The Allen Family Website

Zifduino

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:28:03 -0500

I got a prototype zifduino, its an arduino, but with a zif socket on it. This makes it ideal for prototyping, and them simply popping the chip out, and putting it in a more permanent fixture once the software is complete. It will also be good for flashing lots of chips, verifying them, then using them. It is a prototype, but I think its fun helping the designer and providing feedback. I should have the next version of the zifduino as well, since there will probably be a few cycles till the boards is complete. Eventually I will make some of my own boards, I hoping to learn a little in this process as well.

Boarduino bot

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:42:15 -0500

I got a pololu chasis, tamiya gearboxes, a pololu dual serial motor controller... and the damned controller does not work... so as an experiment I picked up a boarduino, and retested everything... still no workie... so I'm sending back the controller... I refuse to give up however so I plugged an L293DNE into the board next to the boarduino... it works, but only with a motor supply current of 6V(4xAA batteries) I tried 3V(2xAA) and it was a no go. The motors are rated at 1.5-3v... hrm.... I've got some questions to ask. The 293 runs at 4.5-6v... and I have it on the 5v vcc from the boarduino(thats the reference voltage for the chip)... I'm not sure it it will push 3v through as 2x1.5 motors though... does the 6v battery pack for the motors get its voltage split? If so I'm great... if not its gonna melt these motors... but hey it works! here is a pic and link to the gallery with a few pics of my lame bot.

Gabe taking this beer thing seriously.

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:42:03 -0500

I dont recall talking up this book to him ?

Chinese New Year

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:26:23 -0500

Yangbo has a big Chinese New Year party... and I had a really good time. the food was f-ing awesome... seriously what a feast. He even broke out one of those bottles of chinese alchohol, looked like a small kerosine bottle(and I think I'm going blind now)... I dont know what its called, but Yangbo said that this is what Nixon and Chairman Mao drank when Nixon visited China. Back then it was only available to party members, and though it is available to the public now it is considered "the best" and its still pretty hard to come by. I found a book here about it. I may want to read. anyway here is the most memorable picture of the night... as always the Gabe man. As you can see he is working hard... and someone left their hoegaarden to close.

LCD Controller

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:25:10 -0500

I've been playing with an arduino, partly cause I"m bored, partly because I want to learn more about microcontrollers. The low level stuff. Arduino has a library that can control an LCD directly... no challange in using a pre-writen library... and it uses a whole lotta pins... so I picked up a K107 serial controller from < a href="http://www.wulfden.org/TheShoppe.shtml">Wulfden the firmware was actually writen by Peter H. Anderson he uses to proceeds to help fund his classes. It came as a kit, so I had to solder, and all that... pretty simple really. Not challenging to use but I though it was worth a picture. My arduino decimilia and the k107 with a blue/white backlit LCD... aint she pretty.

Big G gets a medal

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:59:25 -0500

SpiderGabe is ready for Halloween

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:42:08 -0400

Click the image for a few more pics

My night Rig

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:31:29 -0400

Got the "Cold Light" wired up on my trex-450. Here is a pic I should have some action shots soon.

Night Flying Gear

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:49:59 -0400

I just got night flying gear on my heli and wow, it is badass... I have a little more to do, and then I will put up some pics. it is soo cool to fly at night.

Soccer Time!

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:10:46 -0400

The fall soccer season starts next week, and Gabe was so excited we had to try on some of his new gear. It's not easy finding gear this small but the soccer post in Allentown got us what we needed. What they didn't have in stock, they had delivered directly to our house. Click below to see a few more pics, the only thing was I couldn't get Gabe to hold still, he was sooo excited, it was mostly action shots of him showing off his cleats, and his big kicks. I should have more pics from the field in a few weeks.

iPhone review, my weekend with the iPhone

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:55:26 -0400

I know I said I wouldn't do it. I said it is too expensive for what you get. Well I got one for free this week, and couldn't resist, so I activated it, and ported my number. Here is what I think, after playing with it for the weekend.

my t-rex

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:54:29 -0400

WOW, I know now why the rex is so popular. It flys so well I feel like my flying skill just got better by 200%. I've put maybe 10 packs through it, and man I am really happy with it. Parts availability is great in the US as well. Awesome heli, highly recommended.

helis and a punk rocker

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:24:29 -0400

I wanted to post up a few pics of my t-rex... alsmot ready to fly. I just need to do a little tuning. I put them in a new galley here Also I just had to add another picture if my little guy... DONT MESS WITH THE GABE MAN!

