tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78122781252802207432024-03-13T16:27:45.151-04:00Freeside AtlantaA diverse group of coders, makers, artists, scientists, system security researchers creating a hacker/maker space in Atlanta Georgia. We create new and exciting projects using diverse knowledge and teach free classes on a multitude of topics for the general public.Freeside Atlantahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731943858422911737noreply@blogger.comBlogger160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-31686658548388444072017-02-17T14:33:00.000-05:002017-02-17T14:41:05.607-05:00A Capacitive-Touch Janko Keyboard: What I Did at the 2017 Georgia Tech Moog HackathonLast weekend (February 10-12, 2017) I made a Janko-layout capacitive-touch keyboard for the Moog Werkstatt at the Georgia Tech Moog Hackathon. The day after (Monday the 13th), I made this short video of the keyboard being played:<br />
<br />
<h3>
"Capacitive Touch Janko Keyboard for Moog Werkstatt"</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gPpw7xp3CDY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gPpw7xp3CDY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
(Text from the video doobly doo)<br />
<br />
This is a Janko-layout touch keyboard I made at the 2017 Moog Hackathon at Georgia Tech, February 10-12. I'm playing a few classic bass and melody lines from popular and classic tunes. I only have one octave (13 notes) connected so far.<br />
<br />
The capacitive touch sensors use MPR121 capacitive-touch chips, on breakout boards from Adafruit (Moog Hackathon sponsor Sparkfun makes a similar board for the same chip). The example code from Adafruit was modified to read four boards (using the Adafruit library and making four sensor objects and initializing each to one of the four I2C addresses is remarkably easy for anyone with moderate familiarity with C++), and code was written to send a gate (key down) signal to the Werkstatt, and to write a binary representation of the pressed key (low note priority) to an Arduino port connected to a precision R-2R ladder to generate the voltage for the VCO exponential input.<br />
<br />
The capacitive touch sensors can be used to make a touch keyboard with any configuration, not just the Janko. With these sensors it's remarkably easy to make a functioning electronic musical keyboard, as no mechanical switches or moving parts are needed. The feeling is at least as responsive as a "real" keyboard, as response to touch and release feels instant as far as I can tell. If anything, there's a "problem" in that if you accidentally, even slightly, touch a key it will sound, whereas with a mechanical keyboard you have to "accidentally" press a key down for it to sound.<br />
<br />
A traditional seven-natural-and-five-sharp-keys layout would have been just as easy, but less "interesting." I chose the Janko layout after having read about it for many years (see Paul Vandervoot's piano video "Demonstration of 4-Row Janko Keyboard" - he describes the layout at 4:06). The Janko has, from left to right, six whole steps per octave, thus is one less key wide per octave than the traditional keyboard, so with the same key spacings the Janko octave is a shorter distance. Going up or down diagonally is a half step, so a chromatic scale of all 12 notes is a zig-zag pattern. A major scale is the first three notes in a line (whole steps), diagonally up or down to the next key (a half step), this and the next three keys across (whole steps), and then diagonally again (a half step) to get to the octave key. You can start on any key and the major scale is the same description. This is the remarkable property of the Janko layout, there are very few patterns to memorize for the different scales and chords.<br />
<br />
(End text from the doobly doo)<br />
<br />
<br />
I used an Arduino Mega 2560 (actually the Inland brand compatible board from Micro Center), because I thought I would use more I/O pins than on an Uno. This project can be done on an Uno, but the direct write to the Mega DDRC and PORTC registers (and perhaps other I/O pin assignments) may need to be changed for the Uno. If you don't know how to use the AVR port registers directly, you may be better off just using a Mega 2560 rather than trying to change the code for an Uno.<br />
<br />
No direct work for this project was done at Freeside Atlanta (nor at Georgia Tech's Invention Studio - I cut these pieces of wood to size at home using a circular saw just before going to the hackathon, then hot-glued everything together at the hackathon), but I did some preliminary work done at Freeside. I had been wanting to make some sort of Janko keyboard for a while, and in recent months I've 3d-printed a couple of rounded-rectangle "keys" to help get the feel of what I wanted. (The short time of a one-weekend build kept me from using anything other than a rectangle shape on this project, and even then I only had one octave done by 5PM Sunday.) I decided on key spacing the same as "standard" piano keys, which are about about 165mm (6.5 inches) per octave. Since the Janko layout has six (whole-step) keys per octave instead of the traditional seven (major scale) keys, this octave is about 141.4mm or 5.57 inches wide. The distance from one row of keys to the next above it is 1.8 inches, and each row up is 0.53 inches (the approximate heigth of a sharp note on a standard keyboard) higher than the previous. These numbers are mostly just "good guesses" as to what the dimensions of such a keyboard should be for good ergonomics. If you make one of these, feel free to make whatever changes you like, even a traditional key layout or something totally different.<br />
<br />
The keys are made of brass strips. I had a brass sheet, dimensioned 6 inches by 24 inches by 0.004 inches. I cut this into rectangles of 1.5 inches by 0.75 inches. I soldered wires to one side and glued the soldered side down to a plywood board with hot glue. Each vertical pair arranged (first-and-third row, or second-and-fourth row) were connected together and connected to a sensor input on the MPR121 breakout board.<br />
<br />
For greater versatility, each key could be connected to a separate sensor input (doubling the number of sensor inputs required). This would allow the vertical pairs to be "wired together" in software for the Janko layout, or for each key to generate a different note. This would be ideal for generating microtonal scales such as 24 notes per octave.<br />
<br />
The current code implements a monophonic keyboard for a single voice analog synthesizer. The keyboard priority is for the lowest note played, and retriggering is off (you have to lift off all keys and press a key again to get a new gate signal). Many enhancements can be done, such as highest or last note priority, retriggering, and sending polyphonic MIDI data, and adding adding modulation wheels on the left side for pitch bend, LFO modulation amount, and other possible performance parameters (I think there should be at least three such wheels, with the third one changing the filter cutoff frequency). These are, as always, left as an exercise for the student.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Blatant Blurb for Synthesizer Class</h3>
This Tuesday, February 21 2017, I'll be putting on a class at Freeside:<br />
"Introduion to Electronic Musical Instruments."<br />
I'll cover analog music synthesizers, and have this Janko keyboard instrument and others in the Synth Petting Zoo after the class. There is a $10 charge, this covers the time and cost of setting up and of using Freeside to put on this class. Sign up here:<br />
<a href="https://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/236883195/">https://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/236883195/</a><br />
<br />
Schematic (power supply connections for Werkstatt and Arduino not shown):<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnGsOZC9YLs/WKdOZGvelbI/AAAAAAAAAhs/cWfJ9rmCFCIlsDubetjjY0SATK6t92TngCEw/s1600/cap_touch_janko.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnGsOZC9YLs/WKdOZGvelbI/AAAAAAAAAhs/cWfJ9rmCFCIlsDubetjjY0SATK6t92TngCEw/s320/cap_touch_janko.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_2121056767"></span><span id="goog_2121056768"></span><br />
Arduino code:<br />
<br />
// tkey - read capacitive touch keys and control Werkstatt<br />
// Ben Bradley Feb. 11-12, 2017<br />
// for Moog Hackathon<br />
<br />
// substantial code taken from the MPR121test program from the<br />
// Adafruit library.<br />
<br />
<br />
// From other keyscan program for the Mega2560:<br />
<br />
// AVRpin AVR name Arduino name<br />
// 1 PG5 D4<br />
// 2 PE0 D0<br />
// 3 PE1 D1<br />
// 4 PE2<br />
// 5 PE3 D5<br />
// 6 PE4 D2<br />
// 7 PE5 D3<br />
// 8 PE6<br />
// 9 PE7<br />
// 12-18 PH0-PH6 D17-D16,X,D6-D9<br />
// 19-26 PB0-PB7 D52-D50,D10-D13<br />
// 27 PH7<br />
// 28-29 PG3-PG4<br />
// 35-42 PL0-PL7 D49-D42 // out to r-2r ladder<br />
// 43-50 PD0-PD7 D21-D18,X,X,X,D38<br />
// 51-52 PG0-PG1 D40-D41<br />
// 53-60 PC0-PC7 D37-D30 *** Voltage control output, port C<br />
// 63-69 PJ0-PJ6 D15-D14,X,X,X,X,X<br />
// 70 PG2 D39<br />
// 71-78 PA7-PA0 D29-D22 ***<br />
// 79 PJ7<br />
// 82-89 PK7-PK0 A15-A8<br />
// 90-97 PF7-PF0 A7-A0<br />
// 98 AREF<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
/*********************************************************<br />
This is a library for the MPR121 12-channel Capacitive touch sensor<br />
<br />
Designed specifically to work with the MPR121 Breakout in the Adafruit shop <br />
----> https://www.adafruit.com/products/<br />
<br />
These sensors use I2C communicate, at least 2 pins are required <br />
to interface<br />
<br />
Adafruit invests time and resources providing this open source code, <br />
please support Adafruit and open-source hardware by purchasing <br />
products from Adafruit!<br />
<br />
Written by Limor Fried/Ladyada for Adafruit Industries. <br />
BSD license, all text above must be included in any redistribution<br />
**********************************************************/<br />
<br />
#include <Wire.h><br />
#include "Adafruit_MPR121.h"<br />
<br />
// You can have up to 4 on one i2c bus but one is enough for testing!<br />
Adafruit_MPR121 chip1 = Adafruit_MPR121();<br />
Adafruit_MPR121 chip2 = Adafruit_MPR121();<br />
Adafruit_MPR121 chip3 = Adafruit_MPR121();<br />
Adafruit_MPR121 chip4 = Adafruit_MPR121();<br />
<br />
// Keeps track of the last pins touched<br />
// so we know when buttons are 'released'<br />
uint16_t lasttouched1 = 0;<br />
uint16_t currtouched1 = 0;<br />
uint16_t lasttouched2 = 0;<br />
uint16_t currtouched2 = 0;<br />
uint16_t lasttouched3 = 0;<br />
uint16_t currtouched3 = 0;<br />
uint16_t lasttouched4 = 0;<br />
uint16_t currtouched4 = 0;<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
const int GateOut = 48; // Mega digital output<br />
<br />
void setup()<br />
{<br />
Serial.begin(9600);<br />
<br />
while (!Serial) { // needed to keep leonardo/micro from starting too fast!<br />
delay(10);<br />
}<br />
<br />
// Serial.println("Adafruit MPR121 Capacitive Touch sensor test"); <br />
<br />
// The MPR121 ADDR pin is pulled to ground and has a default I2C address of 0x5A<br />
// You can adjust the I2C address by connecting ADDR to other pins:<br />
// ADDR not connected: 0x5A<br />
// ADDR tied to 3V: 0x5B<br />
// ADDR tied to SDA: 0x5C<br />
// ADDR tied to SCL: 0x5D<br />
<br />
// Default address is 0x5A, if tied to 3.3V its 0x5B<br />
// If tied to SDA its 0x5C and if SCL then 0x5D<br />
if (!chip1.begin(0x5A))<br />
{<br />
Serial.println("MPR121 chip1 not found, check wiring?");<br />
while (1);<br />
}<br />
// Serial.println("MPR121 chip1 found!");<br />
<br />
<br />
if (!chip2.begin(0x5B))<br />
{<br />
Serial.println("MPR121 chip2 not found, check wiring?");<br />
while (1);<br />
}<br />
// Serial.println("MPR121 chip2 found!");<br />
<br />
if (!chip3.begin(0x5C))<br />
{<br />
Serial.println("MPR121 chip3 not found, check wiring?");<br />
while (1);<br />
}<br />
// Serial.println("MPR121 chip3 found!");<br />
<br />
if (!chip4.begin(0x5D))<br />
{<br />
Serial.println("MPR121 chip4 not found, check wiring?");<br />
while (1);<br />
}<br />
// Serial.println("MPR121 chip4 found!");<br />
<br />
Serial.println("All chips found.");<br />
<br />
DDRC = 0xff;<br />
PORTC = 0;<br />
pinMode (GateOut, OUTPUT);<br />
digitalWrite(GateOut, 0);<br />
} // void setup()<br />
<br />
void loop()<br />
{<br />
<br />
int notepressed = -1;<br />
// Get the currently touched pads<br />
currtouched1 = chip1.touched();<br />
<br />
#ifdef __print_touched_<br />
for (uint8_t i=0; i<12; i++) {<br />
// it if *is* touched and *wasnt* touched before, alert!<br />
<br />
if ((currtouched1 & _BV(i)) && !(lasttouched1 & _BV(i)) )<br />
{<br />
Serial.print("c1 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" touched");<br />
}<br />
// if it *was* touched and now *isnt*, alert!<br />
if (!(currtouched1 & _BV(i)) && (lasttouched1 & _BV(i)) )<br />
{<br />
Serial.print("c1 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" released");<br />
}<br />
}<br />
#endif #ifdef __print_touched_<br />
<br />
<br />
currtouched2 = chip2.touched();<br />
#ifdef __print_touched_<br />
for (uint8_t i=0; i<12; i++)<br />
{<br />
// it if *is* touched and *wasnt* touched before, alert!<br />
if ((currtouched2 & _BV(i)) && !(lasttouched2 & _BV(i)) ) {<br />
Serial.print("c2 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" touched");<br />
}<br />
// if it *was* touched and now *isnt*, alert!<br />
if (!(currtouched2 & _BV(i)) && (lasttouched2 & _BV(i)) )<br />
{<br />
Serial.print("c2 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" released");<br />
}<br />
}<br />
#endif #ifdef __print_touched_<br />
<br />
currtouched3 = chip3.touched();<br />
<br />
#ifdef __print_touched_<br />
for (uint8_t i=0; i<12; i++)<br />
{<br />
