My past few weeks have been consumed with designing and building a wireless AC dimmer that functions with my wireless Zigbee automation protocol. It has all power circuitry onboard so everything is self-contained in a little AC dongle. It also contains circuitry for wireless bootloading of code onto to the micro-controller, and circuitry for a local dimming slider/knob to plug into it directly.

I finished my prototype lighting controller a week or so ago. It is capable of wirelessly controlling 5-channels of LED lights using an automation protocol I’m writing, all encapsulated by the Zigbee wireless protocol. The prototype boxes are in nifty little cases that I cut apart with my fun new Dremel. Stay posted for coming updates.

After my months volunteering on the Obama campaign, I was left with an abundance of yard signs.

Since it seemed sacrilegious to just toss them in the dumpster, I decided to make use of them to fill the wall behind my sofa. So using some leftover wood from my coffee table construction, I made a couple blocks with holes.

Taking the metal from the yard signs, I chopped them down into various sets of sizes and gave them a nice coat of paint.

Browsing my local OEM parts store, I was able to find retaining rings, standoffs, clips, and screws to construct holders.

Put it all together using some epoxy and voila! recycling based wall “art”.