Shaun's workbench

The set is completed

2011-12-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

The set of purple meeples I had made for Katie via Shapeways arrived. I'm pretty pleased with them!

As before, the models are open source on Thingiverse and they're available from my Shapeways shop.

Completing the set

2011-12-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

Since the small meeples were such a success, I decided to make matching pieces for the extensions that Katie and I play. There's a barn, cart, large meeple, mayor, pig and builder.

They're available on Shapeways and Thingiverse.

Shapeways delivers

2011-12-13T19:18:00.001-08:00

Meeples with heart, a photo by fasaxc on Flickr.

The set of 8 purple meeples with love hearts I ordered for Katie just arrived. She's thrilled with them and I'm very pleased at how they turned out.

The 3D model is open-source. And I've made them available on Shapeways (for free).

Now on Thingiverse

2011-12-04T16:52:00.001-08:00

I just started a Thingiverse page to share my designs: http://www.thingiverse.com/fasaxc.

Our new view

2011-12-04T16:18:00.001-08:00

Our new view, a photo by fasaxc on Flickr.

Next project: Meeples with heart

2011-11-25T15:26:00.001-08:00

Katie and I enjoy a good game of Carcassonne but the basic set has no purple meeples, a big omission (according to Katie anyway)!

This Shapeways meeple model, personalised with a heart should do the trick...

Purple meeple with heart

Woodbug

2011-11-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays!

I made this hexapod with my laser-cut wooden construction kit and a bunch of M2 screws. I've shared (CC license) the plans for the construction kit on Ponoko http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/construction-set-6760.

Construction set: rods of various lengths

Construction set: angle brackets with T-slots for M2 screws

ArduRoller

2011-11-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

Second iteration of my ArduRoller balance bot with an all new wooden chassis.

Specs:

Chassis: laser cut 2.7mm bamboo ply (Ponoko); various M2.5 machine screws from Amazon; Instamorph low-melt-point thermoplastic to fill in the gaps.
Brains: 1 x Arduino Uno
Motor driver: 1 x Sparkfun Ardumoto
Motors: Sparkfun 2 x 24:1 gearmotor
Wheels: 1 set Sparkfun 70mm -- repaired with Instamorph after they cracked around the axle
Gyro: 1 x ADXRS613 (Sparkfun breakout) mounted at the axis of rotation
Accelerometer: 1 x ADXL203CE (Sparkfun breakout) mounted at the axis of rotation
Batteries: 2 x 3.7V Li-poly 850MAh (Sparkfun)

I've shared the code and assets at github.com/fasaxc/ArduRoller.

Video is at www.flickr.com/photos/fasaxc/5944650602/

Data Watcher v1.10

2010-09-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

I just updated Data Watcher with a couple of new features:

The graph view now allows you to select which type of usage you want to see and over which period.
Pressing menu within the app gives you the option to report a problem, collecting useful technical diagnostics along the way.

Battery Watcher v1.21

2010-09-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded Battery Watcher v1.21 to the Market. Here's the changelog:

Added button to open battery usage screen.
Made interface use tabs to show preview/stats and preferences (this works better on smaller screens).
Made the icon in the widget reflect the current charge level. This was a feature requested by several users.
Fix bug that made the widget say a droid could report 1% increments when in fact it's only capable of 10%.
Change the application icon to be different from the widget to avoid confusion.

Happy downloading.

Moving house

2010-08-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

I've been moving house (from the UK to US) over the past few weeks so I've not had time to do any updates. Should be back to normal in a few week.

Froyo problems

2010-08-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Since HTC started pushing out Froyo, a lot of people are seeing problems (like battery draining) that may or may not be down to my widgets. I've now got Froyo on my test phone. I should be able to investigate soon.

Updates to Data Watcher and Battery Watcher

2010-07-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

I just released new versions for both of the above. It's now possible to

disable usage and error reporting via the settings screen of both apps
select between KB and KiB in the Data Watcher.

I also improved the number formatting in the Data Watcher to always use 3 digits of precision. So 101,000B is now displayed as 101k, not as 0.1M, as it was before.

Yet another Battery Watcher update (sorry!)

2010-07-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just updated Battery Watcher again to try to make it update more reliably while hopefully not using any more battery. Sorry about all the updates, I seem to have hit on an app that picks out all of the quirks in the various handsets that are around at the moment.

I also added a helpful advice screen that explains how to install the widget the first time.

New version of Data Watcher

2010-07-23T17:02:00.001-07:00

I just released Data Watcher version 1.6. The update adds new function when you tap on the widget. Namely, it allows you to turn Wifi on and off and access the mobile data settings screen more easily.

New version of Data Watcher

2010-07-21T12:45:00.001-07:00

I just released version 1.5 of Data Watcher. It's a minor update that simply changes the icon to avoid confusion between the icon and the widget itself.

Sorry about all the updates!

2010-07-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I've had a few complaints that there are a lot of updates. Please bear in mind that the app is only a couple of weeks old so I'm still fixing bugs left right and centre. It should settle down soon.

Problems with Droids

2010-07-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

Many people have reported that the Battery Watcher app doesn't update very often on their Droids (or Droid Xs). Unfortunately, that's just the information that the phone provides. It only gives 10% increments until it gets below about 20% and then it gives 5%. Worse, the phone reports that it can give 1% increments, which is why the details screen shows Accuracy 1%.

I plan to implement a workaround for the latter issue soon so that it reports the correct values on Droids. I'm not sure there's much I can do about the 10% increments themselves though; it seems to be a limitation of the phone itself.

Battery Watcher v1.13

2010-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

I just released a new version of the Battery Watcher app. Hopefully, it will address some of the battery usage problems that people have been reporting. The changes in this release are:

Only update the widget while the screen is on.
Update the widget whenever the screen turns on.
Increase the time delay between updates to reduce any residual hit on battery life.
Only update the widget itself if the battery level has changed since the last update.

Google picked a bad time for maintenance

2010-07-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

D'oh, just when my app is having trouble and needs an update Google have decided to do some maintenance on the Android Marken and I can't post an update.

Battery Watcher Problems

2010-07-19T13:10:00.001-07:00

I've had a few reports that release 1.11 of the Battery Watcher drains the battery on Evo phones. I'm looking into the issue and should have a fix shortly.

For those asking why it's so hard to get right, let me explain:

Android provides a way to detect when the battery level changes but it only works while the app is running. The first version of the app used this approach, which works perfectly on my phone and many others. The problem comes if Android or an app killer decides to kill the app. When that happens, it can't update anymore.
I went through several updates trying to make the above mechanism foolproof because when it works, it's perfect. The app does no unnecessary work and so it has very little impact on battery life.
However, try as I might, it just doesn't seem to be possible to make the above approach 100% so I added a timer to the app that is supposed to double check that it's running and restart it if not. The timer runs every few minutes, but it's only supposed to run when the device is already awake from sleep, so it should still have little impact on battery.
I think the latest issues are down to some phones not honouring the fact that the timer shouldn't run while the app is asleep so I'm about to release an update that stops the timer while the device's screen is off. Hopefully that will do the trick.