I meant to use that method to figure out what serial protocol was being used (if any at all). Then you could configure the Arduino appropriately. Obviously you wouldn't lug a PC around with you

Mmm...if there is a serial interface it could very well not be asynchronous. You could just capture serial data by polling one of the pins, transfer it to a PC, and then view it in excel (use the sampling rate as your time base) to get an idea of what you're looking at.

Either way, there's no "5 ...

You'd want to read the data lines going into the LCD controller. Make a microcontroller-based logic analyzer of sorts.

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 80-2041-ND

A little on the expensive side, though.

I love Ebay. I get all kinds of electronics stuff cheap from China. It works great and costs way less than here.

Linux may not need to have it's security holes patched every week, but it sure still needs alot of updates. Most well-maintained distros release a new version every 1/2 year or so, and then there's all the individual programs that are constantly being updated. Granted, a decent distro will have a ...

...and makes you have an urge to perform a self-lobotomy with your keyboard.

At least that was my experience with it

Anyways, you can avoid almost any issues with decent security software, which is also free.

Try this:

http://www.free-av.com/en/tools/12/avira_antivir_rescue_system.html

Follow the wizard to burn it to a blank CD, then just pop it in the CD drive and reboot. This boots into Linux to run a virus check so it'll prevent the virus from hijacking Windows. Run the scan, then try Windows again ...

Yay, I'm knowledgeable

To be fair Zarno and Los Frijoles probably know more about this stuff than I do, I just get to the threads quicker.

Oh, I should mention: It's perfectly normal for the controller to cause the motor to emit an ungodly whine

Davidvaini wrote: And here is a dumb question:
Can I replace those heatsinks with better heatsinks to increase said amperage?

According to the datasheet for those MOSFETs, they can handle up to 80A each...that just might work.

I'm no airsoft expert, but I've been reading a bit, and apparently an electric airsoft gun uses a motor to drive a piston/spring system. If that's true, I'm not surprized it needs a healthy amount of current to fire. Luckily, adjusting the speed of an electric motor is quite easy with a simple PWM ...

Heh, awesome, I just finished one of those myself:

http://www.theopia.com/viewtopic.php?t=2084&

Here's something more efficient:

http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/p/5987-25W-Step-down-adjustable-switching-regulator.aspx

I don't know what current you're pulling, but the above reg. can source 3A. The rating on the battery is just a capacity rating, the actual load is what determines the ...

Look up "pressure transducer" on www.digikey.com. They're much cheaper, albeit they'd likely need proper instrumentation circuitry around them.