While waiting for a process to finish, I decided to take a crack at wiring what, chez fivechimera, is snarkily referred to as "The Mark II." It's the second generation of the cat-on-the-counter alarm. The passive infrared sensor on the "Mark I" is doing its job just a little too well--Dennis and I are triggering it merely by passing too close.
Thus, in Version 2.0, the passive infrared sensor (which detects motion) is being supplemented by a distance-sensor which works not unlike a bat's echo-location "sonar." Granted, the distance-sensor's accuracy on a moving cat is less than stellar (and I know this because Office Cat #1 decided to trundle around on my lap while I was testing it...bwoohoohoohahahahahaha.) But after a few rounds of field-testing and tweaking, we should be able to find a workable number-range.
The form-factors of the hardware are sort of conspiring to make the wiring pretty tight. Adafruit's Trinket (assuming it's using male pins) is has been hailed as being "breadboard friendly." But in practice, the mini-USB port barely catches the edge of a full- or half-size breadboard with the result that the pins nearest the port don't completely seat.
A mini-breadboard has less of a border on it, so that's not a problem. But that form-factor requires one to be really creative in wiring. Particularly when the ultrasonic distance sensor is as long as the breadboard itself and realistically has one place it can be plugged in without chewing up too much real estate. And that's all with the fact that the new PIR sensor is downright breadboard-hostile, and will have to be mounted somewhere else.
But we're told that limitations encourage creativity, right?
Yet, I would probably be a little more paranoid about my wiring job if volume pricing (and shipping rates) didn't result in me owning more than one Trinket, infrared sensor, buzzer, etc. By contrast, when I wired up my first project, I cringed at how much I had to wrestle the little push-buttons into the breadboard. By now, I have zero compunction about coercing cooperation from them--with pliers, if necessary. Owning twenty instead of two has a lot to do with that.
Because we're also told that lowering the cost/consequences of failure encourages creativity.
And therein lies the paradox.
On one side, limitations (a form of scarcity) are supposed to make us do more with less--perhaps even achieve what was previously considered impossible. But on the other, the luxury of failing our way to success requires a certain safety margin of abundance.
With that paradox in mind, it's not difficult to empathise with anyone scrambling to bring a new product online before the money runs out. Or a company that has to bring a new offering to the market while still supporting the older offering that's paying the bills. Basically, those folks have to live in two almost diametrically opposed mindsets at once. Given how badly most of us deal with cognitive dissonance, it's pretty amazing when anyone pulls it off.
