FABulous christine

flickerminick online

2004-12-28T00:38:00.000-08:00

ta-da!

please visit the official flickerminick project website.

documentation

2004-12-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

the aftermath.

view : unabridged contents of digital camera from the fab open house

view : unabridged contents of digital camera from the fab open haus

comfy website for flickerminick is in the works. will publish accordingly.

the enormous room is a wee bit more comfy than e15-023...

finale

2004-12-13T03:54:00.000-08:00

done!

five parts, all succesfully executed:
1. fans change in intensity via pwm, inflating and deflating the body
2. tentacles twitch with [10!] stepper motors
3. the LEDs in the interior modulate from bright white to soft purple with each breath
4. el wire looks amazing...
5. IR transceiver: if you get too close, be prepared to be stung!

in the making

code
jellyfish.c

eagle files
jellyetch.sch
jellyetch.brd

board

unfortunately, the chip wasnt working properly on the etched board; but i just threw everything on a breadboard and went to town with wire and clips. unexpected nicety: you can't see the mess in the dark!

movies

thursday thoughts

2004-12-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

[must sleep now]

now i have the jellyfish breathing with random frequency. sweet!

i recut the parts for the motors, and they fit well. new problem: not enough torque to spin the sucker. will try the couplings soon. hopefully. yes.

managed to get 5 (probably even more!) superbright LEDs going off of one output pin, no resistors necessary.

gross thought: many-a-plugin-adapter hanging from the apparatus. i wish it were cordless...

[i love purple.]

wednesday woes

2004-12-09T01:38:00.000-08:00

[the aftermath]

update...

motors
tried to find the sweet spot. right now my pulse delay is around 1200 - 1500, and the motors run smoothly but they're overheating like crazy. my acrylic pulleys are melting, so need to cut some more. should try to cut the middle hole, maybe around 40 mils in diameter with slits to fit. need more radius for sizable rotational effect... i'll try cutting 1in, 2in, and perhaps 3in pieces.

tentacles
i like the fluidity of the silk thread. thoughts on EL wire... could illuminate when photosensors are dark.

midweek maintenance

2004-12-08T23:33:00.000-08:00

[juicing up jellyfish]

updates from last time
so, since my project has a bunch of different parts, here's the breakdown of components in order of priority: pulsating body with fans (works oh-so-beautifully), twitching tentacles (working on getting the timing of the motors down now), illuminating additions (just need to insulate the EL wire effectively, but the glow is perfect), a smattering of LEDs (the 12V ones are superbright!) poking about in random locations within the body, and lastly incorporating the IR sensor for interactivity.

body
so the fans are much more powerful now that i have the 12V 1amp wall wort plugged in. they're so fast that they blow themselves over! too cool... a collective 288 cpm :) the overlaying of shimmery fabrics is wonderfully fluid, and the inflation appears nice and organic. the fans create a little noise, but the ebb + flow of the winds enable a breathy sensation. flow...

tentacles
the circuit and everything works, but the motors are getting really hot and twitchy. tonight's theme: coordinate the timing correctly so the stepper moves smoothly. later theme: getting better press-fit parts. when heated up, the acrylic loses its tightness around the 0.055 shaft (so tiny!). i may use couplings, and press-fit over them, or do a different style of fit where the hole is quite small with two slits to allow for selective expansion + compression.

EL wire
note to self: do not short out the wire through the inverter. 120 volts can cause a shock! :) but the phosphorous makes a wondrous glow. not sure whether to use as tentacles (they're not that flexible) or to just augment the mess underneath with EL. pulsating glow. maybe a random flicker.

as far as presentation goes, will suspend from the overhang in the media lab atrium with fishing wire. lovely.

[breadboarding now, but goal is to get circuit milled/etched/stuffed by the end of friday.]

gotta love those alligator clips. solder is for wimps.

