Aquarium Update

Since the last post I have been able to balance out the ph at 7. The tank has cleared up (The previous pictures showed a "foggy" tank....) and I have purchased 4 more fish. 2 Neon Tetras and 2 Zebra fish.

Here is one of the Neons

Heres a blurry photo of a Zebra fish... they are very fast.

The two guppies have become best friends...

I have not come up with names for them but I will very soon. I am also building an LED moonlight (blue Leds for night visibility of the tank) and still seting up the 24/7 Fish Cam. More updates will be posted soon... so stay tuned!

Happy Fishwatching!

A New Addition to The Family

Ever since my hamster Theodore died, I have had a longing for a new pet. After cleaning out the basement and finding a large quantity of fish supplies, I became obsessed with fish. I prepared the 10 gallon tank and made several trips to PetCo to buy additional supplies ( a submersable heater, a bubble tube, fish food, and thermomiter). In the beginning, there were a few problems with the tap water ph, so I went to Petsmart to purchase a ph down solution. I ended up going home with a fake piece of drift wood and 3 Ghost Shrimps, 2 Guppies (male and female) and 1 catfish. After lowering the ph (from 7.8 to 7.0) and acclimating the fish to the new water, I released the fish. They are now happily swimming in my new tank. In the future I plan on upgrading from a 10 gallon tank to a 250 gallon tank (when I have enough money). I also plan on having a 24/7 webcam stream of the tank. I will have an update in a few weeks.

Here are some pictures of the tank and fish.

This is a front view of the tank with the PetSmart fish baggies in the water.

This is a side view of the tank

This is the catfish named George

These are the two male and female guppies named Yuppie (the female) and Guppie (the Male).

Here are the 3 Ghost Shrimps named Sly, Shadow and Sneaky

Project: 57 LED Color Organ

When I first had the idea to build a color organ I was playing with some DJ lights at a nearby electronics store. I said to myself "This would be really cool in my room..." But when I looked at the price tag it was a whopping $350, which was too expensive for my low budget. So I went back home and thought about how to recreate the DJ lights but for a fraction of the cost. I then remembered that I had bought a system very similar to the lights from a store in New York a while back. It was a sound reactive lighting system called LightCast.

Then I decided that I would "mod" the old system by adding more LED's. So, I decended into my basement where my work shop is located. I dissasembled the LightCast system and began to inspect the inner electronics. I decided that I would desolder the LEDs and connect wires leading from the LED PCB board to my perfboard LED pattern. After I had desoldered the original LEDs, I began to layout all the LEDs on the sheet of perfboard.



Next I began to solder all the LEDs to wires on the back of the perfboard. By now I had been in my basement for over 9 hours that day (I had the day off form school...) I decided to finish up for the day after pulling a muscle in my neck from being tensed up in one position.

The next day I resumed work on the wiring by connecting the wires to the original PCB. Finally, all the wires had been sldered from the LEDs to the original PCB board.


(Yes I know that there are alot of wires... I used
22 gauge wire without twising them....)

Now that the basic assembly was finished I went to Radio Shack and purchased a medium sized project inclosure box. Then next day I measured the parimiter of the LED "Triangle of Light" and sketched the shape on the cover of the box. The next part was a bit tricky, so I obtained a hack saw and began to cut out the triangle. After a while my hand became sore so I asked my sister to help me by sanding the sides. Next I began to test the fit of the triangle of light in the cover hole that I had just cut. It was a bit too snug so I sanded some more. By now I was on the verge of success and I started to rush. In the proccess I didnt measure the holes for the sensitivity knob and audio in/out ports, and ended up drilling in the wrong place. But I patched the hole up with some hotglue and modeling cement. Then I placed all the wires and PCBs in the project box and cleaned it up a bit. Finally I screwed on the cover and hoped that it would work. It successfuly responded to the music and after over 15 hours of work and about $100 in parts, I was satisfied with the result.



Now I dont need to rent a DJ or a light show for parties. All I need is a laptop and my Triangle of Light.

First Post!

Well I finally created a blog due to the fact that I was unable to get a website. I hope that this blog will serve its purpose in providing a place to put all my work and ideas. Stay tuned for more posts!