Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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?"

10 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. pfftt... by djupedal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >"...how many ladies can say that their Valentine's card runs at 14 MHz?"

    How many want to?

  2. Make her a dinner reservation instead by piltdownman84 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only a really 'special' girl is going to be impressed by this. The only thing a girl wants you to make for Valentines day is a dinner reservation.

    1. Re:Make her a dinner reservation instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And that attitude is why you can't get laid. Or maybe you just go for really shallow women so it has skewed your perception of the entire gender.

      And yes, I'm female. Really.

      No, really.

    2. Re:Make her a dinner reservation instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Look, a dinner reservation on Valentines is an appalling night out. The restaurant is trying to squeeze in two extra covers, the kitchen is overworked, it's just a crap night to eat out. Now, if you were to learn to cook something other than ramen and invite her over for a serious dinner followed by a night out dancing/drinking whatever you know she enjoys. You'd make a better impression than some Hallmark fool with his dozen roses @ $10 each and an expensive reservation for a shit meal. just sayin'

    3. Re:Make her a dinner reservation instead by pla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not a girl, but I'm surprised that drivel like yours gets modded up at all, much less to +5.

      Politically Incorrect or not, I expect that I got modded up because most people (males, at least - which happen to form the vast majority of Slashdotters) can strongly identify with my statements.


      but what I *do* know is that there are a large number to which this does NOT apply.

      Oh, no doubt! Very few unqualified generalizations hold true universally; you'll get no disagreement from me on that point. But let's not play semantic games, you understood my intended point.


      I don't even want to get to your misogyny here

      Okay, there, you need to back up a bit. In no way did I claim females as inferior to males. In this particular instance, I don't even claim them as all that different than males (hey, I'll admit it, I care about results, not the process of getting to the result). As for the implied self-deception, we all have lies we tell ourselves; I merely pointed out a particular one that seems predominantly female in nature. If you believe that makes me a misogynist, well, you have a right to your own opinion.

  3. Re:More Likely Responses by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More like

    HimYeah babe, your Valentine's Day card runs at 14 MHZ!
    HerI think we should see other people.

    --
    The Internet is generally stupid
  4. Re:Come now by daveime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Damn, you mentioning 555's takes me back ... in 1981 when I was just 13 years old, I got a little project published in Everyday Electronics, on just such a premise ... an oscillator made from two gates of a 4001 feeding into a 1 of 6 counter (4022 ?) and 6 LEDs cycling in sequence. I'd abandoned the 555 in favour of the NOR gates as it was bloody unstable and used to do horrible things to the power supply.

    I got paid 12 pounds for getting that published, which was like a kings ransom for a 13 year old.

    Microcontroller pfft ... can you say overkill ?

  5. Re:Submitter forgot to mention it costs $79.99 + S by gunnk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All things considered... $80 is not a bad price.

    The kits are for people that are interested in getting started with microcontroller-based projects. Do you remember just how hard it can be to figure out where to start?

    Well-documented projects, all the components you need, support -- for $80 that sounds like a steal!

    Yes, you can get the parts much cheaper, but this isn't about buying the parts.

    If you really do want something a little cheaper you can get started with an Arduino board and browse the various guides (disclaimer: I wrote one there) on getting started. However, you are still going to spend $50 including a decent breadboard, components, etc.

    For an all-inclusive getting started kit, $80 seems very reasonable to me.

    --
    Life is short: void the warranty.
  6. A little overkill... by gillbates · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You can get the sequential LEDs pattern with a simple shift register (74HC574 can be wired for this) and a 555 timer. If you want to add randomness, you can add a few xor gates (74HC86) to make a linear feedback shift register. So far, that's less than a dollar of IC's, and no programming required.

    --
    The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
  7. I've done this! by fliptout · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Three times. I did not exactly make a card- two times I made a board with a PIC and a 2*16 LCD, the third time I simply coopted a spare Renesas dev board. All I did was display some message on the LCD. And the girls LOVED it. You can never discount how much the girls will love something you take the time to make- girls do dig the geeky stuff.

    --
    A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.