Finally back on-line. Lost power 9:30 AM Sunday, well ahead of Irene reaching New England, restored 2AM this morning. One mostly dead tree knocked down, otherwise made it thru without issues.
Good to hear, welcome back
Hope everyone got throught it without any major issues.
Seán
Chainsaw time!
Glad to hear all is well.
No chain saw needed - it broke into pieces hitting the ground. Think I can just pick up the chunks in a wheelbarrow and drag them away.
On the other hand, power went out at work 4 times today, that was kind of aggravating.
My power was in and out all day, and the breakers would trip every time it went back on, which was pretty annoying. On the plus side, a few midsize trees bent over sideways on my lawn, so out came the hacksaw. Who knew cutting down trees could be so much fun?
o.fithcheallaigh:
Hope everyone got throught it without any major issues.
My shipment from Adafruit is still languishing in NY. 
How's that go ... 'Neither snow nor sleet ...'?
Ah well. Nothing I can't live without for a bit.
Power is finally stable on this side of town, though internet and cable still a bit hokey. Crossroads- if that tree gets to be a pain, I've got a surly 16 year old mule I'll send over your way. Only lost one tree, and a peach tree at that. At sixteen he ought to be good for stacking a solid two cords in an afternoon...
No arduino projects implemented, but I did have our house very well lit.. those 10 watt LED's run AWESOMELY off of a rechargable drill batterypack, hours and hours without a sign of dimming. LM317 Constant current circuit and a CPU heatsink were perfect. One of those ten watters lights up my whole living room to the point where we had neighbors over and wereplaying board games, with the rig suspended from a string from the ceiling fan... does anyone else have experience with the RYOBI "One" product line batteries? These buggers have a great capacity (2400MaH) @ 18v, and are fairly cheap if purchased with one of the tools. I got mine with a drill and charger (both decent) for $39 at Home depot. I find that many 12v "automotive" things run nicely with them (around 14v under load), even have run an inverter off one to produce 110v for short periods. I'd use a regulator for anything really sensitive, but most 12v things can handle that fairly well for short periods- auto power is notoriously bad,so most products have internal regulation. LM317 circuit will drop it to whatever you want (0-15v, 3v-ish drop for regulator), but at pretty bad heat waste. I like the tool batteries in that they are not a one-trick pony; when I'm not abusing them for my own amusement, they are actually very useful for their designed purpose. the pack is rated for 2400MaH, which ought to run out after around two and a half hours.. but was still going strong after four hours running the LED, even with the regulator waste. Very pleased with the battery, especially since it's a few years old and has seen some fairly heavy use running a drill and cordless sawzall.
I'm going to "wrapper" one up in some kind of more permanent package, all those hours (and the decent color rendering, to boot) convinced me that it needs to become a regular part of the photo "utility belt". It works so well, I may build a soft box using a couple dozen of the one watters.. I've got about 25 one watters around, and they are getting VERY cheap.. I'm liking the idea of an LED softbox for portrait lighting. Recently had my one good studio head take a tumble during my daughter's birthday party (we did Glamour shots party for her friends, including a good friend of the family, John Manning (a professional makeup artist) coming over to do their hair and makeup.) and studio lights cannot take impact. Blew both the modeling bulb ($20) and the strobe ($60). Again. I'm sick of this, I want solid-state devices that can take physical abuse as well as be a lot more portable. LED's fit that bill. Then I'll need some PWM and such, as well as some intelligent control... maybe not a full arduino, maybe just an ATTINY, but still AVR and still would use Arduino to write the code. If it happens, you'll be seeing it here.
Though we were right in the path, it appears we overall did well.. just power loss and a little yard cleanup. One street over a neighbor has a tree on his house, and there's some bad flooding still in some of the low-lying areas. Can't do any lifts at the moment so I'm talking a buddy into toting around my kayak so I can get some damage photos in the Audubon preserve on the Sudbury or maybe the Charles headwaters down south. Half-sick, but I'll skip driving and dose up enough to get out there for a couple of hours anyway. Some things are worth paying for 
I've not been past the airport, did you move your plane? There's not really much in the way of hangar space over there, and a heck of a lot trees. Occurred to me that you very well may have flown it out to a safer location, but then again, Irene was so big, that would have had to have been a fair distance. Since it's been pointed out, I find myself looking for those characteristic wheel fairings..
Thanks focalist, I have a 16 year old as well. Does yours go AMSA, the high school, somewhere else? Apparently the AMSA bus ride from hell was today, hopefully routes will get revised soon.
Would it be worthwhile using one of the Murata switching power supplies instead of the LM317?
Did not move the plane, just ensured the tie down ropes were snug so it wouldn't flop around much.
You could put one of the little Mini-uino's in your lights. Waiting for cards devliery now.
