Master Bedroom Remodel

Our house used to have four bedrooms upstairs. Now it has three. Let me tell you why. We knew going in that the master bathroom (en suite) required a fair amount of work to function properly. Seeing as it was undersized by modern standards, I made plans to enlarge it. I'll leave those details for another post, but for now I will tell you that the best solution was to enlist the area of the walk in closet for the extra space required. I was not sad to see the closet go. Normally walk-ins are great but  ours was maddeningly inefficient from a geometric standpoint. And for some reason, it got wickedly cold in there. It needed to be gutted. For a little while I thought I could add closets to the existing master bedroom without knocking down a wall but it became obvious that the sledge hammer would soon be necessary.

In the "before" picture above, a wall once stood where you can see a break in the floorboards. Nothing is ever easy when you want to take out a wall. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Electrical, plumbing or HVAC, you will have at least two of these in every interior wall that you don't want. Transitioning wall registers to floor registers took a little magic but not much work. Reconnecting the broken electrical was another story. Large swaths of drywall had to be removed to make new wiring runs and much time was spent in the attic crawl space trying to make sense of the lighting.  This was two rooms, after all, so there were two light switches which controlled two circuits of switched outlets and two switches that controlled two ceiling fans. It's a good that I like this sort of thing.

 I waffled for a while about what to do with the flooring. Do I stick with the hardwood or carpet the whole level? There is no easy answer. One thing was for certain though, I was going to have a pro do whatever I decided. I refinished the main level hardwood and vowed to never do that again. We flipped a coin and went with the wood but did set ourselves up if we ever wanted carpet in the future. I installed the baseboards 1/2" off the base of the floor so carpet could get tucked underneath saving whomever did the install the trouble of ripping out and reapplying the baseboards. Quarter round hid the gap nicely and made up for any inconsistencies in the floor level.

Like any bedroom, the space being absorbed into the master had a closet and entryway. Those doors would need to be removed and the openings covered with Sheetrock. With years of cumulative paint, the new drywall did not match the existing drywall width so I used some foam tape to "shim" the new panel. I made the mistake of not including the tape on the lower level and the mudding was a nightmare.

To spiffy up the room a bit, I finished it by installing new windows, crown molding, window and door casings, paint, lights, and curtains.  I also replaced the dated ceiling fan. Did I mentions closets?

I've worked with the PAX closet system from IKEA before and I really like it. I installed three 49" units for a total of 12 and a quarter linear feet of clothes storage. Since they truly go floor to ceiling, they pack a surprisingly large amount of space. My little son Malcolm loves dancing in front of the mirrored doors on the single unit. 

Losing a bedroom upstairs was a hard decision. We don't regret it though. The boys still have their own bedrooms and there is an extra bedroom downstairs for guests. Having the extra space in the master is really key. It's were the boys get ready in the morning and at night after baths. It's were they like to read books and do their gymnastics.We spend a lot of time as a family in the extra space which makes all the effort to combine the two rooms totally worth it.

Dining Room Renovation

I built a pantry cabinet into the kitchen mostly because it was the only thing that looked right next to the fridge. It was briefly used as food storage, but the plan all along was to store room temp food and some small appliances in another place. We though about the living room cabinets, mentioned in a previous post, but decided they would be inadequate for that purpose. Hey, we had a dining room wall just standing around being lazy. Maybe we could build something there.

There were challenges, of course. Why is there always an HVAC register where I don't want it? Looks like I would have to do a little duct trickery to coerce said register under the new pantry. And
how hard could it possibly be to find a right angle piece of duct-work that fit the geometry of my current system. Turns out, I'd have to wait three months to source the proper part. After having a very good experience finding replacement windows that fit the rough openings in my house, I was slightly over confident about the availability of finding material for my other projects. This was one of those cases. Luckily there were plenty of other tasks I could work on while I waited.

Billy bookcases from IKEA gave us approximately 56sqft. of pantry space. We like to eat. They fit the space perfectly and take nicely to being modified. Toss in some trim and crown molding and wallah, it looks built in. I'll admit, there is more function than form going on here but the costs were supper low and it provides such an invaluable service to our daily lives. Part of the barrier to entry for cooking is assembling the equipment and ingredients in a timely manner. Having everything you need at your fingertips is key.

Living Room Bookshelf and Entertainment Center

My wife collects cookbooks and until now, we didn't have a place to put them where they could be accessed quickly. One of the living rooms walls adjacent to the kitchen wasn't doing too much so we decided to put up some shelves to accommodate said books. This is what we built.

There are about a billion different ways you can install shelves so we sat down and put together a list of must haves. In addition to book storage, we wanted a wine rack, decorative lighting, space for a monitor, cabinets for kitchen overflow, and a coffee bar. Oh, and it has to look built in. I think we checked all those boxes.

I was really happy that I got to re-purposed some old kitchen cabinets. A couple of the doors were missing but I wanted to follow the kitchen aesthetic and go with Shaker style doors anyway so no big loss there. Screwing, Sanding, spackling, sanding, priming, sanding, painting...ugh!

The shelves had to be custom built since I couldn't find something off the shelf to suit my needs. This is about the extent of my finish carpentry skills. Measure two times, think about cutting the wood, then measure one more time.

The built in look was accomplished by propping up the base cabinets on a frame of 2x4's so the baseboards could run around the unit. I also tied the shelves into the ceiling with crown molding. I stained a piece of furniture grade plywood for the countertop and added new hardware to the doors to finish things off.

We love our mini cookbook library.

DIY Kitchen Overhaul

Kitchen Renovation Before and After

Technically I rehabbed the oak flooring before I tackled the kitchen but this post is coming first because ya gotta start with the good stuff. Yikes, thinking about what to write and staring at the picture above is starting to make my back ache.  I'm going to take a quick break and eat some ice cream.

This is the original kitchen. I considered rehabbing the cabinets with new doors and a fresh coat of paint but structurally most of them were too far gone to save. I was able to recycle a few of the uppers in another project though. That was mostly enough to satisfy my desire for reuse. I quickly discovered, and would have to accept, that many of the features in this house did not stand up successfully against the rigor of time and the elements. Want another "after" picture?

This is the view from the dining area. knocking down most of the longer wall and widening the main entry way really opened up the space. And now you can see out the front window from the kitchen.  I kept the walls to delineate the kitchen area but added arches to soften the transitions. They were a bear to construct but by far my favorite part of the kitchen.

After relieving the exterior walls of their tile, it was apparent that they were in really bad shape. I came to the painful realization that I needed to tear this thing down to studs to learn what I was really working with. Everything needed to be fixed... electrical, plumbing, HVAC, insulation, and a little framing.