// it if *is* touched and *wasnt* touched before, alert!<br />
if ((currtouched3 & _BV(i)) && !(lasttouched3 & _BV(i)) ) {<br />
Serial.print("c3 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" touched");<br />
}<br />
// if it *was* touched and now *isnt*, alert!<br />
if (!(currtouched3 & _BV(i)) && (lasttouched3 & _BV(i)) )<br />
{<br />
Serial.print("c3 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" released");<br />
}<br />
}<br />
#endif #ifdef __print_touched_<br />
<br />
<br />
currtouched4 = chip4.touched();<br />
<br />
for (uint8_t i=0; i<12; i++)<br />
{<br />
// it if *is* touched and *wasnt* touched before, alert!<br />
if ((currtouched4 & _BV(i)) && !(lasttouched4 & _BV(i)) ) {<br />
Serial.print("c4 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" touched");<br />
}<br />
// if it *was* touched and now *isnt*, alert!<br />
if (!(currtouched4 & _BV(i)) && (lasttouched4 & _BV(i)) )<br />
{<br />
Serial.print("c4 "); Serial.print(i); Serial.println(" released");<br />
}<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
if ((lasttouched1 != currtouched1) || <br />
(lasttouched2 != currtouched2) || <br />
(lasttouched3 != currtouched3) || <br />
(lasttouched4 != currtouched4))<br />
{<br />
// find lowest note.<br />
<br />
<br />
if (currtouched1)<br />
{<br />
for (int8_t i=11; i>=0; i--)<br />
{<br />
if (currtouched1 & _BV(i))<br />
notepressed = i;<br />
}<br />
}<br />
else<br />
if (currtouched2)<br />
{<br />
for (int8_t i=11; i>=0; i--)<br />
{<br />
if (currtouched2 & _BV(i))<br />
notepressed = 12 + i;<br />
}<br />
} <br />
else<br />
if (currtouched3)<br />
{<br />
for (int8_t i=11; i>=0; i--)<br />
{<br />
if (currtouched3 & _BV(i))<br />
notepressed = 24 + i;<br />
}<br />
} <br />
else<br />
if (currtouched4 & 0x01)<br />
notepressed = 36; // highest key<br />
// Serial.print("lowest note ");<br />
if (notepressed != -1)<br />
{<br />
PORTC = 37 - notepressed; // invert bits for negative sum<br />
Serial.print(notepressed);<br />
Serial.print (' ');<br />
}<br />
if (currtouched1 | currtouched2 | currtouched3 | currtouched4)<br />
digitalWrite(GateOut, 1);<br />
else<br />
digitalWrite(GateOut, 0);<br />
} // if ((lasttouched1 != // note changed<br />
<br />
// reset our state<br />
lasttouched1 = currtouched1;<br />
lasttouched2 = currtouched2;<br />
lasttouched3 = currtouched3;<br />
lasttouched4 = currtouched4;<br />
<br />
} // void loop()benbradleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913177302145223457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-2412166067142516052016-12-16T06:30:00.000-05:002016-12-16T06:30:36.453-05:00What to Do With a Stack of Picture Frames?<h2>When You Have Too Much Free Stuff!</h2>
<p>Our newest member Raul got his hands on a stack of about 40 picture frames that were being junked. On a general note Freeside tends to discourage large piles of objects randomly appearing as it tends to collect in corners. Raul got permission from our projects team with a time limit of a few weeks. In this case unnecessary, as the membership more or less attacked the pile of boxes and rapidly rendered them into things.</p>
<p>Unfortunately starting off all the frames looked something like this:</p>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e_Eg6gZ-42Y/WFPJPX6ykBI/AAAAAAAAC2g/cqIrHPxRPWwxqJ88M9pQWwg9co7_6i8oACLcB/s1600/IMAG1010.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e_Eg6gZ-42Y/WFPJPX6ykBI/AAAAAAAAC2g/cqIrHPxRPWwxqJ88M9pQWwg9co7_6i8oACLcB/s320/IMAG1010.jpg" width="320" height="180" /></a>
<p>Not terribly useful. We don't even have any idea who these guys are. After a few passes through the planer, however, we get something like this:</p>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xi4R8Qcc6Y0/WFPJaVodWUI/AAAAAAAAC2k/XHu96XRbLUIEpjlvhJON_46nk2J5Rh9vACLcB/s1600/IMAG1011.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xi4R8Qcc6Y0/WFPJaVodWUI/AAAAAAAAC2k/XHu96XRbLUIEpjlvhJON_46nk2J5Rh9vACLcB/s320/IMAG1011.jpg" width="320" height="180" /></a>
<p>A perfectly good picture frame useful for stuff. First idea was to push a couple of these through a the laser cutter. Concept good, aim.... Aim was a little off. Also we had just rebuilt the laser computer and electronics so there were a couple of kinks to work out in CamBam's post processor:</p>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_65QH4go0xg/WFPPHkDLthI/AAAAAAAAC4A/a8Fa8mTE-IAcwHP3x7_F5kUAutTaE3NAACKgB/s1600/IMAG1037.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_65QH4go0xg/WFPPHkDLthI/AAAAAAAAC4A/a8Fa8mTE-IAcwHP3x7_F5kUAutTaE3NAACKgB/s320/IMAG1037.jpg" width="180" height="320" /></a> 
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CT_sLmammio/WFPL-gy0u6I/AAAAAAAAC3Y/xdxrn6dAzW4ET3KwNBnBC13QnynRbkh2wCKgB/s1600/IMAG1038.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CT_sLmammio/WFPL-gy0u6I/AAAAAAAAC3Y/xdxrn6dAzW4ET3KwNBnBC13QnynRbkh2wCKgB/s320/IMAG1038.jpg" width="180" height="320" /></a>
<p>Instead of getting distracted by that rabbit hole of troubleshooting, though, Nathan, in a process pioneered at Freeside by Mr. Ferguson, took a few frames and burnt some Lichtenberg figures. The actual process is pretty straightforward. Soak some wood in saltwater, hook a microwave oven transformer to the wall up backward, and poke the scary ends into the wood. There's some insulation and other safety jazz that I'll leave to: <a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=wood+lichtenberg+figures">Google</a>.</p>
<p>The raw frames come out a little (a lot) sooty and salty and need cleaned up:</p>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X52NavvaU-A/WFPKeJ8B9BI/AAAAAAAAC20/zu1AA1dioy8nBps9vXHOSXluXh8mavIcACKgB/s1600/IMAG1009.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X52NavvaU-A/WFPKeJ8B9BI/AAAAAAAAC20/zu1AA1dioy8nBps9vXHOSXluXh8mavIcACKgB/s320/IMAG1009.jpg" width="320" height="180" /></a>
<p>Sanding and staining, or painting, plus a layer of polyurethane gives these:</p>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--u2zYbdm2m0/WFPL1q7ibcI/AAAAAAAAC3M/I7bOGngRtx8CqO3X0sFTsI3LzPGVgtSWwCLcB/s1600/dualframe.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--u2zYbdm2m0/WFPL1q7ibcI/AAAAAAAAC3M/I7bOGngRtx8CqO3X0sFTsI3LzPGVgtSWwCLcB/s320/dualframe.jpg" width="320" height="203" /></a>
<br /><br />
<h2>But Wait. there's More!</h2>
<p>Before the rest of the membership got ahold of those picture frames, Raul had intended on making a stool. We actually had a broken branded stool lying around to use for parts. The next day he was working on putting the stool together. After some disassembly, sanding, nails and whatnot:</p><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dl2oIVG3ncw/WFPOMNLZFEI/AAAAAAAAC3o/VLRuz8UqHeEH20zTEAvIAEDyv9MxkxGsACKgB/s1600/IMAG1013.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dl2oIVG3ncw/WFPOMNLZFEI/AAAAAAAAC3o/VLRuz8UqHeEH20zTEAvIAEDyv9MxkxGsACKgB/s320/IMAG1013.jpg" width="320" height="180" /></a>
<p>A wild stool appears!<p>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ixclP_HPfzw/WFPOhhRGPMI/AAAAAAAAC3s/g_atrpS_K946ox28t5Q3FUWPF9iZn99RQCKgB/s1600/IMAG1015.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ixclP_HPfzw/WFPOhhRGPMI/AAAAAAAAC3s/g_atrpS_K946ox28t5Q3FUWPF9iZn99RQCKgB/s320/IMAG1015.jpg" width="180" height="320" /></a>
<br /><br />
<h2>The <b>Final</b> Product</h2>
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ulliy0z6l1Y/WFPOulKPG2I/AAAAAAAAC3w/hO5MK8uuSiIzMQDVAFA7BSJrj9sdZF9LQCKgB/s1600/IMAG1014.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ulliy0z6l1Y/WFPOulKPG2I/AAAAAAAAC3w/hO5MK8uuSiIzMQDVAFA7BSJrj9sdZF9LQCKgB/s400/IMAG1014.jpg" width="400" height="225" /></a>
Scott McGrawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496980757083168786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-20710354736534320462016-03-01T11:28:00.001-05:002016-03-01T11:49:20.603-05:00Rebuilding The Kraken"The Kraken" is one of Freeside's 3D printers, designed and built by a former member. It is the light blue printer sitting off to the side on most photos of our 3D printing zone - sadly, the machine has never printed quite right and it's been down for repairs more often than it's been usable. It's design had some major flaws, particularly in the frame that was fairly unstable. When it did print it would make great looking parts, but the bed leveling was fickle and imprecise. With the AO-100 and more recently the Mini, there wasn't a lot of reason for our members to use it.<br />
<br />
So I decided to rectify that and rebuild it completely from the ground up into a RepRap "Wilson", a popular design reworked from the Prusa i3. I chose this particular build because there are a lot of information available and a great set of info and instructions on both the RepRap wiki page about it, and the github page for the parts. It's a well known RepRap and has been tried and true by a lot of people.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Vk71x9g9o/VtW9JuFDMSI/AAAAAAAAD7w/s1QkrW5Sers/s1600/24495000883_c84da5a225_h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z1Vk71x9g9o/VtW9JuFDMSI/AAAAAAAAD7w/s1QkrW5Sers/s640/24495000883_c84da5a225_h.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The other reason I chose it was because I could build the Wilson utilizing 100% of parts salvaged from the old Kraken. The goal for the rebuild was to recycle every nut and bolt and try to keep the total cost as close to zero as possible.<br />
<br />
From start to finish, the rebuild took about 3 months working off and on a few hours a week. The initial tear down took a couple of hours at the end of November 2015, where everything was counted and bagged and boxed up. At that point I ordered some new ABS to print the frame parts, and a couple weeks printing things on both the Mini, and my personal 3D printers at home. In trying to keep with the look of the old machine, I printed in "Sky Blue" ABS. The final product is actually really nice to look at!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3PLjbk8dKo/VtXAEgi1PEI/AAAAAAAAD9E/mTqznj3AXTk/s1600/2015-12-06%2B22.07.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3PLjbk8dKo/VtXAEgi1PEI/AAAAAAAAD9E/mTqznj3AXTk/s640/2015-12-06%2B22.07.54.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xRXGwh9t3T4/VtXALkCCSNI/AAAAAAAAD9M/I9t0pSol58A/s1600/2015-12-12%2B16.34.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xRXGwh9t3T4/VtXALkCCSNI/AAAAAAAAD9M/I9t0pSol58A/s640/2015-12-12%2B16.34.47.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
While I was in the process of building The Kraken, I decided to go ahead and build my own Wilson from parts from a failed RepRap build of my own last year. So in a lot of these photos you will see an identical looking black Wilson. For my own, I bought some "hidden" corner brackets to help with the structural rigidity of the machine, as well as some corner braces I had from my previous build attempt, and used the spares for The Kraken. I definitely recommend this for anyone building a Wilson as it greatly improves the strength of the frame.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-raVAWPGkqV0/VtW_zTcJTPI/AAAAAAAAD80/hmoKEhH_G3Q/s1600/2016-01-03_23.47.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-raVAWPGkqV0/VtW_zTcJTPI/AAAAAAAAD80/hmoKEhH_G3Q/s640/2016-01-03_23.47.14.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OfDmA9EwNh8/VtW_4uysn3I/AAAAAAAAD88/2bB9I1Asvek/s1600/2016-01-03%2B03.42.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OfDmA9EwNh8/VtW_4uysn3I/AAAAAAAAD88/2bB9I1Asvek/s640/2016-01-03%2B03.42.10.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Some time ago, The Kraken's original J-Head hotend was replaced with a Budaschnozzle 2.0, since that is what we already have installed on our LulzBot AO-100, and having the same hotends allows us to keep fewer type of replacement parts on hand. We bought a replacement PTFE tube to convert it from 1.75mm to 3mm filament to be consistent with our other 2 printers - again, so we don't have to keep two types of filament on hand - and the nozzle was cleaned of old filament. It was left soaking in acetone overnight, then scrubbed with a fine wire brush.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qy5_YWM1a24/VtW-D7fjdOI/AAAAAAAAD8c/_RYiyOdZWjk/s1600/2015-11-30_20.41.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qy5_YWM1a24/VtW-D7fjdOI/AAAAAAAAD8c/_RYiyOdZWjk/s640/2015-11-30_20.41.47.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLp1N26q4DA/VtW-GwzfgxI/AAAAAAAAD8k/m9Tuut5SAyg/s1600/2016-01-03_23.45.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLp1N26q4DA/VtW-GwzfgxI/AAAAAAAAD8k/m9Tuut5SAyg/s640/2016-01-03_23.45.13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We bought a new aluminum Y carriage to replace the old acrylic one. The aluminum carriage is lighter and more sturdy than acrylic, which has a tendency to flex and torque, so the new design will be able to print at much higher speeds than before. We kept the same heated bed, but replaced the glass print surface with an aluminum plate covered in PEI. Aluminum is a good bed surface as it dissipates heat more evenly, but it also lets us install and use an inductive Z probe to auto bed tramming, a stand out feature of the Mini that I have since upgraded my own printers with.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VkDTsiLefes/VtW9y5kD0hI/AAAAAAAAD8M/M7VHkjdo-UE/s1600/2016-01-18_21.39.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VkDTsiLefes/VtW9y5kD0hI/AAAAAAAAD8M/M7VHkjdo-UE/s640/2016-01-18_21.39.11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WdDdW1pw4Gs/VtW9vutqwEI/AAAAAAAAD8E/fABfQuOhyEc/s1600/2016-01-20_15.54.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WdDdW1pw4Gs/VtW9vutqwEI/AAAAAAAAD8E/fABfQuOhyEc/s640/2016-01-20_15.54.46.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The RAMPS board had to be modified as it was missing the + voltage for the endstops, which the inductive sensor needed. Once that was added, the board was installed and the wiring was quick. I used some left over cable management from my previous 3D printer builds as well as my personal Wilson to help keep all of the stray wires in check, which the old Kraken suffered from. I also replaced the old server PSU with a more common project PSU found in Freeside's obtanium.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc9N5vHCUEI/VtW9V26gOZI/AAAAAAAAD74/ehZs_-LTFUM/s1600/2016-02-01%2B20.21.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc9N5vHCUEI/VtW9V26gOZI/AAAAAAAAD74/ehZs_-LTFUM/s640/2016-02-01%2B20.21.26.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The machine was upgraded to the latest version of Marlin and configured to use the auto bed tramming feature. There is still some fine tuning in the firmware to be done, but overall the printer is running great. I'm really looking forward to seeing projects from our members come off of the machine!<br />
