Circuit Boards, Blogging, Model Trains, Spring Break. How Are These Related?

Hey! Got some updates for you! They were all too small, so I decided to wait till now to tell you. First, model railroad fans rejoice! I finally updated the model railroad stuff. Scroll down to the end of this post if you’re interested in only that. But I hope you’ll read on…

 

Circuit Boards!

Yes, I finally have created and gotten my first fabbed circuit boards! I’ve worked with electronics for a good while now, and always avoided getting a ‘pro’ looking board, due to the high costs. But, I finally found this awesome place called smart-prototyping.com. For only $30, I got ten of the circuit boards (including shipping) as you can see above! The service is decent, and was able to get the very thin traces I made. I’ve assembled it, as show below:

Scrap-It! – Dell All-In-One Printer

There’s snow and ice where I live, and I live in the south. South + snow + ice = everything shuts down. In the meantime, this was perfect for finally getting to scrapping my semi-old Dell printer, as I got a new one, that uses easier to find ink (and cheaper).

Its mostly a photo-style blog today, so enjoy:

The Dell printer to be scrapped today!

Quick Update

If you missed it, the quadcopter project is on hold.

Nevertheless, I have been working on a few other projects. Before I get to those projects in the coming days, just a small update on the blog:

Check the Model Railroading page! Big update has been made! Model Railroading

MiddleWood and SPbrown Layouts have been added to the Model Railroading page. SPbrown is the current layout and is still being worked on. Who knows, maybe I might have a post on it soon? (hint, hint…)

– Eastern FireTail

Building A Quadcopter! – Part 1

Why hello there!

So for this summer, one of the projects I’m working on is building a quadcopter (or quadrocopter, I prefer this, but both can be used). With exams at school almost over, I have ordered the parts necessary for the project. Unfortunately to keep costs down, I ordered some parts from China, and am still waiting for the parts to come in the mail. While waiting for the parts to come in, I did get some of the US ordered parts in, mainly from SparkFun. While I did get some parts for another project after this one, The one main part I got was the accelerometer/gyrometer (Part: MPU-6050) for the quadcopter, as shown below:

It’s almost Time!

Welcome Back! It’s about that time of year again – SUMMER! Cookouts, Road Trips, Heatwaves, and NO SCHOOL! Yes, my Junior Year as an EE undergrad is finally coming to a close. This summer, I’ve decided to tackle several projects. This is the biggest (and first) project of the summer! Now, I won’t be saying what exactly it is, but just look around, you might find a hint or two!

For things that are coming, I must hold off for now. Exams are coming up, and the last thing I need to be doing is building this AWESOME project at the moment.

Till next time!

– Eastern FireTail

– PS: Did you catch the two hints???

Columbia, SC The Virtual City

Ok, so first off, yes, I have been off my blog for a long time. But I’m hoping to get back in the routine of updating this during the summer. Today, I was interested in showing one of the cities that I have built in a video game, Cities XL. Below is the satellite view of Columbia:

Now, not to get confused with the actual city, Columbia SC, but I decided to name this city off the real one.

Extra Stuff!

Special Note Today: New Layout, just scroll below the photo to view the blog post.

My freeday parts from Sparkfun (well most were free anyway)

Hello again one and all! So I made it back today with a refreshing new post! As you have already noticed, the blog post features a photo BEFORE you read the post. Why? I thought the layout would be a little nicer. Also have added Read More of this Post. This just keeps the main page clear so you can quickly see old posts. Just click on it and read away! (like this post for example) Posts in the future will come standard this way. So not much stuff to talk about today, but here’s a shot at it:

Welcome Back!

Well, the summer’s been good, and I’m back bloggin after a almost 2 month break! (because it was summer!). Now you might not find this the most informative post, but I got some interesting information for you, as well as some of many blog posts to come this fall!

First – My college stuff. Finally got most of my classes scheduled, but it seems I’ll need to complain (ahem – inform) USC that there hasn’t been any spots available in ELCT 221 since June. They say it will free up in August, but I’m planning to talk to them later this week.

NEXT – Laptop for college ordered! No, it’s not a $2,300 MacBook Pro, but this Dell seems fairly close, and a LOT cheaper. Oh, did I mention I get a free Xbox because of my education email??? Finally, time to play the Halo series! And a few others that are not available on the Wii.

Video Explosion Thursday! – Week 5

Videos of Parody, Movie Trailers, and more! Its that time again!

     Hello World and all who Inhabit it! Sorry for the late post, it seems my computer this week is against me from going online! Arrg! Got this great computer, and then HP puts a HORRIBLE WiFi card in it!!! Oh, I have a Wifi card, because my computer’s in a basement, and running a 120 foot Ethernet cable didn’t sound like a good idea at the time. I’m starting to reconsider installing that Ethernet cable…

Anyway, because of the computer, I wasn’t able to get that video uploaded, YET! I will get it up soon, as soon as I can fix this problem. Ok, I know you didn’t come to hear me complain about my computer (well, the ones who really know me are probably laughing right now…), so here’s the TOP 5:

UpGrade! – The Skeeball Machine Revisited!

Welcome back, to another day! Got a new project that I’m planning: the SkeeBalled! Machine upgrade time! For those not familiar with the SkeeBalled! Machine, let’s take a quick look into the past.

This project was started back in summer of 2009. My Junior year of high school just finished. My class had several meetings that summer, to plan for our Senior Trip. One of these meetings we discussed what to do for the bazaar, an annual yard sale/vendor sale at the school. I saw this as perfect timing, and announced about having a Skeeball machine there. It wasn’t really needed, but I had already thought about this idea before