for the Arsenal game tomorrow wearing his new red hoodie. In the afternoon I worked out on the treadmill. Ash spent most of the afternoon making pizza dough for a Bianco thick crust pizza, which was delicious, as always.

Tomorrow we will head to Peabody for another Tesla test drive, Ash has never been in one before.