<br />
Links:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:255605" target="_blank">Wilson on Thingiverse</a><br />
<a href="https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Kraken_Rebuild_Details" target="_blank">Build log for the Kraken rebuild</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/351289170039" target="_blank">Inductive sensor Z probe</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/281108676591" target="_blank">Aluminum plate print bed</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013HKZTA" target="_blank">0.03" PEI sheet print surface</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Y7D5NQ" target="_blank">3M adhesive sheet to adhere PEI to aluminum surface</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-79893435856825155322015-12-07T12:10:00.001-05:002015-12-07T12:10:40.802-05:00Build Out 12-5 Photo RecapFreeside just finished our Build Out for the end of 2015 and we got a lot of work done. Let's see what all we accomplished.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lTLz23ee2Jw/VmW9SWUJ9LI/AAAAAAAADtg/PS-gl3W9brQ/s1600/IMG_2595.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lTLz23ee2Jw/VmW9SWUJ9LI/AAAAAAAADtg/PS-gl3W9brQ/s640/IMG_2595.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Brian repaired the vacuum former and planned out a new heating element design.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4qcURU1DFw0/VmW4YY4iLiI/AAAAAAAADpM/thqagIcAe68/s1600/IMG_2655.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4qcURU1DFw0/VmW4YY4iLiI/AAAAAAAADpM/thqagIcAe68/s640/IMG_2655.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-boMJsi1rdfk/VmW4YDI-9JI/AAAAAAAADpA/vrfipp52tSU/s1600/IMG_2615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-boMJsi1rdfk/VmW4YDI-9JI/AAAAAAAADpA/vrfipp52tSU/s640/IMG_2615.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PZOfNq3NLfQ/VmW4Yuq9WbI/AAAAAAAADpQ/nXETgygU4mM/s1600/IMG_2668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PZOfNq3NLfQ/VmW4Yuq9WbI/AAAAAAAADpQ/nXETgygU4mM/s640/IMG_2668.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Mike came all the way from Florida to frame the Member Storage door and put in a new lock to prepare for some new security features.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VoiHUVzBdcs/VmW4woILCVI/AAAAAAAADpk/_dSLckY4MUM/s1600/IMG_2634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VoiHUVzBdcs/VmW4woILCVI/AAAAAAAADpk/_dSLckY4MUM/s640/IMG_2634.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w77W5veX1Vg/VmW4xAQQ_qI/AAAAAAAADps/rN-2qb8aMAo/s1600/IMG_2669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w77W5veX1Vg/VmW4xAQQ_qI/AAAAAAAADps/rN-2qb8aMAo/s640/IMG_2669.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Chp8tQKJVlg/VmW4xlBxA-I/AAAAAAAADp4/UFyd8aiimYU/s1600/IMG_2652.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Chp8tQKJVlg/VmW4xlBxA-I/AAAAAAAADp4/UFyd8aiimYU/s640/IMG_2652.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Nathan and crew totally reorganized and cleared out some old obtanium. The new shelves are much cleaner looking.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EaqlDUnaE0Q/VmW65EXAR3I/AAAAAAAADro/b_Hw77nMQNo/s1600/IMG_2626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EaqlDUnaE0Q/VmW65EXAR3I/AAAAAAAADro/b_Hw77nMQNo/s640/IMG_2626.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EyPs0v1z8G8/VmW65JfteFI/AAAAAAAADrw/cmiPUpVbTno/s1600/IMG_2673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EyPs0v1z8G8/VmW65JfteFI/AAAAAAAADrw/cmiPUpVbTno/s640/IMG_2673.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pcfaSkHaMHw/VmW68Bxdt3I/AAAAAAAADsA/0_STGZ9NR_s/s1600/IMG_20151206_084209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pcfaSkHaMHw/VmW68Bxdt3I/AAAAAAAADsA/0_STGZ9NR_s/s640/IMG_20151206_084209.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Michelle hacked the LulzBot AO-100 to increase the maximum height, and started printing parts for a new RepRap for the space.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HlJoG7ebZEw/VmW8YPQrxEI/AAAAAAAADtE/BzjpQtsRDd4/s1600/IMG_2611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HlJoG7ebZEw/VmW8YPQrxEI/AAAAAAAADtE/BzjpQtsRDd4/s640/IMG_2611.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0AztBR3fzY/VmW8YdHol4I/AAAAAAAADtM/lIG3iV3P1kg/s1600/IMG_2650.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0AztBR3fzY/VmW8YdHol4I/AAAAAAAADtM/lIG3iV3P1kg/s640/IMG_2650.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7YUCBO1wVAQ/VmW8X_i4OeI/AAAAAAAADs8/9GDDfqcOcOM/s1600/IMG_2639.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7YUCBO1wVAQ/VmW8X_i4OeI/AAAAAAAADs8/9GDDfqcOcOM/s640/IMG_2639.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Kelly and Scott cleared out the attic of all of the old random stuff to make way for all new random stuff.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cxt4OvkgXrw/VmW5IfP3iOI/AAAAAAAADqI/zprr6IRucY4/s1600/IMG_2591.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cxt4OvkgXrw/VmW5IfP3iOI/AAAAAAAADqI/zprr6IRucY4/s640/IMG_2591.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Rowan, Brandon, and a few others helped to sort glassware for the bio and chemistry room.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DeZyyGMPPFw/VmW5WkKdAuI/AAAAAAAADqg/40_KS1Sys2I/s1600/IMG_2643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DeZyyGMPPFw/VmW5WkKdAuI/AAAAAAAADqg/40_KS1Sys2I/s640/IMG_2643.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QLONyHfpvhg/VmW5V68KdXI/AAAAAAAADqU/KHd5oYuAeYM/s1600/IMG_2656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QLONyHfpvhg/VmW5V68KdXI/AAAAAAAADqU/KHd5oYuAeYM/s640/IMG_2656.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Paul, Jonathan, and Earl examined strange fruit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C8VBsK-P9u0/VmW6Jgu6umI/AAAAAAAADrc/4zjzbiFqVK4/s1600/IMG_2647.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C8VBsK-P9u0/VmW6Jgu6umI/AAAAAAAADrc/4zjzbiFqVK4/s640/IMG_2647.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We demolished in Member Storage for some more new metal shelves.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ie1I3tMkWcQ/VmW55VPyajI/AAAAAAAADrM/IvtwRCdC1Kk/s1600/IMG_2632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ie1I3tMkWcQ/VmW55VPyajI/AAAAAAAADrM/IvtwRCdC1Kk/s640/IMG_2632.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBmdet9ODZQ/VmW55WWQ8mI/AAAAAAAADrI/TZOkvKD6k-4/s1600/IMG_2648.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBmdet9ODZQ/VmW55WWQ8mI/AAAAAAAADrI/TZOkvKD6k-4/s640/IMG_2648.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j7k9jrciBMk/VmW7f9gHI9I/AAAAAAAADsM/mauGDnd2K8I/s1600/IMG_2653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j7k9jrciBMk/VmW7f9gHI9I/AAAAAAAADsM/mauGDnd2K8I/s640/IMG_2653.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We put away tools that had found their way from the tool room.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rd3o1oUS_Bc/VmW5rMXBxzI/AAAAAAAADqs/KuDoviF4oMY/s1600/IMG_2602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rd3o1oUS_Bc/VmW5rMXBxzI/AAAAAAAADqs/KuDoviF4oMY/s640/IMG_2602.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-juakuLlulZU/VmW5rRiTmfI/AAAAAAAADq0/Q0eJq7cwlkk/s1600/IMG_2649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-juakuLlulZU/VmW5rRiTmfI/AAAAAAAADq0/Q0eJq7cwlkk/s640/IMG_2649.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We browsed memes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uBrH7CY3IKw/VmW3wbKIElI/AAAAAAAADoo/_oGRa512kx4/s1600/IMG_2658.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uBrH7CY3IKw/VmW3wbKIElI/AAAAAAAADoo/_oGRa512kx4/s640/IMG_2658.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We found some time to goof off.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8MryFAB5XG0/VmW4FhdMH5I/AAAAAAAADo0/YVBuT34iW3Y/s1600/IMG_2606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8MryFAB5XG0/VmW4FhdMH5I/AAAAAAAADo0/YVBuT34iW3Y/s640/IMG_2606.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fqswo1_o6_Q/VmW7yYAtTEI/AAAAAAAADsY/2-aAshAUo8g/s1600/IMG_2597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fqswo1_o6_Q/VmW7yYAtTEI/AAAAAAAADsY/2-aAshAUo8g/s640/IMG_2597.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zsjyRzH_ttI/VmW73tYnBwI/AAAAAAAADsk/Ck4RVaSZRnw/s1600/IMG_2641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zsjyRzH_ttI/VmW73tYnBwI/AAAAAAAADsk/Ck4RVaSZRnw/s640/IMG_2641.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make Freeside awesome. See you next time!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0yV04HNJOjo/VmW8MpAec8I/AAAAAAAADsw/A4566nWsCJs/s1600/IMG_2601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0yV04HNJOjo/VmW8MpAec8I/AAAAAAAADsw/A4566nWsCJs/s640/IMG_2601.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-73397326467261263852015-08-14T18:17:00.000-04:002015-08-14T18:26:41.058-04:00Atlanta Cosplay Meetup: Group Build Update #3It's been a while since we posted a progress report for the Atlanta Cosplay Meetup's ongoing project, and with Dragon Con right around the corner, we're nearing the finish line. Let's take a look and see what's been going on the last few months!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uchzMgTN4Q/Vc5f0n5AOVI/AAAAAAAADNs/HrT9u_a-A_Y/s1600/2015-05-28%2B04.05.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8uchzMgTN4Q/Vc5f0n5AOVI/AAAAAAAADNs/HrT9u_a-A_Y/s640/2015-05-28%2B04.05.56.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Check out our previous progress reports here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/2015/02/atlanta-cosplay-meetup-group-build.html" target="_blank">Progress update #1</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/2015/03/atlanta-cosplay-meetup-group-build.html" target="_blank">Progress update #2</a><br />
<br />
Read on to see where we're at now... <br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
During April and the early part of May, we finished fabrication of the masters for the Colonial Marine armor. Once again, fiberglass resin and bondo body filler was applied to the laser cut cardboard sculptures, which were progressively sanded down using finer and finer grit sandpapers until we were satisfied with the results.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i_zjPjD74lU/Vc5iq8CFSdI/AAAAAAAADN0/ST4HIVU1f8E/s1600/20150425_130057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i_zjPjD74lU/Vc5iq8CFSdI/AAAAAAAADN0/ST4HIVU1f8E/s640/20150425_130057.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rAwNByrSEew/Vc5isAOE4RI/AAAAAAAADN8/xz2QG4PWg2k/s1600/20150425_130229.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rAwNByrSEew/Vc5isAOE4RI/AAAAAAAADN8/xz2QG4PWg2k/s640/20150425_130229.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sL2hGfiP72E/Vc5jdnWxfXI/AAAAAAAADOE/p72agiJZWwQ/s1600/11289374_1682327105323739_4173492142554035624_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sL2hGfiP72E/Vc5jdnWxfXI/AAAAAAAADOE/p72agiJZWwQ/s640/11289374_1682327105323739_4173492142554035624_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The Pulse Rifle was also finished being mastered and prepped for molding. Normally for something of this size and shape, you would want a more complex molding technique, but time was a major limiting factor for us. Ultimately we went with building a large 2 part block mold out of a silicone rubber called Mold Max 30.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QeMXEvS1-wQ/Vc5jl9Ww13I/AAAAAAAADOM/JDk3_g5jm4M/s1600/11289577_1682327141990402_112690639307946775_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QeMXEvS1-wQ/Vc5jl9Ww13I/AAAAAAAADOM/JDk3_g5jm4M/s640/11289577_1682327141990402_112690639307946775_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iYhxYqNbhLE/Vc5jl-gCWuI/AAAAAAAADOQ/tLDndBCzJ9M/s1600/2015-05-28%2B03.20.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iYhxYqNbhLE/Vc5jl-gCWuI/AAAAAAAADOQ/tLDndBCzJ9M/s640/2015-05-28%2B03.20.30.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The rest of May was a huge jump in the amount of progress. We were in full production, casting and vacuumforming parts. The bulk of the Colonial Marines armor is vacuumformed, and Adam was hard at work on our vacuumforming machine. Some of the smaller parts were molded and we poured plaster vacuumforming masters (called "bucks"), but the chest and back were backfilled with plaster and used directly.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jrLeiC_4hbQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jrLeiC_4hbQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JeHILsVnxyA/Vc5kpfO_1sI/AAAAAAAADOk/S1wm4zd3xbA/s1600/2015-05-25%2B23.37.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JeHILsVnxyA/Vc5kpfO_1sI/AAAAAAAADOk/S1wm4zd3xbA/s640/2015-05-25%2B23.37.46.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oid8RJm_9cg/Vc5kplNg3WI/AAAAAAAADOg/9XL2YT468Ds/s1600/2015-05-24%2B22.58.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oid8RJm_9cg/Vc5kplNg3WI/AAAAAAAADOg/9XL2YT468Ds/s640/2015-05-24%2B22.58.58.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We assembly lined cutting out and cleaning up the vacuumformed and cast resin bits, cutting off the excess material (called "flashing") to get the part we need. They were then hit with a base coat of olive drab paint and set aside to dry, where we would then hand paint on the camo patterns.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zIbpylxDBZA/Vc5mMkoAq-I/AAAAAAAADO4/dsVyO7G581c/s1600/2015-05-23%2B14.56.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zIbpylxDBZA/Vc5mMkoAq-I/AAAAAAAADO4/dsVyO7G581c/s640/2015-05-23%2B14.56.11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uMkmD6EKEN8/Vc5mMrnuPlI/AAAAAAAADO8/BepJj3JHhF4/s1600/2015-05-23%2B15.26.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uMkmD6EKEN8/Vc5mMrnuPlI/AAAAAAAADO8/BepJj3JHhF4/s640/2015-05-23%2B15.26.50.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KCHjQpzbj2s/Vc5mNSueO5I/AAAAAAAADPM/aDG6xZDwL_A/s1600/2015-05-25%2B23.37.28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KCHjQpzbj2s/Vc5mNSueO5I/AAAAAAAADPM/aDG6xZDwL_A/s640/2015-05-25%2B23.37.28.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A6TfzCI9gyU/Vc5mMophkfI/AAAAAAAADO0/kVkT3TK1HxM/s1600/2015-05-23%2B15.27.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A6TfzCI9gyU/Vc5mMophkfI/AAAAAAAADO0/kVkT3TK1HxM/s640/2015-05-23%2B15.27.00.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SUC8b2FIyJ8/Vc5mNC2EAaI/AAAAAAAADPE/RMU12ju43sk/s1600/2015-05-25%2B00.05.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SUC8b2FIyJ8/Vc5mNC2EAaI/AAAAAAAADPE/RMU12ju43sk/s640/2015-05-25%2B00.05.59.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