making waves with the jelly

2004-12-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

[ongoing news + progress]

so it's sunday night and the time is right. the last week has been well spent fabbing, circuiting, and hair-pulling. here's the update:

materials

ATmega16
IR transceiver
clear acrylic base corel file dxf: this has a series of holes cut into it to attach (via pretty ribbon) the motors, the fabric for the body, and hooks for hanging
fabric for the body: shimmery ivory organza and iridescent purple/pink/blue (it matches the violet LEDs!) georgette
ribbons + string: pinky and beigy (visceral colors) kinky ribbon for the inner parts, and silk cord for tentacles, and ties for the motors and fans
fans: huge $14.99 case fans from microcenter, each of which outputs 72 cubic feet per minute. WHOA. i have four of them.
motors: ten stepper motors to twitch. i might have killed one of them already. details follow.
lots and lots of mosfets.
getting a little current-crazy.
acrylic pulleys: lasercut components in which to tie the tentacles onto the motors
thin copper wire: to sew LEDs into the fabric
LEDs: violet for sparkle, bright-white for illumination
ELwire + inverter from coolight: still pending. but pink tail wire + white 2.3mm wire to string along tentacles
some sort of stand: thinking along the lines of a suspended birdcage. second best thing: a wheeley portable wardrobe.
circuit [prototype as of now]: schematic, board, gerber

what works

circuit: so i fleshed out a quasi-realistic schematic for the board. a little (well, super) tricky to route, so just breadboarding at this time until the circuit fleshes out completely. havent decided whether to modella it or etch, but the board seems like it'll be really big. planning on using the ATmega16 chip, with 32 glorious pins to work with. the basic organization is PORTA -> IR transceiver to detect proximity, PORTB -> fans, PORTC -> motors, PORTD -> LEDs.
AVR: right now, testing on the AT90S8515 chip with the STK500!!! unsurprisingly, coding in C has been a godsend. using winAVR with programmer's notepad + avr studio. a little tricky + finicky; lots of late nights spent head-scratching, thanks to drained batteries, defective alligator clips, a wayward LED, and software crashes.
proximity sensing: played around witih IR transceiver, and know how it's working. very cool.
body: initial attempts using four small case fans were paltry, sad, flaccid. the fabric's a bit sheer and porous, but the fans failed to make it budge. basically, they blew [pun intended]. scavenged microcenter for some mightier fans. definitely hit the jackpot with these super ones that even come with their own modulation knob. tied them up prettily in bows with silk cord and strapped them, damsel-to-traintracks-esque, to the base. good news: got PWM working on the fans to adjust the speed. managed to hook (n+1) fans up so they coordinate and spin synchronously. each fan (12V, 0.5 amp per) is attached to its own mosfet to maximize the wind output.
tentacles: got stepper motor to work, but then it started to flip out and get warm + stop working + twitch. the motors are tied to the underside of the base, and tentacles are tied onto lasercut pulley-hooks on the motor. as the motors pulse on and off, the impulse wiggles down the attached string. each motor has its own mosfet, though all of their motions are coordinated, so all assigned to identical pin.

below, the four fans installed onto the base. the fabric PWM-poofs!

what will work

interactivity: havent hooked up the IR transceiver to the circuitry yet,
but i have parts working on breadboard. when a person gets close/touching, the lights will flicker, the white lights will refresh illumination, and the body + legs will convulse.
coordination: getting the timing right so that motors, fans, and lights work together simultaneously.
the LEDs: the LEDs will be distributed about the fabric body, sewn using copper wire as thread.
suspension: jellyfish will be hung with clear fishing line [how appropriate!] from some sort of hook. first thought was a freestanding doorjamb-like thing, but a birdcage will work nicely. trying to find one, or will fabricate a good solution.

inspiration

2004-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

john coppinger
jellyfish dolls
simplicity

movement

2004-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

sketches

2004-11-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

Click a picture to see a larger view.

bendo bento

2004-11-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

[micromachinery]

manu's intro lecture to the micromachines was trés interesting, not to mention helpful. hooray for small things!

i wanted to take something already small and uber-smallify it. hence, i chose to design a miniscule version of a bento box. bento is a japanese meal organized neatly into different compartments, beautifully arranged with marvelously mini morsels. [interesting tidbit from wikipedia: Shōkadō bentō (松花堂弁当) is a traditional black-lacquered Japanese bento box, a type of lunchbox. It inspired IBM's ThinkPad design.] a bento box display is something very simple and compartmentalized, but also complex in aesthetics, layout, and components.

here are my 2D files, designed in coreldraw:
corel10 file
dxf file

update: inspired to create little containers for even littler things. can put tiny glass beads (~40 microns) within the boxes to make gorgeous microscopic pieces. i'm thinking joseph cornell meets richard feynmann.

six bento box configurations: zip file

interested in freestanding structures, multi-layer techniques, and is there any possibility for mini pressfit parts?