I really hate drywall. I know hate is a strong word and I try to avoid using it but I really hate drywall. Sheetrock, drywall, Satan's wall board... it doesn't matter what you call it, I hate working with it. Cutting, mudding, sanding, priming, just not something I enjoy. However, I can do it and DIYing it saves a bunch of money so I reluctantly dive in every time. 

RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets have been on my radar for a while. They are all over the renovation tv shows I frequent. We went with the Cognac Shaker style from RTACabinetStore.com. Whomever came up with the term "sweat equity" was probably putting together their cabinets at the time. There was definitely a learning curve but by the time I got to the last cabinet, I was almost good at it. It was hard work but worth it, we saved a thousands over going with a contractor and buying prefab cabinets of similar quality. I'd do it again.

We splurged a little on the appliances. The GE Cafe slide-in double gas oven really drove the selections here. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.  We got the matching fridge but deviated with a Kitchenaid dishwasher. Reviews...yaknow. I wasn't going to fool around with counter tops. The professionals came in to handle this job. We happened upon a sale and got a high grade slab of granite for about half the cost of our original choice of engineered quartz. We liked the idea of quartz but loved the look of our granite and the thousands we saved.

We installed an Armstrong Alterna product called Light Gray Mesa Stone for our flooring. This provided an interesting alternative over stone, ceramic, or porcelain. Forget what you know about vinyl tiles. This stuff is legit. It costs a little more than the typical stuff but well worth it for the ease of installation and durability. I've seen too many cracked tiles in these older houses with insufficient subfloors. Not a problem with Alterna. And given the applied height is only about 3/8", it sat flush with the hardwood which still makes me happy.

We put in a lot of fun little touches along the way. Wainscoting under the breakfast bar, pendant lighting, under-cabinet lighting, over-cabinet lighting, under-counter microwave, slide out refuse bins, oversized sink, range hood... I'm probably missing something. Point is, this kitchen renovation was a ton of work but we made it ours. There were some misshaps along the way and some some wounds, both physical and emotional, that will need healing but the effort was well worth it in our opinion.

Complete Home Rehab

So I haven't posted on this blog for four years... I've been busy. My wife and I had a little boy, then we bought a house, then we renovated the house ourselves, then we had another little boy. I'm going to clarify that part in the middle. Did I mention that we fixed up the house? We fixed the whole house. That wasn't all together unexpected since we did buy a project house but the full scale didn't reveal itself until we started to dig in a little. This is going to be a long story, a very long story that will likely take many blogs posts to tell. Let's begin.

I love doing home renovation projects so when it came time to buy a home, purchasing a house in need of some work was definitely an option in my mind. Convincing my wife was easier than expected. Bless her heart. One of my wife's best and worst traits is her willingness to participant in some of my "brilliant" ideas. I love her for it, but she really needs to rein me in more often. In hindsight, this was one of those times ;) Here's a secret. Most "affordable" homes need some work. The more affordable, the more work. We chose to live in Northern Virginia which means the housing prices are pretty high. I've had many a conversation that included the phrase "man, housing prices are getting crazy". Yeah, they're high.

We purchased the house for quite the discount below what comparable houses in the neighborhood were going for. The budget was pretty simple. Spend less than the difference. The goal was to not be under water when this whole thing was done. I think we did a pretty good job keeping costs reasonable when we could, however there's no getting around material expenses. We splurged on professional help a few times but we made sure it was all carefully planned out.

This house took well be being fixed and renovated. Each living space can be accessed from below and above. This made plumbing, HVAC, and electrical a relative breeze. There are also no load bearing walls within the structure. It's beam and joist on the lower levels and trusses support the roof. I knew I wanted to knock out a few walls right away and it was nice to know our design vision wouldn't be constrained.  Not everything went smoothly though. In fact, most things didn't. Every wall hides a secret and every job has a little demon waiting to escape. I found them all!

Our house has red oak floors in all of the above grade living areas. They would all need to be refinished. This is where we started. Buckle up.

NOTE: There will be plenty of before and after picture in subsequent posts.

Party Sim Rig

I've always liked how competitive the guests on Top Gear get while running their lap. It's obviously the show's signature segment and has to play a part in getting stars to appear on the program. For those unfamiliar with the show, it mainly showcases high end vehicles and various producer crafted adventures for the three hosts. It is also part talk show and ends each interview with a discussion about how the guest thinks he or she performed during a lap around the Top Gear test track in a reasonably priced car. It's all in good fun and I thought I could capture a little of that during a party at my place a few months back.

Ever since my friend Mark gave me a gaming wheel a couple years ago I've been thinking about building some sort of cockpit to enhance my driving game experience. At the time, I didn't have the room or the time so it got put on the back burner... until now. I was recently brainstorming for fun party activities while watching an episode of Top Gear when I realized I could build a driving rig and have guests run a sim lap to mimic the experience. I'd also made a top ten board to introduce a little competition into the mix. There are relatively inexpensive rigs already on the market but they are still at least a couple hundred and I thought I could do better and on the cheap. And what fun is buying when you can make it yourself.

I was toying around with a few ideas but decided to concentrate on finding a good seat and build from there. To my surprise, ebay wasn't much help here. There were some acceptable options around the $150 mark but I designated those as a fallback option. What I really wanted was the stock seat out of a junked newer model corvette or f-body. Surely the salvage yards would yield something I could work with. I was incorrect in assuming I could find an inexpensive option. And guess what, the junk yard managers I contacted weren't the most helpful people in the world. This was looking like a dead end until I visited a Pick-and-Pull in Virginia Beach during a trip to the in-laws. After about an hour of ripped leather and stained cloth seats, a ray of light shone from the sky upon a gnarled up baby blue WRX tucked away at the far corner of the lot. It had graphics on the side and after market ground effects. Oh, this had to have a good seat for me. The drivers side seat was beaten into submission but the passenger side throne was definitely something I could save. I little sun and water damage wasn't going to stop me. I unbolted it from its rusting grave and carried it back in 95° heat the quarter mile to the sales office. Sweating and tired, I argued the sales guy down to 50 bucks. Not a great deal but I wasn't going to leave the seat there and he knew it. During the couple hours it took to clean the seat fabric and rebuild the horizontal sliding mechanism, I frequently questioned the wisdom of buying a used seat. However, after finishing, I was glad to have saved the old lounger and given it a new lease on life.