On the Xeno side of things, Valentin put together the final version of the tongue mechanism, and Kevin was hard at work on the skull sculpt. He covered the fiberglass and expanding foam cardboard with a sculpting clay, and was working on sculpting in details.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y71SqsRN-uE/Vc5mZMVEAYI/AAAAAAAADPk/wj6Wz2fiSgk/s1600/2015-05-18%2B21.27.28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y71SqsRN-uE/Vc5mZMVEAYI/AAAAAAAADPk/wj6Wz2fiSgk/s640/2015-05-18%2B21.27.28.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YYKpoIUfXxs/Vc5mZES1EuI/AAAAAAAADPg/Q9Tg0riMAA8/s1600/20150425_131715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YYKpoIUfXxs/Vc5mZES1EuI/AAAAAAAADPg/Q9Tg0riMAA8/s640/20150425_131715.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CjIC-khKX1s/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CjIC-khKX1s?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
We were working hard up until the days before MomoCon, but unfortunately there was just too much to be done. There were also some unexpected issues with the Xeno skull sculpt that required us to effectively junk the master.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zBzofAsnSxI/Vc5m8N45xuI/AAAAAAAADQE/rI0vjhRaJqI/s1600/2015-05-28%2B01.29.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zBzofAsnSxI/Vc5m8N45xuI/AAAAAAAADQE/rI0vjhRaJqI/s640/2015-05-28%2B01.29.17.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c32x7Hvjejc/Vc5mu-A5TjI/AAAAAAAADP8/rOtfeo1JgYE/s1600/IMG_0842.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c32x7Hvjejc/Vc5mu-A5TjI/AAAAAAAADP8/rOtfeo1JgYE/s640/IMG_0842.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We did make it to MomoCon though and had a great time at our booth. We brought along the Pulse Rifle mold, and did an impromptu casting demo. Jonathan decided he wanted a golden Pulse Rifle, which we poured and demolded on camera.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r2NeFuRV-ck/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r2NeFuRV-ck?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8XQPoZACeKs/Vc5nHq2zb-I/AAAAAAAADQs/UiIG8NspHt8/s1600/IMG_2615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8XQPoZACeKs/Vc5nHq2zb-I/AAAAAAAADQs/UiIG8NspHt8/s640/IMG_2615.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ucG1YZJEZQ/Vc5nFkMTljI/AAAAAAAADQQ/Oyl1BW1GSPQ/s1600/2015-05-27%2B17.41.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ucG1YZJEZQ/Vc5nFkMTljI/AAAAAAAADQQ/Oyl1BW1GSPQ/s640/2015-05-27%2B17.41.40.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aj8cJUv-R70/Vc5nFr4UbNI/AAAAAAAADQU/5JekuokD6yQ/s1600/2015-05-28%2B17.22.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aj8cJUv-R70/Vc5nFr4UbNI/AAAAAAAADQU/5JekuokD6yQ/s640/2015-05-28%2B17.22.27.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtpFf6dP7gM/Vc5nFgAWHAI/AAAAAAAADQM/FXuX_zeULto/s1600/2015-05-29%2B17.22.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtpFf6dP7gM/Vc5nFgAWHAI/AAAAAAAADQM/FXuX_zeULto/s640/2015-05-29%2B17.22.22.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cKyTtOVV06A/Vc5nGZt-93I/AAAAAAAADQY/54BlRS8PXLs/s1600/Freeside_MomoCon_01a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cKyTtOVV06A/Vc5nGZt-93I/AAAAAAAADQY/54BlRS8PXLs/s640/Freeside_MomoCon_01a.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QakVxAJ9m-M/Vc5nGTyKcyI/AAAAAAAADQc/x2pOZcZpveo/s1600/2015-05-31%2B17.14.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QakVxAJ9m-M/Vc5nGTyKcyI/AAAAAAAADQc/x2pOZcZpveo/s640/2015-05-31%2B17.14.46.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
After MomoCon we took a couple weeks break - everyone was exhausted and burnt out a bit! - before we got back into production mode. We have all of the vacuumformed parts made, so now it's a matter of casting up the remaining parts for the 11 sets of Marine armor. We're also putting the finishing touches on the paint for the armor sets - over 200 individual pieces!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z1byLmYKPZk/Vc5nRhK4WvI/AAAAAAAADQ8/XgauOw0i-q4/s1600/2015-08-03%2B21.25.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z1byLmYKPZk/Vc5nRhK4WvI/AAAAAAAADQ8/XgauOw0i-q4/s640/2015-08-03%2B21.25.16.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rk8HAH9xPiA/Vc5nRr2OnpI/AAAAAAAADRA/-aqWZk0X6oA/s1600/2015-08-09%2B19.41.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rk8HAH9xPiA/Vc5nRr2OnpI/AAAAAAAADRA/-aqWZk0X6oA/s640/2015-08-09%2B19.41.54.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09JJyfG0e0A/Vc5nY30nD7I/AAAAAAAADRM/H1H5epvVsJQ/s1600/2015-08-12%2B21.00.30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09JJyfG0e0A/Vc5nY30nD7I/AAAAAAAADRM/H1H5epvVsJQ/s640/2015-08-12%2B21.00.30.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The next few build days between now and Dragon Con will be fabricating the last few things needed, finalizing our painting, and strapping up armor sets. See you all at the hotel!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-68889482144498228062015-05-11T13:12:00.001-04:002015-05-11T13:12:10.277-04:00First Annual Freeside Atlanta Robot Street FightThanks everyone who came out! It was a fun event and we're already
talking about next year. You've still got plenty of time to build a bot
for Dragon*Con, Maker Faire, or Chattacon also.<br /><br />The 12's and 30lb
bots certainly faced the challenge of the post apocalyptic landscape
that is the parking lot behind Freeside. Next year I expect to see some
bots with modifications to handle the uneven surfaces better. Wedges
built for a stage fight didn't fare too well against the cracked
pavement and potholes. <br /><br />Results:<br />1lb:<br />1st- Algos<br />2nd- Death By Twinkies<br />3rd- Eleos<br /><br />3lb:<br />1st- Torgo<br />2nd- Naked Singularity<br /><br />12lb:<br />1st- Omega Force<br />2nd- Abrasive Personality<br />3rd- Hypnus<br /><br />30lb:<br />1st- Nyx<br />2nd- Spanky<br />3rd- Overthruster<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><span class="sew743osivi6o35"></span>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa4DDbMiSUTXBl2oPSFtEvEsTKvlWvkdP">Video Playlist of the fights</a><br /><span class="sew743osivi6o35"></span><br />
<span class="sew743osivi6o35">Videos courtesy of <a href="http://nearchaos.net/">Near Chaos Robotics</a> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-29076805140879964922015-03-23T09:03:00.000-04:002015-03-23T09:03:58.685-04:00Atlanta Cosplay Meetup: Group Build Update #2 The Atlanta Cosplay Meetup has been making a ton of progress on our Marines & Xenos group costume. We have finished up build day #6 so let's take a look and see where things are at currently!<br />
<br />
We've finished principal construction of the Marine torso armor and are working on finishing it currently. The cardboard masters were coated in fiberglass resin to give them strength, and we are going over them with bondo body filler to smooth them out. After a few more passes they should be smooth enough to use as vacuumforming masters, or to mold and cast in resin and fiberglass mat for strength.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WDog-vxnMWQ/VRAOTYkRYoI/AAAAAAAAC4M/RD7SRhNRMcY/s1600/DSC_0549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WDog-vxnMWQ/VRAOTYkRYoI/AAAAAAAAC4M/RD7SRhNRMcY/s1600/DSC_0549.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wAtf18SEw-8/VRAOYg5foBI/AAAAAAAAC4U/r7vPYE1FFdw/s1600/2015-03-18%2B20.41.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wAtf18SEw-8/VRAOYg5foBI/AAAAAAAAC4U/r7vPYE1FFdw/s1600/2015-03-18%2B20.41.50.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
We've also started building the leg armor, using the same method as the torso.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tGcdMQYyD7k/VRAN9cLRD5I/AAAAAAAAC4E/-c-TIpeitSc/s1600/20150318_213833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tGcdMQYyD7k/VRAN9cLRD5I/AAAAAAAAC4E/-c-TIpeitSc/s1600/20150318_213833.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
All that is left for the Marine armor is to 3D print the shoulder parts, and the helmet and various attachments. Adam purchased the same WWII helmet used in the film, which will become the base for our helmet that we will make out of cast resin and fiberglass mat.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gKNynDNSdqs/VRAMdKgvAdI/AAAAAAAAC3c/cAmPqzXdYWs/s1600/bvQu6Gu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gKNynDNSdqs/VRAMdKgvAdI/AAAAAAAAC3c/cAmPqzXdYWs/s1600/bvQu6Gu.png" height="640" width="510" /></a></div>
<br />
The Pulse Rifle has been assembled and had a first pass of smoothing and cleanup done on it. The entire gun was 3D printed from a high detail model from the game Aliens: Colonial Marines. Another day or so of work and we'll be ready to mold it in silicone!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qUI0YHYOfH8/VRANtwNgt3I/AAAAAAAAC3s/HL1QV1PGLR0/s1600/2015-02-28%2B16.54.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qUI0YHYOfH8/VRANtwNgt3I/AAAAAAAAC3s/HL1QV1PGLR0/s1600/2015-02-28%2B16.54.19.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wAbNhgXyxPQ/VRANt5Puk5I/AAAAAAAAC3w/PHeodTLyxlc/s1600/DSC_0548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wAbNhgXyxPQ/VRANt5Puk5I/AAAAAAAAC3w/PHeodTLyxlc/s1600/DSC_0548.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZsJjccyvH4/VRANt-exleI/AAAAAAAAC30/XsBG_7hx-us/s1600/2015-02-28%2B17.42.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZsJjccyvH4/VRANt-exleI/AAAAAAAAC30/XsBG_7hx-us/s1600/2015-02-28%2B17.42.18.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Adam Keeton lent a hand helping us lathe a test Grenade out of aluminum. This is only a first iteration, we'll need to make a few adjustments and go back and try again. So far the results are very nice looking though!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u4Rzny1tzMc/VRAOtQAmlNI/AAAAAAAAC4g/z_gITkD2tHc/s1600/DSC_0534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u4Rzny1tzMc/VRAOtQAmlNI/AAAAAAAAC4g/z_gITkD2tHc/s1600/DSC_0534.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-okHUTXrIpac/VRAOtaB9CpI/AAAAAAAAC4c/DJncccAG_Uk/s1600/DSC_0554.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-okHUTXrIpac/VRAOtaB9CpI/AAAAAAAAC4c/DJncccAG_Uk/s1600/DSC_0554.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Plus, he looks like a natural holding the Pulse Rifle.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bfGz1mHzcIw/VRANBMndznI/AAAAAAAAC3k/ys-8y0WmUT4/s1600/2015-02-28%2B18.42.52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bfGz1mHzcIw/VRANBMndznI/AAAAAAAAC3k/ys-8y0WmUT4/s1600/2015-02-28%2B18.42.52.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The Xeno skull has been started. We built the head using a 3D model from the game Aliens: Colonial Marines and a program called 123D Make. What this program can do is generate a 3D interlocking puzzle, sort of
like the wooden dinosaur skeleton puzzles you got as a kid. We can set
it to be however many vertical and horizontal slices and the program
draws up plans, which we then exported to the laser cutter. 4 hours of
cutting and about 60 pieces later, you get this mess.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UFKP-heg1cw/VRALqOpqZMI/AAAAAAAAC2k/qeX8b0Qrma8/s1600/DSC_0527.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UFKP-heg1cw/VRALqOpqZMI/AAAAAAAAC2k/qeX8b0Qrma8/s1600/DSC_0527.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EHw4VWMr6JI/VRALw-iCuRI/AAAAAAAAC2s/UG-1pwndbvU/s1600/2015-03-22%2B15.27.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EHw4VWMr6JI/VRALw-iCuRI/AAAAAAAAC2s/UG-1pwndbvU/s1600/2015-03-22%2B15.27.29.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Assembly really is a simple as finding the numbered slots and sliding
them together. Once you get the first couple of pieces put together the
assembly is a breeze. We took maybe an hour to put the whole thing
together. Once it was assembled, we coated the whole thing in fiberglass
resin to give it strength, and once that cured we filled all of the
