To sense or not to sense - that is a sensible question.

As some of you readers may already know, Noisebridge (a hackerspace in San Francisco - http://www.noisebridge.net) is a big place, big enough that we initially had two different projects entered in the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge 2011, but as of today, we're down to just one. I just received an email from the mastermind behind the other project to the effect that they've chosen to withdraw from the challenge - no reason given, but I'm guessing that the problem is finding enough people to take on the responsibility of making it happen. Sad...I really wanted to see a electromagnetoscope in real life.

On a somewhat brighter note, we've got a new addition to the team: Bill, who may or may not have read the same book on project management that Mike derives his wisdom from, but he's certainly been helpful in prodding me to get some structure established. He's also made this neat little diagram of the project:

We haven't settled on the exact details of the set-up yet, but at least this gives you an idea of what we're working towards.

Speaking of work: all the other hackerspaces are having project start-up meetings and I'm jealous! Sean's been in Canada on business since Monday morning (talk about rotten timing!), which means we haven't been able to get the whole group all together at once, yet, and I'm really impatient to start building stuff! Despite my frustration, however, I must admit that all the mailing back and forth has been very useful for developing a solid project plan, as well as providing lots of written documentation of the initial development phase.  We've been busting behinds all week to get the project plan laid out, figuring out what needs to be done by whom, when, where, using what, how and why. I won't bore you with all the details, but as a result, we now have a lovely new wiki ( https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/BioBoard) you can take a look at if you'd like to know more about our plans.

Apart from being busy talking and mailing with the rest of the team, your truly has also been doing a little bit of meddling with a 1-wire digital thermometer set-up. Unfortunately, in spite of all the geek lingo, programming is very far from being my main strength, so I'm stuck with an error message I don't understand (avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x31), and not enough basic knowledge to identify the problem, let alone ask the right questions to find a solution. In the hope that someone out there might have a better idea of what I'm doing than I do (trust me, that's highly likely), I've thrown in some pictures of my set-up a little further down. Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to lay hands on an ethernet shield before Monday, hoping we'll be able to use this to build a simple prototype of the BioBoard so Marc can start working on the software. Our first proper meeting is Monday night, and I can't wait to get the whole group together and start making this thing real!

Stay tuned to this blog for more updates on the BioBoard - and don't forget: Be excellent to each other, dudes!

The entire set-up: my Samsung N140 netbook (Odin), an old Arduino Diecemila and a Dallas 1-wire DS1820 digital thermometer, encased in hot glue and a piece of straw. 2 x 10K Ohm resistors (in parallel = 5K Ohm) and a braid of old single-core ethernet cable wires make up the bit-and-bobs.   

The wiring: Orange is signal (digital pin no. 3), Blue is 5V and White is GND; the resistors are parallel-wired between digital pin no. 3 and 5V.

The digital thermometer: the naked Dallas 1-Wire DS1820 chip, and the hot-glue-and-plastic-straw encased prototype (probably not food safe, so don't try this at home just yet, kids.)