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Raster Eggs!

It’s almost Easter, and Easter is almost Raster, so here my friends, are a collection of Raster Eggs we made just for you.

This collection features such favorites as “Egg Egg”, “Rebel Alliance”, “Z2”, “dead egg”, “Sleeping Cat”, “Officer Egg”, “Pioneer Plaque”, “Lasers” and more!

But wait! You also get such favorites as “Yuri’s Night Egg”, “Open Hardware”, “Nutrition Facts”, “Cow”, “Emma” and more!

(P.S. Don’t tell anyone, but these Raster Eggs are actually Vector Eggs. We’re tricky like that.)

File Under: Egg-Bot

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Processing Audio

I got into Processing when I saw that it was a way to interface my desktop computer with an Arduino. Since then I’ve been exploring Processing more and seeing what it can do.

The latest excursion has been into audio, and I found a library called minim to play with. Download it, unzip it, and drop the ‘minim’ folder into your ‘libraries’ folder in your Processing folder, and you’re ready to go. Here’s my first experiment.

There’s an example for AudioInput which shows audio waveforms, so I grabbed the example and modified it slightly, I mainly twiddled the numbers a bit for a larger display.

Audio Waveform

Here’s the (slightly modified) code. (1280×800 being the screen size of my MacBook.) 

/*
 * WavyLines.pde
 */

import ddf.minim.*;

Minim minim;
AudioInput in;

void setup()
{
  size(1280, 800, P3D);
  minim = new Minim(this);
  minim.debugOn();
  in = minim.getLineIn(Minim.STEREO, 1280);
}

void draw()
{
  background(0);
  stroke(0,255,0);
  // draw the waveforms
  for(int i = 0; i < in.bufferSize() - 1; i++)
  {
    line(i, 250 + in.left.get(i)*150, i+1, 250 + in.left.get(i+1)*150);
    line(i, 550 + in.right.get(i)*150, i+1, 550 + in.right.get(i+1)*150);
  }
}

void stop()
{
  // always close Minim audio classes when you are done with them
  in.close();
  minim.stop();
  super.stop();
}

This code (at least on Mac OS X) runs and expects the sound input to be the built-in mic on the MacBook. This is pretty fun, and my daughter (who plays the trumpet) had a good time making all sorts of strange noises and watching the waveforms that were generated. If you export it from Processing as an application, you can run it full screen with no menubar, etc.

While the mic input is fun, you can also build yourself a little audio visualizer that reacts to what audio your computer is playing. There’s a bit in the manual about Setting the System Mixers, but I just went the Soundflower route here.

Once you’ve got Soundflower installed, you can set up your audio routing…

Sound Out
Sound In

Here’s my sound output and sound input settings in System Preferences.

Fire up Soundflowerbed, and then choose a song in iTunes and our “WavyLines” application should respond appropriately.

Waveform

Here’s what you should get… well, depending on the audio playing. Maybe I can team up with the guys in the Handmade Music Group at the Milwaukee Makerspace and come up with some ways to enhance this into something even cooler.

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A Few Good Eggs…

A Few Good Eggs...

Some of our favorite eggs from the Milwaukee Makerspace Grand Opening last weekend… There’s a “Milwaukee Monkeyspace” egg, and even a VEGAN egg!

We gave away a lot of good ones, like the Rebel Alliance egg, but I’m sure we’ll be printing more very soon.

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Teensy vs. Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+


Photos from Adafruit Industries.

I remember seeing the Teensy when I was digging into Arduino stuff last year, and it looked interesting, mainly due to it being small and cheap. (I like cheap!) But since I’m a lot more interested in what the Arduino has to offer, I didn’t look into the Teensy very much.

The Teensy is interesting though because out of the box it functions as a USB HID device, which means it can very easily emulate a keyboard or mouse. (See this Awesome Button post for a neat example.)