The chassis took a bit of time to sort out. I'm not sure why I instantly start thinking of PVC pipe when a project like this comes up. I guess it's easy to transport, relatively light weight and somewhat straight forward to cut but looks unrefined and can have sturdiness issues if done incorrectly. I ended up going with MDF, the old standby. I've got the tools that make shaping it effortless but getting a 4'x8' sheet home is daunting to say the least considering I don't know anyone with a pickup truck. I fixed that issue with a slight redesign. I made the rear side panels by halving an 8' x 11" MDF strip and I cut the front panels out of a 4'x4' board which is much easier to negotiate from the car into my house. The frame that holds everything together is fashioned out of 2x4's. What do you think of the paint job? All it took was a couple spray cans of red and white along with a little brushed on black gloss. Amazing what you can do with some painters tape and a lot of patience. I attached the panels to the frame with a bunch of lag bolts, extra large washers and nuts. The wheel and pedal decks added a bunch of rigidity to the structure so cross members weren't necessary. The whole thing actually breaks down rather easily and can be stored in a minimal space. That was something I carefully considered during the design.

Picking the right game was oddly the hardest part of this project. The wheel I had only worked with PC and Playstation 2/3. Seeing as though I don't own a Playstation of any kind, I started researching PC driving games with emphasis on finding one that included the Top Gear test track. I underestimated the difficulty in finding a PC driving game that would suit my needs.  I required something with minimal setup, the ability to race and re-race continually, easy enough for the casual gamer, hard enough to differentiate skill levels, and a menu screen that shows lap times when the race is finished. I also wanted a format where the racer was alone on the track.... again, like Top Gear. Turns out, this wasn't meant to be in the world of PC racing. Most games revolve around free world racing like the Need for Speed series or are geared towards career mode game play like GTR Evolution or rFactor. Oh and BTW, my HTPC with integrated video ran GTR Evolution like a champ. The video settings weren't nearly maxed out but it looked great in 1080 resolution. I decided to broaden my search  and after a bit of digging around, Forza 4 for Xbox 360 kept popping up. I already owned a console and the game cost just 16 dollars online so giving it a once over was a no-brainer. Forza almost had everything I wanted. Is it so hard to pick a car, pick a track, go for a quick spin and check your times? Apparently so. You can get out on the track but you can't choose a pre-determined end lap unless you race with other cars. Figuring that Forza was by far my best bet even with it being less than ideal, I endeavored to match it up with a wheel comparable to what I already had.

There are and were few wheels on the market made specifically for the 360, one of which was made by Microsoft to accompany Forza Motorsport 3 when it debuted a few years ago. A co-worker at the time had some nice things to say about said MS wireless force feedback wheel so I went on ebay looking for a deal and scored one in great condition for a song. The steering wheel is on the smallish side and the whole thing feels a tad plastic like and toyish but the next step up was a couple hundred bucks so the MS wheel would have to do. On the plus side, it does have some feedback on the steering wheel, which when going over bumps and trying to grip turns, feels pretty neat if you pay attention to it. The pedals don't offer much in terms of resistance or realistic feel but again, they would end up serving their purpose nicely. The wheel comes with a large clamping mechanism for temporary attachment to a desk or table. While is was no doubt designed for strength, I had a hard time believing it would weather many hours of rigorous game play in a party environment. I bought an after market adapter and fastened the unit snugly to the wheel deck using yet another adapter I made out of some scrap wood. A lack of mounting holes on the underside of the wheel base is a design flaw in my opinion.

What's the use of racing for time if you can't show off your skills and post your accomplishment for everyone to see? Yet again, I followed Top Gear's example and put together a metal leader board with magnetic dry erase strips. I made the strips re-writable because I only provided 10 during the party to encourage a little competition. There are more strips in the picture above because the rig still lives on in my office and house guests are invited to take a lap if they are so inclined. I made the strips by combining a 8 1/2" x 11" self adhesive dry erase sheet with a 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of printable magnetic paper. I cut the resulting sheet into strips and whoa-la.

The party was an afternoon outdoors affair during the summer so guests who wanted to escape the sun for a moment were invited to walk inside and take a turn or two. I deliberated for some time on how to set up Forza for the party. I landed on the following racing conditions:

Mode: Quick race with medium difficulty competition
Track: Bernese Alps - Festival Circuit (2 laps)
Car: 1988 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 QV (Red)
Gearbox: Automatic
Steering: Standard Steering
Braking: ABS
Suggested Line: Braking Only

I originally wanted the driver to be alone on the road. However that wasn't a good option because that mode is free run with no way to define a "finish line".  I went with quick race mode and set the AI to medium. A decent driver would quickly outpace them anyway. Those not as skilled would still have a good time battling their competition through the curvy ups and downs of the scenic Bernese Alps.

The rig ended up being a big hit at the party. It had constant use for about 10 hours with there being a line for most of the day.  I just wanted people to enjoy themselves and it was quite apparent that I accomplished my goal. Now all I have to do it build another one so I can have head to head race battles. That's taking it to the next level.

Home Theater PC build

At present there is a dizzying array of options for consuming media in the home. You have to decide what you want, where and how you are going to get it, how and if you are going to store it, if you want to transfer it, how much you are willing to spend, and how you are going to deliver it to your senses. I'll say it again... dizzying.

I recently built a home theater PC (HTPC) to address some of this. A HTPC can be any computing device capable of video and audio playback.They are built primarily to function as media servers but can be much more than that with the proper hardware and software. They can also be built to function as video recording devices similar to the DVR's that you may currently be using. Before the HTPC, I was renting a DVR from Verizon FIOS and had it hooked up to a flat screen monitor and stereo receiver in the living room.  This wasn't a bad setup but it didn't have all the functions I wanted, most notably a data backup solution, more than 2 television tuners, and additional DVR storage. I could have rented another DVR, bought external storage for it and purchased a network attached storage device for my data backup requirements but that seemed a bit kludgy to me so I went with a more elegant system. I'll outline my computer hardware and software below and talk about its capabilities to address what I wanted my living room media experience to be.

