SparkFun Live: Coin-operated Insult Generator reminder!
Today's the day to build a HaterMatic with Mike Hord!
It's the final countdown. Join us at 3:00 MT today for the Coin-operated Insult Generator edition of SparkFun Live! Together with engineer Mike Hord we will build the HaterMatic, and crush the self-esteem of your enemies while also taking their spare change. At 3:00, the live build can be found on our YouTube channel, or here:
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If you need a reminder on the parts required, the list can be found here, and if you need a refresher on how totally awesome the HaterMatic is going to be, here's the original video:
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See you there!
I really appreciated the show, even though I've been doing electronics for nearly half a century. (I managed to get in via YouTube, but don't have a YouTube account, so couldn't send any "live" comments.) I like the idea of pulling the pins out of the headers -- I hadn't thought of that one. One hint to offer: when I solder something like the header on the end, I'll solder a pin on one end, then for the rest of the pins, I'll start at the other end. That way if I find I didn't get it in on "square", I will notice right away and only have one pin to adjust. Also, it eliminates the possibility of accidentally getting the first pin hot enough to cause the header to "slip".
One thought: With the stickers on the coin acceptor being marked "USD", when I power mine up (likely later today), I'm going to see if that might be indicating that it's already programed for "U.S. Dollars". (I'd frankly be surprised if they didn't ship them pre-programmed for something -- they would actually just shove the data into the EEPROMs and not have to drop 120 coins through. Ones being shipped by the factory to Canada might be marked "CAD", and to the Eurozone "EUR", etc.)
Oh, I also checked, and the U.S. Treasury Department is still minting half-dollars. Next time I go to the bank, I'll see if I can get ahold of some.
In a previous post, I'd mentioned using it to raise money for a charity at a convention. I'm probably going to have to switch to a more powerful processor (likely a Raspberry Pi -- I'd prefer to use a BeagleBone Black, but there's a shortage of those right now), as I'll need to keep track of total amounts, as well as having a message along the lines of "Thank you for your donation of $xxx for which you are awarded the following insult:", and I'll probably include the time and date. (The cardboard box is gonna have to go, though.) Might even add a COM-10975 and some sound effects at some future point... Oh, I'll also be careful to make sure that the insults that I use are "generic", not necessarily insulting the donor, but rather that the donor might use against someone else. (A few, like "Cheapskate!", can't be made generic, but that's OK. Most can.)
Again, thanks for the great starting point!
One more reason to not cut off connectors too close to the body: if you have a "senior moment" and cut off the wrong end (think "power cable for the printer") you can still splice wires back onto it. (I'd cut it about 3" from the connector.)
I've done a bit of testing with the coin acceptor, and will report my findings under that product.
I finally got around to getting my HaterMatic going (as a prelude to working on the one I'll use for conventions). This gives me confidence that all the components are working. (The "upgraded" version is going to be based on a Raspberry Pi that can keep track of how much has been collected, amongst other features.)
One minor upgrade that I'd make would be inclusion of an LED to let the user ("abusee"?) know that one or more coins have been inserted and something will happen if the button is pushed.
Thanks again for the idea!
I have no intention of building the project, but I watched anyway and enjoyed the demo!
Gonna be awesome, hopefully I can get home in time today...