puttering

2004-11-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

[stepper motors]

i'm not sure what's wrong, but i bet it's due to my shoddy soldering skillls. my first board got off to a shaky start, burned my fingers, spun the motor for a few glorious seconds, and then emitted grand burnt fumes. toasted to the mosted. i just soldered up a second board this morning (thanks emma!) which refuses to receive uploaded code. i know my connector is okay because i just programmed amon's chip. what's happening??

with the teeming innards of the velcro room here, i concocted a cute spinning carnival-game-esque game with the glory of manifold adhesives, bubble wrap, and a chinet dinner plate. there's even a dual scoring scheme! fun for everyone.

since my final project will need probably 8-10 running motors, i need to get this problem with the board solved.

surfacing

2004-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

updated final project proposal; see if this is gonna fly.

so after experimenting around with the newer toys, and with some external inspiration, my latest project idea is loosely related to the chandelier project. first, i wanted something more organic-looking than something stiff and traditional. organic shapes with more modern-tech materials. doodled some starfishesque shapes, and slowly morphed to an octopus, an anemone, a jellyfish. i can imagine a stepper motor attached to each waving limb, with each individually controlled, legs curling or wiggling based on proximity. a light would softly glow within the main interior. and then, as an extension, instead of hanging on the ceiling, the whole light would be submerged in water. i'm hoping the vacuum form can produce a watertight housing for the circuitry.

just googling about for underwater light fixtures shaped like sea creatures, and came upon the indoor furnishing works of aqua gallery. i was amazed... this is exactly what i was thinking! except, of course, it'd be underwater, while responding to touch (and perhaps sound) through variable-state light glow pulsations and graceful tentacle wiggling.

how beautiful would this be? even if it were suspended from the ceiling instead of submerged in water, it'd create beautiful movement. i imagine the legs reacting quickly at first, then a slow retreat, the rest of the limbs imperceptibly swaying. however, to have it actually work underwater would be incredible... line the legs with translucent chiffon, inflate the 'head' from below, and infuse the tank with tiny diffusing particles. think: the wondrous jellyfish from finding nemo. no surprise that that was my favorite scene in the film.

machining

2004-11-09T09:26:00.000-08:00

[a.k.a. dont kill yourself.]

so the big rule of using the lab machines: be safe.

some good pointers:
- know how to turn the machine off before you turn it on.
- dont push toward the tool
- dont reach into the tool
- always machine with somebody! friends are handy.
- do a dry run in the air first before dealing with materials
- use your ears; the machine should sound happy

so, hopefully by the end of this, we retain all our limbs and fingers, and everyone's alive.

a small list of available toys:
- spot welder
- ultrasonic welder (can connect + seal plastics, textiles)
- drill press (keep speed low, use key to tighten chuck, pedal control)
- radial saw (just for wood!)
- cordless drill (vrrrm vrrrrrmmmm)
- taps (for cutting in screw threads)
- die (make your own custom screws!)
- vertical bandsaw (hands on sides, curled grip, interchangable holding fixtures)
- horizontal bandsaw (adjust vise, speed, auto shutoff)
- scroll saw (for curvacious cuts)

fun with the nc mill... so there's scary sounds and lots of cryptic buttons, which means that john gets to happily help out with everything. easy to break or ram through stuff, so careful is the word. for our initial project we were constrained to three tools (1/4", 1/8", 1/16" bits) and about a 1/2" depth within the 3/8" die half. whee, featurecam!

using the leaf dfx that i did in corel (linked below), milled this with john's help. just a 2D shape, as a pocket created in featurecam. however, it came out quite prettily, with no real hurdles. i think we just needed to make the stem parts a tiny bit thicker to accomodate the bit sizes. perhaps another change for the future: add more runners so that the inner leaves get injected more evenly.

injection molding! so technically, one could flow plastic glass spheres, cut-up fibers (graphite, glass, natural), composites (fibers in binders, very strong and conductive), metal, and ceramic (powdered in plastic). apparently the swatch irony line was the first injection molded metal watches on the market. for us, we're just using pellets of ABS plastic that can be dyed using little color pellets. so here we are with the gorgeous results. the first couple we made only came in partially, with it just forming in two parts, the top-most leaf and the stem. blame it on the minimal runners. did a little better by decreasing the speed of injection and increasing the temperature a bit. by making it runnier and slower, it managed to fill in the internal gaps and create a leaf. yay! imagine hundreds of these, forming a botanical bonanza.

