I thought I’d be reporting a defeat, but…

I have a mile-long backlog of projects, which I hope to work through faster than I acquire new ones. See that headline? I spent a good 3 or 4 hours trying to get an electronic board to work. I thought I was going to have to report Katie: 0, Gadget: 1, but tonight I finally had some luck.

First up, a few electronic badges for Halloween. For those who do not know, I used to solder computer chips for a friends company. Now I muck about with electronics for fun. I fell in love with these LED badges from SparkFun, but did not get them done for 2018. Done now!

This thing is called a Larson Scanner. I am learning the sort of code I need to make lights work like this, but I bought this as a pre-programed kit. it comes from Evil Mad Scientist (I love that name!). I am thinking this would work well on the back of my bike, nice bright red lights. I’ve got to figure out how to attach video to these posts, then it’ll make sense.

I knew I’d be reporting in on this project this weekend, so I knit pretty diligently to finish the sleeves. I did the math necessary to attach them to the body, and I can knit for 20 rows before I have to do more math! I realized a sad thing though. I forgot to count the stitches at the neckline before I tore the now-frogged sweater out. I really liked the fit of the neck too, so hopefully I can figure it out again. I am also a bit frustrated with the accent color. It is a bit lighter weight than the body. I will be using a lot of it on the yoke. I am going out yarn hunting tomorrow to see if I can find something to carry with it that will make it feel a bit more substantial.

This may not look like much, but boy howdy…it was rough getting this programmed. Note to self? Read ALL the instructions thoroughly before having a cow. Just maybe the one more thing you have to do is written down somewhere?

That green lightly thing is called an Adafruit NeoTrellis. I subscribe to Adafruit’s bi-monthly Ada Box. it is filled with lots of fun electronic gadgets that are way over my head. I can follow instructions well enough to build at least some of the projects, and while doing so I am learning something. Per Adafruit, “NeoTrellis M4 is an all-in-one USB + NeoPixel + Elastomer + Audio board.” Do I know what all that means? NO! But now that I have it working I can muck about and see what happens. I may take a break though. The October box had a project I never got to that is calling my name.