My friend and I are working on a project together, essentially building a safety deposit box that has a timer attached. In our ideal world, you could set the safe for a few days, months, or even years, and when the timer runs out, the safe opens.
We have some ideas around it which we will let you know at a later date, but for now, the most interesting thing is being able to put the plan into action. To do that, we went down to Micro Centre, the electronics superstore, to find some parts for our prototype.
It’s an interesting experience, and one that may not last long. Buying individual electronics parts, like bread boards, regulators, microprocessors, and more is becoming less common as people shop online. Radio shack has already hit the pavement, and I feel this will too soon.
However, while it lasts, we had a blast. The staff were surprisingly knowledgeable, but it was the other customers in the aisle who were the most helpful. They knew their way around, what parts to buy, and even had some war stories from the hey day of electronics retailing.
We ended up with our loot, and have booked in next weekend for the assembly. We will keep you posted, so watch this space.