notes on the injector: fill the material pellets about 2/3 way in the hopper, and add dye pellets if necessary (they're found in baggies under the machine). first, PURGE: align the purge plate in base, make sure there's a 40-50 degree difference in temperature, and start hydraulics (big green button). the mantra: engage carriage, inject (squooze), extrude (fill the cylinder with material). to lower pressure, turn knob in back CCW. watch for the plastic to come teeming out the top and sides of mold when it's full. to automate, can use the timers to dispense the allotment of injected plastic. you turn the thingy on top to specify how much material to extrude each time.

the vacuum former is very fun and easy to use. the smaller envelope is about 12" x 12"; the larger is 24" x 24". use PET, and make sure to take off the protective sheets first! put whatever object you want to form around on the tray, and lower it to safety with the big lever. place the PET sheet in the hole, aligning the sides with the sandwiching gaskets. lower the top (you might need to jiggle the bottom tray to align properly) and hand-lock in place. turn on all the burners and let it cook. the PET is ready to form when it's hot enough; you can tell if the middle is sagging about an inch or so. [then comes the fun part...] you raise your object with the lever, and then push the big green VACUUM button and watch the plastic get sucked down around your thing. you can use the eraser next to the machine to smooth out corners and curves. when satisfied with the result, press the yellow RELEASE button and voila.

the best thing for this is making packaging, but i guess i liked to create something more, perhaps a more generic container. i liked these ceramic nesting bowls from crate and barrel, so i v-formed over them. one concern: figure out how to get your object out from the plastic after forming! i had a bear of a time trying to pry the largest bowl out. hints: before forming, spray objects with a touch of STONER (i.e. machining PAM spray, a touch of smoothing grease), or if it's still stuck, put a shot of the heat gun onto the plastic until it gives way. after forming, you can crop the PET using the scrollsaw (it makes an awful noise!) and use the sander to polish the edges (note: dont wear your black best, as the whitish specks get everywhere). anyway, the clear PET bowls look pretty cute, and make handy containers. also, since they fit the forms of the original bowls perfectly, i managed to augment my 3 nesting bowl set to a 6 bowl set. neat.

i originally had a vision of creating a 3D topographical terrain by vacuum forming in iteration over a series of growing hills. i'd make a model of three legos, say, and vacuum form. augment the structure a big, form another piece, and fit over. therefore, looking through the multiple transparent layers you could see each contour map corresponding to time, for example. this would have been supercool, but i didnt want to use up a lot of PET sheets for this week. perhaps for another time, i may be able to recreate my vision.

iffy EFE

2004-11-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

so my EFE microcontroller board didnt quite work out from a couple weeks ago. various problems... the python onscreen visualization didnt run correctly, my capacitance values kept jumping around (leapfrog!), and i was bashing my head in on assembly syntax.

i tried the vinylcutter with the copper foil atop the epoxy substrate, but got a little frustrated at the weeding process. the cutting was fine; i think it was successful at around 65% force, and i had no problems with the sticky transfer. but weeding. argh! tweezers in hand, i would almost get there, and then near the end i'd rip up the leads. a tedious process that a spastic hand unfortunately doesnt have much patience for. i found solace and safety in the modella, which milled to perfection. ah.

some asm notes:

.equ actually assigns something another name (sort of like #DEFINE), aliasing, nom de plume, whatever you fancy
.def just declares a variable, taking dibs on a spot in memory
DDRM specifies whether a pin is output or input
sbi set bit - output
cbi clear bit - input
PORTB specifies whether a pin is turned high or low
sbi set bit - high
cbi clear bit - low

use undersampling to integrate the slow conversion rate of the A->D and the fast sample + hold signal. when your finger gets closer, the charge is slower because humans are huge capacitors. the big hint in running the EFE boards is to convert your object to capacitance and resistance.

also, the datasheet == ATtiny bible. read it and know.

postscript: for the jumps, neil suggests putting in NOPs to syncronize the ADC undersampling of 60-cycle. gotta figure this out.

robotic chandelier

2004-11-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

elvis by the cognitive machines group, deb roy

Aqua Creations -- Furniture

2004-11-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

Aqua Creations -- Furniture & Lighting Design by Ayala S. Serfaty

it's mill[ing] time

2004-11-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

started out with a grandiose idea of making leaves, replete with stems, veins, and softly turned tips. just produced a line drawing in coreldraw. john took one look at my file and laughed maniacally. seems i didnt take into account the size of the bits, so the design was a little too detailed with tiny resolution.

