Laboratory Night

I've decided that my robot building sessions need to be scheduled if I'm to make any progress at all. Usually I just do fits and starts of intense robot building that result in poor robots. I had my first official laboratory night tonight. However, I need to move it to Tues. to align with my gf's late work night.

It should be noted that it is "La Bore A Tory" and not "Lab Ra Tory". The difference is important.

It should also be noted that one can get lab coats with one's name embroidered for about $35. I'm seriously considering getting one. If the night is to be official I need official garb, naturally.

In any case above is the results of my first night. I built this step up converter out of the simple, but not widely available MAX856 and Eddy's new prototype board. Eddy's prototype board is kinda cool in that it some what mimics the layout of a regular breadboard. I wound up with about as many jumpers as one would on a breadboard, but I also didn't need to glob together pads with cold solder. It is a pretty nice board. I had just recently tried to build this circuit with a traditional isolated pad prototype board and, not unexpectedly, it did not work. Who knows where a glob went wrong? This board worked perfectly on the first try.

I'm going to see what else I can cram on the board. I'd like to use it on my upcoming mini-sumo.