Archive for the ‘How To’ Category

Double Rainbow All The Way — An HTML5/canvas tutorial by Jim Bumgardner

Posted on October 21st, 2011 • Filed under How To • No Comments

What does it mean!?
In this tutorial, we’re going to make an animated double rainbow in HTML5 / Canvas. I’m doing this to teach you about the HSL color space, and to show you a more sophisticated way of using it.

I’ll soon have another tutorial which recreates the same examples in Processing.js. Some aspects of this are easier in Processing, and some are easier in HTML5/Canvas – the difficulty is roughly the same for both, I’ve found.

To draw a rainbow, we need a graphics framework to work with. In this tutorial, I’m going to draw everything using the Canvas APIs which are part of HTML5. This means that if you are using an older web browser, like IE 8 or earlier, you’re not going to see anything!

Keep Reading this Tutorial at KrazyDad.com…

Boxes! (How to design and build a box in a half hour)

Posted on August 14th, 2011 • Filed under How To • No Comments

The rather makeshift laser cutter payment box that had been taped to the wall served us well, but it gave up the ghost today. Which gave me the perfect excuse to use the Rahulbotics BoxMaker to make a new one.

BoxMaker is a simple little app that you tell how big to make a box and it generates a PDF that you can load into the laser cutter and make the box. It lets you specify the size, thickness of material, and even the laser kerf. It uses finger joints to hold the sides together without fasteners. If you set the kerf right, the box won’t even need glue. BoxMaker is free (postcard-ware) and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. But there’s also a online version so you don’t even have to install anything.

I had the box designed, cut, and hung on the wall within a half hour, thanks to BoxMaker.

The Cinefamily Valentine’s Day LED Heart

Posted on February 16th, 2011 • Filed under Events, How To • No Comments

Cinefamily Electric Dreams pajama party

This past weekend we participated in the Cinefamily Pajama Party screening of Electric Dreams. There was dancing, smashed-monitor-into-valentine’s-day-card making, photo booth action, etc. Rusty Lemorande even put in an appearance, answering questions about some of the behind the scenes action of how things went down (note to self, knowing Barbra Streisand, not a bad idea)

One of the things we brought to the table(s) were these little LED Hearts Lights. We’ve put them on Thingiverse and on Flickr. This is our first thing on Thingaverse officially. Don’t worry. We’ll make more.

If you haven’t heard of Electric Dreams, here is the Culture Club video of one of the songs they have on the Soundtrack.

[Update 2011-02-15] We’ve added our extras to our store for for anyone who would like an original of their own: CRASHSpace LED Heart

A Journey into TouchDesigner:

Posted on January 13th, 2011 • Filed under Events, How To, Local Resources, News & Updates, Services • 3 Comments

A Realtime Multi-Media System

What will we do?

You will learn the basics, workflow and methods of this programming environment and paradigm through a few simple examples.
From there you’ll start to see the innumerable possibilities and get a glimpse under the covers. We will really start to see how it is changing our approach to large installation based projects, performance based art pieces and other realtime digital media. Getting a feel for this environment will no doubt inspire more questions and ideas which will dictate where we more deeply explore. Expect a great collaborative learning environment as dynamic as TouchDesigner itself.

Have a look at the forums and you will see that the community is small, but steadily growing. You can find answers to many initial questions there. One can also find a great repository of shared files and components offered by users and developers in an effort to connect TouchDesigner with a slew of amazing technologies being explored in digital creativity.

Explore the following:

Kinect

getting an arduino input working for an accelerometer

So what is it really?

The interface is similar to Max/MSP or Pure Data, in that it is a visual, node-based programming environment. The objects at your disposal range from simple mathematical operations to complex OpenGL texture generators. There are several ways to customize and hand-code your own methods, as well as extend and connect to external generators, controllers, sensors, cameras, etc. You could look at it like a custom rigged combination of openFrameworks, processing and Max/MSP with a focus on creating real-time OpenGL based graphics.

Who is our guide?

The class will be led by Peter Sistrom. Peter is an architectural designer by trade, who’s interests have been veering towards generative art, realtime graphics and media environments for the last 3 years. He has worked in designing, installing and performing interactive and media based projects. These days, Peter devotes his free time to creating abstract visual animations and actively developing realtime media for live performance with TouchDesigner.

