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We returned quite late last night after a 1-hour delay in Winnipeg waiting for weather to clear in Toronto. Jayne was there on business, and I tagged along to visit an old friend and his family, and to have some uninterrupted learning time. The good folks at security at the airport didn't know quite what to make of the PIC controller board and related ICs that I had in my carry-on!
While Jayne was standing on a refrigerated loading dock supervising a supplier changeover, I was working my way through Myke Predko's "123 PIC Microcontroller Experiments for the Evil Genius" book. When I got the LED to flash on the first try, I decided that C programming wasn't perhaps quite as scary as I had thought. On the flight home I modified Experiment 18 - Sequencing LEDs - to do a "Cylon Eye". Once I get comfortable with PWM control and I/O programming, I'll probably skip most of the experiments and just dive into what I really want to do... create a versatile LED control for my lamps.
In the interim, I am starting on the next lamp, but it will use a discreet-component controller. Nothing programmable, just brightness control of the 3 channels. I have lots of parts, so I may as well use them. I ordered some 2" acrylic light-diffusing tube last week, it should be in shortly. Unfortunately I had to order a complete box, so I have lots of incentive to go into production with these lights! Once I get the PIC controller circuit designed and working, I'll order a small quantity of PCBs, but that's still a few weeks away. The single-largest cost in the light will always be the LEDs themselves. I hope that this idea proves to be sufficiently popular to recoup my expenses, and maybe even make some money.
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