holes with expanding foam.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-heEZnObdDC8/VRAL5KOq4QI/AAAAAAAAC28/5XN2-2KDvcA/s1600/2015-03-22%2B17.07.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-heEZnObdDC8/VRAL5KOq4QI/AAAAAAAAC28/5XN2-2KDvcA/s1600/2015-03-22%2B17.07.19.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DafVfSAll6g/VRAL5I0WrfI/AAAAAAAAC20/cXrl-Mfop04/s1600/2015-03-22%2B19.28.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DafVfSAll6g/VRAL5I0WrfI/AAAAAAAAC20/cXrl-Mfop04/s1600/2015-03-22%2B19.28.25.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-avLwujlcljk/VRAL5JRPgfI/AAAAAAAAC24/O9UGfpuponc/s1600/2015-03-22%2B19.49.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-avLwujlcljk/VRAL5JRPgfI/AAAAAAAAC24/O9UGfpuponc/s1600/2015-03-22%2B19.49.02.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once the foam cures, we will rasp all of the excess off and skin it in bondo, and use that for our sculpting base. <br />
<br />
Valentin is working on the mechanism for the Xeno tongue. We are 3D
designing and printing a rack and pinion gear under tension from a
rubber band, and "cocked" with a worm gear connected to a motor. The
idea is that the Xeno costumers will have a hidden button to open the
mouth and shoot out the tongue via pressure from the band, and the worm
gear will retract and cock the tongue to be shot out again.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRM_-dcAFWw/VRAMFcZJSyI/AAAAAAAAC3M/uI16Th2aW3g/s1600/2015-03-08%2B14.08.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRM_-dcAFWw/VRAMFcZJSyI/AAAAAAAAC3M/uI16Th2aW3g/s1600/2015-03-08%2B14.08.51.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZZttRWQG7k/VRAMLYNtyQI/AAAAAAAAC3U/Iq4WrXw0NNI/s1600/DSC_0532.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZZttRWQG7k/VRAMLYNtyQI/AAAAAAAAC3U/Iq4WrXw0NNI/s1600/DSC_0532.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Lastly, I started on the Smartgun for my own Marine costume. Every Colonial Marine group needs a Smartgunner, and I would be lying if I didn't say that Vasquez was a bit of a hero as a kid. The Smartgun and the steadicam arm will be built much the way the rest of the build has been, with several 3D printed parts and laser cut cardboard details. The steadicam arm will have a semi-working interior using custom machined aluminum parts and springs. So far the barrel has been cut and printed, with a few more parts on the way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Eu_ENRKBbHw/VRAO5NZAv8I/AAAAAAAAC4s/hF_Uv7kKVAE/s1600/2015-03-22%2B15.27.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Eu_ENRKBbHw/VRAO5NZAv8I/AAAAAAAAC4s/hF_Uv7kKVAE/s1600/2015-03-22%2B15.27.24.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNl9WbwTBQc/VRAO5LliGVI/AAAAAAAAC4w/bG4T6z5JI20/s1600/2015-03-23%2B01.15.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iNl9WbwTBQc/VRAO5LliGVI/AAAAAAAAC4w/bG4T6z5JI20/s1600/2015-03-23%2B01.15.25.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to our deadline in May! <br />
<br />
See all of our progress photos on Freeside's Facebook page here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045223078825003.1073741829.612557732091542&type=1">https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045223078825003.1073741829.612557732091542&type=1</a><br />
<br />
Be apart of the Atlanta Cosplay Meetup by keeping an eye on Freeside's Meetup calendar, or our Facebook group here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtlantaCosplayMeetup/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtlantaCosplayMeetup/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-86304632206844086492015-02-18T08:58:00.001-05:002015-02-18T08:58:09.555-05:00Atlanta Cosplay Meetup: Group Build Update #1The Atlanta Cosplay Meetup is a bi-monthly-ish group of cosplayers, prop builders, and costume makers hosted at Freeside Atlanta. We have been meeting since October 2014 to share ideas and projects.<br />
<br />
In November we began discussing an idea about making a group costume - something we could all work on, and eventually wear, together - and how we could make that into a reality. After a lot of debate (and a little help for Rachel who had already made her own Xenomorph costume!) we settled on making a Colonial Marines and Xenos group from the Aliens franchise.<br />
<br />
We just recently wrapped up our 3rd group build, so let's recap what we've done so far.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kBPEsa2syCc/VOSXClfsykI/AAAAAAAACtA/liot3c-aC1s/s1600/1I1A0990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kBPEsa2syCc/VOSXClfsykI/AAAAAAAACtA/liot3c-aC1s/s1600/1I1A0990.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Our first build we focused on planning and various ideas of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to get there. We decided to use Pepakura to laser cut cardboard as the rough master for our Marine's armor, and to 3D print some of the detail parts as well as their various weapons.<br />
<br />
Pepakura is a program that takes a 3D object and lays it out into 2D faces. The example I like to use for this is creating a a paper craft cube. You can lay out the 6 faces of a cube on a sheet of paper, cut the lines, score and glue tabs, and at the end you have your cube in the real world.<br />
<br />
This concept scales up to infinitely complex objects. Cosplayers have been using Pepakura for over 15 years now to create complex suits of armor and props. What I discovered is that Pepakura can export into a format that Freeside's laser cutter can interpret, which turns hours of cutting material into mere minutes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rRXKL3Pb7Bw/VOSXpzhRHnI/AAAAAAAACtM/eFkIuTpvbvw/s1600/1I1A0996.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rRXKL3Pb7Bw/VOSXpzhRHnI/AAAAAAAACtM/eFkIuTpvbvw/s1600/1I1A0996.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRjewbh2gQE/VOSXpxIllFI/AAAAAAAACtI/U22U_kcvVk4/s1600/DSC_0375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRjewbh2gQE/VOSXpxIllFI/AAAAAAAACtI/U22U_kcvVk4/s1600/DSC_0375.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
For our second build, we began laser cutting parts for the Marine torso, starting with the chest. The parts were exported from Pepakura into the laser cutter's software, which was then cut out of cardboard. By dialing in different settings for "cuts" and "scores", we can complete everything in a single job. After about 20 minutes we had all of the pieces cut out and began assembling!<br />
<br />
Assembly consists of using hot glue to glue the seams of the cut together. We glue the edges on the inside of the cardboard armor to make sure it keeps it's shape, but this creates big gaps between parts on the front. This won't be a problem for us, since we will be sculpting details and smoothing out the form later on in the project.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l2ltQUo5fT4/VOSX5orrcaI/AAAAAAAACtg/oU4K2-wsf90/s1600/DSC_0388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l2ltQUo5fT4/VOSX5orrcaI/AAAAAAAACtg/oU4K2-wsf90/s1600/DSC_0388.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cAMAPY5Uto/VOSX5ssTwEI/AAAAAAAACtY/PKdtXD1F4Ag/s1600/DSC_0379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cAMAPY5Uto/VOSX5ssTwEI/AAAAAAAACtY/PKdtXD1F4Ag/s1600/DSC_0379.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J3xuNUQSH0w/VOSX5tc_tXI/AAAAAAAACtc/2wZtY61mZ1g/s1600/20150215_131922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J3xuNUQSH0w/VOSX5tc_tXI/AAAAAAAACtc/2wZtY61mZ1g/s1600/20150215_131922.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
For our most recent build, we started applying fiberglass resin to the chest piece. This is used to strengthen the armor so that we can sculpt on it with bondo body filler. While the chest was curing, we began cutting and assembling the back armor. Adam also started 3D printing the Pulse Rifle, which should be ready to clean up and assemble at the next build day.<br />
<br />
Rachel also brought her Xeno costume so we could brainstorm ideas on how to create the next version of that. Kevin, our other Xeno, and Rachel and I decided we will cut the Xeno skull out of cardboard stacks for the rough master, which they will harden and sculpt.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2swpWusyBRQ/VOSYXW-RXmI/AAAAAAAACt4/Q0XvF-2AfSw/s1600/20150215_133033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2swpWusyBRQ/VOSYXW-RXmI/AAAAAAAACt4/Q0XvF-2AfSw/s1600/20150215_133033.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0LJB5eCVgz0/VOSYXciFy-I/AAAAAAAACtw/zDQ3RtKKGZE/s1600/20150215_133752.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0LJB5eCVgz0/VOSYXciFy-I/AAAAAAAACtw/zDQ3RtKKGZE/s1600/20150215_133752.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z2KGK77plTU/VOSYXfCcYeI/AAAAAAAACt0/p1uGv1Z_P4o/s1600/20150215_155755.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z2KGK77plTU/VOSYXfCcYeI/AAAAAAAACt0/p1uGv1Z_P4o/s1600/20150215_155755.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Our next build will see a lot of progress, since we are now at a point where we can have teams of people working on different smaller parts. We will cut out and assemble the leg armor, start bondo sculpting on the chest, and fiberglass and bondo the back. We'll also be working on the Pulse Rifle, and may have some of the other Marine weapons to start 3D printing. Our team of Xenos will work on the cardboard jigsaw puzzle.<br />
<br />
See all of our progress photos on Freeside's Facebook page here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045223078825003.1073741829.612557732091542&type=1">https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1045223078825003.1073741829.612557732091542&type=1</a><br />
<br />
Be apart of the Atlanta Cosplay Meetup by keeping an eye on Freeside's Meetup calendar, or our Facebook group here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtlantaCosplayMeetup/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtlantaCosplayMeetup/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-47858398527319771772015-01-12T09:23:00.000-05:002015-01-12T09:23:24.777-05:00January Build-Out RecapOn Saturday, we had one of our semi regular facility build-outs. These are great for the space and our members as it lets us focus on working on the space itself as a project to improve and maintain Freeside.<br />
<br />
This time we did a lot of cleaning up and tidying after some of the major projects at Freeside! Between the JAM build the past few months and the recent power additions, a lot of organization work was needed.<br />
<br />
Demontre and Niels put some more time into the indoor paint booth! Not much left on this project now, all we need is the exhaust fans and the filters and we're ready to paint.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9g9yWTFzj24/VLPX8zLLPjI/AAAAAAAACj4/ydSl_1BVcbM/s1600/2015-01-10%2B15.04.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9g9yWTFzj24/VLPX8zLLPjI/AAAAAAAACj4/ydSl_1BVcbM/s1600/2015-01-10%2B15.04.16.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MZQmmf6HRRM/VLPX882DPZI/AAAAAAAACj0/dDGrgQmWuE8/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.57.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MZQmmf6HRRM/VLPX882DPZI/AAAAAAAACj0/dDGrgQmWuE8/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.57.48.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Nathan and Paul painted the new folding chairs for the space.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-izuQGeC0hUg/VLPYIkCy4HI/AAAAAAAACkE/aFlPBYsQV3s/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.56.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-izuQGeC0hUg/VLPYIkCy4HI/AAAAAAAACkE/aFlPBYsQV3s/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.56.32.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Karen and Adam helped to tidy up the lumber and plastics consumables. Now we can get to scrap lumber and laserable plastics easier!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehEGmPZh7nE/VLPYPerBkxI/AAAAAAAACkM/Hj3YfkqxaKk/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehEGmPZh7nE/VLPYPerBkxI/AAAAAAAACkM/Hj3YfkqxaKk/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.04.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8wpZsGJSvI/VLPYhzehE7I/AAAAAAAACkk/oq9c6_ERgUg/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8wpZsGJSvI/VLPYhzehE7I/AAAAAAAACkk/oq9c6_ERgUg/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.49.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Everyone pitched in to clean up the center of the workshop and open that space back up. So much room for activities!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-awF7aqMKI/VLPYbdKTAII/AAAAAAAACkU/M3nhFUAJ1KI/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.56.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q-awF7aqMKI/VLPYbdKTAII/AAAAAAAACkU/M3nhFUAJ1KI/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.56.51.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-31wTQxY2T6o/VLPYbbbo-yI/AAAAAAAACkY/A23z9OdSOho/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-31wTQxY2T6o/VLPYbbbo-yI/AAAAAAAACkY/A23z9OdSOho/s1600/2015-01-10%2B18.58.14.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Not pictured: Tons of old dead paint that was disposed of, lots of old stuff on the recycling and dead project shelves that was tossed, and of course tons of piles of dust swept up.<br />
<br />
Thanks to everyone who showed up and help make Freeside even better!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-54655644318338256102014-12-16T00:31:00.002-05:002014-12-16T00:31:30.305-05:00Making a Circle Jig<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
Have you ever needed to cut a circle? Turns out you can't just freehand that. If you want to cut a circle you need a.... Circle Jig! This handy little thing straps onto a standard router. You stick a pin in one of the little holes for the center, strap a router to the other side and route yourself a circle.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YG6kKdj2Ius/VI-9NVZIwHI/AAAAAAAAAZg/yD8ecSQLyEE/s1600/Step1.png" height="105" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" width="200" />Here's a commercial circle jig. Seems simple enough. Now what if you want this thing -Right Now-? Well then you better have a Laser Cutter and some Acrylic.