simplified the leaf by just drawing the outline (nixed the veins) and drew a thicker stem. here is the dxf.

wanted to get a little more adventurous, stepping into the next dimension, so created an adorable ladybug in 3dstudiomax. learned that for proper dxf export, you must convert everything to an editable mesh, and can probably save some headache by just creating a block to represent your cast and doing a boolean difference with the object, modeling the mold itself.

files for my ladybug!
the dxf
screenshot of the actual intended object
screenshot of the inverted cast

tom robbins

2004-10-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

in the center of a marble-top desk, directly under a crystal chandelier, sitting alone on a silver tray, was a large, raw beet. the beet must have been out of the groun a week or more, for it had the ashen exterior of a cancer victim. yet, when struck at a particular angle by a flicker of candlelight from the chandelier, its heart of wine-drenched velvet shone through.

anecdotes

2004-10-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

[all things chandeliers]

allusions, inspirations, references:

lighting

some contemporary chandeliers in frankfurt; some projects with LEDs

chandelier innovation

With “Scheherazade” Schonbek developed an entirely new way to construct a beaded chandelier (patent pending). Each strand of beads is encased within four slender strands of metalwork, so that the beaded arms and scrolls appear to float.

Robert Frost

I had a vision of them put together
Not like a man, but like a chandelier.

Jane O’Reilly

I used to join the murmurings about “Where are the qualified women?” As we murmured, we would all gaze about the room, up toward the chandelier, into the corner behind the potted palm, under the napkin, hoping perhaps that qualified women would pop out like leprechauns.

Sam Moore

Radio tried everything, and it all worked. It invented a new kind of singer whose voice wasn’t even loud enough to carry across a hotel bedroom, and Americans, as it turned out, would rather hear these “crooners” than any big-bellied tenor who ever shook an opera house chandelier.

love in a cottage, willis

But give me a sly flirtation
By the light of a chandelier— 10
With music to play in the pauses,
And nobody very near;
Or a seat on a silken sofa,
With a glass of pure old wine,
And mamma too blind to discover 15
The small white hand in mine.

the story of the white blackbird, de musset

Chaffinches, linnets, and robin redbreasts had grouped themselves lightly on some pruned branches like crystals on a chandelier.

vanity fair, thackeray

“O heavenly!” said Miss Sharp, and her eyes went from the carpet straight to the chandelier.

hop-frog, poe

The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a circular room, very lofty, and receiving the light of the sun only through a single window at top. At night (the season for which the apartment was especially designed) it was illuminated principally by a large chandelier, depending by a chain from the centre of the sky-light, and lowered, or elevated, by means of a counter-balance as usual; but (in order not to look unsightly) this latter passed outside the cupola and over the roof...

At his suggestion it was that, on this occasion, the chandelier was removed. Its waxen drippings (which, in weather so warm, it was quite impossible to prevent) would have been seriously detrimental to the rich dresses of the guests, who, on account of the crowded state of the saloon, could not all be expected to keep from out its centre; that is to say, from under the chandelier...

While the tumult was at its height, and each masquerader attentive only to his own safety (for, in fact, there was much real danger from the pressure of the excited crowd), the chain by which the chandelier ordinarily hung, and which had been drawn up on its removal, might have been seen very gradually to descend, until its hooked extremity came within three feet of the floor...

Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of course, in immediate contact with the chain. While they were thus situated, the dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles. Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the chandelier had been wont to depend; and, in an instant, by some unseen agency, the chandelier-chain was drawn so far upward as to take the hook out of reach, and, as an inevitable consequence, to drag the ourang-outangs together in close connection, and face to face.

fundevogel, grimm

"Fundevogel, never leave me, and I will never leave you." Fundevogel said: "Neither now; nor ever." Said Lina: "Then do you become a church, and I'll be the chandelier in it."

the little white bird, barrie

There were many oil-paintings on the walls, mostly without frames, and I must mention the chandelier, which was obviously of fabulous worth, for she had encased it in a holland bag.

I looked around me despairingly, and my eye alighted on the holland covering. "There is a fine chandelier in that holland bag," I said coaxingly.

