I’ve been slowly working away on the Dalek – grabbing a few hours here and there. I’ve got the basic power distribution system in – unfortunately the drive system is 24v, and other parts need 12 and 6v. Rather than use wasteful linear regulators I put together some switching ones, using some free samples I snagged from National Semiconductor. These are way more efficient – essential for battery powered devices.

It takes a bit of maths to work out the right inductor and capacitor, but the output is lovely and smooth.

Switching power modules

I’ve got the speakers, light flashers, ring mod and processor added, along with the running lights…

Still a long way to go, but looking pretty good.

(I got the Dalek to sing “Happy Birthday” to my daughter and she started crying… So I guess the fear factor is about right?)

After my recent success with the Pixart camera from a WiiMote I thought I’d try and put everything on one board. Not quite as elegant as Mr Lee’s, but it works – this board will be the basis for my new laser harp sensor.

The seeing Arduino type thing...

I would have called it See-Duino, but I think that’s already been taken – Wii-Duino anyone?
(I can sense the approach of Nintendo’s lawyers even as we speak…)

I finally got round to desoldering a Pixart camera sensor from the front of WiiMote and hooking it up to the I2C bus of an Arduino.

Warranty now Void

You need to run a 3.3v regulator, an LTC4301 buffer,  and a 25Mhz clock to the chip, but I’m pleased to report that it works!

It can sit on a standard board (just)

Pixart's new home

LTC4301 - yes it really is that small

(Yay!)

I’m building an updated laser harp and I’ll be adding this new hardware sensor to provide gesture tracking within the laser beams.

This has really cool implications for robots built with an Arduino. Wow, the Arduino can see…

I think Pixart should make these sensors available to mere mortals like us…

Most of the work comes from the Japanese site run by Kako…
(Translation via BabelFish)

Here are some of my annotated notes:

Connecting the Pixart sensor