Make: Online: April 2008 Archives

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Archives: April 2008

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April 29, 2008

Yet another whiteboard robot

And you thought boardroom meeting where tedious and dull before. This one takes input from the InterWeb.

Sprites mods: Online whiteboard [via]

Related:

Passively Multiplayer Online Game @ Maker Faire

Pmog Titlescreen

The Passively Multiplayer Online Game, which has been in a closed beta since February, is launching an interactive tutorial for new users to coincide with the game's appearance at Maker Faire.

Members of the team, including game designer Merci Victoria Grace, will be hosting a PMOG salon where they plan to play board games and give away presents. The team will be dressed as characters from the steampunk-themed world. - PMOG.com

Kalimba buzz mechanism

Kalimba Buzz Mechanism
From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

Member Yapruder demonstrates an interesting method for adding some high-end to a kalimba instruments tone. Makes for an aesthetically pleasing mod, no?

- Buzz Mechanism on Flickr

Little Helper proximity sounder

Little Helpers
Little Helper Closeup

Little Helpers incorporate an ultrasonic sensor and a motor with Arduino resulting in a simple way to make environments more interactive -

Bodies moving through a space trigger motors, sounding whatever object they are attached to. Movements acquire a resonant trace. The use of movement as a trigger is intended to initiate performative engagement, drawing passersby into interactive exchange and making audible the impact of their movements upon their immediate surroundings.

Check out the project page for video and source code - Little Helpers

Made in Japan - Volume 12

This week:
Nanonano Tech Junk Buddies, Arithmetic Gardens, The Analog "iPod Touch," Beetle Cross Stitch Kits, QR Code Hats, Nipple Hats, Can-Crushing Frogs, Cyborg Glasses, Nuigurumi Giant Isopods, Home Dinosaur Excavation Kits, and plenty more action from the 4/20 Make: Tokyo Meeting.
MIJ v12.png

Read full story

MakeNYC2 meeting #1 - this Wednesday

Makenyc2 Queens

NYC Makers - Want to attend a Make group, but can't find parking in downtown Brooklyn? Now there is a Make group you can call your own. New York City's second Make group (creatively called MakeNYC2.org) will be hosted in the center of Queens, convenient to most highways, bridges and tunnels (and plenty of free parking). If you're reading this website and you get a kick out of using your hands (and brain) to make stuff you know you're one of us, so come over on Wednesday night for an inaugural party with free pizza and soda. The first meeting has no agenda beyond meeting one another, but if you bring cool stuff you've made to show the rest of us, who knows, there might even be some cool prizes involved...
http://www.makenyc2.org/

When - April 30, 2008 - 7:00 p.m.
Where - 171-69 46 Ave (meeting hosted by Big Apple Hobbies)
Why - because it's fun (doh!)

Arduino basics - solar panel

Arduino Solar Panel

Another quick & easy option for those getting started with the popular micro - Little-Scale posted a quick rundown on using a solar cell for Arduino sensory applications.

The solar panel used in this example was rated at 2V and 25mA.

Do not use a solar panel rated in excess of 5V. Doing so may damage the Arduino

If data values appear incorrect, try scaling the byte 'data' in the Arduino sketch as it is captured.

The analog inputs read data at 10 bit. However, a single, serially-printed value can only hold 8 bits of information.

The data range with this particular solar panel is 0 < 6 using power-efficient, indoor lighting at night

- Connecting a solar panel to Arduino

In the Maker store:
Solarbotics Solarcell B Crop
Solarbotics Solarcell_B

Solar-powered Stirling engine @ Maker Faire

Doug's research and development delves deep into the design of stirling engines running off of solar energy. The above video shows his engine model 3d purring along right nicely -

I'm in the process of performance testing the engine to see how closely its power output agree with my simulation. There are many sinks for losing power including: bearing friction on the rotating shaft, sliding friction on the piston and displacer shaft, compression leakage around the piston and displacer shaft seal, air friction on the air moving around the displacer, and air friction on the spinning flywheel.

My basic and inexpensive instrumentation for this operation includes a stopwatch and a bicycle speedometer used as a tachometer. Using engineering computations and these two instruments I can derive the friction based on how long it takes the unpowered engine to spin down.

Come see the efficient results of his labors at Bay Area Maker Faire - Solar Heat Engines

Images Makerfaire Logos Makerfaire

Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset May 3rd and 4th at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, CA (Upcoming.org). It's for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. Buy tickets now and save, discount ticket sales end on April 25th, 2008.

If you're in the Bay Area, or plan to attend Maker Faire add "makerfaire" to your Twitter, we'll be giving away tickets and will have updates before and during Maker Faire!

In the Maker store:
Gkssse-2
Stirling Engine Kit

Primer @ MAKE - Sensor interfaces

Sensor Interfaces by Tom Igoe. How circuits communicate with the outside world. Page 160 - MAKE 5. Read this article now in the MAKE digital edition.

Or get MAKE 05 as part of The Second Year from the Maker store and/or subscribe to MAKE (use code CMAKE for $5 off USD).

You can view all our in depth Primers from MAKE here too.

DIY picture frame with Skype notifications

This is a nice DIY picture frame that will light up when you receive a Skype call or Instant Message. The schematics are available on the website, but unfortunately the code was lost during a re-install. If you want to make this project you need to be able to program the PIC18f2220 and create the Visual Basic program from scratch.

Don't want to get off the couch to se who's online on Skype or MSN? Me neither! That's why I've built myself a LED illuminated picture frame that indicate who's online on my instant messenger.

