Reflection

If your screen is glossy enough, it's quite easy to reflect.  Simply click this black square and look into your screen.

The actual content of this post happens when you click the "Read more" button.

Morse Code Arduino Sketch

I've uploaded the Arduino sketch for the Morse code translator here:
http://chaosinacan.x10hosting.com/media/code/morse.zip
It is fully commented, so hopefully it isn't too difficult to figure out.  If it's confusing, just ask me and I'll try to explain it.

Also, if you want to try this project out, this is the circuit diagram for the entire translator.  The potentiometer at the center right was used to control the backlight level, but I replaced it with a setting in the code, so you can ignore that part.  If you're unfamiliar with the symbol, the component on pin 12 is a piezo buzzer.  Everything else should be labeled.

More stuff, like a component list after the break...

More Pictures

...or, should that be, Morse Pictures.  Hahahaha...  no.

Here's a few more pictures of the Morse code translator, starting with some outside shots.  We bought some gears thinking we would be making something else, but when that didn't work out, we decided we needed to use the gears for something.  Now our enclosure looks like one of those things you used to make in Kindergarten by gluing macaroni to stuff...

More pictures after the break...

Morse Code Translator in Action

A video of the Morse code translator in action.  Apparently, I fail at entering exclamation marks.  The screen's backlight automatically adjusts to the brightness of the room, shown in this next video.

Reading Morse Code with an Arduino

For part of my ENG 198 class, we were put into groups of 5, given an Arduino microcontroller and a $100 budget, and told what was effectively, "make something."  My group decided to make a balancing robot.  Then the parts we needed were on 2-3 weeks backorder, so we decided to go with plan B--just as soon as we could figure out what that was.  Eventually, we decided to make a box that you could tap Morse code into, and it would convert it into text and display it on a small LCD screen.

This is what happens when you use part of your budget on gears for a robot... then you build something that isn't a robot.  Anyways, ignoring the last-minute cardboard enclosure, there's a serial-enabled LCD screen at the top, a force sensor at the bottom, and the hole on the left is for a photo-resistor that adjusts the backlight brightness.  I'll post a video of it in action later along with some photos of the inside, but what I really want to talk about is a simple algorithm to interpret button presses as Morse code.  The Internet is full of examples as to how to turn dots and dashes into letters, or letters into dots and dashes, but I couldn't find anything on getting those dots and dashes in the first place.

More after the break...