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-14hZ5atM22U/VI-2rddsZTI/AAAAAAAAAY4/HBoZghY5cEU/s1600/Step1.png" height="105" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" width="320" /> Step 1 of the design comes from measuring out the dimensions of the existing router plate. What are those curved holes for? Who knows? But they look cool right?
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I1mtXtYGk7Y/VI-2rjz29pI/AAAAAAAAAZM/P-wLC6r3xJY/s1600/Step2.png" height="103" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" width="320" />Starting from a base circle of diameter 1/4 in (size of the router bit) we offset another circle at some whole number of mm to mark the smallest radius we can cut. Then we offset a whole bunch of other circles in 2mm increments. Then add some horizontal lines.
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ryPD7EaY1Y/VI-2rqN6BfI/AAAAAAAAAY8/lTBSOxZ2DdQ/s1600/Step3.png" height="116" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" width="320" />We want to place the center holes at intersections of the horizontal lines and circles. It took forever. And ever. That's a lot of holes.
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7EHwYx_zt_U/VI-2sQl-ZKI/AAAAAAAAAZI/Xs4XtRnsWjU/s1600/Step4.png" height="130" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" width="320" />Then you throw that on the laser cutter and BAM! New Circle jig. Well with some post processing. The laser cutter can't inset the screw holes for attaching this thing to the router. Those were cut with... A router. How about that</div>
Scott McGrawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15496980757083168786noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-51486730324552364222014-12-02T08:33:00.001-05:002015-11-25T15:27:25.903-05:00Building an enclosure for the LulzBot AO 100As the cold weather season arrives in Atlanta, with it comes issues with our 3D printers. Specifically problems with temperatures and print stability.<br />
<br />
Freeside is essentially a big warehouse, and our 3D printing station is setup in the large open area in the front of the space. What this means is that when it is cold in the space, this will affect the printing quality because the ambient temperature is far lower than what is optimal for thermoplastics. The cold ambient air will cause parts to rapidly cool during the middle of a print. And with materials like ABS which can shrink dramatically during cooling, this causes prints to warp, deform, and delaminate during and after printing is finished.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41uW6gk96-I/VH2-UuXI2NI/AAAAAAAACi8/2g_wz0zkvKA/s1600/2014-11-29%2B17.06.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41uW6gk96-I/VH2-UuXI2NI/AAAAAAAACi8/2g_wz0zkvKA/s640/2014-11-29%2B17.06.47.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The print on the left is showing signs of delamination from plastic cooling mid print.</i></span></div>
<br />
To remedy this, we built an acrylic enclosure for our LulzBot AO-100, which is our dedicated ABS printer.<br />
<br />
We tested the proof of concept of whether an enclosure would help mitigate printing problems by sticking a big cardboard box on the LulzBot to trap heat in. We also tried pushing hot air into it using a heatshrink heat gun, which turned out to actually cause the temperatures to be too high and 3D prints suffer problems on the other end of the spectrum.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vrb7uaZpz9w/VH293ErYMwI/AAAAAAAACic/2dpn7w_8CBM/s1600/2014-11-30%2B19.16.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vrb7uaZpz9w/VH293ErYMwI/AAAAAAAACic/2dpn7w_8CBM/s640/2014-11-30%2B19.16.57.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The LulzBot sitting inside the shame box.</i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vfYrvZVkR48/VH296wzMAuI/AAAAAAAACik/ugyFbD9q3Bk/s1600/2014-11-30%2B19.18.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vfYrvZVkR48/VH296wzMAuI/AAAAAAAACik/ugyFbD9q3Bk/s640/2014-11-30%2B19.18.13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Print affected by ambient temperature being too high.</i></span></div>
<br />
Removing the heat source made the printer spit out great quality prints, and we then moved on to building the acrylic enclosure. There is a lot of scrap materials at Freeside, including several large sheets of 1/8" and 1/4" clear acrylic. Using the outer dimensions of the LulzBot (and adding a couple inches for safety), we drew up a quick design, and cut the acrylic on the table saw.<br />
<br />
The acrylic panels were aligned and clamped together using scrap pieces of wood, and the acrylic was bonded using acrylic glue. We also 3D printed hinge and corner pieces that we found on Thingiverse to help add support.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gk3Hvx-Q5Cg/VH2-AQtilbI/AAAAAAAACis/WvpR3xe35TI/s1600/2014-11-30%2B20.01.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gk3Hvx-Q5Cg/VH2-AQtilbI/AAAAAAAACis/WvpR3xe35TI/s640/2014-11-30%2B20.01.25.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Always be clamping!</i></span></div>
<br />
Two holes were drilled into the box, one in the top for the filament to feed through, and one in the back for the power and USB cables to enter into the box. The door was affixed using 3D printed hinges, model grade cyanoacrylate which melts and bonds ABS and acrylic, and a short piece of 3mm filament used for the actual hinge.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5VJ90GXFpRE/VH29t0YMOVI/AAAAAAAACiU/om-cNeXmmeo/s1600/2014-12-01%2B18.53.45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5VJ90GXFpRE/VH29t0YMOVI/AAAAAAAACiU/om-cNeXmmeo/s640/2014-12-01%2B18.53.45.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The LulzBot looking like a piece in an art exhibit.</i></span></div>
<br />
All together the build took less than 2 days from start to finish. We need to dial in our printer settings - we had raised the extruder temperature profiles to compensate for the cold ambient air - but things are already printing much more reliably. We were uncertain if we needed some sort of heating element, but it seems that the heat put out by the extruder and the heated bed are enough to keep the inside of the enclosure warm enough for quality printing.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hcQbmFG2fLg/VH2-KpDMKAI/AAAAAAAACi0/dHAkRUlqQVM/s1600/1417488857962-881392144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hcQbmFG2fLg/VH2-KpDMKAI/AAAAAAAACi0/dHAkRUlqQVM/s640/1417488857962-881392144.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The next order of business will be adding a temperature sensor and an exhaust fan for when things get too warm, but that will be a project for another day!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-84044595129018801802014-11-02T12:58:00.002-05:002014-11-02T13:07:56.501-05:00Using gaze-tracking to map how surgeons look at diagnostic images<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few years ago, a Freeside collaboration resulted in some published medical research on using <a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/2012/04/draft-freesiders-hackers-collaborate-in.html" target="_blank">3D Printing in pre-surgery planning</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our second collaboration, we used gaze tracking to gather data on how surgeons with different levels of experience look at radiographs when diagnosing hallux valgus deformities. The new paper got published in the <a href="http://www.jfas.org/article/S1067-2516(14)00419-0/abstract" target="_blank">current issue of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_657kfWyzbs/VFZn-R3bIfI/AAAAAAAADqc/l05r10g887M/s1600/Attention%2BMap%2BSlide%2B2c.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_657kfWyzbs/VFZn-R3bIfI/AAAAAAAADqc/l05r10g887M/s1600/Attention%2BMap%2BSlide%2B2c.JPG" height="149" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-apU7eCkYp9k/VFZn46CbxuI/AAAAAAAADqU/tyyyEp41sn4/s1600/Attention%2BMap%2BSlide%2B2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-apU7eCkYp9k/VFZn46CbxuI/AAAAAAAADqU/tyyyEp41sn4/s1600/Attention%2BMap%2BSlide%2B2.JPG" height="149" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interestingly enough, we actually came up with the concept for this project during a meetup about interactive art installations. The idea of eye tracking came up and we discussed what we could discover with the technology. So we started to try to figure out how to a study with the free and open-source tools available. We ended up needing:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A webcam to look at the user's eyes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ITU Gaze Tracker to calibrate and interpret that data. (However, their website is now down, so I'm not sure how viable this is as part of the toolchain now.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ogama.net/" target="_blank">OGAMA </a>- Open Gaze and Mouse Analysis to conduct the study, display and record the data.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://opencv-python-tutroals.readthedocs.org/en/latest/py_tutorials/py_gui/py_table_of_contents_gui/py_table_of_contents_gui.html" target="_blank">OpenCV</a> and <a href="http://pandas.pydata.org/" target="_blank">Pandas</a> in Python to do a bit more image correction</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matlab to do more statistical analysis on the data</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A custom chin rest that we fabricated and used a mouse pad for cushion</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We threw together a workstation for about $400 (the laptop + webcam were the main costs) to do the study and started collecting data - </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1rDnh8CDYg/VFZp5Rg0KeI/AAAAAAAADqo/b3PyfqId_LQ/s1600/photo%2B2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P1rDnh8CDYg/VFZp5Rg0KeI/AAAAAAAADqo/b3PyfqId_LQ/s1600/photo%2B2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We showed surgical residents and surgeons with over 7 years of experience a series of 30 radiograph images and asked them to rate the deformity from 0 to 3 in severity. Experts tended to lock onto areas for longer and use their peripheral vision more for diagnosis. Novices would search the image by moving their focus around more and tended to rank the deformity as less severe. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our main goal was to demonstrate that this kind of data collection can be done as a proof-of-concept cost-effectively and there's a lot to learn with it. We put together a video to further explain the setup, processes, and findings here if you'd like to learn more! - </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/_DWqfpoa9U0/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_DWqfpoa9U0&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_DWqfpoa9U0&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a fun project despite a huge number of roadblocks and setbacks with the setups, calibration, data manipulation, Despite the challenges, we came out of it with some really interesting research that demonstrates yet again how awesome it is to have a diverse community of experts and all the tools they need in one place. <a href="https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Donations" target="_blank">Support</a> your local hackerspace/makerspace!</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-8457395774414883662014-09-29T11:01:00.000-04:002014-09-29T11:01:47.645-04:00Build-Out Recap!<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
A bunch of great stuff got done at the build-out yesterday. A huge thanks to everyone that came out to pitch in!</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Here are some pictures to recap the projects... Randy's team hung the curtain to the workshop to create more of a barrier between the front of the house and back of the house and to control dust levels a bit more. We'll be finishing the top of the wall soon, but the hard part's already done. Karen, Donald, Tom, Violet, and James framed the doorway to the Media Lab and Bio Lab and hung the door for that area. Next step is AC!</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T-v6Sy7CUjo/VClwoCp_LUI/AAAAAAAADl4/ftB8dYfwCoI/s1600/IMG_20140928_201304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T-v6Sy7CUjo/VClwoCp_LUI/AAAAAAAADl4/ftB8dYfwCoI/s1600/IMG_20140928_201304.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qU5JpYpJKuw/VClwxupdQVI/AAAAAAAADmA/-HXWBsBFd44/s1600/IMG_20140928_201416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qU5JpYpJKuw/VClwxupdQVI/AAAAAAAADmA/-HXWBsBFd44/s1600/IMG_20140928_201416.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Michelle and Mary's team cleaned out project storage and moved the shelves over so that Neils could put the flammability cabinets in that area. That allowed all of us with the help of Adam and Nathan to clean up the workshop and really tidy up. They also sorted out all of the laser cutter raw materials and cut them down to a usable size on the table saw. </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ellWXEZNDIg/VClyXUJUqII/AAAAAAAADmM/sINpT-zYHiY/s1600/IMG_20140928_201327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ellWXEZNDIg/VClyXUJUqII/AAAAAAAADmM/sINpT-zYHiY/s1600/IMG_20140928_201327.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pYd624Q6mGU/VClyisZ_oyI/AAAAAAAADnE/C6Ee44tF-pE/s1600/IMG_20140928_201334.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pYd624Q6mGU/VClyisZ_oyI/AAAAAAAADnE/C6Ee44tF-pE/s1600/IMG_20140928_201334.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vsnjQB9qyto/VClyjF3lJRI/AAAAAAAADnM/Bi5vZ00V8zc/s1600/IMG_20140928_201350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vsnjQB9qyto/VClyjF3lJRI/AAAAAAAADnM/Bi5vZ00V8zc/s1600/IMG_20140928_201350.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
For the portal clouds, JW, Nathan, and Kat rolled an awesome $1 solution for controlling the WS2812 clouds with an attiny and a programming header. The schematics and board layout are included too. We used <a href="http://highlowtech.org/?p=1695" target="_blank">highlowtech's guide</a> to programming the Attiny85s with the help of an <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-a-1-ATTiny-to-drive-addressable-RGB-LEDs/?ALLSTEPS" target="_blank">instructables for driving LEDs</a> with them that provided some supplemental information. There was an issue with setting the fuse in the ATTiny to get the timing right that we ended up having to use avrdude to change manually. Maybe that had something to do with us using the internal clock or the ATTiny-10... Anyway, more clouds coming soon :)</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--RVfvIvLTHY/VClyfpv9ahI/AAAAAAAADmc/DzS6CYGyvKg/s1600/IMG_20140928_131323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--RVfvIvLTHY/VClyfpv9ahI/AAAAAAAADmc/DzS6CYGyvKg/s1600/IMG_20140928_131323.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvfT2qebxI0/VClyhfDHI_I/AAAAAAAADm0/jwW3aD2BN4Q/s1600/IMG_20140928_201212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvfT2qebxI0/VClyhfDHI_I/AAAAAAAADm0/jwW3aD2BN4Q/s1600/IMG_20140928_201212.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBs23ACAECQ/VClyfoLp1DI/AAAAAAAADmY/pB7c0dl2jm8/s1600/IMG_20140928_200146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZBs23ACAECQ/VClyfoLp1DI/AAAAAAAADmY/pB7c0dl2jm8/s1600/IMG_20140928_200146.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jInuut8zoKw/VClyfhIwpGI/AAAAAAAADmU/FCATItUAFjI/s1600/IMG_20140928_142818.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jInuut8zoKw/VClyfhIwpGI/AAAAAAAADmU/FCATItUAFjI/s1600/IMG_20140928_142818.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Thanks again to everyone who came and I'm looking forward to the next one!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-85801533454135319662014-09-06T23:12:00.000-04:002014-09-06T23:12:48.952-04:00Motobrain: Interesting Investigation ConcludesI've had a problem with the way Motobrain calculated current flows for quite some time. Basically it always read a little higher than I expected it to if the textbooks are to be believed. Furthermore, one half the board always read a about 10% higher than the other half. It is not very unexpected that the "textbook" calculation and real life are a bit out of sync. Still, I wanted to know why the error was inconsistent between the two halves of the unit. That part was a bit unusual.<br />