Computer Hardware
Case: nMEDIAPC 5000B
MB: ASRock H77M
uP: Intel i3-3225
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600 (8GB)
HDD: WD WD10EZEX (1TB) x2
Optical Drive: DVD ROM

Peripherals
Cablecard Tuner: Silicon Dust HDHR3-CC
Network: WD My Net Gigabit Switch
IR Remote: Logitech Harmony 550
IR Receiver: HP OVU400102/71
Keyboard/Trackpad: Logitech K400

Software
Windows 7 home premium 64bit (OEM) with Media Center
Shareport4w (airplay support)
Remote Potato (remote scheduling/viewing)
My Channel Logos (dressing up Media Center)

Many hours were spent researching the hardware that would eventually make up the guts of my rec room rig. A careful balancing act ensued between cost, performance, availability, and compatibility.  I wasn't on a budget but I also didn't want to break the bank. My goal for cost was to come in at or near what a decent network attached storage solution would run me. A difficult undertaking for sure but I already had a power supply, dvd drive, and hard disk storage so I was slightly ahead of the game. Various A/V forums around and about the internet were a huge help here. And to my delight, the newegg.com comment section for my targeted hardware gave great insight into what said hardware was actually capable of.

I heard raves about what Intel was doing with their integrated HD 4000 graphics.  I picked up the Intel i3-3225 processor because it was pretty much the cheapest Ivy Bridge processor with that particular tech on chip. The power savings with Ivy Bridge is paramount when you intend on leaving the computer running all day and night. At the end of the day, the main objective for the hardware setup is to play 1080 (full HD) video seamlessly and this is critical because even the slightest glitch would ruin the viewing experience. The i3 and HD 4000 combo did just that and surprised me with its performance. HD video playback seamed like an afterthought and it handled GTR Evolution (very realistic racing game) with ease. I'll explain the reason for installing that game in an upcoming post.  Another plus for the HD4000 is its HDCP compliance. Nothing new here since Microsoft's protected video path standard had been around for a while but it's nice to hear it reported that the hardware was drama free. I made sure the motherboard I picked out played ball as well.

Now that my HTPC was up to the task of serving up all the multimedia I could handle, additional hardware was needed to actually acquire the data I wanted. A good amount of video is available from various streaming sites but sadly most of the programming I enjoy still comes from the good ol cable companies. And yes, I'm including FIOS in the generalization. My distaste for the current availability and cost of content is well known but that's for another post. Enter the HDHomeRun Prime from Silicon Dust. This bad boy houses a cable card and serves up three tuners via your wired Ethernet network. This external network based solution is nice because any computer on the network has the ability to grab a tuner and you don't have to worry about a PCI based card fitting into your computer chassis. This is a problem with the Ceton InfiniTV 4 and some less expensive HTPC cases. The cable card is where you start to save money. It's about an eighth of the rental fee of a single box and less than a tenth the cost of a dual cable box system. We have three monitors in the house which amounts to over $40 a month saved in rental fees. There is a downside to cable cards though. Some cable companies have less than stellar support for the cards and barely willing to work with you on figuring out any problems that may arise. Luckily, setting up my card under FIOS was a breeze and it has worked flawlessly ever since. I was originally going to forego an optical drive but had to put one in to install Windows so I figured I'd keep it in there. Maybe I'll upgrade to a Blueray drive some day but for now I'll stick with the trusty DVD. We don't watch many movies from solid media anyway.

My  home theater setup sits across the room in my media cabinet so any wired peripheral is pretty much out of the question. Heck, I run a wireless keyboard and mouse on my office pc...the set in the picture above. I used them for testing. I already had a Logitech Harmony 550 remote control so I paired that up with a USB IR receiver for Media Center control. I rounded out the human interface with a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo which doesn't get much use but is very handy when it does.

The software is where the real magic happens. At first, I had my doubts about Widows 7 media center but had to give it a try because it's the only game in town that decodes premium content like HBO and Cinemax. If you don't need those channels, you could always go with XBMC, OpenELEC, MediaPortal or PLEX. I wish HBO would offer ala carte service so I could have gone with XBMC running on a Linux disto, which would have saved me some cash, but alas I'll have to get my Game of Thrones the old fashion way. Another plus of using Media Center is its ability to use XBOX 360's as extenders. The 360 basically operates as a remote desktop to Media Center which solves that pesky "write once flag" problem that premium channels put on their shows. The write once flag stops hardware, other than that which originally recorded the show, from accessing the data. Two add-ons I installed immediately were My Channel Logos and Netflix.  My Channel Logos dresses up the TV guide data with nice channel icons and adds a couple guide features that makes it a little more user friendly. The Netflix integration is pretty darn good and appears as if originally included with Media Center. I am soooo hooked on streaming Breaking Bad now. In addition to live and recorded TV, Media Center also serves up your DVD's, ripped movies, videos, music and pictures.

Outside of Media Center, I've added a couple of programs that take this rig to the next level. I mainly use Remote Potato to schedule my DVR recordings when away from home but it can also stream recorded shows over the internet. You won't get 1080p but VGA on your wifi attached netbook in a hotel room is pretty good. I also loaded up Shareport4W which enables audio only airplay connectivity. It's nice not having to run a separate piece of equipment to get audio streaming from my iPhone and iPad. Airplay makes playing a quick song or a few minutes of Pandora really quick and convenient.

Now that the media portion of my HTPC is covered, it's time to address storage and backup. At the moment, I have Windows running a weekly backup of all my library directories. That pretty much covers all the pictures, music, movies, recorded TV and videos stored on the PC. This is bare minimum and does a nice job covering my rear in case one of the disks fails but it's not ideal by any means. I plan to purchase additional storage and run RAID 0 on the main disk while creating a full system image to store on the secondary drive. That should cover me against failure and provide an easy and fast way of restoring the PC in case anything major happens.

I've had a really fun time researching and building my HTPC. And the fun continues because there is always something to add or tweak to make the system more feature rich. Not only does it serve as our portal to live or streaming media content, it has a seemingly infinite amount of storage space for recording said media. It also serves as the central location for all our music and pictures which is helpful because my wife and I previously had it strewn about to more than 6 devices. That was a source of much frustration. My favorite part is the flexibility that running a PC in the living room provides. We can do things like picture slideshows, video conferencing, games, TV, streaming music from Pandora or Songza, surfing the web, writing this blog, youtube, watching movies, email, and much more right on the big screen. There are a few minor downsides though. With a cable card, you lose the ability to do "on demand" programming through your cable provider. This isn't a huge deal because HBO and the like have all their stuff online and there are many other sources for online movies like Netflix, Redbox, iTunes, Amazon streamin, etc. Another downside is the upfront cost. Again, not bad considering what you save on rental fees. We will pocket about $500 a year which was close to what the HTPC cost so that's our break even point. After that, it's gravy. Building a HTPC isn't for everyone but if you like to tinker with computers or know me, you should give it a try.

