I’ve put together a short list (after the jump) of some potentially useful resources that may be of help in choosing a microcontroller for your project, or just getting started with microcontrollers in general. I plan to add to this list from time to time. If you have other suggested resources to add to the list, please feel free to leave them in the comments here– good suggestions may be incorporated into future revisions of the list.
Category Archives: EMSL Projects
Organizing a collection using flickr
Flickr is a great tool for organizing a collection. You can upload your photos and apply titles, tags and descriptions, which is a sneaky way of cramming a lot of indexed data into an invisible database. (You probably do that already, so why not reap the benefits?) The great thing about it is that you can use the indexing metadata to easily search and sort your collection by a variety of criteria. Naturally, because it’s flickr, you can also share information about your collection as well as visually share the collection itself.
An example is my super ball collection, twenty years in the making, containing 325 items (not including jacks) which I photographed and organized using flickr.
Below is an 18 x 18 mosaic of 324 pictures of the items in my collection of super balls (and closely related objects), ranging from the size of a kumquat to the size of a pomelo. Read on to learn about some of the tricks and tools (such as making mosaics) that you can use for your collections.
A $20 hackable extruder for your artbot or 3D printer
Fused deposition machines are an interesting class of rapid prototyping and art robots, capable of extruding paint onto a canvas or extruding to build up complex, three-dimensional objects one layer at a time. Naturally, one of the challenging parts of designing machines like these is designing and building a system for dispensing the printing medium. So, imagine how surprised we were when we were walking through the aisles of our local Michaels craft store and saw a pre-built extruder on the shelf for $20!
Naturally, we picked one up because an extruder head might make a nice accessory for our own three dimensional printer.
So, what is it? It’s an inexpensive kit that can be used for developing your 2D or 3D printer extruder with an air-powered delivery system. For the price you can get a small air pump, tubing, syringes, tips, and dispenser. The components are simple and easily hackable, and it looks like a good set of tools for starting to build a simple extruder head for an art bot of some sort.
Quite mysteriously, this kit is not actually advertised as an arbitrary material extruder kit, but rather as “the ultimate fabric painter.” This is very strange because not only does the kit not include any fabric paint, but it’s not obvious that there’s any advantage whatsoever to painting fabric with this method. (Actually, if the picture on the front of the box is any indication, there may even be disadvantages!)
Continue reading A $20 hackable extruder for your artbot or 3D printer
Reminder: Electronics flea market April 14
Last month we wrote about the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market.The next one is coming up this Saturday, April 14. As usual, it’s bright and early in the morning at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA. If you haven’t seen the photo set from the last flea market, go take a look.
Easter cartoon from Surreal Estate
From 1997-1999, I was a cartoonist on both the comics and editorial pages for the Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. The Deadly Toxin, as it was widely known, was a fairly “big” paper with a daily circuation (on weekdays) of around 25,000 copies.
I wrote the cartoon off and on with the help of Kirk Madison, hence the byline “Krik and Lledniw.” The cartoons were published under three titles, “Surreal Estate,” “Fire Andy Smith,” and “Unit Normal.” They ranged from very, very silly (like this one) to pointed editorial cartoons that even once earned me a concerned letter from the president of the university– but that’s another story.
We are slowly working on getting the archives online. But here’s a teaser: the cartoon above was the Easter special in 1998.
Recipe Box at Craft and Chaos
 | Lindsay of Craft and Chaos (we like chaos) made a nifty recipe box based on our Japanese box tutorial. The silverware and coffee cup paper is perfect! |
Reminder: POV-Ray class this Saturday
 | We posted earlier about (Evil, Mad) classes that we’re teaching at TechShop, the SF Bay Area’s public-access workshop. The first of these, Technical Graphics with POV-Ray is this Saturday afternoon, 3/31. POV-Ray is free software that can make genuinely impressive 2D and 3D graphics and animations (examples), but the learning curve is such that it can be difficult to get started on your own. So, drop in and learn how to make it look easy! |
Solder your own wine charms
Here is how you can put together your own extra-snazzy wine charms out of electronic components. They look great, are easy to make, cost next to nothing, and make great conversation pieces. For an added bonus, you can solder them in place, making them semi-permanent yet easily removable.
Continue reading Solder your own wine charms
A truly classy hearse
Hearses are generally classy vehicles, but this one takes the cake. This hearse is not just olive-green, but it also matches the mortuary perfectly.
I just about passed by the Jones Mortuary in East Palo Alto (right next door to Ikea!) when I saw the hearse in the nearly empty parking lot. I have admired it before, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to take a picture.
I stopped and got out my camera and a big guy came out of the side door to ask me what I was doing. I told him I wanted to take a picture of the beautiful hearse to share with my photo group. He told me I would need permission from the owner. I asked if the owner was in today, and was told yes, and directed to go around to the front and go inside and wait. Eventually he came out of the office (where I presume he spoke with the owner) and told me it would be fine if I took pictures.
Afterwards I realized that I was wearing all black, which does not seem like the best choice in retrospect.
I’m glad they didn’t mind my taking pictures, because I think the hearse is absolutely gorgeous. If I ever need to be taken somewhere in a hearse, I want it to be one like this.
Evil Mad Scientist project in April issue of Popular Science
A version of our RC car floor sweeper project is featured in the April 2007 issue of Popular Science as a “five minute project.” Popular Science is a great magazine and we’re honored!
Daily Cup of Tech’s lost USB drive trick was also featured in the April issue. Over on the Daily Cup of Tech web site, we read that someone managed to use it to find not just a drive, but a lost kid as well– good work guys!