She sniffed and was raising an untender hand, when I checked her. "Forbear, ma'am," I cried with authority, "I prefer to believe in that bag. How much to be pitied, ma'am, are those who have lost faith in everything." I think all the pretty things that the little nursery governess had made out of nothing squeezed my hand for letting the chandelier off.

the master and margarita, bulgakov

Then, he began crawling up the wall, ripping the wallpaper with his claws, and in two seconds he was high overhead, sitting on the metal curtain rod. In a flash, hands grabbed at the curtain and tore it down together
with the rod, letting the sunlight burst into the darkened room. But neither the fraudulently revived cat nor the primus fell down. The cat, still holding on to his primus, managed to swing through the air and land on the chandelier that was hanging in the center of the room."

The cat escapes with his primus stove and more havoc ensues.

proposal

2004-10-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

[half-way mark.]

ideas on final projects:

chandelier of change

a bit fascinated with lighting; using alternative materials and mechanisms to create a chandelier with a twist. inspired as well by the evans exhibit up at the lvac. the mix of the antiqated style + digital capabilities.

inspiration: the intricate, gorgeous chandeliers at harvard's dudley house dining hall. they seem so capable of magical things.

plan: set up LEDs as the pinpoints of light, like the array of candles. put pressure sensors to detect air speed, so the user could put out whichever candles they wanted by definitively blowing them out. to light them, you could hold a lit candle to an unlit one, and the light would be transferred over as with a flame. you could also light one by itself by closing your hand [squeezing?] over it and then uncovering the light. the hand holds a bit of mystery.

the intensity of the light would be manipulated by either blowing softly [a progressive dimming] or cupping your hand around it as to protect the flame [a progressive brightening].

other than the manual lighting interface, the lights could throb in time with a user's heartrate - connection via pulse reader. could also assign each light to a specific star, and twinkle them with varying intensity on the light with real-time cosmological data. perhaps i could hook this up with an email correspondance database, with the lights forming an ambient device that notifies which people you've had good response rate with, and which rapports are dying away [light fading].

want to infuse a bit of unpredictability, surprise.

materials: programmed microcontroller, sensors, LEDs (3-way, hopefully), data input devices, construction of acrylic, aluminum, and plastic

the dancer

i like the idea of using mixed media, a la degas with his dancer. the 3d printers take forever and you have a tradeoff between color and strength. however, could do more with creating more organic pieces by printing in ABS and fusing bits of fabric, texture, fur, found objects, onto and around it.

three thousand dimensions

2004-10-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

[foray into the monstrous]

happily [or not so, for some], the stratasys printer got back online by the end of last week. john gave us a little primer, which goes a little something like this:

stratasys printing:

takes input as STL files (apparently it likes ASCII mode, whereas the zcorp has a predilection for binary files). unless you want your thing to print for a day and a half (quite literally), keep the z-values low, and your thing small. in the insight software, scale your object using STL -> scale. on screen, navigate through menus and things using the << >> buttons, and make sure settings are what they should be (as posted). click the green flag icon to start conversion of the STL file for the printer. click the button with the little horizontal lines to sift through the stack of layers that are created from the process to see if everything looks good with the binding material and if there's wiggle room where you intended it to be. to toggle between the object and support, go to STL -> display.

start communicating with the printer! click thing on screen that looks like a box talking (ok, ok, it's an arrow) to another bigger box.

now, to the machine: push ENTER and make sure that the support material temperature reaches 235. ensure the foam pad is agreeably smooth and secured by pins. now, the purging process to make sure the heads are smooth as silk. push LOAD when you see MODELING material appear on the LCD. the head should jog forward and the nozzle starts going. when the thread that emerges is whitish and smooth, push LOAD again to stop. to clean the support nozzle, push MODEL SUPPORT, and then do the same thing with the LOAD buttons. when done with this whole thing, make sure the modeling nozzle is back in the lower position.

ah, how cathartic. everyone needs a good purging.

pushing PAUSE puts it to absolute (0,0) in the (x,y) direction. you can press arrows to reset it if necessary. to adjust the z, press Z-AXIS and then use the up-down arrows. you want to bury the modeling tip about 1mm in the foam (ever-so-slightly below the surface).

make sure the printing is ok: the support material should be piped out in an outline first, NOT a raster. if this is not the case, make sure all is well; press PAUSE. on a good day, the support draws the outline and then fills in by rastering.

the nozzle heads we use are the ones with 2 rings on them, a T12 model. claim to have 1mil resolution; seems like for moving parts, the tolerance hovers around 20mil.

we had initial problems of the stratasys suddenly shutting off repeatedly. cause was ascertained to be overheating of the interior envelope, so leaving the door ajar seemed to do the trick.

