[geeks] Geeky Valentine's day card

[Dave Kimmel]

Well, I've gone and done it.  I made a Valentine's day card in a fashion
that only someone who has way too much time on their hands would do.  Ok,
it only took me about 3 hours to get it all right, but still.

Its not a card, per se, its a circuit board with a 2-character (15
segments per) LED display module which scrolls a nice Valentine's day
greeting for my girlfriend.  In addition to the display module there are
some resistors, a PIC16F84A microcontroller, a resonator, and a voltage
regulator.

I think she'll appreciate it - there's something special about hand-made
stuff.  Plus I enjoyed making it, which is always a bonus.  My soldering
iron has already had its sacrafice, so I made it through this little
project without any burns.  The copper wire, however, demanded blood and
penetrated my thumb, fortunately it was satisfied without causing too much
pain.

I thought up this idea last night, and needed it for Saturday when I see
her, so I didn't have time to implement the grand design I worked out in
my head (8x8 dot matrix LED display, a MAX7221 driver chip, and nice
graphics).  But this is still pretty decent.

Pictures will be taken soon and put up somewhere.

Sometimes I think I should have gone into electronics instead of
computers, but then I do something like this and realize that I like using
both at the same time to do cool things.  But I don't think I'd want a
career in embedded systems right now.

ObDoh:  Missed bidding on 5 8x8 LED displays by >< that much.  Told myself
I'd do it if Active didn't have any.  Active didn't have any, and I forgot
to place the bid.

-- Dave Kimmel
   criscokid at v-wave.com
   ICQ: 5615049