hacking the glade wisp

Could not get Wayne Holder's arduino project"hacking the Glade Wisp" to work (MAKE 16, etc). I know some others who tried. Q1. Significance of "8" in "digitalRead(8)" of the sketch? Q2. Is there a way to boost output to be more visible? Q3. Anyone tried coloring the oil ? Q4. Think increasing delay time to enable more complete recovery before the next puff is feasible (Wayne said he timed it so it would be as matched to the arduino as possible) ? Q5.Know of other pitfalls that have been overcome to make this thing work ? Thanks. =Stargentle.

Significance of "8" in "digitalRead(8)"

That's referring to Digital Pin 8 on the Arduino.

Anachrocomputer> Yes I know that. My question is why does he want to know whether there is voltage at pin 8, what has this got to do with puffing the Glade attached to pin 2 ? I believe there is a reason, I just do not follow the logic - anyway, he does not explain much.
And I will still like to receive possible answers to my other questions, if anyone knows. Thanks.= Stargentle

If you look at:-

you will see there is no mention of pin 8. It looks like this is a delay that was used in development and didn't get taken out. If you attach something(like a push button to ground with a 3K up to +5V) to pin 8 the program will hold at that point until it is taken low (button is pushed).

I haven't made this but I would say:-

Is there a way to boost output to be more visible?

No as you are dealing with an atomized spray and as such it is not very dense and so will not be very visible. You could try shining a light through it.

Anyone tried coloring the oil

It won't affect the visibility because it's atomized.

think increasing delay time to enable more complete recovery before the next puff is feasible

Once the capacitor has fully charged then no amount of extra time will give any improvement. You could try increasing the capacitor by wiring on the same size or bigger in parallel.