Electropong is going to change everything

I've been playing beer pong for the better part of 20 years. During that time, the tried and true setup and rules of the game really haven't changed that much. Why mess with a classic. Sure there have been many variations on the table used, certain house rules that one needs to entertain, and everyone has there own style of toss; but the core essence of the game has stood the test of time. I'm looking to shake that up a bit.  Introducing Electropong!

Feel like playing beer pong during the winter months but your brew freezes before you get a chance to throw. Wanna play inside but your significant other will raise hell if you get beer on the new carpet. Tired of wondering what germs you're passing around drinking out of the same cups everyone else is. Electropong may be just the game you're looking for.

Alright, I'm not here to give you the sales pitch, I just thought it would be neat to build an electronic beer pong game. It's very much like the electronic darts game machine you might find at a bar. Two teams play on one unit and hit the "swap team" button to cycle their turn. The color of the cups and the LED display keep track of which team is currently throwing. Each of the six cups has a RGB LED embedded inside and a hole at the bottom so a 40mm ping pong ball can pass through it. Under the cup base, the enclosure houses six IR interrupters, a 9V AC/DC power supply, a custom LED driver board (recycled from an old project) and a custom PCB that controls everything. In addition, there are three arcade style buttons on the front face that also have RGB LED's lighting them up. The display in the back is an off the shelf Betabrite scrolling LED matrix and above that are two mini beacons I got from Woot! The control board has a PIC18F6622 micro-controller that reads in all the IR interrupter inputs, talks to the LED matrix display, does PWM for the LED drivers, toggles the beacons and keeps track of the game play. I think that pretty much sums up the hardware section.

The real magic happens in the software. You can play games on Electropong that wouldn't be possible with the traditional setup. For instance, a popular game with my guests has been "king of the hill" where teams go head to head on the same board and try to be the first to light up three cups of their color. This game tends to go faster than regular pong and is a good fit for people who want to play a quick game and get back to the party. I'd still like to add one or two more games so if anyone has an idea, please leave a comment.

The construction of this game definitely wasn't without it's challenges. An un-tethered Solo Cup with about two ounces of beer in it sitting on a wet surface has some mechanical dampening properties that are difficult to simulate. At first, the cups on Electropong were rigidly fastened to the base with four screws. This caused the ping pong balls thrown at them to ricochet off dramatically. Turns out, the necessary shock absorption system was built right into the cups themselves. About a quarter inch of the outside diameter of the cup base sits squarely on the ground while the rest of the base is raised about an eighth inch. The screws attaching the cups were pressing this raised portion down so backing the screws out a little allowed the cups freedom to pivot a bit. However, in doing so, the imprecise holes I made in the cups allowed too much movement and they ended up not lining up correctly.  I fixed this by laser cutting a donut shaped spacer that fits in between the screw heads and the bottom of the cup. This locked the cup in place and still allowed it to pivot, effectively dampening the force of the ball against the cup.  The second significant challenge was reigning in the size of the unit, especially the height.  If the cups were offset too much from the table top, they would look awkward and the game-play would suffer. However, I still needed to concoct a ball return system. I ended up cutting away some of the base and putting the ball return ramp in its place. Had to go back to my junior high school trig skills to figure out the angles. I was very proud of myself.

Purists will object to certain aspects of the game that have been taken away like the rush of having to drink from a selected cup but I think I have made up for that with the additional games and the spectacle of lights. I don't want to compete with the traditional game, I want to add to it.  But hey, my party guests really seem to like it. I guess that's what matters most.

Oh, one more thing. There is a reason the cups are black. Aside from the obvious styling advantage, I needed to go with black so the light from the LED wouldn't bleed out through the cup. I initially wanted red cups but any hint of red light would make them glow like a lantern. And I think black makes the game look cooler, what do you think?

Networked Betabrite and a better party music solution

Home-brew Ethernet to RS-232 converter

For a recent party, I was looking for a better solution to my current audio setup and happened across a reconditioned Apple Airport Express on the web. While it has many features, I primarily wanted it for streaming music via iTunes on the ol laptop to my stereo receiver over the home network. With WiFi enabled I can locate the computer anywhere in the house I want. And I can control the playlist with the remote app on my iPhone. Got it, hooked it up, and everything worked great... but something was missing.

For the same party, I was planning to set up my Betabrite scrolling LED sign to display a few generic messages such as the contents of the kegerator and a couple birthday wishes.  I quickly realized how boring the repetition would be.  You really must have continual content updates to keep the public's attention. Hmmm, maybe I should heed my own advice with this blog ;) I've seen other people scroll twitter updates and directed text messages to their betabrites but I don't currently have their programming chops so I opted to gobble up some local data.

I thought I would be neat to combo the new sound system with the display and scroll the currently playing song title and artist on the betabrite.  I had two weeks before the party, plenty of time right? There were challenges.

Challenge number one, hardware. In a nutshell, I needed an Ethernet to serial (RS-232) converter so I could connect the Betabrite directly to my router.  You can buy a quality unit for around a hundred dollars but a quick trip to the spare parts bin yielded a bounty that would get me most of the way there. The heavy lifting is done with a Lantronix XPORT Embedded Ethernet Device Server. I'm a big fan of these little guys.  It has many features but for this project I only utilized its UART (serial) output. On the PC side, you can use vendor provided software to create a virtual com port eliminating the need to fool with setting up a socket connection. The XPORT outputs TTL level signals but the betabrite sign requires +/-15V (RS-232) so I needed to gin up a proto board with a level shifter on it. As luck would have it, I made such a board for a previous project.  After tossing in a 3.3V linear regulator to power the XPORT, the hardware was complete.
 
Challenge number two, software. This was by no means trivial, I dabble in the medium at best. From a past project I already had a little C++ code that talks to the serial port so I decided to start there. The next logical steps were to gather up relevant information from iTunes, format said info, and write it out to the Betabrite. On a Mac, interacting with iTunes is native but Windows plays with iTunes a little differently. It uses the COM object interface to handle the data exchange. Thank goodness for Google and online example code.  The only real trick was setting up the Visual C++ dependencies correctly and getting all the various updates and whatnot working.  Looking through forums for semi-useful and somewhat relevant information is tedious. I'll provide the code and environment setup instructions upon request.  Writing to the Betabrite also proved to be a bit tricky. I had the programming guide along with some sample scripts but I still had to snoop the serial data from the vendor software to figure out the ins and outs of the protocol. You can never underestimate the importance of a good technical writer.

Having the Betabrite display update with the currently playing song turned out to be a hit with the party goers.  I'll have to make it permanent fixture for future gatherings. Maybe I can even get some tweets up there next time.

