The Future

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their excitement and enthusiasm for the projects Dustin and I have been working on. The Zombie Sensor, NOMAD and the Echo Base are all projects we're committed to and extremely excited about.

Unfortunately the processor we have been working with, the Atmel ATmega328u (the one used in the popular Arduino Uno series) just doesn't have the horsepower and specs we need. The vision we have for everything is bigger than what this processor can handle.

Updating

Back from TagFest 2014 this year and it was awesome! We were at a new location this year that did not disappoint. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a TagFest, you need to do so at least once in your life. We played so many games, both conventional and unconventional -  some involving a golf cart to act as a tank and other great night games called "THING", "WEREWOLVES", and of course "ZOMBIES"!

PODCAST!

One of the great things about working on the Arduino platform is having access to a TON of help on the internet. When I started these projects over a year ago, I really knew nothing about programming and hardware. I only had a vision and a passion to make certain devices that would be compatible with the Lazer Tag gear I'm so heavily invested in. So I searched the web and taught myself through many of the great on-line tutorials recources that's out there.

PROJECT UPDATES

Even thought it's been quite here on my blog, I've been busily working on updating all of my projects
- which has been actually pretty intense. So I'd thought I'd take a quick timeout from coding on the Arduino to bring everyone up to speed.

ZOMBIE SENSOR - This project has been known as the FERAL IR SENSOR - it will get a formal name change soon.  Last summer the "Mark I" version was used extensively at TagFest. I've been working on some updates to help improve upon the "Mark I" and it's looking really nice. I'll be making an announcement soon about this, along with a video to show off what's different.

Back To Reality

TagFest was an absolute blast. The Feral IR Sensor was a huge hit. The picture above is us using the sensors for one of our many night Zombie games which worked really well.

TagFest or Bust

We've been busy getting our devices ready for TagFest which starts on July 19th in Eugene Oregon. At the event we'll be demoing all three gadgets, the Echo Base, Feral IR Sensor and the Nomad.

The Echo Base microcontroller is giving me troubles - I'm hoping to have this fixed in time. I'm looking forward to the interesting games these devices will give us.

The Feral IR Sensors are running perfectly. I'll have 30 units on hand for us to play test and perhaps even sell at the event.  Very much looking forward using these at night for those dark Zombie games!

And the NOMAD, portable hosting station, will also be making it's first public appearance. The picture here is the current design. I'll hopefully have time to take pictures. Look for updates after the event. Exciting stuff!  

Still waiting...

The test PCB boards for the Feral IR Sensor were ordered a few weeks ago from OSH Park. Still, the current status is listed as "The panel your boards are assigned to has been sent to the fab. We'll let you know as soon as they're back."  But in another e-mail I just discovered from April 16, it said "We've sent the panel containing your boards to the fabricator. We expect to get them back around April 29th." So hopefully tomorrow I'll get some good news and they're on their way.

Meanwhile I've been working on some other really cool new ideas, plus working to move Echo Base forward. Nothing major to report yet.

Stay tuned!

Back in Action

Over the past few days I traveled up to the California bay area to visit my friend and fellow Lazer Tag enthusiast, Brian "Tag Ferret" Farley.  Brian is the lead designer for all things Lazer Tag for Shoot The Moon.