News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Express your wrath digitally by newgrad on Monday August 29, 2011 @12:12PM (#2937654)
I want to make the bulbs die remotely.. Can we do it with a script toggling them on and off in a rapid rate?
Re:Express your wrath digitally by pingswept on Monday August 29, 2011 @12:18PM (#2937676)
You're welcome to try. The problem is that the Rascal fetches a new image from the webcam after every click. In order to make sure that the bulbs have turned on (or off) before the image is updated, Eerik added a 1 second delay in the loop. I think this makes it impossible to toggle the bulbs at more than around 0.5 Hz (1 second on, 1 second off).

If it weren't for the delay, you could hit 300 Hz or so. You could probably even dim the bulbs with PWM if you wanted.

Re:Express your wrath digitally by dmlorenzetti on Monday August 29, 2011 @12:28PM (#2937729)
To kill a light bulb, it may well be more effective to cycle them at 0.5 than at 300 Hz, anyway-- you get more thermal cycling, and maybe even some interesting dynamics from the relay bouncing.