Jeremy Melton

Just a quick update on what I’ve been working on. I’ve had a bit of success getting scoring and the scoreboard playing together (see video). Another feature that you don’t see in the video is that all the switches point value can be set via the C# app that I made.

I’ve added the source below. Keep in mind this is all just hacking at this point. It’s probably not very helpful but it can’t hurt.

The led matrix on the top isn’t broken, I just hooked it up wrong :-/
 

Source

Spin:

• Main program (serial, scoring, switches) [SerialTest.spin]
• Maxim-ic 6953 chip object interface [MAX6953.spin]

C#:

• Serial communication to the prop [Program.cs]

Misc:

• Command Structure List

Pinball, Programming/Development .NET, C#, controlling pinball machine, DIY, DIY Pinball, homebrew, homebrew pinball, homemade, homemade pinball, led matrix, leds, max6953, open source, open source pinball, os pinball, progress, scoreboard, spin

I recently had a need to find a url within a large amount of text and turn it into a hyper link. Knowing that I am just a regex noob I opted to find someone else that could just give me some regex  I started with regexlib.com but everything there was exceptionally simple. Simple usually works but the client I’m working with always finds clever ways to do something unexpected. So I needed something that would detect any URL that is possible under the sun.

After a few minutes I found Ivan Porto Carrero’s website which had the following regex:

(?#Protocol)(?:(?:ht|f)tp(?:s?)\:\/\/|~/|/)?(?#Username:Password)(?:\w+:\w+@)?(?#Subdomains)(?:(?:[-\w]+\.)+(?#TopLevel Domains)(?:com|org|net|edu|gov|mil|biz|info|mobi|name|aero|jobs|museum|travel|[a-z]{2}))(?#Port)(?::[\d]{1,5})?(?#Directories)(?:(?:(?:/(?:[-\w~!$+|.,=]|%[a-f\d]{2})+)+|/)+|\?|#)?(?#Query)(?:(?:\?(?:[-\w~!$+|.,*:]|%[a-f\d{2}])+=(?:[-\w~!$+|.,*:=]|%[a-f\d]{2})*)(?:&(?:[-\w~!$+|.,*:]|%[a-f\d{2}])+=(?:[-\w~!$+|.,*:=]|%[a-f\d]{2})*)*)*(?#Anchor)(?:#(?:[-\w~!$+|.,*:=]|%[a-f\d]{2})*)?

It’s a pretty stinkin’ big regex but it sure does the job. I tried it with any url I could think of as well as the ones listed on Ivan’s site.
So there you have it. A big change from the pinball stuff but I needed to store this one where I could find it easily. I’m sure I’ll need it again in the future!

Programming/Development .NET, C#, Regex

Yet another home made machine. This one is based off of an old tv show called Astro Boy. I’ve never heard of the show, seeing this machine certainly makes me want to watch!

Have a look for yourself

Astro Boy Custom Machine

Pinball DIY, DIY Pinball, homebrew, homebrew pinball, homemade, homemade pinball

I’m still progressing! It’s been awhile without an update so I thought I’d throw some teasers out there.  Enjoy!

LED Matrix, Pre-etching

Switch matrix on the breadboard

Prototype of the head

Full machine with new head

Pinball DIY, DIY Pinball, homebrew, homebrew pinball, homemade, homemade pinball, open source pinball

I stumbled across a new home made machine today; Alchemy. Made by a guy named TheRedOpusBXL.
This machine is definatly in a league of it’s own in the DIY world. It looks like it’s really well done. I couldn’t find any details aside from the videos.

Pinball DIY, DIY Pinball, homebrew, homebrew pinball, homemade, homemade pinball