the experiments

so although the zcorp dazzled with its petite stature and color capabilities, i didn't want to deal with particles in the lung and shattering [hearts] pieces. i'll play around with it soon enough, but set my eyes on the stratasys because of its durable ABS. or so i first thought.

spent some time playing around with 3d studio max and fell in love with it's intuitive-like-blender-is-not quality. played around with the primitives and thought an abacus might be something cool that dealt with interlocked moving parts and become something remotely useful. also made a bracelet to match (resembles those tasty candy necklaces we all know and love) for fun, and tried out a torus knot to see how it'd print.

design files

time is of the essence. on the stratatys, two objects:
my abacus (resized to 50%) 4" x 2" x 1/4" (relatively flat) and the knot about 2" x 2" x 2". they're laid side by side. the estimated printing time is 13 hrs. (!) the reason it took so long was the height of the knot.

i wasn't there to witness it, but i heard my abacus was so fragile it snapped in pieces while support material was removed from it before the bubbling bath. the remains:

reprinted the abacus at a larger size. much better; the beads resemble cheerios. however, the plastic is quite noticably stringy around the beads. the rectangular frame, however, is sturdy and clean-cut. my hunch is that the printer doesnt do terribly well with small areas with high curvatures. the torii of the beads are probably curvier than the printer can handle to print cleanly.

and the knot? it turned out gorgeously. check it out!

dreams of white

2004-10-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

[learning how to use the 3D laser scanner and printer]

for next week: take anything 2D or 3D, provide input, and print output. [the possibilities loom.]

here are the best attempts to gather the knowledge i've absorbed in the last two days regarding the 3D machines. so fancy; this is the moment i've been waiting for.

the dreaded blender resurfaces for texture mapping bitmaps onto mesh curves. the plan: learn 3d studio max this week and see if it's easier to work with. but in case i bug out...

blender [newest version]:
- create a mesh [e.g. uv sphere - 12 segments, 12 rings].
- uv face select mode
- uv image editor mode
- [on right screen] image : open image
- U_key: sphere
- texture
- A_key: shift-right-click the polygons
and then, exporting as VRML 2.0 preserves the color mapping.

minolta laser scanner:
- SCSI connection, so turn scanner on, then turn computer on
- geomagic studio software
- i found this software tutorial and this other tutorial online
- show image window -> show streaming video
- can either autofocus or input manual distance and power
- each scanning pass obtains 300,000 points of data [wow!]
- to clean up, points -> reduce noise, points -> wrap, polygon -> fill holes
- to smooth edges, tools -> make boundary edges -> path fit
- to simplify, polygon -> decimate
- to stitch together several scans, callibrate z-axis, tools -> registration
save as VMRL 2.0 file!

so there are two printers at our disposal: the stratasys, which takes in STL files and prototypes in heavy-duty monochrome ABS plastic, and the zcorp, which takes in STL or VRML files and models in color using a special plaster. sadly, at the moment, the stratasys is out of commission. the zcorp prints to 0.004" resolution.

zcorp printing:

[to fill the trays, can either do automatically or manually.]

auto: go to online mode, and do 406service -> fill bed -> start. the printer goes and does its own thing for a couple minutes, spreading the plaster smoothly from the feed bin to the build bin. use the vacuum on the side to suck up the excess dust. to get the particles underneath the head, go offline, press spread to move the head, and suck away.

manual: make sure you're in offline mode. even out contents of feed bin with special flattening tool. move the build bin to about quarter-inch below the top lip. spread. raise feed bin to about quarter-inch above the top. spread. raise feed bin. spread. keep spreading until things look smooth. lower build tray to about quarter-inch below the lip. vacuum excess. [keep things pretty and neat while working; the white dust gets everywhere.]

go to 406service -> unpark and use deionized water to wet the wipers and the cups. dry only the cups with a paper towel.

on with the software! zprint!

when using the zprint software for the zcorp printer, should always import your files. the most efficient way to use the space within the printing envelope is to place the objects on the bottom; keeping z-values low is key to saving hours of plaster laying. good idea to buddy up with friends to lay jobs simultaneously on the printing bed.
- transform -> justify to line up to area envelope
- do print estimate (quicker for monochrome)
- problems? try edit->invert normals
- default with spatial interior
- want a shell? take boolean subtraction of smaller shape from larger one

click the button for 3D print setup and choose either setting of ZP102 [drier] or ZP56-102 [wetter, better color]. if you want monochrome printing, choose 406service -> change binder supply. the best part of this is an email notification service that tells you when your thing has finished after 31.7 hours! edit -> preferences to enter email. :)

post-printing, take dusty object over to the vacuum station and scrape, wipe, suck, and excavate to heart's delight. post-post-printing, put into the oven machine to heat and wax, which strengthens and preserves the plaster model.