A great Day

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:49:59 -0400

I've had a great day today, several windfalls. It must be a record for me. First my rotofly is set up almost perfectly, I brought it to work and I got to do some basic circuits, my piros are looking good too. I felt pretty good about it. It has been completely converted to seperates not and even has a heading hold gyro on it. So some good flying started that day nicely. Then I got an e-mail from ele. They are sending me a free firefox V2. The saw my blog and liked what I was doing. They thought I would make a good candidate for a build thread, so I'll be publishing a build thread on my experience with this new little heli. Then the finisher! I got a new macbook pro at work today. I'm having fun with the mac too. I have a lot of softare to set up so can code here but man it is pretty nice. what a great day!

The heli craze

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:32:00 -0500

Well I have been having a blast with the wii, and recently bought a new heli... oh yeah a new house too. The heli has some pictures on my blog, but the blog has been failing, so I'm going to have to find a better way to send pics from my phone. The heli is a "Rotofly", and mine has been pretty heavily modded over the last few months. It is a fixed pith heli, and I have converted it to a brushless main motor. I'll try to get more pics up soon. The new house is pretty sweet, but it appears to be behind schedule though. THP claims they will make up the lost time, and so I can have the family up for Easter, like I do every year. We will see.

Wii!

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:48:58 -0500

Yes I got one. I got 2 wiimotes, 2 nunchakukas. I got 7 games. All for less then a PS3. The system really does live up to all the hype. The news and weather channels are not available yet, and the web browser is not available yet either. They will be soon though, and I'm too busy with games so its not really much of a letdown. Gabe is really good at the wii golf, and bowling. Thats an intuitive interface when a four year old can grab a wiimote and start playing. Jess and I have been getting quite the wokout with Rayman, and boxing... my arms are really burning from Rayman... exercise and a video game... its like nintendo is socially responsible or something. I'll try to post reviews of the games as I get more familiar with them.

Real Java Phone, more pics and my heartrate

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 10:52:29 -0400

I just found a real Java phone and I am really tempted to get one. The OS is actually written in Java and it apparently has high level java apis liek swing and java3d. I've written some MIDP applications and I have to say its all pretty stripped down, even with the game api which I really like. Honestly I don't really care about the OS, but the extended vm on the phone... but with the OS as java, I can really see a lot of doors opening up on the device.... it is the first of its kind though... and I'm not too psyched about being an early aadopter... I'll have to remember its a toy/phone... and i know I have an iPhone on the way, so it wont last too long. Unless the iPhone runs a Java OS... now that would be badass! My chest start finally came it and the treadmill is all working great... Sole did a great job of taking care of my problems. I wisth I didnt have problems... but given that I did, they resolved it all very nicely. Oh, yeah don't forget to check out the photoblog... I got a few new pics put up of Gabe and his freinds gathering pumpkins a tht epumpkin patch. the treat for e was the helicopter. The woman who owns the farm, has a son in the military, and he flew down with some buds in a heli, im not sure exctly what it was, but it was definately a gunship. Lots of artillery on it, looked like an older heli. We got to climb on and check it out... and he even did a few flybys when he left... man helicopters are cool.

More on the Treadmill

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:20:41 -0400

Well I got my new console in the mail, and it seems to be working fine. The package showed up looking completely mangled, but the bubble wrap saved the day. Unfortunately it looks like the replacement chest strap may have been lost through one of the many holes in the box. I spoke with Carla, and she is sending me another chest strap. I have to say, the customer service from Sole is the best I have had in a long time. No big discussions, no outsourced call center, no hassle really. Just replacement parts, no cost. I guess it is a bit of a hassle, it all should have just worked, but they are doing a good job making things right. I hope it stays this good after my "30 day trial" comes to an end. Better yet, I hope I have no need to call them after my 30 days is up!

I have a sole now.

