A brief update for any subscribers I might have picked up:
As I mentioned in the original post, I've got a design in my head for a revised RGB button pad that will be much brighter and have a much wider range of colour. I'm going to need to design my own PCBs for it so I've been learning Eagle, because I can't get the open source KiCad running satisfactorily on OS X. It was tough at first, but Tod gave me some great advice that helped get my head in the right place:
I ordered 100 cheap common anode RGB LEDs from Ebay today. I figure if they're as good as the ones from superbrightleds.com then I've saved a tonne of money, and if they're not I can always get the more expensive ones once I'm done prototyping. A couple hours after ordering them I came up with a revised design that uses fewer components, less power, has a much simpler PCB, and, of course, requires common cathode LEDs. Just my luck. Still, I'm not positive which design will work better, so I'll probably just get some common cathodes as well and develop them both in parallel. Expect the first Rev. 2 write-up in the next week or two.
I'm expecting a shipment of components soon which should get me started on a lot of smaller things I've wanted to do for a while, which will also hopefully end up posted here. One of them is going to be a guide for transitioning from Arduino to AVR, using all open-source hardware and software. Hopefully this can help other people making the plunge as I am.
I've got a couple of other things in the works that I'm keeping under wraps for the time being. One of them should be announced in the next couple of days, and I'm very excited about it. The other is a new project, but I have no idea if it will work. I'm going to wait until I've got a working circuit before I post it, but if it does work, I think a lot of people will be interested in it. Keep watching the blog for updates.
As I mentioned in the original post, I've got a design in my head for a revised RGB button pad that will be much brighter and have a much wider range of colour. I'm going to need to design my own PCBs for it so I've been learning Eagle, because I can't get the open source KiCad running satisfactorily on OS X. It was tough at first, but Tod gave me some great advice that helped get my head in the right place:
One of the problems you'll encounter when first starting to use Eagle is that it may look like a GUI program, but you have to throw out anything people have learned about GUIs for the last 15 years.I also found Tangent's tutorials to be incredibly helpful, more-so than any written tutorial I found (the rest of his site is pretty great, too). Now that I'm getting the hang of it I'm really starting to love Eagle and have essentially decided it's worth the investment. I'm going to do a bit more breadboard prototyping before I buy the full version and design the PCB, so if any open-source evangelists want to switch me over to a free solution, you've got about a week to convince me!
I ordered 100 cheap common anode RGB LEDs from Ebay today. I figure if they're as good as the ones from superbrightleds.com then I've saved a tonne of money, and if they're not I can always get the more expensive ones once I'm done prototyping. A couple hours after ordering them I came up with a revised design that uses fewer components, less power, has a much simpler PCB, and, of course, requires common cathode LEDs. Just my luck. Still, I'm not positive which design will work better, so I'll probably just get some common cathodes as well and develop them both in parallel. Expect the first Rev. 2 write-up in the next week or two.
I'm expecting a shipment of components soon which should get me started on a lot of smaller things I've wanted to do for a while, which will also hopefully end up posted here. One of them is going to be a guide for transitioning from Arduino to AVR, using all open-source hardware and software. Hopefully this can help other people making the plunge as I am.
I've got a couple of other things in the works that I'm keeping under wraps for the time being. One of them should be announced in the next couple of days, and I'm very excited about it. The other is a new project, but I have no idea if it will work. I'm going to wait until I've got a working circuit before I post it, but if it does work, I think a lot of people will be interested in it. Keep watching the blog for updates.
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