Author Archives: austinlightguy

Repair the WiFi on Your Foscam FI8904, FI8905 or Maygion IP Camera

Posted on October 26, 2012

I have three different WFfi-connected network cameras; a Foscam FI8904, an FI8905, and a “Magion” Chinese knockoff I got on DealExtreme. These cameras are all pretty similar. There are anecdotal stories that the Maygion is really just an unbranded Foscam with custom … Continue reading →

Posted in Technical | 1 Comment

Kudos to Ernie Cline’s “Ready Player One”

Posted on January 2, 2012

A while back I saw the hardback (softback?) of ”Ready Player One“ on display at some big-box bookstore. I think the flashy cover drew my eye. At the time, it looked interesting, but I don’t really buy paper books anymore, plus I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

GE G35 ColorEffects Christmas Tree (part 2)

Posted on December 19, 2011

I pretty much have the “Mini Mega Tree” and sequencer enhancements all wrapped up. I only got my hands on five 50 bulb strings of G35′s, so my tree isn’t as big as the “original” Mega Tree, but I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | Leave a comment

GE G35 ColorEffects Christmas Tree (part 1)

Posted on November 22, 2011

In a reply to a preview post, Jim pointed out this video of a cool project another guy did using G35 strings and a microcontroller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPgqNXjf-MY I’ve been kind of dreading the effort of setting pulling out the scores of strings … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | 1 Comment

Driving GE G-35 Light String with Digilent Uno32

Posted on September 11, 2011

Well, Christmas is approaching, so I guess it’s the time of year when I start revisiting projects that abruptly paused around Dec 26th last year. I guess the thing that has been nagging me the most has been that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | 3 Comments

Synchronized Lights using LabVIEW and Arduino

Posted on April 11, 2011

In late February, I started a new job in a development position at National Instruments. It’s been a pleasure to work at a tech company that actually has a proven business model, is large and stable, yet still has an entrepreneurial … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | 2 Comments

GE G-35 Light String Sequencing Hack, part 2

Posted on December 31, 2010

As I mentioned in my last post, this year I heard about the GE ColorEffects G-35 programmable light strings that a lot of people are hacking.  I piggy-backed on work that Robert Quattlebaum (“Darco”) and  Scott Harris have done to create … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Synchronized Control of GE Color Effects G-35 LED Light Strings

Posted on December 9, 2010

Jay discovered this blog entry by a fellow Christmas hacker going by “Darco” the other day and pointed me to it. We both felt the potential for hacking this thing together with an Arduino and my Light Sequencer Program, EverSequence, was … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | 22 Comments

Meshed Network Light Suit Technical Details (part 4)

Posted on November 24, 2010

OK, it’s finally time to talk about the hardware on this project.  I had originally planned two write one post about software and one about hardware, but I found I had a lot more to describe on the software side. … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | Leave a comment

As Seen on TV!

Posted on November 18, 2010

I use LED Christmas light strings on the AustinLightGuy Light Suit.  The much-lower power requirements of LED strings make them ideal for mobile applications (I want to get around to figuring out a good way to put a few strings … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Technical | 2 Comments