Categories
Uncategorized

SpringTime4

SpringTime4

SpringTime4 was inspired by something my former student Maks showed me, which he called a Victorian Amp. I couldn’t find any good info on it (Oops! I should have looked up Victorian Synthesizer instead) but since I still had a large speaker left over from the Sonic Titan build I decided to build something similar.

SpringTime4

Instead of paper clips (or solder) I used two stretched out springs to complete the circuit. This worked well, because as the speaker coil energized the top spring would bounce up and break the circuit, then fall and complete the circuit again.

SpringTime4

To make things interactive, I added a button that could be pressed to start the device. This allowed people to interact with it, and also added another piece to complete the circuit. The whole thing is powered by a 9 volt battery, which I also left exposed, so people so see what provided power. I didn’t want a full enclosure that would appear to hide things.

SpringTime4

I used alligator clips to connect things, which allowed for disconnecting the button unit from the speaker, which makes it a little easier to transport.

SpringTime4

I took SpringTime4 to the Madison Mini Maker Faire and I really enjoyed watching people interact with it and then asking them if they knew what was happening. Some people sort of figured it out, and for those that didn’t quite get it, I explained how it worked. I think as a maker you tend to forget that even a really simple device can be difficult for people to understand, depending on their familiarity with things like electrical circuits.

SpringTime4

One of my favorite parts was when an 8 year old kid tried to makersplain to me how I should improve it. It’s nice to know that even kids think they’ve got great ideas about how someone else should do things. ;)

SpringTime4

The one improvement I’ll like to see is making it louder (if possible). It’s typical that I test things in my shop and they are fine but when I bring them into public and the environment is noisy, it’s hard to hear things. Since the visual component of seeing the springs move around is a large element of the piece, if I can’t make it louder it’s probably not a huge deal.

Here’s a short video showing SpringTime4 in action. Enjoy!

Categories
Uncategorized

Les Yeux Times

Les Yeux

One of the pieces I displayed at Maker Faire Milwaukee in 2016 consisted of two monitors showing a pair of eyes. I was (slightly) inspired by Ben’s Video Wall of Terror.

Les Yeux

I started by filming Dr. Prodoehl to capture the movement of her eyes. The crop lines show where I planned to crop the single video into two separate videos. I also used filters on the videos to get the old TV scan line effect and add a bit of distortion. (The cropping is for a 4:3 aspect ratio display to be compatible with the old computer monitors I had on hand.)

Les Yeux

The two videos were then exported and one was trimmed to be about a half second shorter than the other one. Since the installation would be running for two full days this meant that we’d see some interesting time drifts between the two videos.

The videos were played using a pair of Raspberry Pi Zero single board computers. Like nearly every installation, there were problems involving technology, this time I think it was a bad SD card, but I quickly swapped it out and got up and running again.

Here’s a short video showing Les Yeux Times at Maker Faire in 2016, along with the two videos that were used.

Categories
Uncategorized

Durability… for the children!

Durability

On the durability scale it goes from “Consumer” to “Commercial” to “Industrial” and then finally to “Children’s Museum”.

While most adults can figured out how things work, and most will actually use things the way they are designed to work, children will use things every way possible, not (usually) maliciously, but because the are still figuring things out. Install a lever that goes up and down, and they’ll move it up and down with all the force their small bodies can muster, so you might want to add some hard stops on the inside.

Controls

Kids also can’t read/don’t read (to be fair, many adults don’t read either) so add some arrows showing direction of movement. Also if those arrows are just vinyl you applied to the surface, they’ll get peeled off. Every interaction needs to be thought about in great detail, and sometimes you need to think like an angry vandal hell-bent on destroying things.

Plan for things to break, because they will, but make them easy to maintain and repair. Use off-the-shelf parts when you can, so replacements are easy, or if you fabricate the parts yourself, make spares, and document how to make more spares in the future. Use Loctite. Use set screws. Use Loctite on set screws. Use hot glue. Use lots of hot glue. Use screws and bolts, not nails and staples. Make sure you can take it apart and repair it.

Stay Durable, Friends!

Categories
Uncategorized

RepRap Report #4

RepRap

Calling this RepRap Report #4 is probably not even close to a proper title, but I’m going to use it anyway to cover the latest changes to my old MakerGear RepRap Prusa Mendel, which is a Prusa Mendel (iteration 2) I started building in 2011 and finally finished in 2012. It worked well for a few years, and around 2015 I seemed to have a lot of issues making it work reliably.

I eventually got a cheap clone E3D hotend so I could switch over to 1.75mm filament, and it didn’t work well so I eventually got a real E3D hotend and then it seemed as though I just could not print ABS. It never seemed to be able to maintain a proper temperature. I gave up on it when I got a Maker Select Plus and put the RepRap to the side…

I figured that since there was a problem getting up to heat for ABS, maybe I could try PLA, since it uses a lower temperature than ABS. I grabbed a file I recently printed on the Maker Select Plus and gave it a go.

RepRap

In the photo above you’ll see the MSP print on the left, and the RepRap print on the right. The print on the right is a bit smaller in diameter, and it’s not round… it’s oblong. We’ve also lost the hole in the center, but that’s pretty much always been the case. The MSP print is probably at 0.15 or 0.2 layer height, and the RepRap print is probably 0.3 or 0.35 layer height.

RepRap

The bottom also looks pretty bad on the RepRap print. Those round holes are looking pretty oblong and a bit uneven overall.

reprapre-02

And here’s where we really see an issue. The MSP print is 9mm tall, while the RepRap print is just over 6mm tall. We’ve lost nearly 3mm in the z axis. Not great! I figured I should try a second print to see what I’d get…

RepRap

I got this… Wow. It’s, uh… terrible. Now, I did not use a cooling fan while printing this. I always printed ABS with the RepRap, so I didn’t even have a cooling fan installed. I may try some tests with ABS again, or I’ll add a cooling fan if I try PLA again.

I’m not convinced the RepRap will ever be a good printer. I mean, five years ago, it was decent, and I made a lot of things with it, and they were good enough. I’ve thought about upgrading it into a Prusa i3 since I could reuse most of the parts, and would just need a new frame, which I could probably just laser cut. That might be a good option, but I’m also half convinced that if I take the whole thing apart I’ll never get around to putting it back together!

Categories
Uncategorized

Apple Wait…

Apple Wait...

At Maker Faire Milwaukee in 2015 I presented a piece titled Apple Watch, and at least one person enjoyed it enough to make me think about creating another piece utilizing the same concept, so for Maker Faire Milwaukee 2016 I presented Apple Wait….

Apple Wait...

Apple Wait… (like Apple Watch) consisted of a Raspberry Pi Model B connected to an Apple Monochrome Monitor from 1988. Instead of just attaching the Raspberry Pi to the monitor with some gaff tape, I added in one more reference to technology, an iPhone box.

Apple Wait...

It seems the box for an iPhone is just the right size to house a Raspberry Pi Model B. Interesting enough, the iPhone 4S and the Raspberry Pi Model B were released about the same time frame. They are very different devices, with different goals, aimed at different audiences. Why not merge the two together? Technology is interesting!

Apple Wait...

For Apple Wait… I took a busy indicator cursor from the olden days of computing on Apple devices and brought it into the modern day, but made it 8-bit and low-rez, because retro is in. If you’re interested in learning more about old things, check out Where did the loading spinner originate?, The Design of Spinning Indicators, Spinning pinwheel, History of the Mac Spinning Wait Cursor, and just for a laugh, The Marble of Doom.

Apple Wait...