My first foray into the modern cooking movement

Holding steady at 140° F

I started cooking a lot more when I met my wife. And by that I mean I helped her when she cooked. I was still a relative novice but wanted to learn. The really tricky part was figuring out where to start. We realized early on that our styles where quite different which led to a few clashes in the kitchen.  Mostly because I asked way too many questions. Deb cooks more on taste and feel and I want to know what's going on under the hood. I discovered a book called Cooking for Geeks which, as you can probably tell, spoke to me immediately. It dives into the chemistry and physics of cooking right away and delivers it in an easily understood manner. I was particularly enthralled with the chapter on Sous Vide cooking. Not only was the science noteworthy but the hardware involved was also of particular interest to me. Unfortunately the cheapest commercially available unit costs in the range of $400. Okay, I was gonna build one before I even knew the price tag.

Sous Vide, pronounced "Sue Veed", is a way of cooking food by submerging it in a very accurate temperature controlled water bath. The food is vacuum sealed in a plastic bag to keep the water out and keep the moisture and aromas in. This method eliminates any chance of overcooking the meal and ensures that it is heated evenly throughout.  You get a perfectly done steak or piece of fish every time. More about that later though.

With pretty much all of my projects, I like to start off by scouring the internet to get a good idea of what's already out there. I found this little gem on Make and figured it was a great place to begin. The design revolves around a PID controller which continually reads in the water bath temperature with a k type thermocouple and cycles three heating elements either on or off based on the current temperature, rate of temperature change and distance from desired temperature.  Normally it would be a lot cooler if I made my own controller but for $30, it was hard to beat the off the shelf unit they spec'd.

Sheet Metal Work

I was't a fan of the enclosure they used so I leveraged my meager metal working skills and made my own.  Making cut outs in 1/8" aluminum is not fun. After cutting a series of smaller holes on the drill press, I filed down the inner edges to make them flat and smooth. To make the box, I bent all the side walls toward each other and used epoxy where they met on the inside to secure them in place. More grinding was necessary to round off the joints.  This was the most time consuming portion of the project. Took a few iterations of sanding and priming to get the edges just right.  I was quite please with how they turned out.  Like the paint job?  Gotta thank my pal Tommy S. for the inspiration. How better to paint a slow cooker than with racing stripes. Check out the nod to the French racing blue Renault Clio 182.

I think it's time to talk performance and results. The controller and associated thermocouple kept the water bath temperature within two tenths of a degree of the set temp.  That's more than accurate enough for the purpose of this machine. And when heating up room temp water, it can add enough energy to increase the temp of about two gallons of water approximately 2°F per minute. That's not great but considering the water coming out of the tap can reach about 130°F, you really don't have to wait too long.

Perfect medium rare steak

I decided to start the real testing with something easy, a couple of 5oz filet mignon steaks. Flanked the meal with some roasted yukon golds and sauteed broccoli. I set the immersion cooker at 140°F, vacuum sealed up the meat (covered in a little garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper) and let it cook  for an hour and fifteen minutes. As a result of cooking at a relatively low temperature, the browning reactions normally associated with a steak will not take place. This is easily overcome with some quick searing action on a smoking hot cast iron skillet. Around 45 seconds a side should do it. As you can see in the picture above, the steak is cooked evenly throughout. I also verified with a thermometer that the meat was a perfect 140°F. A little moisture was left over in the bag but not enough to really matter. The resultant steak was extremely tender and juicy.  

The obvious drawback to this style of cooking is the long cook times necessary to neutralize any bacteria present in the food. Bacteria will die within minutes at 160°F but it takes considerable longer at lower temperatures. There are many guides available to aide you with these calculations. I don't mind the long lead.  My thinking is, where's the fire baby? Life is to be simmered and enjoyed.  Sous Vide isn't for every meal but it does add another interesting preparation option in the kitchen and a good one at that. I'm looking forward to further experimentation and more delicious food.

Undercounter iPad dock

My wife and I own many cookbooks but more often than not we look to the interwebs for recipes. I got my wife an iPad for her birthday when I finally got tired of scrolling through verbose assembly instructions on an iPhone. Prior to purchasing the wonder tablet I knew that our lack of counter space left few options for placing the iPad out of the way yet accessible at the same time. I would have to go vertical.

At first I thought about modifying a COTS (consumer off the shelf) iPad case and mounting it to the face of a cabinet but I didn't feel comfortable swinging the thing around every time we wanted to get a plate.  After hitting a slight creative block, I was inspired by a couple drawer slides I found whilst fumbling around my spare parts box. I could mount the dock to the underside of a cabinet and slide it out and over the sink when it's needed. However, in this configuration, I would only have 1 and 1/8 inches of clearance to work with. Subtracting the width of the iPad (1/2"), the iPad holder (1/4") and the logically minimal width of a sturdy base (1/4")... I was running out of room quickly.  I would have to lay the iPad holder flat against the base and somehow conjure up enough space to fashion some sort of kickstand mechanism.

Knowing that I had no height to work with, I envisioned an opening in the base where the hinged portion of the dock would reside.  I also thought up notches in that opening that would later accept a couple of saw tooth sections to act as adjustable stops for a kickstand. Luckily I have access to a laser cutting table. Otherwise, cutting out the design below would have been impossible with a Dremel.

Figure 1: CAD drawing for laser cutting table

The kickstand affixes to the underside of the hinged section with a couple of brackets that were also cut out using the drawing in Figure 1. Love that laser. I made the kickstand by bending up a piece of 1/8" tubular aluminum on a vice. There was as little trial and error involved here. I had to get the leg sections the exact same length or else they wouldn't sit on the stops properly. I wouldn't want the iPad to wobble around now would I.

I made the iPad holder out of 1/16" sheet aluminum which I painted a shiny black with a couple coats of clear acrylic for protection.  This is also the case where having the right tools really makes the job easy. Having a good sheet metal cutter and bender makes all the difference. I left a little slack around the iPad to put a thin felt pad to minimize scratching but turns out the current finish is soft enough and any additional material may not be necessary.

There are a couple things I would have done differently had I owned the house. First off, building the drawer slides into the cabinet so it's totally hidden when not in use would have been really neat.  I'll shelf that idea until I put up some custom cabinets of my own.  Next, having the whole thing motorized would bring this to the next level. Completely unnecessary but cool none the less.  I had that notion from the very beginning so I designed it with that potential upgrade in mind. Though I have many more projects in mind so that will have to wait for another day.

