Unique Project Enclosure

   
I'm always on the lookout for new ways to package my projects.
Found this one at IKEA, It's a plastic outdoor accent light.
7 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall.

It has a 1.2v NiCad, and recharging circuit.  All for $7.99

Rotary Magnetic Encoder V1.0

I have received my 6 bare circuit boards from Maker Bot. At 2 dollars each I could not pass them up. They offer 10 bit resolution from a pre-programmed chip.
 I chose the V1.0 boards because Maker bot printed it with all the pins brought to the connector and 3 ways to get the data out. It use the AS5040 rotary encoder chip from http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/

Bare Board from Maker Bot

Board with components soldered on.
Yes that's hand soldering on the 16pin SSOP chip. The
wires are jut temporary until the headers arrive.

Recived my Arduino Fio today.

I will be using it for my robotic arm controller. The encoders for each joint will feed into this
and will broadcast wireless to the robot arm. The Fio has a built in X-Bee socket and is amazingly small, always a plus!