We're calling it Remodium. Anyone out there with a Mac and an iPhone or iPod touch are going to want to follow this one, heck, even if you don't, follow it and see what's going on in that side of the world!

I'll be posting updates and information on twitter at @remodium. So follow me there or check back here and at Remodium.com to learn more!

Final Sticker

How sweet is that!

Boards

That's what 30 relay boards and 10 Qube boards look like.  Oh, and I also opened up the store today... sort of.  I have the Qubes set to be out of stock temporarily, but once I have a decent amount I'll put them up for sale!

Sticker

There has also been some significant firmware work.  I got the PWM cycles working very well today thanks to a handy oscilloscope in an electronics lab at my school!  More information to come!

Packages

As you can imagine, there's nothing like coming home and seeing a bunch of packages lying on your desk!  It's like Christmas!  The two small envelopes were just resistors or something, but the big ones were much more exciting.  Starting with the brown box in the front, the first thing there was the Bluetooth module.  This little bad boy will let you control the Qube from a computer pretty far away!  Yep, wireless   Notice how small it is too!

Bluetooth Module

The other thing in that box was pretty cool too.  Remember those double relay boards I mentioned a little while back?  Well, they're here!

Double Relay

Now the exciting big box in the back.  The one covered with some sort of black plastic wrapping.

Mysterious

My New Camera

I'm sure nobody expected that!  Well, as it turns out, neither did I.  When I opened my new Canon EF 35mm, I found something a little bit different.

Black Enclosures

The one on the far right already has a Qube in it just to do a fit test.  All I have to do now is come up with some good stickers to put on top and they are ready to sell!  Well, once the firmware is done of course.  But the bootloader is complete, meaning that tinkerers can get a head start playing already!  Here's a few close-ups for fun.

Getting Close

Closer

Last but not least, I obviously had to play with my new toy!  Since I've been getting so many components for these damn relay boards, I had to put one together!

Relay Hooked Up

It doesn't do much right now, but in theory it has great potential.  With one click you can switch up to 7A at 250V.  What does that mean?  It means you can hook up your electric door strike, your extension cord, your lamp in the living room, your lights in your bedroom.  You put the wires into the big blue terminals and then with a simple click (or Bluetooth command, or website command, etc) you can switch huge loads on or off.  There are two blue status lights on the relay board to indicate when a relay is activated.  In the picture, they are both turned off.  Here's a picture with one of them turned on.

Relay On

Well, that's it for the pictures.  I will probably be making 6 more Qubes this weekend and probably all of the 40 relay boards while I'm at it.

I also have some new plans for the firmware.  Since I said that you can use the Qube without a USB connection (firmware rev 2), I decided to let users upload code to the Qube to tell it how to run.  There will be an "Event Designer" which basically lets you drag and drop a list of functions to occur whenever the Qube has a new event (such as an interrupt or receiving a byte from the internet).  Obviously this type of firmware is quite a way away, but I already have it planned out!  Can't wait!

Wires and Crimper

The sample program at Microchip lets you get 3 items of 2 products, and then you are allowed to place 2 orders.  Thinking ahead, I decided that I would get the PIC microchips for this project (obviously) and that my second Microchip product would be some PIC ethernet chips for a later ethernet board.  The chips on the bottom of the picture are going to be the guts of the ethernet expansion board that I should have done within the next month or so!

More PIC Microchips

There isn't much to look at today, but the packages are finally rolling in the mail so that means that I should be getting a TON of new parts.  By the end of the week, I should have 100 wire connectors, 11 working Qubes, 40 working relay boards, and design files ready to produce for IR receivers, LEDs, Analog modules, LCD modules, etc.  By the end of the month, I should have about 30 working Qubes and most of the supporting parts for them!

Bootloader

The box with the number in it is the unique serial number of the Qube being programmed.  Every time I load firmware onto a device, the number increments so that each person will have a unique number.  This is also helpful when the computer needs to distinguish between which Qube to send information to, or which one sent a message.

As soon as that was done, I started working on the next accessory board.  So far I have a completed "double relay" board, and a lot of clever ideas, but I really wanted to get started on the Bluetooth accessory.  A couple datasheets later and poof, it's done.

Bluetooth Accessory

Finally, I did a bit of firmware work.  I changed the default Serial speed to 38.4kB/s and finished up the module.  I started working on the external interrupts and if all goes well, that module should be very easily finished by tomorrow night.  Then I guess I'll start working on an LCD module or something.

Today, between classes, I designed the first accessory board for the Qube -- a double relay board.  It's a very simple design, you take one plug from the Qube and connect it to the accessory board.  Set the corresponding nodes as outputs (default) and then you just turn them on and off with the click of a button!

Double Relay

I placed the order today for enough parts to make 40 relay boards.  I haven't had time to put together an accurate cost summary, but I would say the boards cost about $6.00 each, so they'll probably sell for something like $10.99 with the cord ($1.25 to make) and the overhead of soldering them together and shipping.  Who knows, they may go on sale, or maybe I'll make packages