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:13:02 -0400

A sole treadmill, though I'm p[retty disapointed with it so far. Its very nice and has lot of features, but the heartrate monitor is flaking out and there is a dead "pixel" on the console. Fortunately I am getting a new console and cheststrap from sole sent out as a replacement. The customer service is pretty good, I just hope the replacement parts take care of everything. I love the new treadmill, when it works.

more on my new toys

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:09:45 -0400

Well i have to say the senheiser headphones are totally kickass. I put on the bigger sised plugs and found when you get an airtight seal on you ear canal the bass is actually quite good. It takes a little getting used to though, jamming these babies in your ear, you can feel you eardrum move jut a little under the iar pressure... but then again thats how the tiny drivers are pusing bass to my ears too. to top it off the rumored 8GB ipod nano came out, so i got one, and it has better volume, an aluminum case, 24 hours of play time, and a 60% brighter screen. The best part is I now have room for all my music, and room left over for a few podcasts, some pictures, my contacts, appointments etc, so now Im really using it to the fullst extent possible... and I love it even more... Jess really nailed it when she got me that nano for my birthday, I use it everyday... man I love it.

toys and more toys

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:09:35 -0400

I killed the treadmill my sister gave me, and I promptly bought a new one check it outThe Sole F80 Its pretty nice I especially love the heartrate programs it has. This treadmill has slowed me down though, I'm now running at a target heartrate, which is much slower than i was running, but should be 70% of my max heartrate, the optimal rate for fat burn... I'm not asying there is any fat to burn(seriously a-lot I'm a fatass now), but it should help lean me up. To improve on the so-so headphones that came with my ipod, I also got a set if earbud headphones Sennheiser CX-300B they are more like earplugs, and my first pair in this style, they seem pretty nice so far, though yo udefinately cant "feel" the base like with bigger headphones. It is a nice change of pace though, becuase I can keep the volume at a reasonable level, since all other sound is blocked out by the plugs. I'll post some more about them after I have had them for a while, first impressions are good.

2D or just MIDP

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:46:07 -0400

Work has been boring the hell out of me lately, so a freind and I have an idea to make a simple side scroller game. Old school, tiles and sprites. We are kicking around several ideas, but have not decided on exactly what to make yet. In the mean time I am playign with some 2D apis and getting comforabel with all the game progreamming concepts, patterns, and trying to get back up to speed on vector math, havent touched that shit since high school. They said I'd need it, jut not when damn them XD Anyway I'm alreayd oni my way to a nice little tank program that navigates through a maze, and has collision detection built in. It runs in my phone too. I'm not sure if I want to stick with mobile Java(J2ME) because youare really limited on resources, but the possibility of a multiplayer game over bluetooth it just sooo enticing. I'll keep the site up to date on my progress(if any). :D

Im running again.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:47:52 -0400

I finally found a way to motivate my fat ass. Check out this kit at NikePlus It comes with a sensor for my sneaker, and a receiver for my ipod. Hook the two together with some new ipod firmware, and you have an ipod that will let you set targets, track your runs, and even let you know when you are halfway through your run, 400 meters to go, 300 meters to go etc. Break you prevoius record and you even get a vioceover of Lance Armstrong or Paula Radcliffe congratulating you on your best run yet. Now thats all cool, but the best part is bragging rights. If you have friends with the kit you can set up a "Challenge" be it a competetion or a goal, and run them down. The great part about this is it is all tracked on the website, and you do not have to run together. Here are my last few runs: Here is me spanking my freind Jay in our first competetion. I've got 2 more people ordering kits, and a first to 60 miles competetion starting on Sunday... I expect to get spanked cause I think I've invited some people who are actually athletic this time :P

New photos a-la blog.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:24:00 -0400

We have not been so good about keeping the website up to date. In order to get more pictures up easily, I addes a moblog. Hopefully you noticed the pictures on the right. They are not the best quality, but they come directly from my camera phone to the website(we not quite, but it looks like it does) I'm blogging photos now. Pretty cool, so enjoy the new stuff too.

Birthday Pics!

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:43:08 -0400

Jessica just put up two new gallerys of birthday photos, and she still has more to put up, get started checking them out here and here