NYC Resistor

The Spooky Box is a simple interface for Processing that consists of 3 knobs and 4 buttons. There are two versions, an Arduino based hardware one which doesn’t exist yet, and a software emulator which I just finished. There’s also an accompanying Processing library that works for both which is ridiculously easy to use.

If you’re looking for a simple, generic UI for your Processing apps, consider trying this out. I’ll be releasing more info as the hardware gets put together.

PS. The skull image in the background there is CC licensed, and can be found here.

I do all of my hacking at the NYC Resistor hacker space, and I’m proud to announce the most recent fruit of my labors: the Sanguino. This board is an Arduino-compatible board that boasts 4x the memory (64K!) 4x the RAM (4K!) and 12 more pins (32 IO pins!) Its all open source and you can get one from the RepRap Research Foundation for only $25. Sweet!

Oh, and I managed to get this footage last night. Check it out.

Sanguino: Arduino’s Big Brother from Zach 'Iowa' Hoeken on Vimeo.

In this video:

Devon Jones with his modification of “Third Hands ++” from Ryan Straughn

Video by: Eric Skiff (behind the camera / CC-BY music).

Play or Die

So here’s a quick preview of the LED Array Jacket. I’m pretty excited it’s managed to light. Currently I am redesigning the driver circuit and boarduino to work with non-solid core wiring and to be more elegant and clean. But I thought this might wet your appetites.

This is a 256 LED matrix connected to Max7219 display drivers and programmed with an Arduino. Essentially, the Arduino is the brain behind the operation and the Max chip is the translator that speaks to the LEDs telling them when to turn on and off. The grid is separated into 8×8 quadrants and uses 4 Max7219 chips to drive a total of 16×16 rows and columns. The Arduino gives the Max7219 chip random numbers 0-8 to the digit and segment pins and lights up a single LED in its quadrant. By programming (with LOTS of help from Dino Dai Zovi) the display at 8000 one LED per grid lights up individually at a slow rate. Since computers don’t have opposable thumbs, this is where the human comes in. You get to put the legos where the computer instructs you to if you’re obedient. Once the computer has created its sculpture you can set the display to 3 or 4 and make it blink really fast turning it into a mesmerizing machine! Or a chandelier if you turn it upside down. You can also program patterns in the code rather than randomizing it, imitating lego instructions to build an object or map out visual data. The clear lego plates and bricks were found on ebay. The grid was built by Alicia Gibb and Becky Brauer. Look for upcoming LED Matrix building classes at NYCR.

Zach Smith tells us about his Danger Shield for Arduino.

Want to learn how to use an Arduino and get one of these awesome shields? Sign up for Zach’s Arduino classes at the space.

In this video: Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith, Eric Skiff (behind the camera / CC-BY music), and Raphael Abrams and Nick Bilton in the background.
With apologies to Kenny Loggins “High-way-to-the…Danger Shield!”

I moved all my robots into the space this previous weekend, and it took much less time than I thought. This was great because it left me with 2 more days to code and work on my robot. You see, I’ve been participating in the RepRap open source project to create a self-copying 3D printer for quite a while. I finally found enough time to fix some bugs that were preventing me from printing.

If you’re interested, read more on the RepRap Builders blog entry.

This is a Macintosh 512k which I upgraded to run OS X by replacing the innards with a modern Mac Mini and various supporting components, including a grayscale CRT monitor, an LS-120 floppy disk drive, and a microcontroller-based USB device that interfaces the Mini to the original keyboard and mouse. Why? Mainly because I wanted to experiment with creating a custom USB device. Also I guess I wanted to waste hundreds of dollars and countless hours building a semi-useless computer with a 9 inch black and white screen and no arrow keys.

Read more…

I like Tetris; who doesn’t? The rules are simple, and it’s a good test of strategy and speed without eye hurting graphics. I’ve played it on a few Nintendo handhelds, my PC, and on Sony’s gaming consoles. The people over at MIKONTALOLIGHTS in Finland developed a platform to play it on a building by using the windows as light pixels and a cell phone as the controller. Check out the video (hosted on CollegeHumor):

It’s similar to a project from Blinkenlights and the CCC based in Germany. Their project also used a mobile phone to control lights (windows) on a building, except they were playing pong and uh, MIKONTALOLIGHTS used color. The Blinkenlights and CCC projects are still cool as they’ve done a lot of animated graphics on the side of a building. Check out their gallery if you haven’t already.