<br />
<div>
<div class="alignright">
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
</div>
<a href="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/powerpcb.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="powerpcb" class=" wp-image-1161 " src="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/powerpcb-793x1024.jpg" height="311" width="241" /></a><a href="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_20140801_114345_2711.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="IMG_20140801_114345_271[1]" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1091" src="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_20140801_114345_2711-300x168.jpg" height="168" width="300" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Normally, the way you go about solving an issue like this is to exclude stuff until the problem is gone. First, I excluded the Power board, the PCB with all the high current flow, heavy copper, and power transistors (shown right). I did this using the test jig (right, below) I designed to test all the Motobrains that come out of the factory. The MCU board (the board with the sensors, microcontroller, and Bluetooth radio) plugs into the jig and is given a series of test signals to confirm it is working. These test signals showed a similar error where the same half the board reported a higher current flow than the other. I concluded that the problem was clearly with the MCU board. Since then, I've spent a couple months looking over the schematic and PCBs for flaws that would explain the issue. Countless measurements showed the "error" somewhere earlier in the signal path than I tested though. As luck would have it, the Motobrain design for the signal path in question has a series of amplifiers. This means that the signals are smaller the earlier in the signal path we go. It got to point where I don't own sensitive enough test equipment to do a useful measurement. I best voltage measurement instrument I own is not sensitive enough to test the signal. Well, the Motobrain MCU board is sensitive enough but I was trying to exclude it so I couldn't use it obviously. Rather than beat my head against the same old wall today, I decided to focus on more practical concerns and calibrate the Motobrain to output accurate results. This means I was going to "fix" the firmware to correct for the nominal read error from the sensor. To do this, I needed I do some precise measurements at series of different calibrated current flows and graph them out. Conveniently both sides of the board show a linear deviation from the true reading which makes it very easy to null out in the firmware. <span style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
</span> Fixing it was as easy as taking the current measurement and dividing it by 1.11 or 1.22 depending on the side of the Motobrain. I did this and updated the Motobrain on bench. The readings were all accurate and I was pleased. Case closed... then again, while I'm here why not beat my head against the wall some more?!?<br />
<br />
Always a glutton for punishment, I decided to compare the fresh readings to the historical data I had collected some weeks ago when first built this Motobrain. Every Motobrain is run through a battery of tests and the results are cataloged and stored electronically in case they may be informative in the future. I figured that if I see some failures in the future I may find a pattern in these data to help explain things. So, I pulled out the file for the Motobrain I had just collected these calibrated current flows from and compared them. What I found surprised me. Like I had observed before, the errors were certainly similar and the same half of the board was high relative to the the other. What surprised me was the magnitude of the error. The errors were much larger on the test jig than they were with the actual Motobrain Power board. It suddenly occurred to me that I did a poor job excluding the Power Board from a role in this issue. The simplest thing to do was to indict the test jig in this error I was seeing. About 3 minutes and a couple of quick measurements later, I was able to confirm the test jig was responsible for introducing all the errors I was seeing on the Motobrain MCU board when in the test jig. This means that the MCU board was actually excluded from guilt in the error reading after all. By pure coincidence, both the Power board and the test jig were introducing the same type of error on the same sensors of the MCU board. Flaws on both the test jig and the Power board that affected the MCU board in the same way was beyond my simplistic expectations. I did that first measurement on the test jig, got the reading I was expecting and stopped looking. In science, this is called "confirmation bias" and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker!<br />
<br />
So, what was the actual problem? I still don't have sensitive enough instruments to be absolutely certain if I don't use the Motobrain MCU board to do the measurement, but now that I trust those sensors again, I have identified the likely issue. It is minor differences in the way I designed the Power board itself. The path the electrons take on half of the Power board is about 900µm (900 micrometers) longer on the half that reads higher. That distance increases the resistance of the flow path by about 66µΩ or 0.000066Ω (also known as half a bee's dick of resistance). The signals we are measuring are extremely small though and every little bit of resistance matters. Normally I don't need to worry about such differences because because I give myself much larger margins of error to worry about but Motobrain's high current capacity obligates me to an extremely low output impedance and means that I do need to be a bit more thoughtful. Oops, my bad.</div>
</div>
<a href="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/powerpcb-trace.jpg"><img alt="powerpcb-trace" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1162" src="http://www.motobrain.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/powerpcb-trace-1024x404.jpg" height="264" width="670" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-11508469758687730992014-09-05T21:19:00.001-04:002015-02-18T08:55:53.536-05:00Props and costuming - Building an Ultron helmetHello, Freeside readers, and welcome to my first blog post!<br />
<br />
My name is Michelle Sleeper, I am a prop and costume builder in Atlanta, working primarily out of Freeside's space. I have been building costumes and plastic space guns since 2001, and have been a member of Freeside since 2013.<br />
<br />
My most recent major project was to upgrade a costume I built last year of the Marvel comic's character, Ultron. The costume owner wanted a new and improved helmet, made of cast resin and full of all sorts of lights. It was a big and ambitious project, and I was very excited to get started.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-doYiPE6-T-s/VNEQEBzSnXI/AAAAAAAACo8/tnhpCuexuOg/s1600/15351446829_bd221a61ba_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-doYiPE6-T-s/VNEQEBzSnXI/AAAAAAAACo8/tnhpCuexuOg/s1600/15351446829_bd221a61ba_o.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Here's how we got there.<br />
<br />
From the outset we decided that we wanted the master sculpt to be 3D printed - but for those of you familiar with 3D printing, you know that extremely large prints are difficult if not impossible to produce. Most often, you will have to break your model up into many different segments, which you then assemble like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. We opted not to do that, and instead outsourced to a professional 3D printing company based in Florida called TheObjectShop. They have a Zcorp 650, which is a very large printer that prints in a plaster like material, which is then hardened with cyanoacrylate AKA super glue.<br />
<br />
The resulting print, while expensive, was absolutely phenomenal.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m1BT3LIuEeE/VNEM4xk7uvI/AAAAAAAACnQ/40q35mu-xrw/s1600/10265345_625474787551655_4913058468336591639_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m1BT3LIuEeE/VNEM4xk7uvI/AAAAAAAACnQ/40q35mu-xrw/s1600/10265345_625474787551655_4913058468336591639_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /> </a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X2RlXyKCX-8/VNEM5VpvACI/AAAAAAAACnU/w1nzw5cmJlM/s1600/10352277_618974344868366_4627971400998591326_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X2RlXyKCX-8/VNEM5VpvACI/AAAAAAAACnU/w1nzw5cmJlM/s1600/10352277_618974344868366_4627971400998591326_n.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Like all 3D prints, the surface had a texture to it that was unsuitable for our needs. I set about cleaning up the surface to as smooth as I could get it, a process which took about 2 and a half weeks. The process is simple - spray the piece with filler primer, fill any large problem areas with bondo or spot filler, and use increasingly finer grits of sandpaper - but extremely tedious and time consuming. I started at 80 grit to knock down some of the bigger problem areas, and worked my way up to 800 grit wet sanding. The results were a helmet that was nearly flawless.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-quQ1w-DZpPc/VNENqaeMBaI/AAAAAAAACnk/umDmlQzLzgE/s1600/10553663_620019944763806_390476235512582633_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-quQ1w-DZpPc/VNENqaeMBaI/AAAAAAAACnk/umDmlQzLzgE/s1600/10553663_620019944763806_390476235512582633_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kM5YXw5es8Y/VNENrFT35GI/AAAAAAAACns/-YEtFEmdRSM/s1600/10497286_621976984568102_2613702935666222826_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kM5YXw5es8Y/VNENrFT35GI/AAAAAAAACns/-YEtFEmdRSM/s1600/10497286_621976984568102_2613702935666222826_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AFnEPcjIgag/VNENru25CWI/AAAAAAAACn0/shd8-Ck9ccE/s1600/10533183_625474964218304_8783208518198486266_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AFnEPcjIgag/VNENru25CWI/AAAAAAAACn0/shd8-Ck9ccE/s1600/10533183_625474964218304_8783208518198486266_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Now that our master sculpt was completed, we had to create a 2 part jacket mold out of silicone. This would allow us to produce many different copies in urethane resin later down the line. Urethane resin is lighter weight and more sturdy than the brittle plaster 3D print. These are important factors, considering it would be worn for 6-8 hours a day (if not more) and require a bunch of electronics glued and bolted inside of it.<br />
<br />
To create the 2 part mold, first we have to make a parting wall all the way around the helmet, which will be the interfacing layer where the 2 sides of the silicone molds touch. We use the end of our Xacto knife to create little bumps all along the edge, which are registration keys that help the two halves line up properly.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Am_o1__3dAw/VNEONMJ5noI/AAAAAAAACn8/FMcprVQuRJw/s1600/10498312_625475044218296_7597825826961963969_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Am_o1__3dAw/VNEONMJ5noI/AAAAAAAACn8/FMcprVQuRJw/s1600/10498312_625475044218296_7597825826961963969_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lgsMBUCiUR4/VNEONvKg4GI/AAAAAAAACoE/EUkcjBFhtDY/s1600/10535694_625475114218289_7244436521188189090_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lgsMBUCiUR4/VNEONvKg4GI/AAAAAAAACoE/EUkcjBFhtDY/s1600/10535694_625475114218289_7244436521188189090_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FLZZhCnjvEs/VNEOOZNloHI/AAAAAAAACoM/BbPKN6qGKMU/s1600/10452841_625007567598377_9100194241585175786_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FLZZhCnjvEs/VNEOOZNloHI/AAAAAAAACoM/BbPKN6qGKMU/s1600/10452841_625007567598377_9100194241585175786_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Once the first half of the silicone mold is applied, we flip the whole thing over, remove the parting wall, and apply a coat of releasing agent before we apply the second half of silicone. The releasing agent is absolutely critical - silicone will not stick to anything except other silicone. Without the releasing agent, we would essentially create a big silicone bowl which would be next to impossible to use for our purposes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dCWhth06Buo/VNEO0ok21XI/AAAAAAAACoU/obavyvP-gKs/s1600/10536342_625475327551601_5165771653955855472_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dCWhth06Buo/VNEO0ok21XI/AAAAAAAACoU/obavyvP-gKs/s1600/10536342_625475327551601_5165771653955855472_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UMsVRwa1BnA/VNEO1r9A0aI/AAAAAAAACog/4Q5f015X4Vg/s1600/10498628_625478347551299_735131880842376120_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UMsVRwa1BnA/VNEO1r9A0aI/AAAAAAAACog/4Q5f015X4Vg/s1600/10498628_625478347551299_735131880842376120_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NzZCljWzafE/VNEO1FaS7cI/AAAAAAAACoc/bxewmvtNuIc/s1600/10498264_625475360884931_363608240534000073_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NzZCljWzafE/VNEO1FaS7cI/AAAAAAAACoc/bxewmvtNuIc/s1600/10498264_625475360884931_363608240534000073_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once both halves of the silicone mold were created and fully cured, we created an outer rigid mother mold. This is used to keep the silicone mold held together, once the master is removed and the mold is hollow. It is also applied in two halves, and like the silicone we use a releasing agent when creating the second half.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BSu4n-kQJck/VNEPi9_hLTI/AAAAAAAACow/Dtzn1MR8ll4/s1600/10505131_625825637516570_5955749678908880166_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BSu4n-kQJck/VNEPi9_hLTI/AAAAAAAACow/Dtzn1MR8ll4/s1600/10505131_625825637516570_5955749678908880166_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JZg1Ih1f5gc/VNEPiKLaUxI/AAAAAAAACos/5IwrJDZiqSM/s1600/10551419_626081527490981_1379043437297532231_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JZg1Ih1f5gc/VNEPiKLaUxI/AAAAAAAACos/5IwrJDZiqSM/s1600/10551419_626081527490981_1379043437297532231_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
