RasterWeb!

We Should Build (A Mastodon Bot)

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2022-12-25

I joined Mastodon at the end of October 2022 (I’m @rasterweb@mastodon.social) and it’s been amazing. I can’t tell you how much I love a platform with no ads, no tracking, and no far-right extremists. So after (exactly) two months I’m pleased to be releasing my first Mastodon bot. If you’re interested, give a follow to @weshouldbuild@toot.works

I’ve described it as “A helpful bot that will give you suggestions for things to build…” and it’s just simple and silly and it was an easy way for me to get started with bots on Mastodon. It comes from the work I did on the MMPIS at Milwaukee Makerspace.

I used Mastodon.py for this (GitHub and Docs) and even though I set out to dig deeper into Python back in 2020, things got derailed (ha, as did the world) so my Python skills are still lacking, but this is seriously less than 20 lines of code and I had a fun time writing it.

Besides my main Mastodon account I have another account that is really just a backup account (for testing and… because backup) and two accounts on servers run by two friends on their own servers. I chose to put this on botsin.space because it’s specifically for Mastodon bots. (I also sent the admin a donation to help cover the server costs.)

Note: As of 2024-12-14 botsin.space has shut down. We moved the bot to https://toot.works/@weshouldbuild thanks to Joe who runs toot.works.

I’m excited about creating another bot already, and I have an idea what I want to do. I think this will be a good way for me to flex my coding muscles since I’ve been writing the same sort of things for the past two years and more Python experience could certainly come in handy.

Note: The botsin.space server will shut down in December 2024.

Tags mastodon, python

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Milwaukee’s Cache Cider

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2022-12-22

I recently stopped by Cache Cider while in Bay View. I’m a fan of cider, especially because I don’t really care for beer (except root beer!) and since this is the first cidery in Milwaukee I was excited to give it a try.

Ethan Keller is the man behind the bar, and you can read an interview or check out this Shpeherd Express or OnMilwaukee article for more info.

I think reading the interview or articles is important, because they explain what Ethan is trying to do, which is sort of… archive apples. It’s pretty interesting, his take on this. That said, everyone has different tastes, I have some favorite ciders, and some I don’t care for, so this isn’t so much a review as my own thoughts after trying some.

When we stopped by Cache Cider I said “Hey, give me six different bottles! Which would be called a “variety pack” in some places. These are what I got; Duchess of Oldenburg, Northwestern Greening, Arkansas Black, Ashmead’s Kernel, Roxbury Russell, and Entangled Cranberry. (I really liked the Duchess of Oldenburg and the Entangled Cranberry.)

I don’t know if I would make Cache Cider a regular stop, as I didn’t love any of the ones I got, but I think if you like cider you should check it out. I think Evan’s idea of archiving apples through cider is pretty cool, and it might be worth trying again in the future to see what’s new.

Tags cider, milwaukee

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Press Better with Sky Creature

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2022-11-30

Back in 2021 I built a Four Button MIDI Box for the band Sky Creature. The controller itself had to fit certain requirements (with regards to dimensions and functionality) and while I did build at least one more for another musician it was a bit of a pain, so to make things easier I created the MIDI Controller 4 Button LC which was an easier-to-assemble (and Lower Cost) build. I’ve sold a few of them this year… Anyway, back to Sky Creature!

It’s eleven months later and I heard from Matt again and he let me know that Sky Creature did a 42 show tour across the country, as well as a few shorter tours, and the controller held up beautifully. Good to know! I mentioned to Matt that I seldomly get to hear about my devices after they leave the shop, and rarely get to see them in the wild… So he sent me this photo:

I like that they named it “Press Better” as well. As for Sky Creature, they’ve got a unique sound… I mean, what if Enya were in Minor Threat? I’m definitely a fan of their DIY take on things. They booked their tour themselves, and are very much about just getting out there and doing it. Sure, they got some help from Steve Albini to record things, but most smart people do.