Of TouchDesigner Peter says:

In the last year I have been using TouchDesigner for my personal art making and some production work. In this time, I have grown more and more convinced of its place at the top of the new wave of multi-media art and production tools. This year has also seen the program used in several rather high profile productions, ranging from YouTube’s Guggenheim awards ceremony to the Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) world tour video system. Aside from full blown production, TouchDesigner has also been used in interactive installations and collaborative art making at MIT. TouchDesigner is also quite a pleasure when used for smaller personal projects, whether it be a music visualization, as the backbone for some fun I/O hacking, or just about anything else you can think of!

Come to Crash Space on February 23rd at 8p (cal link)
We’re asking non-members for a $10 donation to pay the instructor and keep the space open.

Want to start now?

[Updated 2011-11-13] fixed formatting and product name to “TouchDesigner”

[Updated 2011-11-21] updated link for Arduino-TouchDesigner interfacing

[Updated 2011-02-15] RSVP, invite your friends, or just see who’ll be there with the facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110587359019435

LED Throwie Laser Glasses

Posted on January 4th, 2011 • Filed under Events, How To, News & Updates • 10 Comments

This project was an adventure to say the least. The ideation was much longer than typically allow. Inspiration came from:

The Eye who gifted many laser creation at Burning Man
Bernard whom I met at RoboExoica with his LayerBot
Thingiverse gave me the chutzpah to think I could complete something cool on Xmas afternoon.

Truth be told I did complete something cool, but it was only the beginning. It was Christmas day. I was on server watch for my company (we doubled our traffic that day). I had my folks in town. What better place to entertain them while maintaining vigilance then at @crashspacela ? This first pair of glasses made a great demo of the power of open hardware and our tools at crashspace. I designed and lased out the pair while we were skyping with far away friends.

I already knew I’d be iterating on the design to add LEDs similarly to how Bkubicek had, but my folk were hungry and we had Xmas dinner to attend to. After I safely put my folks to bed that night I went out dancing with some friends and blacklights. Immediately start discovering other necessary improvements that were sorely needed. The wire joints broke. They didn’t stay on ones face. The florescent orange acrylic turns kinda green in a nice mercury vapor black light. Even given this initially failed first attempt people loved it.

On sunday, I was back at the space designing the LED holding portion and a new joint. The joint proved very weak, so I opted for thicker acrylic. The local plastic shop was again open on Monday, so I grabbed some 1/4 inch florescent red. At this point I realized I lacked any UV LEDs and started begging everyone I knew to scrounge some up. I started taking stock in all the other parts I’d need to complete a single pair to figure how many I could make. At this point we had plenty of flashing and orange LEDs on hand, so I knew in the worst case it wouldn’t be an issue. My limiting part turned out to be the CR2032 batteries of which each pair requires two. I could grab some at radio shack or whereever, but the cost online is about 90% less so didn’t feel like rewarding the locals for their gouging. Luckily I happen to have 16 of these so 8 pairs were possible. Definitely enough for a sizable NYE crew.

Tuesday I was back in the lab design the LED holder with the 1/4 inch acrylic, tuning the battery placement, adding an option gusset, and adding a hole for a strap. This makes em a little more like goggles. I came out with the lased parts for single pair pretty close to final.

Wednesday I was working on sourcing LEDs and straps and figuring how to best tie a strap conveniently.On a trip to the $99 cent store where there was rumored to be some sweet day-glo glasses straps. The straps didn’t work at all, but in my searching I found these little plastic clips. I’m clueless as to what for they’re originally intended. They make a nice battery clip and switch. Bonus! Again I brought out a pair to show and pass around. Again they broke. I decided then to thicken the arm piece to completely enclose the battery.

Thursday, I lased parts for all 8 pairs and on the way out of the space I found someone had left me UV LEDs. I love my hackspace! I had to help with the decorations for a NYE event, so ran off to that. I brought along enough parts to complete a single pair and it took a lot longer to assemble than I’d hoped. I again found an opportunity to gift a pair and road test. Success! no breakage. Given that it took a while to assembly I was up that night tying the knots, force fitting LEDs, and taping batteries in place. Good times!

