Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Video Games...Meet ShopBot

Today started out well. I had many errands to run, and my daughter Elena was ready to go. Her pocket was burning with some money she'd received at Easter and she had big plans for a new Barbie.
We visited a number of places, including a quick stop at a garage sale.  I stopped because something in the yard caught my eye. Let me put it like this:

Huge black velvet painting of Elvis at a garage sale: $4.
Laughing about buying a black velvet painting with my daughter all the way home: $0.
Watching the look on my wife's face when she walked into the living room: Priceless.



I also spent some time installing a permanent computer with the ShopBot (I have no desire to keep my laptop as the primary machine running the Bot).  It's hooked up to the network and I can transfer files there instantly.

During my drive earlier in the day, I had been thinking about the fact that moving the spindle around the table with the keyboard was nifty, but not very handy when you were trying to line up the bit to a specific spot on the table.  I thought it would sure be nice to have a remote for that...like on the big machines.  The answer came in the form of a wireless Xbox 360 controller I already had at home.  I have a device that plugs into the computer so the Xbox controller could be used for games on a pc.  I found an inexpensive application that would let me map the buttons/sticks on the controller to specific key strokes on the computer keyboard. In under 15 minutes and for only $9, I'd added a wireless remote for the ShopBot.  Here it is in action (my digital camera isn't great for video and has no sound, but you'll get the idea).


More fun just around the corner!

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