Comments on: MindBite DMM 101

By: SAL

SAL — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:50:51 +0000

Very smart. Its a live tutorial. I agree with Jack on the Oscilliscope part. If you can you must cover all electronic measuring tools. Such as v.t.v.m’s, digital and analouge meters, the pro’s and con’s of using a variac. Maybe a little primer on the difference of working on solid state as opposed to vacuum tube electronic’s.
Hey maybe a little lesson on soldering and the different property’s of the element.
Well don’t just sit there! Hurry up! I think you’ll have a large following.
Keep me posted. You gotta lot of work.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:59:15 +0000

Bill, I have a Mac Book Pro but with the camera built it it’s hard to do the MindBite using it. I saw that you can buy the external camera but it’s very expensive. I wonder if the Mac will work with an external web camera? Something that I can easily mount to my swing mount.

By: Bill Schuller

Bill Schuller — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:49:02 +0000

I agree that an OScope tutorial would be great!

I find the easiest way to get video into iMovie is with a firewire camcorder. Especially if you’re recording directly to iMovie, it doesn’t matter what media it uses. There are plenty of flops on the market that you could probably pick up very inexpensively. Also, Since Apple started building “iSight” cameras into every one of their products (except the Mini, unless you purchace a Cinema Display for it, of course) they no longer make or sell the standalone iSight.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:33:10 +0000

Thanks Jack.

I agree, an OScope Mind Byte is a great idea. I could do a better one for the DMM too. This was my first and I am sure I could make a better one based on the feedback I have received.

I need to find a good way to get video into my Mac Book. I want a camera that can hook up and record directly into IMovie. An iSight would be perfect but too expensive.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:20:37 +0000

Looks great! I’m certainly interested in any more of these you do, especially if you get into some of the nitty-gritty of AVRs.

I would recommend for your next video, along the lines of this one, a primer on oscilloscopes. Every hobbyist/engineer should be able to operate one, and while in the past the oscilloscope was prohibitively expensive, these days anyone can buy/make a decent oscilloscope. Sadly, though, many people still know very little about such a useful tool.

- Jack

By: dfowler

dfowler — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:52:48 +0000

Thanks for the comment Richard. I will work on the audio needs and lighting for my next video. Any suggestions for what the next subject should be?

By: Richard Sim

Richard Sim — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:34:29 +0000

MindBites sounds very interesting – though there’s not much content of interest on it right now. Hopefully they won’t suffer from the chicken and the egg issue. I did find the video was stalling every 5-10 seconds even though the entire thing was downloaded already, but that could just be the fact that Firefox has been running for quite a while and isn’t too responsive anymore, even for typing this reply occasionally.

From the 1 minute clip it looks like you have a decent setup, especially for the camera.
- The volume level of your voice changed when it changed scenes; a consistent volume would be good. Not that it was so bad that I had to adjust my speaker volume or anything.
- Moooore lights! There were still some harsh shadows on the scene. It may just be personal preference, as I hate shadows on my work area, but maybe add a few more lights from different angles. You may want to try CFL’s rather than incandescent bulbs since they run cooler.
- There was a high-pitch sound in the background of parts of the video, it’s especially apparent around 0:18 as the video switches scenes but before you start talking (but you can hear it continue in the background).

Really those are all nit-picks at most – good first video! Now make some real meaty ones so I have an excuse to throw money at you.