RoboHeart

Posted on January 3rd, 2011 • Filed under How To • 1 Comment

For Christmas, I hacked my wife’s Jim Bauer robot sculpture. It had a red plastic heart that flickered when switched on. The bulb had burned out, and it would have been easy enough to replace, but why do that when I could make it better?

All I would need is a BlinkM, an Arduino, and a Wi-Fi router.

I replaced the candelabra bulb inside the robot with a ThingM BlinkM MaxM, printed a new heart on the MakerBot, and used an Arduino to drive the whole thing. By hooking it up to a Asus WL-520gU Wi-Fi router, I can control it over Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi part was the complicated part, but fortunately Todbot figured it out already, so I was able to rely on his excellent blog post.

See the full details on my blog.

MakerBot DishWasher Repair

Posted on August 1st, 2010 • Filed under How To • No Comments

This is a broken piece from my Frigidaire dishwasher. It connects the rotating upper spray arm to the dishwasher. You can see the wear on it by looking at the large ring at the bottom of the image. It should go all the way around, but a portion has broken off. You can also see additional wear on the upper right of the part.

The piece no longer fits properly, and the spray arm fails to spin and rinse the dishes in the upper shelf.

Disassembling the arm was very easy. The problem was getting the replacement part from Frigidaire. We tried several times, got the wrong part once, and ended up with an utter failure. I’m sure a repairman would have been more successful, but given how simple this repair is, why should I have to pay for that? This is where the MakerBot at CrashSpace comes in to the story.

click to READ THE REST OF THE STORY at my blog

Take Apart Tuesday No. 8: Saw III Digital Voice Recorder & LOST Homage

Posted on May 18th, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 1 Comment

Yay! Another Take-Apart-Tuesday write up! I’ve been distracted by CRASH Space meta, but here’s one of the several dismantlings we’ve done since the last time I posted.

I’ve written about how nice it is to be able to buy electronics supplies locally a few times. All Electronics is one of those LA vendors. Tom brought in one of the SAW III digital voice recorders they sell for around 2 bucks in January, but, lets face it, it creeped me out. So what better to do than to Take it Apart!

Toys and random schwag are great resources for hacking projects. Frequently you can get whole working circuits for cheaper than an IC alone. I tried to source comparable boards / chips and the next cheapest thing I found in a board was $6.95 (What looks like the Aplus APR9301 at Electronics123). I found a chip alone at Digikey for $3.84 (The Nuvoton ISD1700 ChipCorder® Series)

As Make Magazine pointed out back in 2008, GetLoFi has a write up showing what resistor to replace with a potentiometer for pitch control (R4) how to add a phono jack, etc. Briefly mentioned is hooking one of these up to an Arduino board via transistors, so that’s what I’m going to show in this article.

Read the rest of this entry »

Home Depot Rocket Science

Posted on May 7th, 2010 • Filed under How To • No Comments

In this clip, Crash Space member and founder of Acceleren, Clive shows how to make a basic rocket out of under $100 worth of parts from Home Depot. As you can see he’s doing a lot of this at the space and we’ll likely have some kind of a rocket night in the very near future. Check out the Acceleren YouTube channel for more vlogs and updates.

Take Apart Tuesday No. 7: Keypad from Canon MP27D

Posted on March 16th, 2010 • Filed under Events, How To • 2 Comments

Running way behind, but I think y’all will forgive me. We’ve been doing some great Put-Together-Tuesdays since the last time I posted with a SpeedMake on March 2nd and BrushBot assembling on the 9th. If you’ll look waaaay back with me to February 23rd, though, I’ll tell you about the Canon MP27D.

While there is some fabulous motor fun in this machine, there is also a keypad that uses something called row column scanning to do it’s business. I bring this up because it is pretty common to want more buttons in your project than your micro-controller has pins. Also, the board they’re using is one of the easiest circuit boards to completely reverse engineer that I’ve seen in awhile because it has no parts on it. So for keypad circuit stealing, keep reading.