My Halloween box isn't four months late, it's eight months early
My first project of my own design: a laser-cut box with a backlit monster panel and RGB LEDs, finished four months after Halloween.
What I'm Doing to Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse
What I've been up to
Why progress on the book has slowed, and what I've been doing instead: online electronics courses and the Instructables classes.
In the eye of the beholder
Project 7 uses a Raspberry Pi and a webcam to spot movement, but the cheap webcam's image noise makes it detect zombies everywhere.
What's in the box?
A review of the Creation Crate electronics subscription box. Fun projects, but aimed at kids, and poor value next to the official Arduino Starter Kit.
Securing the perimeter
Project 6 is complete: a PIR sensor and Arduino that flash ZOMBIES! and sound a buzzer whenever something moves nearby.
Made some progress, finally!
Project 3 is complete: five 10-watt bulbs running from the bench power supply, minus the three I blew by turning the voltage up too far.
Learning from one's mistakes
Project 3, LED lighting, teaches me a lesson about watts: 50-watt bulbs are far too hungry for my 5-amp bench power supply.
One step forward, two steps back
A new bench power supply gets the battery monitor working, then I seem to break my second Arduino while setting up the PIR zombie detector.
You light up my heart
A break from zombies: lighting up a heart-shaped slate with copper tape and LED stickers from a Circuit Stickers starter kit.
I just can't do it Captain, I just don't have the power!
The battery monitor project hits a wall: my 12V battery reads just 2.37 volts, probably killed by the broken charge controller.