Back in 2009, when "Views from the Bridge" were but a wee lass, I poked fun at a weakness I share in common (solidarity?) with other crafters--namely, the infamous Designated Tote Bag Syndrome(TM). As it turns out, I was being too narrow in my satire. Because, apparently, it's not just a crafter thing.
Alas, the Moncton area's options for dealers in off-the-shelf electronic components is pretty thin right now. Also, the loonie-greenback exchange rate being what it is(n't), it's becoming more expensive to mail order certain kinds of stuff. And, as always, the wanna-be mad inventor can also expect to pay through the nose on shipping. That confluence of costs makes bulk-purchasing more attractive. Even for a tight-wad such as your faithful blogger.
So, pitting my frugal Upper Midwestern upbringing against itself (i.e. saving money by dint of spending money), I ended up with eight programmable micro-controllers (a.k.a. "Trinkets"), because at that quantity they were under 10 loonies a pop (ignoring tax and shipping, as our consumer-geared brains are wont to do). Those micro-controllers, however, aren't much use to me without a mechanism to plug them into something--in my case, a breadboard.
But the good folks at CE3 pointed me to BJW Electronics, who were happy to solder headers onto them. (For the record, I'm not deep enough into this hobby to justify a soldering iron plus accessories. That, and my Mom still has the toolbox I tried soldering for her in middle school Industrial Arts, and it's frankly embarrassing--like Nidavellir collectively sneezed on cheap sheet metal. But that's just how Moms roll, so...#whaddyadoamirite?)
That all--again minus HST and whatever shipping costs are associated with me picking them up myself--added about five loons a pop. But it's still better than the $30-40 CDN you'd pay for a full-blown Arduino, yes?
I already have two--okay, probably three--projects earmarked specifically for the Trinkets, and I assured myself that the other six or five will come in handy. Sometime.
But then I thought of Halloween.
And how I can certainly figure out how to make red, white, and yellow LEDs imitate candles in lieu of waiting for the Grande Digue winds to (inevitably) blow out the usual tea lights inside the Jack-o-lanterns.
And there's no reason (apart, of course, from rain) why the LEDs couldn't be triggered by a passive infrared sensor.
And as long as I have to pay postage for a PIR sensor anyway, I might as well get a handful.
And at that point, it might make sense to have another PIR sensor trigger a servo-motor to loose a gravity-propelled "ghost" on a guy-wire strung between the pine trees and our front door.
Aaaaaaannnddd....
My Gentle Reader sees where this is heading, right?
The problem is, now I definitely don't have enough Trinkets to make this happen. And the irony of it all is that we average two sets of trick-or-treaters per annum.
But that's just the problem. With some people, the means infers the motive...and then the motive infers the means...which then again infers the motive...and so on.
Culturally, I suppose, it's a good problem to have. Except for when the credit card bill arrives.