Actually, he transferred over to Assabet Valley after going to AMSA for grades 6-8. Curriculum put him years ahead of the town school system- he's Dean's List at Assabet without even trying. GREAT curriculum over there at AMSA, even if there's some issues with administration and there's some issues surrounding how they handle socialization issues... the Dean over at AMSA can be a bit draconian, a reflection of his previous position at what amounts to a modern version of "reform school". He's gotten better, but the first year with him played a part in my son's choosing to try Assabet. The bottom line is that both Assabet and AMSA are about the education, not "teaching to the test". I wish I would have had the kind of educational choices and resources these kids have.. free choice, three schools, in a town the size of Marlborough... not exactly a common thing- particularly since AMSA (Advanced Math and Science Academy, for those not from this area!) and Assabet Valley Tech are both quite respectable schools. Assabet is a gateway school for both WPI and MIT, neither are slouch schools.. looks like my son is WPI bound, he'd make a good "corporate man" for Lockheed, Raytheon (sorry,hehe), or one of the big data houses. Several friend's kids go to AMSA, and my daughter will likely do so, she's a tinkering fiend even without any encouragement... she's much more a "bad engineer" like me.. potentially dangerous.
I think maybe we ought to consider building some sort of local user's group.. there's a concentration of users here, and these kids are really a perfect target group for Arduino in a general sense. I think I'd be quite interested in throwing in on something like that, and teaching a seminar/project once in a while would be cool to do again. Teaching is tough, but nothing is as rewarding.
As for the switching power supply for the LED's, I have no doubt it would be far more efficient. The LM317 Constant Current circuit works, but it's one of those things that I consider to be a "don't do this, it's not really the right way to do it, but it's what's cheap and what I had in the drawer.." bin. LM317 is an awesome little jobbie, cheaper than dirt, and usable for a wide range of things.. typical of the type of components I tend to buy. Shoestring budget demands kludges.. of course isn't Arduino one heck of a kludge foundation in the first place?
Thoughts?
Not sure I'd have time for another group. Could be an occasional contributor or something. I can't commit to being available once a week or something.
Fencing classes start Tuesday, we can be bust 4-5 nights a week & Saturdays mornings for that, tournaments Saturday afternoon and Sundays.
AMSA re-organized this year, new Principal.
You know, the more I think about it, I may see if I can map out a couple of hour seminar/curriculum that would be usable. It might be a bit of fun to get up in front of a group again for a couple of nights. Kind of dovetails into the whole idea of "webinar" introduction to Arduino curriculum, which I've considered doing anyway.. my own little spin on the world of tinkering and Arduino.
focalist:
I'm liking the idea of an LED softbox for portrait lighting.
Hey, nice little rig-up there on the LED.
I wonder about lighting for film (or digital) using LEDs. How's the color temperature / spectrum? I know there's quite a variety of "white" LEDs out there, but my assumption has been that they spike more towards blue, though might have some peaks in a few other regions as well.
Well, I already use a 10w CREE that Home Depot sells as a retrofit for recessed can lights as an accent and hair light occasionally, and in all honesty it's a great light.. here's a thread I posted on it last year:
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291738032
That's a commercially packaged LED flood, 10.5 watt, 575 lumen 2700k. Nice light. I want bigger.
I love playing with power LED's, and they are getting very inexpensive.. I buy 'em from China off ebay, I just wait for ones to come along that haven't gotten bid on.. I'm in no hurry and things gotten cheap can be shelved with no guilt. That 10w LED on the heatsink cost me under $2 shipped.. though it's a much cooler "typical" white LED heavier in the blues.. but a bit more efficient. Seems the warmer LED's are just a tiny bit less efficient.. I'm okay with that, just keep bringing the prices down and I'll cobble together what I need instead of paying what the lighting houses are sure to charge thousands for as soon as they get them to market. Ideally, I would LOVE to forget Xenon and Halogens entirely, at least for portable lights.
These days, I really don't care as much about CRI, digital makes it easy to correct for almost any temperature if shooting RAW.. film's a lot more of a pain when it comes to CRI than digital. I'm more concerned usually with WHERE the light is falling, not whether I'll have to tweak a little to correct for oddball lamp colors. Oddly enough, ended up doing some head shots last night in my kitchen, at about 2am, with the CREE LED flood and a 55 watt warm white fluorescent floor lamp. For an idea of the "white", that's a flat eggshell interior wall, with an EXTREMELY light tint to the bluish/purple- I've not processed the shot other than resizing for posting, shot with auto white balance. I'll probably actually have to COOL the colors, especially since she's light skinned and the red dye job is the focus. The LED is being used from the lower left side, just out of frame. My lighting equipment may be a joke, but I get decent shots despite myself.. this is Samantha, a theater student at Salem State and friend.. and more of John's handiwork. There's a reason he gets the contracts he does.. she showed up at the house at ten with long brown hair. I've sworn off "America's Got Talent", so Mrs Focalist brings in John as Bad TV backup companion- and his place still has no power... when he gets bored, the girls get makeovers.
I keep odd hours, and tend to attract strange and interesting folk...
focalist:
Well, I already use a 10w CREE that Home Depot sells as a retrofit for recessed can lights as an accent and hair light occasionally, and in all honesty it's a great light.. here's a thread I posted on it last year:http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291738032
I love playing with power LED's, and they are getting very inexpensive.. I buy 'em from China off ebay, I just wait for ones to come along that haven't gotten bid on.. I'm in no hurry and things gotten cheap can be shelved with no guilt. That 10w LED on the heatsink cost me under $2 shipped.
Interesting. I'm guessing the mfr. played around with the phosphors to get it closer to tungsten, because that's what people are used to for indoor lighting. And one nice thing about digital is it's easier to post-process for balance.