Disclaimer

Use all of these designs at your own risk.  I'm not an expert, and anything I do here might mess up your entire computer, day, or life.

My Projects

A few things I'm building or have built.

Have been built and tested

• Very simple and cheap logic analyser, with associated software. 
• A PWM modulator, so I can control servo motors from my PC. 
• My Laser Light Show wall clock, which was originally just a test of my PWM modulator.  Featured on HackADay.com on 18-June-2006.
  
• My stepper motor controller, so I can control stepper motors from my PC.
• A PIC Flash Burner and associated software for linux.  
• A robotics platform powered by a PIC16, featuring speed control and infrared communications.  Last updated 28-July-2006.
• A table lamp made from a retired SunTour freewheel.
  

Still being designed/tested/built

• A capacitor tester circuit, plus software. 
• My sentry gun project.
• My CNC router project.

 Resources

Guides for how to use a few technologies, telling you just what you need to know, and providing links if you want to learn more: 

• My 555 timer page.
• My interfacing the parallel port page.
• My suppliers page. 

Non-geek

Various, non-geeky endeavors:

• I've plotted my longer bike rides on MapMyRide.com 
• Photographs of my antique Viscount Aerospace Pro Bicycle. 

A note about what you'll find here

Unless otherwise noted, all content on this page is (C) 2006 Nick Johnson.  All software and hardware designs are, unless otherwise noted, released to the public under the LGPL license. All of this is released without any warranty of any kind.

These are my hobby projects.  They all involve a certain amount of hardware and a certain amount of software.  The software I write is written for a GNU/Linux computer with an x86 processor.  I doubt that this stuff will work on a different operating system or architecture, because GNU/Linux's parallel port primitives are quite architecture specific.  I don't know anything about windows, and don't even have a windows box on which to develop, so don't ask. 

I like feedback

Contact me about these designs and your designs!  I just like building stuff, and if you like that too, I'd be happy to hear from you. Here is a picture of my email address (spammers, ya know?).  Put [Nick's Idea Page] in the subject so I know it's not spam.