digitalColeman

MAW Residency

2010-05-17T17:18:00.020-06:00

This post will contain my periodic updates for the Minneapolis Art on Wheels residency.

I have proposed to make a sort of eternal landscape machine. All of the parts will be laser cut from masonite, printed on my makerbot 3D printer, or repurposed from elsewhere. Here are some images from the proposal and should give the general idea.

My first task is figuring out scale and mechanics. I am also very interested in making a camera that can rise and fall and pan using a couple servos and a small geared motor for focusing. I am using the unibrain firewire cameras with a breakout imaging sensor so that the majority of the camera can stay out of the way. I am thinking about a 4 arm orbital configuration like the one they use on the force feedback controller Novit Falcon (well they use 6 arms but you get the idea.)

The key is that this holds the camera in a front facing position while it moves up and down.

Second Work Day
I worked out a framework for my track, and did a test print/laser cut. Here are the results before and after assembly.

looks slick but I can see where I have made things to wide and all the slots are too lose as I didn't accommodate for the thickness of the laser.

Day 5 Report:

So I have pinned down the measurements for the slotting on the masonite to get a very secure but non-destructive fit. with this knowledge the whole thing can be glue-less.
I have also made moth of it much smaller/narrower. I am still having issue with the chain as I had hoped to use cold pop rivets, but no matter what I do the chain doesn't move smoothly enuf afterwords. I will try with slitghtly bigger holes and my special spacing tool to see if the combination still might work, otherwise I will just have to buy little nuts and bolts.

I have also printed my first ball and socket joint to test if this methodology will serve my needs for the camera mount. At this small scale it works, but is not all that smooth. While it is easy to sand the ball to a nice smoothness, the socket remains sloppy inside. I also worry that if over cranked the ball simply pops out, and that is not a great situation. Next I will try a universal joint.

I am hard at work now fleshing out all the complex features and parts I need to cut out of the masonite.

Day 9:
Time goes fast and then slow and fast again. The Makerbot has been giving me some troubles with not sticking and so i have an order in to the always great makergear.com people for some of their apparently much better and somehow magical tape? Anyway, I did get one gear printed up successfully, while the second smaller gear leaves something to be desired.

and it will be driven by that little motor which is already 58rpm and I am gearing down again by 3 (8 tooth gear vs 24 teeth for the bigger gear).

You can see it on the lens here:

I have been working in blender to make a casing for the top and bottom parts of the camera, and after spending hours on a very organic style case, I decided apon second glance to go with something a bit simpler.

Of course work continues on the track for the images to hang and move from. I have really grown to appreciate the mental puzzle of crafting these pieces in my head and then having them appear and assembling like so many dinosaur bone puzzeles from the past. I might need to make a few puzzles for nephews and such for christmas. Anyway, I have decided that making my own chain was causing too many unneeded troubles. But since i am not interested in the dirty and heavy bike chain, I am now designing the piece to use ball chain, nice fat special order ball chain. I am afraid that I am leaving MAW with most of the 100ft reel I had them buy, but there are plenty of uses. This eliminates the need for the whole second overhanging track and simplifies many many things for me. My biggest issue at the moment is that I am attempting to make the whole thing without glue and I am getting some variation in the masonite thickness and the laser settings so I am trying to perfect the slot size and such.

Two days until the performance:
So I have been a bit of a flurry here as things come to their make it or break it conclusion. With Ali's help I cut 8 2'x4' sheets of masonite full of parts.

I have started the assembly and it is all starting to come together, slowly. Some of the slots are too tight and others are too loose.

Here you can see the hanging system. The idea is that the ball chain locks in to each carrier and the image packet is suspended below the hanger by the metal clip.

More assembly in progress. Late last night I broke on piece working too hard to get something into a tight slot just 1 more mm. Of course I repaired the damage and had some spare parts, but it was still disappointing to ruin the perfect form.

Here is the giant pile of reject parts and "negatives." Disappointing to have so much waste, but I didn't have time to fully optimize as much as I would have liked.

Here are a couple shots of the camera casing I printed up on my makerbot. I have it all up and operational again, after realizing I was using the 5V plug instead of the 12V one and thus not getting anywhere near the hotness needed. I made the case in three parts and glued them together. The good news is that the mm accuracy seems really tight. I still need a reprint of the second little gear and the back of the case and then can begin on the rest of the armature and such. Things seem to be going well on the big machine at the moment and so i think i can spend tommorow concentrating on the camera and printing all the parts.

Next I glue all the gears together.....

One Day to performance:

So I was up very late trying to make a late night fix to all of the gears. I had not accounted for the fact that my gears have space between them with some randomly placed spacers and the ball chain was cutting straight lines thru these spaces and thus making the chain slack at times and then too taught. I no longer have access to the laser cutter and so had to scavenge thru all of my scraps to finds pieces that I could stack and place in the gap to keep a rounded out chain. Doing so and glueing it all together took nearly 5 hours. Long night after a very frustrating first test.

The next morning I had everything back together and adjusted the chain and have gotten the machine running. Mostly. it looks good and does what i wanted, but it is very choppy and gets gummed up quite often. I have found that a very flat surface is absolutely needed and even then for every rotation of the wheels you need to back up half a notch to jiggle things into place. I believe the real issue is that i did not compute the spacing of the balls in the chain as part of the design, and so it is a bit too loose but doesn't need one full ball removed to tighten it, and even the spacing between the gears does not tightly correlate to that spacing. I am posting the pics and a short video, but still need to finesse it a bit and trying to think of ways to keep things more on track and make the whole piece more reliable. I also need to add a handle and keep working on the camera.

