I reckon I must have a pretty poor attention span. I just love solving technical problems. But, once I have identified a fix and modelled the solution, I seem to loose the impetus to go back and complete the job. I should say that I started out working life as an electronics engineer some 45+ years ago, when the most complex diy chip around was a National Semiconductors SC/MP, the first 8 bit microprocessor, which along with an incomplete university second year coding project safely stored on an 8 bit paper tape, are still sitting on the shelf in my study.
I seem to start projects and once all the technical hardware/software problems are identified, and the fixes found and tested, I get easily distracted and I will move onto another project for a few months. The Spitfire Cockpit idea led to a 3D printer, which then had a major upgrade. Electronics and Arduino’s are another good example. I have a lot of partial projects sitting in boxes and just the occasional completed one.
Motocaddy golf trolley controller.This project is pretty unique in that I finished it, has been operational for the past 6 years, and has been transferred to a second trolley (in a simplified form - I removed the GPS as I did not use it).I have purchased several basic electric golf trolleys, and I have designed replacement controller boards for the last 2. Why ? Just to prove that I could reverse engineer the existing design and then add the extra function contained in the more expensive models for a lot less than buying the upgraded model.– a 20 step motor speed control rather than 10 step provided.– full colour graphics display– a distance control to self motor 8 to 80 yards to the next tee– a control lock, to stop the crows setting my trolley motoring away– a GPS receiver to measure shots, and distance motored.
Xmas lights using addressable LEDs again completed and used annually, I might even box up the electronics one day.
A 3 Axis head motion sensor to give a non-linear change to the Point of View in a flight simulator. Proof of concept, working, then boxed up.
Various Chinese eBay kits for Audio Amplifiers, FM Radio, Signal Generator, Programmable Power Supplies, Multimeters, Component Testers.
The Spitfire cockpit has given me a lot of scope to work on– USB games controllers– servo and stepper motor controls (direct and using CNC stepper board)– flight sim controls using Teensy LC and also the Leo Bodnar PIC Board.All of which are sitting on the bench awaiting their turn to go from a working proof-of-concept to a finished build.
My latest distraction is an AD9833 based function generator. Having bought a second hand 2 year old Rigol DS1054Z 4 channel 50MHz oscilloscope, I wanted a matching high frequency function generator to play with. The eBay fake XR2206 based generator that I already had was limited to about 1Mhz hardly a fair test of the 'scope. So I bought a 25Mhz AD9833 board from eBay China and I have recently been getting that working.
Surprisingly getting the function generator board to work has taught me a lot about the SPI interface (the different modes) and also the SPI library (board default pins) as it took me several days to debug. Rather than use the existing Majik Designs c++ library I opted to do it the hard way and write/modify some c code – that way I fully understand the working of the chip.
The only projects that I seem to start and complete quickly are the many repair jobs for my family and friends. PC’s, Laptops, Tablets, Phones, Golf Trollies etc... But of course they are always followed swiftly by payment in kind – a bottle of Pinot Grigio for every 30 minutes worked thank you….