The Allen Family Website

My First Kart

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:26:53 -0400

I picked up my kart today!!! Its used and old, cost less than Gabes kart, a lot less. It is a pretty nice kart though. It is a Coyote Widetrack, with a Yamaha KT100. It has a 4 hole can, which means I can race in Senior Sportsman, or even Masters(over 35) at some places. At the local track they call it spec-100 can. If I put on a tuned pipe, I can run it in yamaha medium, or yamaha heavy. This is the class I wanted to race, and I have been looking around for a used kart in this class. I have to say I was not all that interested in a Coyote, but I watched this kart and a kid named Austin smoke everyone every week in this kart. His dad Kenny, threw in a Mychron3, again old, but still very useful, and a starter(worth a few hundred bucks each). He put a fresh motor on it for me, so I will not have have to have it re-built till the end of my first season(worth another few hundreds bucks). He even bought a new battery for the starter. I cant say enough about Kenny he was so nice, and gave me such an amazing deal. I still need a seat, Austin kept his, as it wouldn't fit me anyway. I need some protective gear too, but after that, I just need to add fuel, and go racing. I'm very excited about next year!!!!

Gabe learns how to tell time

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:53:42 -0400

So I'm making him a clock for his upcoming birthday. I love it when he makes me things, and he seems to like it when I make things for him.

Circuits an stuff

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:08:11 -0500

Still playing with hardware... I think I'm actually learning. I've figured out how to use transistors, h-bridges, shift registers, and I can build basic circuits. I don't have an o-scope so I have trouble knowing when to add caps in certain places, but I'm getting there. I'm getting pretty good with eagle, and I've had a few boards made at batchpcb, they have all worked as designed, which is great. I'm currently trying how to figure out how to put components on both sides of the board. I'm still using arduino, but I have also started using C to program AVRs, I'm writing directly to registers in a lot of places. As soon as I can figure out the sleep functions, and get a little better with the timers for pwm, or prescaled timers I'll be moving to assembler. I've breadboarded some neat multiplexed arrays, and recently charlieplexed arrays. Now I'm trying to make a nice 8x7 array out of smt leds. I think I'm going to use an atmega 168(or a 169) to drive the array, and I want the driver circuit to be on the backside of the array... all smt, nice and flat. smt components are so damn cheap.. I can get 100 smt leds for $6, a cpu for well under $2. Resistors and caps are just pennies. I'm trying to put together a basic set up for making my own boards as well for rapid prototyping. They wont be as nice as the ones from batchpcb, but they will cost about the same, and I wont have to wait 4-6 weeks for them. If I want to reproduce or improve a design, the cycle will be shorter, and my final designs can go out to a real fab house. For example the charlieplexed array I've come up with will evolve to be a 3X18 array(closest I can get to 56, maybe I'll make it wider, maybe I'll make it 5X18, which will be a 10x9 charliplex, yeah I like that more), and add an eeprom for memory, where I can save charset data, maybe a few buttons to make it easily programmable by user, a 3v coin cell, and bam, I have a really cool standalone, programmable, marquis for maybe $10 in retail components, probably half that if I kit it. dorky belt buckles are even better if they are home made ;) The software part will be fun, the hardware part is still a bit challenging for me... but thats why I like it. Hobby a-la nerd.

The Traditional Family Life

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:07:43 -0500

Well Jess quit her job, and she is home now. It was s decesion we made together, but I wish it was planned out better. Both cars are now paid off, no day care expenses, no more tolls to Jersey, much less gas consumption, and cheaper gas as well. We are still running in defecit, it's marginal but it adds up... and as always two birthdays in october followed by christmas, has taken its toll. This giant, soul sucking mcmansion is quite an expense too... but I do love it, and I love my family having a more than we ever dreamed. Just bad timing really, the next few months will be hard, vacation options will be limited next year. We just need to get used to living differently. Change can be hard. We are all healthy, marriage is good, gabe is "the benchmark" in his class. Pretty good problems to have actually.

The arduino, so many hobbies, so little time.

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:03:36 -0400

Well arduino has got me hooked. I've learned a lot from the arduino, and I'm making my own circuits now. That said my circuits usually run off an arduino, boarduino, wee, arduino mini pro etc... all arduino clones. The thing is arduino has gotten me a lot closer to the hardware. So I have an iscp programmer(a USBTiny) and all the atmel chips support icsp so I just wired up a few ad-hoc boards. I made a dual icsp programming board, for both 8 and 20 pin DIP packages of attiny chips(the attiny13, attiny45, attiny85, attiny2313 etc, etc) I also made a quick v5v powersupply for my breadboard, it takes anywhere from 7-18V, has caps to filter out noise, and even reverse current protection. If I need to flash an atmega16x(28 pin), I can just use an arduino board, I also have a kit from datapro that holds an atmega32(40 pin) I'm learning how to program these in C and C++. Suprisingly I've learned a lot more bitmath too... its just so much easier to do stuff on a chip this way. I really want to learn how to use the low power functions and I can make really cheap circuits when I can get this close to the chip. Who knows maybe assembler is next?

The T-rex 500

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Yeah I got one. At the beginning of the summer. The t-rex 500 just rocks. I should put up some pictures, but I've been too busy flying it. The website, the electronics stuff etc have all been on hold while I get some good outdoor flying this summer. I have to say I'm getting a lot better. This heli is just amazing, the power to weight ratio is awesome. It is also a lot more stable than the 450. The size difference is marginal. Though it is bigger the additional stability from the 450 to the 500 is much greater than you would expect. It has given me much more confidence, and I'm realy solind in forward flight now. It is definitely the most badass heli I have flown. After flying this heli I rebuilt my 450, it was pretty smacked up after many a crash, so I went through the whole thing, the head, and checked all the bearings. I replaced a few bearings, upgraded the ESC firmware, and set it up all over again. It is really smooth now as well. I think I will just maintain these two helis, they both fly great, and if one goes down for repairs, I have another. They are both great quality.

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.