What Is Your Favorite Project?

Through the first 25 years of my career, full time work was my only project (that and raising kids). In the mid 90's my first marriage ended and I began a phase of self discovery.  One of the things that I discovered is that I really missed building projects outside of work.  One of my first projects was a simple Bi-Ped robot, which I called Walky.  I built Walky in attempt to get my young son interested in electronics.  It was a simple, rudimentary walker, that would just start walking forward when you turned it on.  It was built with a simple Atmel Attiny12 processor and a pair of servos.  The body/legs were cut/milled out of plexiglass. There were a pair of 2-AA battery packs (two cells each, wired in series for ~6V) mounted up high on the body to help it lean enough to lift the opposite leg so it could swing forward, then the process would repeat for the opposite side.  If nothing else, Walky allowed me an opportunity to rekindle the joyful aspects of build something for nothing more than the joy that it brought you.  Sure even simple project also taught you new things.  Here is a look at Walky back in 2001:

Fast forward to 2018.  Walky had became a part of my robot display that sat on a shelf in my home office (he even survive a move to Texas).  I had been lurking around on element14 for a while (First blog in November 2017, followed by a few more over the next 6 months), when I saw an announcement of a project14 contest called "Movers and Shakers" in June of 2018.  I saw this as a chance to try to improve on the Walky concept (he did move in a very shaky manner), adding sensors to protect it from falling off an edge or running into objects, along the radio control to test out various walking patterns (forward, reverse, left/right turning).  It also allowed me to start a more active level of participation here on element14.

I achieved a lot of what I had hope to accomplish on this project, including the unexpected, actually winning the competition. The experience and acceptance of my peers was a real boost to me.  I became a active member and found friends and a sense of belonging that I never thought would come from a virtual community.

Also, in actuality, my favorite project is usually the one that I am working on right now (if not all of the projects that I am working on).  A new project is very energizing to me.  Like work related projects of the past, a new project is exciting and it tends to draw me in deeply, where it becomes this background thought process that follows me along throughout the day. Almost like a song that get stuck in your head.

Also, in actuality, my favorite project is usually the one that I am working on right now (if not all of the projects that I am working on).  A new project is very energizing to me.  Like work related projects of the past, a new project is exciting and it tends to draw me in deeply, where it becomes this background thought process that follows me along throughout the day. Almost like a song that get stuck in your head.

Yes, I can relate to obsessing about a design or troubleshooting problem at random unrelated moments through the day. There is a lot of satisfaction in finally cracking some insurmountable problem or figuring out a better way to do something or coming up with a nifty improvement. My favorite moment is when it all starts to work properly. It is better than the moment someone decides to award it a prize.