If you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Adafruit Industries, not just for their amazing customer service and great products, but for their support of the open source movement, especially the work they’ve done with open source hardware. Adafruit actually sells the Teensy, but they also came out with a product called the “Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+” (terrible name, eh?) which is like a Teensy, but not like a Teensy.

Here’s where it gets weird… or interesting… or both…

By all respects, the Teensy is pretty cool, as I said, it’s small, and cheap, and can emulate a USB HID, and if your project needs that, it’s a good fit. See the Teensy page for more info.

Now, the “Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+” (terrible name) by Adafruit is similar but different. You can check out the Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+ page for more info.

Ultimately, I think I’d prefer to use the Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+ from Adafruit, and for a good explanation, see this Adafruit blog post about the Teensy, and for extra credit, see A Brief Essay About the Benefits of Open-Source Hardware.

It’s a shame the Teensy is not open source hardware, as I’d prefer to support vendors of open source hardware.

So I’ve got a project planned, and it will use a Teensy. So why not use a Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+? The first reason is, I don’t think I’m ready for it. In reading through the Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+ docs and digging through the forums a bit, it looks like Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+ development is not exactly easy for a beginner. I’d like to get into it at some point, but right now, the Teensy seems like an easier path to completing my project, and maybe once it’s done I can look into working with the Atmega32u4 Breakout Board+.

I know this may seem like a small thing, but I’d really like to support open source hardware when I can, the same way I try to support open source software when I can. It’s always a struggle.

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Egg-Bot for Newbies

Egg-Bot for Newbies

Hello folks! So you came here to hear about the Egg-Bot! Well step right up and buy my new book “Egg-Bot for Newbies!”

But seriously folks…

As we all know, an expert is just someone who knows more about a subject than you do… so with that said, if you know less than I do about the Egg-Bot, consider me your expert.

At the Milwaukee Makerspace Grand Opening plenty of people had questions about the Egg-Bot, and I did my best to answer them. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the things I said, as well as what I’ve learned in the past few weeks.

It’s a kit.
Don’t expect to pull Egg-Bot out of a box and plug it in, you have to build it first. It’s all just assembly, no soldering, but you will need some tools and the ability to follow directions and not lose very small parts. Set aside a few hours. I set aside 3 but was done and plotting eggs in less than 2, and I was even drinking while I assembled it, but I’m an expert.

You’ll need Inkscape.
The open source vector art application Inkscape is used to send the artwork to the Egg-Bot. You’ll need to install it, as well as the Egg-Bot extension, and I’d recommend the Hershey Text extension. And Mac users will need X11. If any of those things confused you, you’ve got a little research ahead of you. If all you plan to do is print other people’s Egg-Bot specific designs, it will be a little bit easier. If you plan on making your own designs, or making existing designs work with the Egg-Bot, you’ve got some work to do. (If you are already an expert at Inkscape, well, then you’re lucky.)

Get ready to tweak.
Tinkerers tinker. Tweakers tweak. !? What I mean is, you’re going to have to mess with things. Little things. Egg-Bot is not just “set up and go” ready Freddy. You need to find the center of things, and the height of things, and what numbers equal what settings. And not just for the hardware, but for the software as well. If you have a problem figuring out how the DVR works to record “Glee” you might be in trouble…

But hey, don’t let me scare you… I’m not trying to. In fact, the Egg-Bot kit is not rocket science (that’s the Rocket-Bot kit) but it does require a bit of work. If doing some work before you have some fun doesn’t interest you, well, I can’t help you.

There is a mailing list, and a wiki, and the folks at Evil Mad Science are awesome and helpful. So there’s that.

And one more thing… I may not be an expert, but I’m willing to share what I know, so for the locals (meaning, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin) I joked about an “Egg-Bot User Group” when I met the other guy in town who has one, but since a few people thought that was a good idea, maybe we should arrange some demo or meeting or something? If you’re interested, get in touch with me, or leave a comment.

(And yes, I tried very hard to avoid using the “Eggspert” joke. You’re welcome.)