I hope everybody is enjoying their holiday weekend. A true rarity--I may even get a chance to enjoy a holiday off, as my client is pretty big on observing the holidays, so I probably will not be getting any notes back on Monday. (I turned in a new version of the video project on Friday.) So I will probably spend more time on Monday getting organized--I'm trying to get my electronic components organized, now that I will be doing some more tinkering with the Raspberry Pi.

I'm really sorry the audio was so low in the broadcast last week. I truly have no idea why that is--I checked all the equipment levels and everything was cranked all the way up. I suspect it has something to do with the Ustream Producer software...suddenly it does not like my Snowball microphone. Just like it suddenly decided it did not like my Logitech video camera. I feel like I'm being slowly shut out here...

I did see a lot of comments during the Pi video that I showed last week--along the lines of "why are you building a traffic signal?" Well, that is the equivalent of my "Hello, World!" circuit in electronics. You see, in the world of software programming, there is a tradition when you go to learn a new programming language, the first program you write is something that prints "Hello, World!" to the screen (or other output device). What that milestone does for you is it shows you that your compiler and linker are working, and that you have the ability to write text to an output device. After that, everything is gravy! Once your program can get messages to your eyes, then you can put debug statements in there and work to the completion of any desired result (in theory).

A traffic signal tells me I am in control of my voltages (trust me, I have smoked a few LEDs in my time--when I DIDN'T have the voltages correct), and it shows an ability to time signals and have clear logic states. And not to mention, traffic signals are pretty! Three colors, all bright and sparkly. I grew up in a small town with no signals--just stop signs. So I've always been fascinated with traffic signals. It meant the Big City to me! And now that I have shown that I can wire up this simple circuit, I can build on that and tackle more challenging projects with the Raspberry Pi.

One of the main things I am working toward is a visual display for the president of our photography club. His wife bought an old Philco radio set from the 40s, and the electronics in it are a big pile of rust. The case is in decent shape, though--so they are looking at installing a Raspberry Pi that can serve up some music and also drive a color display in the area where the radio dial used to be. He knew I was interested in electronics, so he approached me about doing it. I figured it was a good excuse to figure out how the Pi works! That is actually a skill that is in ever-increasing demand around here.

I also saw a project where somebody used a Pi and hooked it up to a small camera, and was able to mount that onto an eyepiece of some binoculars, and he used the Pi to be able to capture photographs through the eyepiece. I would love to make something like that which could attach to any kind of eyepiece, be it a microscope, telescope, binocular, boroscope...whatever! I could certainly get a lot of use out of that.

This morning I watched the launch of a Falcon 9 spacecraft (SpaceX) from California. Boy, it was foggy down there! You couldn't see anything until the engines started. But it was a beautiful launch and successful deployment of the satellite. Unfortunately, they tried to land the first stage on a barge again, and it landed hard and broke a leg off--falling over. They just can't seem to get that barge landing to work. They did a great landing on Terra Firma about a month ago!

Well, I'm going to get back to the football game. I am planning to do some sewing while the game is on--we need a couple more pot holders. I haven't done any sewing for over a year--I just hope I can remember how to thread the machine!

Have a great week, everyone!