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Time Lapse Bot 3

Time Lapse Bot 3

I built the original “Time Lapse Bot” in September 2009 before BarCampMilwaukee4 happened. I managed to get an old office chair that someone was throwing away and thought I could put it to good use to move around the iMac and camera rig I had attached to it. You can see the original Time Lapse Bot post for more info.

The main issue with the original Time Lapse Bot was that if you unplugged it, you had to boot it up again, set the clock, and then restart the image capture. We thought about a UPS to give it a bit of “unplugged” time, but never added one.

Next up was Time Lapse Bot 2 which used an old clamshell iBook in place of the old iMac. This made everything much lighter but because the battery couldn’t hold a charge we still suffered the inability to unplug it and move it while it was running. (We typically solved this problem with really long extension cords.)

Time Lapse Bot 3

Time Lapse Bot 3 is the next step in Time Lapse Bot technology. We’ve taken an old PowerBook G4 (donated by Matt Gauger) which has a good battery in it, and paired it with a Canon ZR800 MiniDV camera, which also has a good battery. The result is a unit that can run on battery (at least for a few hours) and starts charging the batteries as soon as you plug in the AC power cord.

The entire unit is housed in a custom case which allows for easy transport. By “custom case” we’re referring to the plywood box that I constructed and painted black. That’s what we consider the pinnacle of “custom cases” around here.

The software that runs Time Lapse Bot is EvoCam by Evological. It’s $30 and well worth it. It’s feature packed, and rock solid. If you’re putting together a Mac-based time lapse rig that uses a video camera, or a web cam, or whatever, I highly recommend it.

Here’s a few of the time lapse videos we’ve made with the help of Time Lapse Bot.

We’ve finally reached a point where we are fairly pleased with Time Lapse Bot and it’s performance, so this is obviously not the time to sit still and relax. We’re currently working on a few upgrades to Time Lapse Bot, and hope 2011 brings even more Time Lapse Bot goodness to all the folks who enjoy time lapse videos…

(Thanks for reading this. If you’re reading it on Facebook or Google Reader or somewhere else it got syndicated to, consider visiting the original post, especially if you’d like to leave a comment.)

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Arduino + ShiftBrite Light Organ

Arduino ShiftBrite

If you liked the last Arduino + ShiftBrite post, but don’t like Perl, here’s a Processing sketch for you… It’s a simple Light Organ that lights up the ShiftBrite in a specific color based on pressing a key.

(Once again we’re using the HughesyShiftBrite library.)

Here’s the code for the Arduino, which is pretty similar to our code from last time:

/*
 * LightOrgan.pde - Arduino
 */

#include "HughesyShiftBrite.h";

HughesyShiftBrite sb;

void setup()
  sb = HughesyShiftBrite(10,11,12,13);
  sb.sendColour(0,0,0);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {

  int input = Serial.read();

  switch (input)  {
  case 48:
    sb.sendColour(0,0,0);
    break;
  case 49:
    sb.sendColour(700,0,0);
    break;
  case 50:
    sb.sendColour(0,700,0);
    break;
  case 51:
    sb.sendColour(0,0,700);
    break;
  case 52:
    sb.sendColour(700,700,0);
    break;
  case 53:
    sb.sendColour(0,700,700);
    break;
  case 54:
    sb.sendColour(700,0,700);
    break;
  case 55:
    sb.sendColour(900,300,300);
    break;
  case 56:
    sb.sendColour(300,900,300);
    break;
  case 57:
    sb.sendColour(300,300,900);
    break;
  }
  delay(5);
}

The only real difference here is the colors we are using…

Once that’s loaded on the Arduino, create a new sketch in Processing with the following code:

/*
 * LightOrganController.pde - Processing
 */

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;

void setup() {
  println(Serial.list());
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
  myPort.buffer(1);
  size(200, 200);
  background(0,0,0);
}

void draw() {
  // nothing needed here
}

void keyPressed() {
  if (int(key) == 48) {
    myPort.write(48);
    fill(0,0,0);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 49) {
      myPort.write(49);
      fill(200,0,0);
      rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 50) {
      myPort.write(50);
      fill(0,200,0);
      rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 51) {
      myPort.write(51);
      fill(0,0,200);
      rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 52) {
    myPort.write(52);
    fill(200,200,0);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 53) {
    myPort.write(53);
    fill(0,200,200);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 54) {
    myPort.write(54);
    fill(200,0,200);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 55) {
    myPort.write(55);
    fill(250,125,125);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 56) {
    myPort.write(56);
    fill(125,250,125);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else if (int(key) == 57) {
    myPort.write(57);
    fill(125,125,250);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
  else {
    myPort.write(48);
    fill(0,0,0);
    rect(5,5,190,190);
  }
}

When you run the Processing code, it will draw a black box on the screen, and if you press any number between 0 and 9 it will change the color of the box, as well as changing the color of the ShiftBrite.

