In this video:

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

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

Here’s a fun little video of me soldering a new RepRap kit, the Opto Isolator v1.0

Opto Isolator v1.0 Timelapse from Zach 'Iowa' Hoeken on Vimeo.

I was on a photography lightning kick for a little while… whenever a storm struck in Brooklyn I ran to my deck, set up the camera on a tripod and opened the timer for 30 seconds, hoping that luck was on my side (in every respect) and that everything was pointing in the right direction to capture a bolt or 2 in my lens. This process usually takes about 20 minutes, involves me getting soaked, and scares the absolute %^$# out of me when the storm gets closer. Needless to say, I’ve lucked out every once in a while and captured the odd picture like this:

Well, as I was slouched my laptop last night I came across Maruice Ribble’s website (what a cool name!): Glacial Wanderer. The site has some very cool and simple projects with Miss Arduino and her trusty friends (XPORT, etc.). But he also has a great program/hack to detect lightning and set off a camera trigger to fire your shutter, all in 67ms, while lighting sticks around for a 100ms.

In the Robotics section of his site there are other super simple projects that are really well documented and tremendiously useful. The code is all there for you, diagrams, circuits and photos. It’s a nice little resource for some camera and sensor hacks.

At NYCResistor we learn, share and make things. Sometimes it’s necessary to let another Resistor know just how generous they have been.
If you had been there I would have asked first. Honest.

from Max
to Bre Pettis
subject I have borrowed the multimeter

This is just to say

I have borrowed
the multimeter
that was in
your yellow toolbox

and which
you were probably
saving
for 2 a.m. hacking

Forgive me
it was so useful
so beepy
and so right

— Max

(also the alligator clips.)

from Adam
to nycresistor
subject Note for George

This is just to say

I have used
some LEDs
that were in
your toolbox

and which
you were probably saving
for a POV display

Forgive me
they were clear-lensed
so shiny
and so blinky

-a

(I needed to build an 8×16 demo grid for Monday’s class; lemme know how much I owe you.)

These honor an old MIT 404 haiku and the William Carlos Williams poem which presumably inspired the MIT webmaster in ’96. The recording of WCW reading “This is just to say” is thanks to and linked from UPenn’s PennSound archive of poets’ reading their work.

It’s that time of the month again: NYCR’s public Microcontroller Study Group is meeting this Wednesday from 7-9pm. If you missed the last meeting, we had a number of interesting guests and projects, including Devon Jones who brought his Tinct, and Chris Fenton who brought his microcontroller laptop. The MSG meetings are free and open to the public (a small donation is appreciated, to help pay the rent), so if you’re in the New York City area and you have an interest in microcontrollers or electronics or blinky things, why not stop by? And if you have a project that you want to show off or get help with, bring it along. We love meeting new people and seeing what everyone is working on.