Via Engadget - DIY picture frame with Skype notifications

Tangible Table

I want one, and I want it now! There are a lot of these types of interactive displays under development, and hopefully a few will be reasonably priced when they hit the marketplace.

Our goal was to build a working prototype of a tangible table-based user interface. In contrast to a simulation, this environment facilitates the evaluation and testing of user interactions. That's why the visual components on the table surface (such as scales) are quite basic and rough. The principles of interaction and graphical behavior had higher priority.

Learn more about the Tangible Table

Related:
Reactable - multi-user electronic music instrument

The Pylofon

Moritz sent in his latest project called the "Pylofon". It's a wireless robotic xylophone that can be controlled via the Internet, a cell phone, or a Wiimote.

We build it in two nights at Easter 2008, using 2 Graupner Servos, a 99c-xylophone, a cardboard-box, an Asus WL500gP-wlan-router with OpenWRT Kamikaze and Python 2.5, SSH, a Pololu Serial 8-Servo Controller, an USB to Serial-Adapter, a Bluetooth-Stick and a USB-Memory-Stick.

More about the Pylofon

April 28, 2008

Improving astronomical video using VirtualDub

YouTube user kwakhed23 pushed out this video showing before and after imagery of the Moon. In the "before" part of the video, you can see the effects of the atmosphere warping the Moon's image as it passes over the frame. In the "after" video, a temporal noise reduction filter is applied using the open source video tool VirtualDub. It's difficult to tell for sure in the YouTube compressed video, but it appears to have cleaned up the image nicely.

i thought this might be useful to other amateur astronomers who use the "mount the camera on a tripod and point it at the eyepiece" technique. you should be able to get much more detail this way.

I've used VirtualDub for deinterlacing and other random video cleanup projects before, and it's a very handy tool. I'm not certain exactly which filter is being used by kwakhed23, but in addition to the built-ins, you can check out Donald Graft's site for numerous other contributed filters which might be worth playing around with.

Better Astronomical Images Via Filtering
VirtualDub
Donald Graft's Collection of VirtualDub Filters

Autobot switchplate cover

Sean Michael Ragan writes:

I built a homemade blast furnace and used it to melt scrap aluminum to pour this [Autobot] switchplate.

Looks like Sean needs an Etsy shop, pronto. He provides some insight into how he made his mold, too.

Capacitor spool phyllotaxis?

Lenore, of Evil Mad Scientist Labs, glimpses the pattern that connects in a spool of monolithic capacitors:

These capacitors... exhibit the opposite spirals of phyllotaxis that are probably most familiar from the face of a sunflower. Who knew capacitors could be so lovely?

Electronic Phyllotaxis

ArtBots deadline approaching - apply!

Don't forget to submit your projects to ArtBots, the deadline is May 1!

ArtBots is pleased to announce that the fifth international ArtBots exhibition for robotic art and art-making robots will take place at the Trinity College Science Gallery in Dublin, Ireland on September 19-21, 2008. Creators of talented robots are invited to submit their work for possible inclusion in the show.

We have no fixed idea of what qualifies as robotic art; if you think it's a robot and you think it's art, we encourage you to submit your work. Regardless of whether it's hi-tech, low-tech, or neg-tech, we're interested in the ideas you're working with, not just the gear. Proposals for workshops, performances, and other kinds of participation are also welcome.

Each ArtBots is a bit different; the location changes and we invite new humans to co-curate the show with us. We hope that by changing the specifics of the show each year we can keep it accessible to a diverse range of people, works, and ideas.

Related:

Art Bots 2008 on HACKS

HOW TO - Make your own G-force meter

Build your own dashboard G-meter using a PIC 18F452 microcontroller, a 20 MHz crystal, the ADXL320 Accelerometer, and a 7-Segment LED display.

Personal G-Force Meter [via]

Optimus maximus OLED keyboard

Brendan tipped us off - The Optimus Maximus dynamic display keyboard is available for ownership, a steal @ only $1,589.99 (!) -

As you should know by now this amazing keyboard features a tiny screen on each key... that's 113 screens in all. What can you do with these tiny screens you ask? Well each key can change it's image dynamically depending on what you doing. Hold down SHIFT and all keys go uppercase. Run Photoshop and you can set it so each hotkey has an image representing it's function.

Sounds like you'd be stuck designing the key/image layout for most apps - but at that price, you may just pay someone else to do it for you

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

Drum machine, unplugged

Simply awesome -

Matches are activating lever-matches by rotating the cylinder. Levermatches are kicking on several percussions. 4 Tracks

- The Hand Cranked Drum Machine [Thanks, Tercero!]

How to make your own shoes @ Maker Faire

Silver Boots

In addition to all the making, there's a whole lotta craftin' planned for Bay Area Maker Faire. Erica writes -

I've been trying to make my own boots based on information from a few different sources - the book "How to Make Your Own Shoes" by Mary Wales Loomis, bits of advice from various friends who work in design or have experience with shoemaking, and a few pairs of shoes that I have taken apart to study - and I'm feeling really confused and overwhelmed. I'm at the point where if I make one false move I'll render the shoes completely useless and unwearable. So I'm hopng that any light Tom [Maiorana] can shed on the process will be helpful to me.

And if for some reason that doesn't work out - you can always try making a brain machine - now that's variety.

- How to Make Your Own Shoes...the Easy Way! @ Maker Faire

- Boots on Flickr

Related:

Make Your Own Shoes