Welcome to the Maker Site for Richmond, VA!

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2010-05-21 11:43

MakeRIC.com is your central Virginia makers group. The goal and purpose of the group is to provide a supportive and positive learning environment in which every individual member has the opportunity to share and collaborate on do-it-yourself projects, which should in turn, foster self-confidence and personal growth for our members.

 There is no membership fees to join or to participate in the group. Just sign-up and begin connecting with other makers on different projects.  As membership grows, MakeRIC.com will sponsor workshops in Arduino (and other electronics), crafts, technology, and other DIY subjects. It all depends on what the group is interested in.  Get started today!

Latest Project Updates

GIT Commands

Submitted by scimonx on Fri, 2012-04-06 09:32
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git status

git add . (Add everything in the dir)

git commit -m "Updated..."  (Comitts the code, adds a msg)

git push origin master

Netflix - Watch Instantly - Full Page

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2012-04-05 09:56
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See the stream of new movies being added to the Netflix Watch Instantly.  Sometimes it is hard to see the newest items on the Netflix main page as they attempt to show titles that you might be interested in.  This webpage displays them in the order that they have been added.  

www.MonkandMonk.com/netflix

Netflix offers a RSS feed for the Watch Instantly titles and the nodes are listing by the most recent content first.  This program was written in PHP and sits on a LAMP server.  

Features:

Drupal Module Creation

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2012-04-05 08:55
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 This project will cover the creation of a Drupal sample module.

 

Steps:

New iGoogle Gadget - Netflix Watch Instantly App

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2011-02-18 09:31
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I made a iGoogle gadget for Netflix that will show you the latest releases for the Watch Instantly category.  It also has a direct link to the "Play Now" screen on Netflix.  Let's you look at what's new without having to sign into Netflix. 

Linux Commands

Submitted by admin on Mon, 2011-02-14 16:12
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To get started with Drupal, you should familiarize yourself with some command line functions.

Drupal: Create your own Zen Sub-theme

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2010-06-24 11:06
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Creating your own theme in Drupal is certainly challenging due to the dynamic nature of the content and all of the different content areas that need to be designed. Websites should utilize Div tags and CSS as opposed to tables and inline formatting.

X10 Video Cameras and Silverlight

Submitted by scimonx on Fri, 2010-06-11 18:57
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 This project deals with connecting X10 Cameras to your PC and creating an application which will allow you to view the video over the internet.  I am working in conjunction with the guys from www.silverlightguys.com to implement their solution.  I will post all the detail and the tips and tricks to get the system working.

My List of Activities:

  • Vista upgrade to SP2: Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express Requires Vista SP2.
  • Install Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express
  • Install Microsoft Silverlight Tools (v4)
  • Install X10 Firecracker Software (X10 Device Controller) <--X10 Firecracker Controller does not work correctly in MS Vista.  Luckily I have the real handheld remote, but the virtual one will need to work correctly.
    X10 Firecracker 
  •  Install X10 Xray Vision Software (video camera and receiver software) <-- Not required, I used another USB to RCA capture card (not from X10, worked fine)
    X10 Camera Kit

Create a LED Matrix

Submitted by scimonx on Tue, 2010-05-25 14:55
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Project Video: 

My first experiment with the Arduino. I cobbled together a few LEDs into a square and taped them all together in a square (-ish) shape. Even with a few LEDs I was able to form letters (not shown). The attached video shows a couple of interesting patterns I was able to come up with. My favorite is the random pattern.

Recent Blog Posts

Fix Upload module attachments that do not open in a new window

Submitted by scimonx on Fri, 2012-04-20 15:15
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Copy the upload module to your site specific modules library from the main modules directory.

DSL, VMware, USB

Submitted by scimonx on Mon, 2010-06-21 16:31
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It is pretty common to put Linux on a USB stick.  I used DSL (Damn Small Linux).  It installed quite easily.  The only twist was I wanted to have the distribution on the USB stick and run windows at the same time.  So I just made the DSL install to the USB stick a virtual machine.  It worked just fine.  I did find an open source emulator (Qemu for Windows) that you could put on the stick as well, but the download site was not working correctly so I had to use VMware. 

VA is for DSL :)

MakeRIC Site Links: 
VMware
Qemu
Damn Small Linux (DSL)

Linksys WRT54G v6 to dd-wrt!

Submitted by scimonx on Sat, 2010-06-12 11:09
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 I have a whole collection of routers and one of them just happened to be a model where you can replace the router software with an open source version...that will give you many more configuration options.  My goal was to create a repeater out of an old modem.  

After about an hour of work, the router is setup and now my network area is a little larger.  Thanks to www.dd-wrt.com!

MakeRIC Site Links: 
dd-wrt

C#.net Integration Successful

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2010-05-27 21:17
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Not knowing much about C#.net, I was able to collect the data coming from my USB port from the Arduino to a datagrid. This just got me distracted in creating a little application to initialize the COM port, view the data in a orderly way and to export the data to Excel for graphing and additional analysis. Just to see if I could do it (that is the main reason why I do just about anything). Collecting information form the Arduino makes me think that I can send data (like commands) back into the Arduino to control devices and provide parameter values for various things.

Image: 

You can see the data from a sensor in the IDE

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2010-05-27 21:15
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You can see the output from the Arduino by invoking the serial communications. The IDE has a button to allow you to view the data. The LDR is returning values through the serial port. It makes me think that I can use a language like C#.net to view this data...I am going to give it a try.

It can see (sort of)!

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2010-05-27 21:13
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The LDR is connected to the ARduino board and can regulate the LED.  

The Arduino Arrives!

Submitted by scimonx on Thu, 2010-05-27 21:08
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Received the Arduino from the Maker store. Chose the Projects kit, just to get started. I was able to get the first lesson done pretty quickly with the flashing LED...language and IDE is pretty easy to understand.