Well here's the patent of the day

http://bsandler.com/

Don't forget to read up on his gravity machine ideas!

Can this be from the same person...
...

I was working on a very simple program for the upcoming JPUG issue and as most of us probably do I like to recycle code from previous programs as a framework for the next. Well I "cleaned" up the code or so I thought added the new bits and off it went. Worked great with the debugger but very strangely when simply programmed into the target. The embarrassing part is how small the program was and I just didn't see a single program line left over from the original program that was causing havoc and tried all sorts of silly software fixes including a couple of stupid hardware ones (like touching all the parts on the Junebug looking for weak solder joints).

Of course the fix was remove the offending line of code and all was well.

While working on the PIC book (now a newsletter JPUG) another member here 3V0 told me about OpenOffice. We needed a good document editor and not everybody can afford the MS Office Suite. Google docs is neat but the word processor made me long for Wordstar
Well I downloaded OpenOffice and the more I work with it the more I love it. I've only used Write at the moment but IMO it's superior to MS Word 2003. PDF export built in, auto contour on pictures (I use it in issue #2) and it's just so easy to use. Did I mention it's Word & Excel compatible, cross platform and free?

PS the only thing I found it couldn't do was a complex table (the one in the back of the Junebug manual was too complex to convert) but I'll try drawing it from scratch using OO tools.

If it works goodbye MS Office Suite.
http://www.openoffice.org/

PPS next time it's goodbye Photoshop hello Paint.NET......

I've just chatted with Mr Chan (the LAB-EASY) fellow and I'm trying to figure out if we should join forces and combine our product lines. After all my Junebug kit does fit his fine BT-04 case.

Also I've got to get back to the Eagle kit. I/O assignment is always a fussy affair. I have contacted Schmartboards about their patented TQFP soldering system (raised soldermask) http://www.schmartboard.com/

And documentation... Adding a MPLAB wizard page to the Junebug manual.

PS these forums really are great.

Just testing the blog water.

Sitting in a coffee shop (Williams) near Sherway in Toronto, Canada
Got a Junebug on the table, lights blinking away.
A CDS cell is connected to RA4, and sending the result to the UART tool which works great as a data capture program.
I'll have to read up the the CVS (Excel) format as that would be neat for a data logger.
I'll post the code (Swordfish) in the next issue of JPUG.