Oh, total side note here… I’m excited for Majel’s new podcast A Music of Their Own, which will “seek advice from women artists that have their act together”. It’ll be on NPR starting December 8th, 2022.

Matt and I are discussing another controller right now, and honestly it feels good to get new challenges for the things I create. I’ve been building various controllers and physical computing devices for over ten years now, and without customers and a purpose it can often feel a bit isolating, even when you are learning new things. Having people use and enjoy thing things you make is a great feeling.

Tags controller, midi, music

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Three Button Tradeshow Video Player Controller

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2022-11-28

I was contacted by a trade show company about helping with a project on a tight deadline. At first it seemed as though they had a solution but just needed some hardware or some advice, but I did a call with the software developers and it seemed like the quickest (and most solid) plan was to create a drop-in replacement for what they were working on (and were stuck on) that would do exactly what was required.

One of the requirements was for each button to be lit a specific amount of time to match the length of video playback for each button. Since we didn’t yet know the lengths of the video, and I had to ship this across the country, I suggested an easy method of setting the time for each button to be lit. This would allow them to dial in (literally) the timing once they had the videos completed.

We did know that the videos would be under 75 seconds. Just to be safe I set the timers to go up to 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds, to be precise.) The controller plugs into a computer via USB and sends commands that the custom software needs to play the appropriate video.

There are a lot of details I didn’t know, but it seemed like I had enough to do my part. They sent me a rendering of a cabinet the controller would live in (which I’ve replicated in the simple sketch above). When I was building museum exhibits much of my work lived inside of cabinets and was never seen by the public, only technicians… that doesn’t mean things shouldn’t look nice.

There’s a small OLED display in the controller which shows the time that corresponds to each button, and can be adjusted by the appropriate dial. The dials are 3D printed because I forgot to pocket out the back of the lid where the potentiometers are placed. There’s a few compromises that were made due to this being a rush job. (I completed this build in under a week, using only parts I had in my shop at the time.)

For other controllers I’ve used TRS jack and cables to connect the buttons, or on occasion, Cat5 cables and connectors. Both are nice because they are easy to obtain in any length, and trade show companies usually have a bunch in their inventory.

The bottom of the enclosure has four mounting holes, and I included screws to allow it to be attached inside the cabinet. Alternately, VHB or hook & loop could be used to attach it.

As always, if you need a device you can check out raster.etsy.com for some of the more popular stock items I make, but if you need something custom just get in touch.

Tags arduino, button, controller, tradeshow, usb

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The (Old) Tool Holder

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2022-11-16

Back in February I got sick of the tools I use most at my soldering desk just lying in a pile and decided to do something about it. I grabbed a block of wood and started drilling holes so I could place tools into it standing straight up. This would make them easy to grab and hopefully easy to put back… in the same place each time. The block of wood has worked well enough, but more than once I’ve wanted to change the order of the tools, and I can’t easily do that since each hole is customized for the tool it holds.

It was also a fun time creating the holes for the wire cutters and wire strippers since the holes are sort of oblong. I actually did pretty good for freestyle drilling on those. At the time I also imagined a modular system for this, and a month later I found a dovetail library for OpenSCAD and started messing around with it. I could not get a good dovetail joint to print though, so I gave up for a while.

A few more months passed (hey, I got busy) and instead of printing the dovetails on the old Maker Select Plus I tried on the Prusa MINI+ and wow, things fit perfectly! Well, after a few tests prints to determine the exact Teeth_clearance to use. Once I had that, Bob was my uncle!

Here’s the first successful attempt. The pieces fit together well. Not super-tight, but not too loose. A small strip of tape on the bottom of the blocks would work well to hold them all together as one piece, with the ability to easily take apart and reconfigure. (The first dovetail attempts required a hammer to assemble and could not be disassembled!)

I’m still considering this prototyping, and I may tweak things a bit more before the final version… When I have something final I’ll post it here. My first thought on this version is to make the blocks a little smaller so the tools are spaced together a bit tighter. This should save a bit of desk space as well.

Tags 3dprinting, tools, wood