Fun with sensors

A couple years ago I put together a kegerator and while draft beer at home is great, the project never felt complete. The system performed well but there were a couple of issues that would crop up from time to time. Mainly, figuring out how much beer was left in the fridge consisted of opening the door and pawing at the keg.  Besides this being unscientific, the act of opening the door would let all the cold air out and the compressor would have to crank to keep up. And speaking of temperature, it would be nice to have a good idea of how cold the keg is getting.

Scale for Fuel Gauge Measurement

Incorporating a temperature sensor was obvious. Though there are many different types so choosing wasn't easy. We'll get to that later. To make a beer fuel gauge I decided to tag team a couple different sensors to make as accurate a reading as possible. First I constructed a crude scale to house a couple force sensors I got from Sparkfun. To supplement the weight measurement, I added a Swiss Flow SF800 flow rate meter to the mix. You can never have too many sensors. I ended up not needing the flow meter for the fuel gauge but it got used when I wanted to know when beer was flowing or not. You'll see why that's important in the video below. I was reluctant to include the flow meter initially because I thought there was a chance if would disrupt the flow of beer and create more foam than usual. While this is the case, it wasn't significant enough to remove it.

I thought the temp sensor was a no-brainer but it turned out to be a little tricky. Idealy, I'd like to know the actual temp of the beer but since the keg is a sealed container, that is impossible. The next best thing would have been to simulate the keg with an approximate thermal mass and sense the temperature of that but I didn't have the space.  That and I had already decided to be lazy and use a board mounted digital temperature sensor instead. Couple drawbacks with that idea though.  Since it is soldered to the sensor control board, thermal coupling to said board is an issue and placement in the fridge cavity is somewhat limited.  And to get a reading that actually means something, placement is critical. Turns out that placing the board right under the fridge chill plate gave me some pretty accurate results when compared to a mercury thermometer. And it was a good indication of what the fridge's themocouple was reading since the compressor cycle and my temperature readings tracked almost exactly in phase. That's important because one day I may want to take over control of that cycle for tighter temperature regulation.

So now I want to display all the good data I'm getting.  I used cast iron pipe for my keg riser so I felt it was necessary to stick to that theme and go a little industrial with my display options. After an exhaustive search online, I finally came across the perfect meter housing from an early model Chevy. On ebay of course.  It was pretty beat up when I first got it with splotchy paint and some pretty rough edges. I was originally going to sand and paint the thing but ended up trying my hand at paint stripping instead. Peep the before and after.

Meter Housing Before and After

I'm gonna have to give credit to CitriStrip on this one.  It made short work of that old paint.  A little grinding here and polishing there and... well, I still had an empty shell.  That is until I modified up a couple analog meters to stick in there. 

Modified  0-5 Volt Analog Meter

They were a little small but hey, when life gives you a little space fill it up with light from an RGB LED I say. What would one of my projects be if I didn't throw some lumens at it. You'll want to check out the video for full effect.

I made four boards for this project. They are mostly unpopulated in the picture to the left because I like to test out the micro first before I finish them up. I'm weird that way. The board at the bottom went in the keg fridge and has circuitry to read all the sensors. It also manipulates the data into an easily read format for the display control board in the middle. That board drives the Tri-Color LED drivers and does a couple D/A conversion to drive the analog meters. The board on the upper left will eventually house a relay to control the compressor cycle and the board right next to that is a RS232 level shifter so I can divert the TTL level UART signal intended for the display board to a PC for debug purposes. Being able to save the sensor data off to a PC was also helpful when developing my display averaging algorithms.   

I never thought my kegerator was stupid before but it sure is smart now. If only if would help me brew beer too. I guess that's the next step.

Custom picture frames are expensive

I bought a 20 dollar world map a while ago and never got around to framing it until recently. The map is approximately 45" by 30" so it's safe to say that an off the shelf frame isn't going to do the trick. There are a couple custom framing shops around town but I knew Michaels had an extensive framing department and with my 55% off custom framing coupon firmly in hand I rolled out to one of my favorite stores confident I could grab up a sweet frame and not break the bank. And since the map was already laminated with it's own border I could forgo the matting and glass/plexi to save some dough. I truly thought I could step out of the store minus somewhere in the vicinity of 75 to 100 dollars. And yikes! I was way off. Even after the coupon, the least expensive option was about $250. I think it's safe to say I didn't buy a frame that day.  And $250 was pretty bare bones. You're not getting a fancy wood stain or two tone metal frame for that. Michaels, I still love ya but I'd have to pursue other options for my framing needs.  What was I going to do?

Let me start by saying that my wood working skills are minimal at best. I am aware of the necessary tools but own few of them. I had the cordless drill and screwdriver, needed to borrow the miter saw and router from a neighbor and had to buy a couple right angle clamps.  The clamps were only a few bucks at home depot and totally critical if you want to properly align the segments as seen in the picture to the left.  I also borrowed a router bit (1/2" rabbet) from work which was key because those suckers can be expensive.

You can find all the materials necessary to build this frame at Home Depot. I went with a 1x3" maple board for it's attractive grain pattern and light color. The color makes a difference when deciding on the stain color that suits you. I chose Minwax Red Mahogany 225 because it looked great and would be a close match to the furniture already in the room. You'll want to test the stain on a scrap piece of wood to make sure the color is what you want. For the protective coating, I went with a Minwax Semi-Gloss Polyurethane. I thought the gloss poly was a bit too reflective for my taste. I already had the wood glue, filler, sandpaper and assorted screws from a previous project but all can be purchased for under 10 dollars.

Before you start cutting, identify the portions of wood you want to face the outside world. And kids, remember the golden rule in woodwork...well, construction in general. Measure twice, cut once. Getting the measurements right when cutting and matching up 45 degree angles can be tricky so take your time. Don't worry if they aren't perfect, mine weren't.  This is where the wood filler comes in. A little goes a long way.  Check out the picture, looks dead on doesn't it. After you have glued screwed and clamped the four corners, apply the filler where needed and let dry. The frame actually looks pretty good at this point but looks even better when you hit the whole thing with some 220 grit sandpaper. Be sure to go with the grain and be careful around the joints. At this point the initial plan was to just tack the backer board to the rear of the frame but I decided to route out an 8th inch deep half inch rabbet instead to inlay the backer. Looks more professional from the front this way. BTW, had one of the guys at the Depot cut the backer for me. Saved me a bunch of time and trouble.  If I ever make a frame again, doing the routing before assembling the parts is totally the way to go.  I ended up having to freehand it.  The result was far from perfect but it's the back of the frame so no one will see it.

