lots of prep to get ready

i dug in hard today on the project. after cracking the case of the receiving unit of the Neurosky, i spent a bit of time confirming pin outs and making sure my model matched the information i have gathered on the process. i started to wire up the bread board and i realized i was missing the voltage regulator; where the arduino sends data at 5v, the dongle takes a 3.3v signal. there were many reports of people burning out the dongles over a period time with this over voltage. suggested is the SparkFun Logic Level Converter - Bi-Directional

sigh...

so i sucked it up ordered a piece or two from amazon prime and paid for next day shipping and I will have it tomorrow. i realized as i continued to read up on the reasons why the voltage needed reduction that i could simply build a voltage divider as the team from Make a Mind-Controlled Arduino Robot had done. this is a simple process where you pass the voltage across two resistors in series leading to fractional adjusted voltage.


there are tons of calculators on the web, i used this one today and this one in the past to make multi-voltage supplies.

this is what I ended up with. and it worked beautifully with R1 = 1.8kΩ and R2 = 3.3KΩ

i also soldered wires to the pin-outs on the transmitter/receiver. note the shrink tube on the bundle as a stress relief and careful soldering on bottom to prevent shorts/bridges.