the coolest models to come out of the 3D printers are those with integrated free-moving parts, such as a ball-bearing system, a time-watch mechanism, or a ball-and-socket connected vertebrae. more skeletal-inspired ideas: fixed joint, hinge joint, pivot joint, sliding joint. i wonder if i could make a rough metronome. found page of cool historical instruments.

microcontrolling the world

2004-10-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

[milling via modela, surface-mount soldering, tied up in knots, and windows assembly]

my procedure for getting this going on windows follows. i was a little hesitant to install linux from scratch on my computer, because that might invite more trouble, especially in the limited time window i had for the assignment.

download avra with the include files tn15def.inc and tn26def.inc, download uisp [on the download page, you want the link that's
like the 3rd down [ uisp-20040311.tar.bz2 ; i used winrar to extract the
files], download python, download pyserial, pyparallel, giveio, and pywin32 (all on sourceforge)

you need cygwin to compile uisp; when installing cygwin, make sure you install the auto-make and gcc components [in that dialog box during setup, click 'view' in the upper right and the components are in alphabetical
order]

then go in cygwin, get in the uisp directory, and type ./configure. after
that, type make. and then make install. things should go ok.

you have to change the paths in windows; to to my computer, right-click,
properties, advanced tab, and then environmental properties. edit the path
settings (on the bottom) and add the directories that python, avra, and uisp
are located (separated by semi colons)

alright, now you have to check what your parallel port and serial port are
called. go to my computer - properties - device manager. check out the
ports. my serial port was COM5 [although every time my computer started up it would rename the port to COM4 or COM6, you want to check each time]; my parallel port was 0378 (click on lpt1 and do properties, resources tab, the number should be on top; all of ours were 0378 so i think that's the default)

edit your rx.py file so that the serial port reflects your COM port. mine
has '/COM5' instead of '/dev...' whatever is there.

now... run->cmd.exe. go to your directory with the rx.py file. type python
rx.py. keep this window running in the background. [this is where the hello
world stuff should display when it's running]

open another cmd window. go to directory with your hello.asm file. type avra
hello.asm -- this compiles the code and creates a hello.hex file.

type the uisp command that neil has to load code, except change the parallel port to reflect yours; mine looks like:
uisp -dlpt=0x378 -dprog=dapa -dvoltage=3 -dt_sck=50 --erase --upload if=hello.hex

once you type that, it should say something like 'uploading; flash
installed' or something to that effect, and you should see random letters
streaming down on the rx.py window (or hello world if you're really lucky).
most likely you'll get some weird error. check to make sure all the cables
are really connected, and shove those serial cable wires even tighter.
anyway, it should work if the connections are good.

and then, if you find you're getting gibberish letters, edit the hello.asm
file and change the b value. every time you edit it, save, and then
recompile using avra. load onto chip using uisp and keep trying til it
works.

and voila! here's the beautiful evidence...

metal crimp madness!

it took me about an hour to do my first one; then realized you're supposed to thread the wire through, not shove it in from the top! :)

i just heeded raffi's advice; strip a wire, twist the strands, then thread
thru the crimp. make sure there's rubber wire covering going through the
first (the largest) pair of clips. take needlenose pliers or something and
just squeeze the clips to tighten around the rubber (like tongs). put a dot
of solder in the middle of the crimp to secure the wire inside (although i
think mine are not really that secure). i was careful not to put too much
solder because i know that's diastrous too. cut off the excess wire from
the end.

then, bend off the crimp from the metal tape and stick into the serial
connector. i used pliers to shove the thing in completely. make sure the
widest part of the base is in.

i think the best thing is to check every time that all the crimps are in the connector before trying to upload/download to the chip. they arent the most secure things; i thought the metal crimps would catch onto something inside the plastic serial connector to help them stay in but there's always danger of them slipping ever-so-slightly out.

the divisions of time and space

2004-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

[lasercutting, ho!]

will fill in the details later. but for now, a picture:

there's a 40W bulb inside; the evanescent glow is quite nice.