I've been a bit of a fanboy lately since HoTs will be coming out in less than a week. Though, responsible me knows better to be spending $60 (40?) on a game I could otherwise enjoy for free. Eventually I will purchase it, especially since playing on battle.net is where most of the fun really is. But, that takes hours from your life, and it'll probably be better if I restrain from this until summer comes.
On another hand, responsible me needs replacements. Transportation wise, one of my bicycle tubes can't stay inflated for more than 2 hours idle. The air manages to leak out of the valve somehow. Maybe sand particles? I've only rode on it a handful of times this semester since having to repump each morning and after labs becomes a slight hassle. Amazingly, the rear tube can last 3-4 days without needing a repump. I guess $5 at the Walmart would do, but those are never really reliable. Thorn resistant tubes at the local bike shop cost will bring me down ~$12, or ~$24 for a pair. On the plus side, commuting on a bike to and from school during weekends saves an extra 2 or 3 days of gas (nada on Fri). This translates to a tank of gas lasting ~2 weeks instead of one ~1.5. Sweet, but I'll probably just see this as an offset cost to some crazy road trip later on. Spring break starts in 3 weeks. I need to get out of here, preferable to a place with snow and mountains.
One of my multi-meters is busted. Another replacement? Just the fuse. I needed an excuse to buy from digikey again. Searched, but unfortunately they don't have the dimensions I need - weird. Mouser to the rescue - this will do. Great, only 22 cents, but the shipping is $8. Tempting.. Maybe I should add more to the shopping cart? I've been doodling in my notebook again. This time I'm reconsidering spinning LEDs.
notebook - decided against series connection in favor of parallel
Last I tried that, 2 separate red-green blue (RGB's) were used.. It seemed simple, but 7 wires. I ended up doing something stupid and learned I couldn't apply solder to the nickel coated washers used. When I did finally set up the auxiliary circuit, getting constant contact to each washer became troublesome. Wires /= rigid bodies. RGB LEDs require a certain amount of pulse width modulation (pwm) signals running through them to get combinations of pretty colors to shine. Read more on pwm, clicky. The specs of the exact LEDs I used in the previous project were these. It was fail, and a shadow of regret lingers over never getting past the prototyping stage. A video of aforementioned solution is here, previous attempt here.
I want to revisit this idea again, because well, it never really happened. I mean, it happened, but the spinning part didn't happen. What's the point of keeping LEDs around the house if you can't spin them? Exactly. This time around, it'll be kept simple. Only 1 wire should be running through the spinning circuit board, and instead of RGB's, the goal will be to use a few regular single colored LEDs. Simple, easy. Nothing can go wrong. Also, I just bought a couple pink ones last night.
pink-ish?.. purple >_<*
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