I just had to take a couple pics showing off the little japanese style pin joints I used underneath. There are only a few places on the whole piece where I used glue. I could have figured out more but got a bit rushed. It was an interesting challenge nonetheless.

Maxuino has Moved

2010-02-06T02:16:00.003-07:00

Maxuino has been upgraded to it's own website at www.maxuino.org. Go there now to get Maxuino v008 which includes arduino mega and teensy support!!!

Maxuino v.007 for Arduino

2009-11-02T00:10:00.005-07:00

Maxuino has been upgraded to it's own website at www.maxuino.org. Go there now to get Maxuino v008 which includes arduino mega and teensy support!!!

Here is the latest update for maxuino. I have done some bug fixes, cleaned the interface and tried to make it more intuitive. More exciting for some of you, I have added support for servos on all digital pins in accordance with the latest Firmata version (2.1beta7) and the great work done by Shigeru Kobayashi and Hans-Christoph Steiner. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or requests.

http://co-lab.info/maxuino-007.zip

Just a reminder, this is a patch for Max by cycling '74:
http://cycling74.com/products/max5

Maxuino v.006 for Arduino 17

2009-10-02T01:06:00.001-06:00

With Arduino 17 came Firmata 2.1 and they changed the baud-rate. I have posted a new version maxuino-006 to cover this minor change and fixed a couple of other details.
http://www.co-lab.info/maxuino-006.zip

MotorSheild to Max 5

2009-08-05T18:53:00.003-06:00

This may be too simple of an example for some, but it shows how you can easily write a simple firmware for talking from Max to the arduino, specifically in order to control the motorshield from ladyAda. The max patch allows for control of all 4 motors and the 2 servos. Hopefully it is of use as a starting point.
I can't seem to get this running on my mega either, despite the fact that the library is supposed to be updated for it. Starting to wonder if I have mega issues....

http://co-lab.info/Motorshield->Max.zip

Developed with help from David Fodel.

Arduino MEGA arriving

2009-07-20T12:18:00.004-06:00

After several requests I have ordered an Arduino Mega to test and update Maxuino, as well as do some of the other bug fixes some of you have sent in. Stay tuned in the next week or two for an update. Also if there are other things that might be handy to include, let me know. I will also be releasing a Max patch for controlling the Adafruit Motor Shield for those that might be interested and will also be toying around with the GPS module as well.

UPDATE:
I have been working with the beta of Firmata 2.1 which is attempting to add support for the Mega but I have not been successful yet. Hopefully the developer Hans-Christoph Steiner will have time to work out some of the kinks before Arduino 17 and this new firmata are posted.

UPDATE 2:
it seems the Mega has such wacky port addressing it would almost need an entirely unique firmata for itself. I am not smart enough to write it and the Firmata masterminds are very busy just keeping up with other directions. i will release a new maxuino soon but it will not support the mega, many apologies to those of you who were waiting.

Max + Arduino getting started tutorial

2009-03-01T14:50:00.003-07:00

After the Maxuino update, Andrew Spitz over at soundplusdesign.com has created a great step-by-step tutorial for getting started with Max + arduino communication. Go check it out for easy instructions to get up and running with your physical interface projects.

http://www.soundplusdesign.com/?p=1305

Maxuino .005 released = Arduino + Firmata v2 + Max

2009-03-01T01:57:00.006-07:00

Maxuino has been upgraded to it's own website at www.maxuino.org. Go there now to get Maxuino v008 which includes arduino mega and teensy support!!!

I am pleased to offer an update for Marius Schebella's Maxuino, a port of PDuino for Max. Adjustments were made for the new digital pin protocols in Firmata v2 and some minor UI tweaks. I hope you find it useful for your work and email me if you have any questions.
http://www.co-lab.info/maxuino-005.zip (use this version only if you are using Firmata 2.0)

UPDATE:
With Arduino 17 came Firmata 2.1 and they changed the Baudrate. I have posted a new version maxuino-007 to cover this minor change and fixed a couple of other details and now have added servo support.
http://www.co-lab.info/maxuino-007.zip

Maxuino update in progress for Firmata v2

2009-02-26T12:55:00.003-07:00

For my courses I have been trying to update marius schebella's great maxuino for the new firmata v2. They changed the way digital ins and outs are routed and so I concentrated on repairing the original patch to reflect the changes. The original maxuino v.004 is here. My update which is still not cleaned and does not include the help file patch is found here. I will be cleaning it up this weekend and calling it an official update to .005 very soon. I am proud to have my first somewhat significant contribution to the firmata/max cause.

Wii nunchuck for Flash

2009-02-24T00:47:00.004-07:00

These files are for interfacing the Wii Nunchuck and Flash. Included in the package is the Arduino file, the Flash file, and TinkerProxy. After loading the Arduino with the file, start tinker poxy and then reset the Arduino board. Run the Flash file, all the inputs should be obvious. The file is derived from http://blog.thestem.ca/archives/77.

Link

Wii nunchuck for Processing

2009-02-24T00:14:00.004-07:00

Here are files for the Arduino and Processing to interface with the Wii Nunchuck. The arduino file is derivative of work by Tim Hirzel http://www.growdown.com. The processing sketch has elements representing all of the various Wii Nunchuck inputs: X, Y, Z acceleration, the joystick X and Y, and the two buttons.
Link

beginnings

2009-02-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

This blog has been created to share some of the files I have been generating for my courses on Interactivity, both on and off screen. I will be posting code for Processing, Arduino, Flash, and more. I hope it is as helpful as the code I have found to make many of these pieces possible. Pass on the sharing.