Colors

If you’re lucky enough to have a number keypad on your keyboard (I mean, since Apple stopped including that part of the keyboard) you can go nuts hitting all the keys from 1 through 9 (and zero for “off” or black) and put on a nice little light show.

If you don’t care about the on screen display and just want to control the ShiftBrite, here’s some simpler code:

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;

void setup() {
  println(Serial.list());
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
  myPort.buffer(1);
}

void draw() {
  // nothing needed here
}

void keyPressed() {
  if ((int(key) > 47) & (int(key) < 58)) {
      myPort.write(int(key));
  }
  else {
    myPort.write(48);
  }
}

Since we don’t need to draw anything based on the key pressed, we just look for a key between 0 and 9 and send it over the serial port.

Disclaimer: This code is probably pretty damn basic, but I’m a fan of documenting the process, and I’m still learning (and having fun!) and I hope someone finds it useful. If you’ve got suggestions or improvements, let me know… thanks!

(Thanks for reading this. If you’re reading it on Facebook or Google Reader or somewhere else it got syndicated to, consider visiting the original post, especially if you’d like to leave a comment.)

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HTML5 Invaders

I’ve designed this new game but I need some help building it using HTML5… If you know any great HTML5 developers, please send them my way… Thanks!

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iPad Needs a Stand

iPad Stand

I’ve already told you that the iPad needs a case, but you should know that the iPad could also use a stand. I like the Macally METROLPAD case, but it didn’t have a built-in stand as many cases do, and as I used the iPad more and more, I realized a stand would be useful.

iPad Stand

Rather than buy one, I figured that making one would be a good idea. I took a piece of wood from the scrap pile, and using the jigsaw cut a notch into it. The one on the left is an early prototype I made before I actually got the case. Once I got the case I had to make a new one with a bigger notch. The prototype was also not that great at keeping the iPad standing, so I moved the notch up towards the front. (The one on the left could probably be turned into a toy car if I added some wheels. :)

iPad Stand

Here it is in action. I should probably make a bunch of these and just leave them around various places in the house so I always have one handy.

iPad Stand

Here’s the rear view. One issue with the stand is that it works fine in landscape mode, but not so much in portrait mode. (It works, but it’s sort of “precariously balanced” to say the least.) If I really want to use the stand with portrait mode, I may work on a new one that works a bit better with both orientations.

iPad Stand

If you’ve got some scrap wood and a saw, make a stand, it’s pretty easy. Note that the stand is also backwards compatible with (many) iPods and iPhones.

(Thanks for reading this. If you’re reading it on Facebook or Google Reader or somewhere else it got syndicated to, consider visiting the original post, especially if you’d like to leave a comment.)

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PHP Hacking

The Milwaukee PHP User Group invited me to speak at their January 2011 meeting, so I talked about PHP Hacking, or at least my perspective on it, with a talk titled: PHP Hacking: The battle between great ideas and not-so-great code.

I recorded the audio from the talk, and since I felt the slides themselves didn’t say much, I thought about syncing the audio to the slides and making a video, but since SlideShare has these things called SlideCasts, I thought I’d give that a try…

John Boutelle has a great intro called Slidecasting 101 which explains it all. I found the SlideCast tool pretty easy to use, my only complaint would be that I’d like to not publish my slides until the audio is synced. If there’s a way to do that, I must have missed it.

As for the talk itself, it pokes a lot of fun at Java, .NET, Ruby (on Rails) and a few other things… Don’t take it too seriously… much of this talk was for entertainment purposes. Also, I mentioned a few people in this talk, or if I didn’t mention them, I mentioned things that they’ve done. Here’s a few: Dave Winer, Rogers Cadenhead, Kellan Elliott-McCrea, Phil Wilson, Vinny Carpenter, Steve Minutillo, Matt Gauger, Tom Henrich, and probably a few more I’ve forgotten…

If you’d like me to come speak at your user group or meeting, let me know… I’d be happy to come and insult whatever technology you’d like, even your own. :)

This presentation is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. You can also see it at SlideShare.