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Hackable Microcontroller-Powered Valentine's Card

Posted by kdawson on from the gotta-have-heart dept.

compumike writes "If you have a significant other to impress this Valentine's Day, consider putting your programming skills to use. This video tutorial shows how to build an LED Heart Valentine's card, powered by a microcontroller running C code, with a neat randomized 'twinkling' effect in an interrupt handler. Think about it: how many ladies can say that their Valentine's card runs at 14 MHz?"

18 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. More Likely Responses by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Him: Yeah, babe, and now you can tell your friends that your Valentine's Day card runs at 14 MHz.
    Her: Really?! 14? How many songs does that mean it can hold?

    or
    Him: Yeah, babe, and now you can tell your friends that your Valentine's Day card runs at 14 MHz.
    Her: ...uh, yeah... I'll be doing that right away...

    or
    Him: Yeah, babe, and now you can tell your friends that your Valentine's Day card runs at 14 MHz.
    Her: ...
    (She remains as silent as all other RealDolls)

    --
    Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
    1. Re:More Likely Responses by Sepiraph · · Score: 4, Funny

      Think about it: how many ladies can say that their Valentine's card runs at 14 MHz?"

      Clearly this is a trick question. No such girlfriend ever existed in the first place.

    2. Re:More Likely Responses by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 4, Funny

      And that's why it's currently +5 funny. I know my audience.

      --
      Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
    3. Re:More Likely Responses by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Funny

      OK, but bear with me..... assume a spherical girlfriend of uniform density.....

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    4. Re:More Likely Responses by pacificleo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why would someone want a girlfriend with uniform density . you need to have standard deviation and make a bell curve at appropriate places .

      --
      somethings are best left unsaid , I am one of those things
    5. Re:More Likely Responses by az1324 · · Score: 5, Funny

      or
      Him: ...14 MHz.
      Her: At least something knows how to oscillate around here.

    6. Re:More Likely Responses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's easy, just imagine the average American woman.

  2. Yes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    but can it run Ninnle Linux?

  3. Chocolate by Joebert · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm fairly sure they're going to be pretty pissed when they open it expecting chocolates and all they find is a bunch of wiring and batteries.

    I don't have a girlfriend so I can't be entirely sure, but I do know that the chick at the video store wasn't happy when I finally got her to open the box of chocolates I was holding in front of me only to find my penis poking in from a hole in the bottom.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  4. Overclock it? by canatech · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet with liquid cooling you could get it to 18MHz!

  5. Re:Come now by iocat · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's not too geeky, it's too PATHETIC. If you need a microcontroller running at 14Mhz and C code to blink some heart shaped LEDs, you should just turn in nerd card now. It's like using an anvil to hammer a picture hanging nail.

    If you can't create that card with a 555 and a couple resistors, I wouldn't be surprised to see your Valentine laugh in your face and go off with a real He-Man who writes assembly.

    Christ! A 14Mhz microcontroller... if you're gonna use that, the damn card better access the internet or play NES games at least.

    --

    Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

  6. Possible danger by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    She might attempt to do something similar for next month's "guy" version of Valentine's Day.

    Then again, that might work out well.

    --
    The Internet is generally stupid
  7. Re:not impressed by princessproton · · Score: 2, Funny

    Soo...um...are you seeing anybody?

    --
    I'm always positive; it's my nature.
  8. Most Likely Response by az1324 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Her: That's NOT the kind of crystal I had in mind.

  9. Real Men by zude · · Score: 2, Funny

    A) Real men don't build a circuit with an 14Mhz ATmega, when a couple of 555's and a few TTL counters would have sufficed.

    B) Real men don't program micro-controllers in C (or, god forbid, BASIC), when a hundred or so assembly instructions would have sufficed.

    C) Real men don't give their wives goofy hand-made electronic crap on Valentine's Day, because they know their wives will figuratively and possibly literally beat the shit out of them thus belying that whole 'real man' thing.

  10. Not what she'd want by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 4, Funny
    14Mhz??????

    Personaly I'm sure she'd want something that ran at 150hz (approx)

    BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  11. Re:Come now by f0rk · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's like using an anvil to hammer a picture hanging nail.

    I don't get it...

  12. Re:Make her a dinner reservation instead by littlesparrow · · Score: 2, Funny

    no, don't mod this Informative. This is bunk. Not all of us girls want stuff (well, I admit, there IS a lot of girls who do). But there are quite a few of us too, who want 'effort'. There's a difference. And I for one, like the blinking card. Finding it was coded by my sweetie would induce lots of lusty ideas. Any idiot can make reservations.