When it comes to applying the stain, follow the instructions on the can and you'll be just fine. I do have a couple tips though. I prefer foam brushes over rags. They are cheep, you can use them for multiple coats and they do a better job of getting into corners.  And mineral spirits between coats of stain and polyurethane are essential. Dust is not your friend in this situation. Use a sandpaper in the high 200 grit between coats of stain and something like 320 before the last coat of poly. That will give you the nice glass like finish you're lookin for. All that's left after that is to glue on the backer and tack on some wall mounting hardware and you're done.

We have some other picture frames in the room from Crate and Barrel that have a similar style so this fits right in. I could have used the router to round off the edges or cut some sort of decoration into the wood but thought something simple and understated was appropriate considering the look of the map it was framing.

The basement smelled like stain for a few days but that was worth it when I think about the couple hundred dollars I saved in the process. The overall cost came in at a little under $40. Take that Michaels!

Monkeying Around

My neighbor throws a pretty mean jungle themed party every year and I like to participate whenever possible.  Which is pretty much every year since this party is not to be missed.  I've wanted to go ape for a couple years now but didn't have the tools til recently. I could have bought or rented but it's kinda of expensive and what would I have learned?

Having a sewing machine is key when putting together a large costume. It made short work of the long seams necessary in what turned out to be a basic jumpsuit made out of fake fur. I got a vintage '70s pattern from ebay for around 3 bucks and the fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics for less than $30.  Where would my hobbies be without ebay? The picture on the left is a part realization of the initial concept which involved the ape suit and my wife dressing as Jane Goodall.  The trucker hat would have said something like "I'm with Goodall".  We scrapped the Goodall portion but I made the trucker hat anyway. I went with something slightly vulgar for the hat epigram to fit the anticipated party atmosphere.  I borrowed the mask from my friend Otto for the few minutes during the party.  Good thing too, the costume/mask combo got quite hot.  I could never be a real gorilla. 

I learned a few things about following patterns and judging size and fit but I still have a way to go if I want to put together a more form fitting ensemble.  I'll just have to keep on practicing.  It's a good thing I have plenty of time before the next Santa suit bar crawl.  The wheels have already begun turning on that getup.

Collaboration

Making fun little lighting projects is just one of my hobbies.  Interjecting my unsolicited opinion on the design of other people's projects is another.  My neighbors embarked on a basement remodel a while back and, like a moth to a light bulb, I fluttered about living vicariously through their ambitions.  I'm pretty sure doing something similar or anything more than hanging a well framed painting on the wall of my rented townhouse is some sort of lease violation. I said, "those are some nice shelves".  They said, "thanks".  I said, "you know what would look cool".  They said, "do it".  They have obviously read my blog.

The shelves are 16" cubed, built into the wall, made out of sheet rock and painted white.  I wanted to light'em up and I knew just what to do.  The trick was finding a RGB LED worthy of the job.  DealExtreme is a tad sketchy and based out of China but pretty much my only bet for 3W RGB's at anything close to a reasonable price.

The construction of the circuit board was pretty straight forward with only one notable addition.  Along with the 3.3V power supply, LED driver chips (CAT4103), and obligatory PIC micro-controller (PIC18F2510), I used a Lantronix XPORT Ethernet to Serial module to accept commands from any network attached device.  It was agreed that I would leave all the software design up to the neighbors.  After all, they are the professionals.  My board reads in a command packet, writes the LED intensity registers and creates a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal to update the RGB LED drivers.  When I design any board, I like to make it as versatile as possible in the event I decide to add any features after the fact.  There are only 7 shelves but I built the board with 12 drivers just in case.  Two boards can also be stacked to drive a total of 24 RGB LED's as you can see in the picture below.  Turns out we'd need all 24 but I'll tell you more about that later.

So I finished the hardware, installed my custom firmware and performed the least amount of testing it took to convince myself that there was a chance it could work.  My neighbor Mark was designing his visualization software in parallel with only a loose discussion of what the command packet should look like to go by.  The idea was to get together once each part was done and spend way too much time debugging the inevitable problems. That is until it worked right out of the gate.  Sometimes the lighting of a single indicator LED can stir up a bevy of emotions in the average geek... imagine the lighting of an entire bank of shelves.  I'll have to admit, Mark's software is pretty impressive. My favorite part is the connection with iTunes.  While a song is playing, it gathers frequency information on the fly and displays it on the shelves in a variety of ways. Check out the video at the bottom to get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

If working solo, I may have called it a project and moved on.  However, the neighbors had a vision and a suspicion that I wouldn't leave them hanging.  They installed 20 overhead can lights in the drop ceiling and four wall sconces in the theater section.  24 extra LED's huh, yikes!

The hardware wasn't a big deal cause it was pretty much done already.  LED installation and firmware development... Now that was a bit tricky. The room lighting was already wired up for 120Vac so the LED's had to be installed in such a way that proper light diffusion was achieved within the housing and the housing itself wasn't altered in a severe way.  The blue socket protection cap provided as close to a perfect solution as we were going to get. The cap was meant to fit snugly into the existing light socket so I just mounted the LED to that and attached a strain relief on the side. Neat and tidy.

So for the ceiling and walls, that is 24 RGB LED's which makes 72 (24x3) discrete sources of light.  To drive each LED at different intensity levels, I switch them on an off at a set frequency and vary the percent at which each LED is on during a cycle period.  If it's on half the time, it appears to be half as bright as a LED that is continually shining.  For this project I chose a refresh frequency of 60Hz with 32 levels of intensity.  Therefore, I have to update each of the 72 LED's 32 times every 1/60th of a second.  In other words, I have 520 microseconds to update 72 LED's.  With a 16MHz oscillator, the instruction cycle on my micro-controller is 250nS. So, the update period divided by the instruction cycle time divided by the number of LEDs gives me a total of 26 instructions to preform everything needed to decide whether a given LED needs to be on or off.   I ended up needing 22.  Just squeaked it in there after a bunch of tweaking and a little luck. 

The shelves and ceiling have a refresh rate of 30Hz and can generate over 30 thousand colors per pixel.  A pixel is a single shelf or can light in this case.  Not bad for a few bucks and hours of spare time. Best part, Both the shelves and ceiling consume less than 50 Watts when fully lit. And less than 10 on average when in visualization mode.  That's around the power draw of an incandescent night light.  Saving the planet one disco basement at a time.

I'm pretty psyched about this install.   I mean, it's what I'm really passionate about and, if I could toot my own horn for second, I may actually be getting kind of good at it.  What do you think?

Here are more videos for your viewing pleasure.  Thanks Mark.