EV Rally

I wen't to the Electric Vehicle rally in Palo Alto, CA. I had a good time and got some important questions answered. Here are some photos:

Portal

So I just beat Portal for the first time. I have to say that all the hype was well deserved. This is the best game i've played since mario galaxy. I just wish it could have been a bit longer...



I think the best part of the game was the constant commentary/narration from the robot.
Great game, pick it up.

Music Updates

Made some updates to some of my tunes a few days ago, also added some new ones. I put the dates next to them.

My friend Jorge did the guitars on most of these songs. He plays drums for FUZIL.
Their band site is at:
http://www.myspace.com/fuzilguaymas

Music!

I added a music player to the blog!

These songs are still in progress, but I've put a lot of work into them, so tell me what you think.

You can listen to them at the right by pushing the play button. They come up in a floating media player.

Enjoy!

Wii Custom Sensor Bar

I have a little larger room now and was noticing that the Wii remotes werent really responding well on the sides. I decided I needed a higher powered sensor bar.

The sensor bar has IR LEDs inside of it. The wii knows the pointer location and roll by tracking these two LED points with an IR filtered camera inside the wii-remote.

Normal LEDs have a viewing angle of about 45 degress, meaing you can be right in front of them or up to 23 degress to the direct left or right. Outside of that range, the wii pointer will start to glitch. This is what I wanted to get rid of. I also wanted higher power so I could stand farther away. So the normal viewing angle is like this

And I wanted a wider viewing angle like this

So I decided to build my new sensor bar with multiple LEDs on each side, pointing out in different directions, thereby expanding the viewing angle of the wii remote camera.

Here's the simple schematic. I used a 5V wall adapter, but soon I'll be hooking it up so it will turn on wirelessly with the Wii. That step is pretty low on the priority list right now, though.

I used some little hobby PLCs from Radio Shack and colored them black with a marker. Then I used 2 sided mounting tape to attach them to the projector screen case. I wanted them at the top of the screen because I've noticed I get wrist cramps with them at the bottom.

I left the LEDs sticking out about 1/2" from the board, this way I could point them around to find the optimized angles for all the play positions in the room.

Finished Product!