Tools « Jaymatter

Tools

Rapid prototyping

This summer I was lucky to see some real examples of the rapid prototyping at work in the Italian design and architecture industries. Based in Milan, ONEOFF positions themselves as “the prototype of a new generation of modelling labs and expresses [sic] the potential of digital technology applied to rapid manufacturing”. They’ve spent a lot of time becoming experts in creating prototypes – and most interestingly for myself, in rapid prototyping.

(Image borrowed from ONEOFF's Flickr stream)

Rapid prototyping is an automated process which allows for complex objects to be produced before the manufacturing stage. Layers of a material (often plastic but also ceramic) are “printed” on top of each other until the final form is finished. No tools or moulds are required – just a 3D model of the prototype. The value here is in the ability to quickly create something for discussion and analysis. Complex objects can be created in mere hours. Artists also often use rapid prototyping technology to create “sculpted” work.

(Image borrowed from ONEOFF's Flickr stream)

The technology for high quality rapid prototyping isn’t cheap – $10,000 will get you something in the entry level. There are however, a couple of alternatives that come from the open source crowd ( for whom I have much love ). I was recently turned onto the RepRap, an open source project that comes in the form of a wiki that documents the parts and instructions to build your own 3D printer – for less than $1000. You can even buy a kit for $750 that gets shipped to your house for you to assemble in a day or so. MakerBot is another open source solution, with plans for parts so you can build your own. The MakerBot kit sells for the same price.

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

According to Google’s Open Source Programs Manager, Chris DiBona, the Rep Rap you can ”think of RepRap as a China on your desktop”. Hah.

If I didn’t have to pay for tuition… I’d have one keeping myself and my room mate up at night.

Arduino / Art / design / process / Thought / Tools — Comments Off
21
Dec 09

The Importance of Prototyping

I’ve been working with an art student at Emily Carr University to design and build one piece of a bigger art project, Code.lab. Makiko’s project is to build a “robot” that follows the metal railroad tracks that run around Granville Island and in front of ECU. We first looked at line following robots to inform some of our decisions around the form for the sensors, the motor and wheel arrangement, and the general shape of the final artifact. Makiko’s desire to shape the aesthetic to her artistic vision is definitely helping with material and part choice, but the various versions of prototypes that we built together helped to create objects that we could discuss and use as a platform for ideation.

The first real prototype, past sketches, was a Lego Mindstorms line follower. We were able to observe how an optic line follower worked, with a single sensor on the front of the robot detecting the black color of the line against a white surface.

The next version was an arduino based line follower that we thought we would use Hall-Effect sensors to detect the metal rail tracks with. We took a small prototyping step here to test the Hall-Effect sensors which we discovered were overkill for what we wanted to do. In the end we chose to use rare earth magnets mounted on the arms of contact switches to detect the metal tracks.

Prototypes informed our choice of wheel clearance relative to the robot chassis, helped us determine that the sensors should be mounted on the front of the robot. Testing versions of code helped me come up with the final code that drives the servos to follow the metal tracks.

Every prototyping step helped us refine an abstract thought to a more certain form, a form that functions in a way that is close to what we had originally envisioned. Versions of the parts of this project let us look closely at our problem space and also exposed problems that we had no idea existed. We were able to physically discuss and evaluate our design decisions, considering Makiko’s artistic vision and the pragmatic need to make this robot move and follow the tracks. We are now at a prototype version which is very close to the final form – new parts in the coming weeks will bring us to the final scale. It will be interesting to see what the final form looks like come February when the final exhibit opens to the public. Stay tuned for more of our progress.

Art / design / Other / Thought / Tools — Comments Off
27
Aug 09

Pen & Paper Apparel

Buy a shirt!

Some visionary, hopeful work coming out of Vancouver with Pen & Paper Apparel. Support meaningful design and buy one of their shirts here or read their blog here.

Code / Other / Software / Tools — Comments Off
9
Feb 09

Remote Torrent

Let’s say you have a file server that serves media on your local network, and perhaps downloads torrents day and night. And let’s say that you get the sudden inspiration while you’re sitting at school or in the coffee shop to download Terminator 2 or The Breakfast Club, something totally legal. You’re not going to start that bad boy on your laptop and risk the school’s computer services department locking you out. Besides, if you have a 22″ HDMI monitor, you might be keen on a 720p file that might take close to 20 hours to download.

So what do you do? (Mac users only):

1. Setup Transmission to watch a folder for new torrent files. (Preferences > Transfers)

2. Setup an email account dedicated to receiving torrent files.

3. Setup Apple Mail to receive mail on that account.

4. Setup a Rule to handle attachments

5. Save and use this applescript to make the magic happen (substitute your watch folder in transmission where noted):

using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
tell application "Mail"
repeat with oneMessage in theMessages
set {mail attachment:theAttachments} to oneMessage
repeat with oneAttachment in mail attachments of oneMessage
save oneAttachment in ("Your:Volume:") & (name of oneAttachment)
end repeat
end repeat
end tell
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

Make sure to check those quotes. Sometimes WordPress likes to change them and it’ll screw your applescript up.

6. Download a torrent file on ANY computer, and email it as an attachment to the email address you setup in step 2.

7. Don’t download anything you’re not supposed to, and enjoy!

Code / Other / Tools — 4 Comments
23
Sep 08

Google weather api

There are a ton of ways to get your current and forecasted weather on the web. Yahoo, Accuweather, The Weather Network and even Google. It’s kind of annoying how none of these are accurate, but then again, predicting weather has never been easy. Correct or not, there is a Google weather api that you can use to get XML formatted weather. Hopefully I’m not the only one that finds this exciting. You can retrieve the current weather with temperatures in Celsius and Farenheit, plus the four day forecast. Great for Flash applications, iPhone apps, and Arduino driven weather-at-a-glance devices (stay tuned for that one). Wheeeee!

Vancouver’s Weather:

http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=Vancouver,BC

(Make sure you “view source” to see the XML)

Other / Tools / Websites — Comments Off
19
Aug 08

Default look

I’ve had to upgrade my WordPress install to combat hacking of my custom theme. Until I get some time to build another template, I’m going back to the trusty default WordPress theme.

Flash / Software / Tools — 1 Comment
3
May 08

Flex Builder Freebie

Flex

Flex Builder Pro 3 is free for students. You have to fill out the form and download the trial version. Then you wait for Adobe to verify your student status and then they’ll send you a working serial number.

Link

Arduino / Experiments / Tools — Comments Off
1
Mar 08

Arduino

I’ve been spending lots of time with the Arduino board lately. Arduino is a prototyping tool that lets you send data from sensors, switches and other physical interfaces, to your computer. The IDE is based on Processing. I’ll post some projects as they come along.

Flash / Software / Tools — Comments Off
16
May 06

Fuse and Zigo

I’ve been using the Fuse Kit and Zigo tween engine to write actionscript tweens. Pretty easy to use, lots of control when you move onto the Object Syntax. You can synch and sequence movie clip tweening of alpha, position, colour, rotation, scale and more.

If you use it, be sure to donate to Moses Gunesch who brought together all the goodness for this great tool to happen. The link is at the bottom of the page.

Visit the Fuse Kit site

Jaymatterart.design.thought