#178 Electronics Practice Begins…

And so it has begun, the commencing of trying to refresh my memory as to how to work PicAXE microcontrollers in preparation for going back to Uni in September. The long and short of it is that it didn’t go well. I can’t find anything which simply says how to wire the 28×1 Pic up just so I can even plug it into the computer. I even rummaged about in my book from second year where I had written down bits of code, circuit diagrams and whatnot but to no avail.

The picture below doesn’t quite show the extent of my efforts as I did get as far as putting wires onto the breadboard and managed to put in a transistor and a ceramic resonator but trying to hook that up to the USB serial breadboard adapter and consequently, my iMac didn’t produce any results whatsoever. I ended up calling it a day with a semi built breadboard due to the temperature in my room getting a bit too hot for my liking.

I am hoping that I can get it all set up soon and being doing some of the things that I managed to achieve in the Bluebird’s Duet, but a bit more advanced considering this is all going to be part of our final years project…

#169 I still need some baffles…

The impending electronics drive is soon to start as soon as a soldering iron with a fine tip makes its way to me. Practicing PicAXE programming is the order of the day when it gets underway. One thing I would need for all this prototyping is wire, and to save it from getting tangled up in a big mess I made this… and I say made, all I did was make some holes in the plastic bit of this coffee jar and there you go, a wire dispenser.

The only thing I might end up doing is to make some baffles or rearrange the way in which the wire is wound just to keep them separate and not get tangled up, but for the time being it is very simple and works. What more do I need.

#160 How Real Can You Get?

After a long while of keeping away from Gran Turismo 5, I have made the mistake of starting it up again, but I have decided that the career mode is as good as I’ll ever get it, so I have started to have a little more fun with the other features of the game, more specifically, photomode. Mimicking the functions and results of a real camera the shots that can be taken are phenomenally good, and with a little tweaking in Photoshop with some custom actions I found that mimic the style of a certain type of film, and adding a slight grain to them, they look as good as the real thing.

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My favourite image by far from this slight foray into Le Mans with the Audi R10 was this Panorama. Taken in the same way you would if you were taking a panorama in real life, it was stiched together in photoshop and had the same effects applied as the rest of the images.

#142 iPad to PS3

The other day I was thinking, as you do, and it came across me, why can’t you use an idevice such as an iPhone or iPad to control basic functions of a PS3? A bit of a random thought I know, but using one as a remote would give more functionality than a standard controller.

The way I see it would work (and I have googled to see if it has already been done and as far as I’m aware, it hasn’t), is that it would be in app form. It would be loaded up and connect via either bluetooth or wifi to the PlayStation. Almost acting as a secondary display, an XMB (cross media bar) would be displayed on the iPad screen, all the usual gestures would be usable and the functions could be used. It wouldn’t be able to be used to play games with, but it would make sense if it could be used to view images, play music or play video with good playback functionality.

Using the standard PS3 controller for media functions on a PS3 can get a bit confusing, and not many users would be willing to fork out for a specific media remote for it. The number of users who have iDevices is pretty much at 100 million at the moment, and the app would be available to all, and in my opinion, something which could be quite popular.

Here is something I quickly knocked up to show what I mean, even if it just looks as though it is a secondary screen…

#130 The Start of a Polo

Started work on a WRC Polo as requested by Mr Lynch on the impending announcement that VW are to enter the WRC.  Time so far has only been just over an hour working on it.

 

#107 Spåra Mig

Small update to say that I have set up a tumblr (shocker), to track daily, random musing through photographs. They are nothing important, just if I see something that I like and I use Instagram to upload it.

Spåra Mig

#70 Back from the Printers

As I mentioned in post #61 I was in the process of putting together a book called the Principles of Driving & Racing, which was done as a personal project. It was eventually completed after a few long days of hard graft. Once it was uploaded to the Apple Printing service, and a week passed whilst it was being printed, it arrived on my doorstep and looked fantastic.

This of course was the first version of the book and there are changes which I am going to make to it eventually and get another book printed. This may hopefully lead to selling it to people as the general opinion I got from tweets I made on Twitter were generally positive and a few people showed great interest in it.

Just can’t get away from cars can I?

#61 Going to the Printers

An update on a project I am working on and one which I haven’t mentioned on here yet.

After the creation of a photo book a month or so ago for someone quite close (you know who you are), I have been wanting to make another book, but not of photos. The photo book was made using Aperture 3 and the Apple Print service and the quality was very good, the only problem with the book being me accidentally dropping it and dinging a corner slightly. However it showed what mere amateurs could achieve with a bit of work and determination.

So, what was I going to do for the book? Well, photo’s would have been a possibility, just putting all of my favourite ones into it. But I have quite a few favourite photographs which I have taken, so I wouldn’t have been able to fit them all in if I didn’t think of a common theme to use. My next choice was to do something graphically, using Illustrator and Photoshop to come up with something, and that is what I decided to do.

Learning Illustrator along the way, I am in the process of creating images of different driving and racing related terms such as ‘Scandinavian Flick’ and ‘Oversteer’ for use in the book. So far it has gone quite well, with roughly 3/4′s of the book complete. The complete process of making images is as follows:

1. Finding source images on the internet, such as plan views of cars
2. Opening source image in Illustrator and drawing the outline
3. Opening the outline in Photoshop and creating the scene
4. Adding colour, with each of the different scenes being different
5. Saving a high resolution version
6. Opening image in Aperture 3
7. Positioning on a page in a book

The whole process has managed to be shortened to within an hour now that I have gotten into the swing of things. The first one took roughly 3 hours to produce. A preview of the book being made is shown in the image below. I shall update if I remember, when I have finished it and have gotten it printed. It should be well worth it.

On another note, does anyone here have any help, tips, advice on creating WordPress themes, using Dreamweaver, or editing WordPress themes in Dreamweaver CS5? It would be greatly appreciated.

#59 Mixing it up

What do you get when you cross good old photography with computer editing? Some pretty spectacular results. Especially in the case of Joseph Ford. Personal favourite images are those of the buildings in the shape of games consoles. Loving his work.

Link: Joseph Ford Photography