To make the hollow casting, we use a technique called rotocasting or slush casting. This is where you pour a bit of your urethane resin into the hollow mold and rotate it around so that it evenly coats all of the surfaces with a thin layer. This is done 4-5 times using several small batches of urethane resin, so that we ensure every surface has an even thickness. Because the mold weighs around 10 to 15 pounds before we put a drop of resin into it, and because each layer requires about 5 minutes of tossing it around, I decided to build handles to form into the mother mold. This makes the mother much easier to hold onto during the already strenuous rotocasting process.<br />
<br />
After you are finished casting, it's time to remove the mother and the silicone mold. What you are left with is a perfect reproduction of your master sculpt in a much lighter material. The casting process itself is a bit of a learning curve as every mold will be different. Certain areas will come out to be thinner than others, and the exact amount of material you need to use for each batch will depend on a lot of factors. What this means is that the first few castings will tend to be "duds", meaning they are unsuitable for your ultimate purposes - in our case, a wearable costume.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5GkpOggJFB0/VNERi-jHJUI/AAAAAAAACpc/nznH6V9SPVg/s1600/10476352_626676197431514_1527737461769582758_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5GkpOggJFB0/VNERi-jHJUI/AAAAAAAACpc/nznH6V9SPVg/s1600/10476352_626676197431514_1527737461769582758_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R25IbCGqVJo/VNERizaXIjI/AAAAAAAACpg/T4iJ8hknj_w/s1600/10547784_626963680736099_4695908786595404388_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R25IbCGqVJo/VNERizaXIjI/AAAAAAAACpg/T4iJ8hknj_w/s1600/10547784_626963680736099_4695908786595404388_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
However, you can still dress up one of these bad casts and stick it on a mannequin to live in the space!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v9xfh8ZvU60/VNEQWEjxVII/AAAAAAAACpE/HmqmPrFpc7Q/s1600/10608228_626676290764838_5578107784092153208_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v9xfh8ZvU60/VNEQWEjxVII/AAAAAAAACpE/HmqmPrFpc7Q/s1600/10608228_626676290764838_5578107784092153208_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
While we were working on sculpting the master and producing the molds, we were also working on the electronic guts that would go into the helmet. Specifically, there would be a set of LEDs set into laser cut acrylic, and a custom made 8 x 24 LED matrix for the mouth.<br />
<br />
The eye LEDs are rather simple - I drew up a 2D design to bridge the width of the helmet's eyes, and then cut that out of 2 layers of opaque white acrylic. The inner layer was made of 6mm acrylic which the LEDs were set into and glued into place, and the outer 3mm layer was flat. The results are menacing glowing red eyes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AnvHado9dDQ/VNEMr-v_7tI/AAAAAAAACnI/9lXomBYIx6Y/s1600/10636473_633106903455110_2165167186114047968_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AnvHado9dDQ/VNEMr-v_7tI/AAAAAAAACnI/9lXomBYIx6Y/s1600/10636473_633106903455110_2165167186114047968_o.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The mouth LED matrix, on the other hand, is worthy of it's own individual blog post, which I will be putting up later. The short version is that we found and used an Arduino Micro connected to three MAX7219 chips, which are designed to control an 8 x 8 matrix. The matrix had to be designed and wired up by hand, a process which took about 3 weeks of work. After some trial and error with the MAX7219 board kits we used, the whole thing was put together and worked flawlessly. Here is a test video of the center matrix in our temporary holder.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/4jWjKYnndKs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
After the matrix was finished, a cover was laser cut out of 1mm clear acrylic and installed into the mouth. The LEDs were transferred into a similar housing for their permanent installation, and all of the boards were put into craft foam holders for protection and installed into the helmet. The results were nothing short of perfect!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5R4OUUSiS8w?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
At this point the project was finished and ready to be worn, but like any good project it has sparked a whole host of new ideas and "how to do it better"s.<br />
<br />
Until next time!<br />
<br />
<i>Want to see more photos? Check out the complete build process on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OverworldDesigns" target="_blank">my Facebook page</a>.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-13589734137461657102014-08-04T14:40:00.000-04:002014-08-04T14:40:58.842-04:00The JAM: Joy's Art Machine (First Build Recap)<i style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Background</b>: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The JAM (Joy's Art Machine) is a machine that distributes art. This project was fully funded by the <a href="http://alchemyburn.com/what-is" style="color: rgb(0, 150, 227) !important; font-size: 12px;">Alchemy</a> community. We are on track to collect somewhere between 200-300 pieces of art to distribute, including works by Catlanta and Evereman. We are actively collecting works of art, so if you're interested in contributing, you can email <b>Joy</b> at </span><a href="mailto:joyogozelec@gmail.com" style="border: 0px; color: #6611cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">joyogozelec@gmail.com</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The JAM explores two of the 10 core Burning Man principles: Decommodification and Gifting. We express Gifting by distributing art through the machine. Gifting trees are a familiar sight at Burns, but suffer from accumulating trash or trinkets. By gifting art (a gift in itself) we create a sort of on-demand gifting tree. We express Decommodification by not allowing the JAM to accept money. Instead, art is distributed by the machine on a timer. The machine lights up, and you push a button to receive art.</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>If you're interested in learning more about the project or want to get involved, check out our <a href="http://www.meetup.com/freeside-atlanta" style="color: rgb(0, 150, 227) !important; font-size: 12px;">Meetup</a> calendar for the next meeting or build, or email me at <a href="mailto:emptyset@freesideatlanta.org">emptyset@freesideatlanta.org</a>.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e28chB0uanU/U9_PvfrQSNI/AAAAAAAABkk/TfzFbGldyxw/s1600/IMG_20140802_140835_146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e28chB0uanU/U9_PvfrQSNI/AAAAAAAABkk/TfzFbGldyxw/s1600/IMG_20140802_140835_146.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Last Saturday I worked with <b>Brian </b>on the frame of the front and back 4x8-ft sheets. We're using a pressure-treated wood, so the frame is going to hold the structure firm since the sheets have a tendency to warp a little. Pressure-treated wood is also going to require a little more research to figure out what we need for painting.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We decided to start by marking exactly where we wanted to drill holes for the nuts and bolts to go. We went with a staggered pattern. We first created a template using a scrap piece of 8-ft long wood, and then scored the angle iron to make our markings. Every hole is marked, so for the next Build one or two volunteers can simply drill out all the holes. Essentially, we're creating a kit to assemble the JAM.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After marking all the steel, we made sure to label each piece with "top", "bottom" and whether it was a left or right part (if you face the "front" or "back" side of the machine). This will help us keep track of where everything needs to go so nothing gets mixed up in assembly.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Then, we put down the left and right frame steel, and put down a 4x8-ft sheet. We held everything together and then marked off some angle iron to cut for the top and bottom parts of the frame. Brian also cut out some tabs so that the pieces would sit flush against the sides.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-0Q-t4ic2o/U9_PwDS5kUI/AAAAAAAABkw/-UO02rtt1_c/s1600/IMG_20140802_140915_965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-0Q-t4ic2o/U9_PwDS5kUI/AAAAAAAABkw/-UO02rtt1_c/s1600/IMG_20140802_140915_965.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After this, Brian was ready to weld. He did a few spot welds with the 4x8-ft sheet in place, and then we remove the sheet and completed the rest of the welding. We know have two frame parts that look like a bed frame! The JAM is going to be huge.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In other updates, we've sent out an order from Adafruit for the button, Arduino, and LED light strips. That should arrive in the next week or so, and then prototyping the controller and timer can begin. At the next build (tonight!), we have holes to drill in the steel frames, prototyping the carousel, shaving an inch off the "side" panels, and research on the paint. For those that are artistically inclined, we need some help with vector graphics and creating stencils that we'll be using to paint the sides. There's a little something for everyone!</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q_1cT9BktK4/U9_Pvolb8PI/AAAAAAAABko/WsO3UOtJ12g/s1600/IMG_20140802_141115_092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q_1cT9BktK4/U9_Pvolb8PI/AAAAAAAABko/WsO3UOtJ12g/s1600/IMG_20140802_141115_092.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CL66Ix576og/U9_PwhHy03I/AAAAAAAABk4/Ob5QnPi56rI/s1600/IMG_20140802_153952_349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CL66Ix576og/U9_PwhHy03I/AAAAAAAABk4/Ob5QnPi56rI/s1600/IMG_20140802_153952_349.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zKdvtHycG-o/U9_PwiYYewI/AAAAAAAABlA/RLjdrgBKhm0/s1600/IMG_20140802_154010_806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zKdvtHycG-o/U9_PwiYYewI/AAAAAAAABlA/RLjdrgBKhm0/s1600/IMG_20140802_154010_806.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-56135117791312625902014-07-29T22:22:00.003-04:002014-08-01T14:42:42.955-04:00JAM: Joy's Art Machine - Design Meetup (Recap)<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Background</b>: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The JAM (Joy's Art Machine) is a machine that distributes art. This project was fully funded by the <a href="http://alchemyburn.com/what-is">Alchemy</a> community. We are on track to collect somewhere between 200-300 pieces of art to distribute, including works by Catlanta and Evereman. We are actively collecting works of art, so if you're interested in contributing, you can email <b>Joy</b> at </span><a href="mailto:joyogozelec@gmail.com" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6611cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">joyogozelec@gmail.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The JAM explores two of the 10 core Burning Man principles: Decommodification and Gifting. We express Gifting by distributing art through the machine. Gifting trees are a familiar sight at Burns, but suffer from accumulating trash or trinkets. By gifting art (a gift in itself) we create a sort of on-demand gifting tree. We express Decommodification by not allowing the JAM to accept money. Instead, art is distributed by the machine on a timer. The machine lights up, and you push a button to receive art.</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>If you're interested in learning more about the project or want to get involved, check out our <a href="http://www.meetup.com/freeside-atlanta">Meetup</a> calendar for the next meeting or build, or email me at emptyset@freesideatlanta.org.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><br /></i>First off, thanks to everyone who attended! We had an impressive attendance of both Freeside members and beyond, and there was much information exchanged and discussion. <b>Rob</b> brought some pizza, and <b>Joy</b> and I brought some chocolate chip cookie dough hummus, spicy black bean hummus, and beer (of course!)</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
All apologies if I forget exactly who contributed what to the discussion! Everyone had excellent ideas and really helped us commit to a workable design.<br />
<div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
We spent a little time discussing a couple of key components of the project. First, we discussed the housing itself. Since we learned that the JAM won't be consumed in flames at the end of the event like we had planned, this meant we had to rethink the materials. On the upside, this means that we have a lot more liberty to decorate and paint the walls of the JAM (no worries about fumes released from burning paint.) Eventually, we settled on using 4x8ft sheets of lauan with some kind of frame backing it (somebody suggested using 3/4in steel square tubing). <b>Zach</b> suggested that door hinges have been used on similar projects (like the Tardis) at past burns with good success, as it's just a matter of dropping the pins back in to secure two walls. I'm following up with a few other folks via email to see if we can make a final design.</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://o.quizlet.com/CzIJhF2oPiSf2ip2wzY6Dg_m.png" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0px; clear: right; color: #6611cc; cursor: text; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img border="0" src="http://o.quizlet.com/CzIJhF2oPiSf2ip2wzY6Dg_m.png" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a>After much discussion related to the use of boxes, after some brainstorming we concluded that using a carousel-style design would be best, both in terms of loading the machine (cutting down on reloading frequency, due to more number of slots or "wedges") and in terms of being able to avoid using boxes altogether. One of our members, <b>Don</b> suggested the carousel concept. For art that was at risk of getting tangled in the machine (ex. felt or knit items) we would simply put them in a plastic bag. The carousel would rotate and the slot would move over to an opening that would allow the art to drop out.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Since the base of the machine is 4x4ft, if we use something like a wheel with diameter of 3.8ft, then this works out to about 23-24 wedges (if the length of the carousel the wedge takes up is about 6in.) If we maintain a dispense rate of about one wedge per hour, and slow it down in the early morning hours, we can probably look to reload the machine once per day, which is just about ideal for the Alchemy environment.</div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I spent some time tonight and added a few things to our Adafruit order: LED strips, Arduino, a big red LED button, power supply and connectors. This should be enough to independently program the timer and button/lighting mechanism.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
We're still not completely sure how exactly to drive the carousel, but we have enough to build a prototype that can be operated manually. <b>Kevin</b> and <b>Edward</b>, who helped build the prototype for the Infinity Portal, threw their hat in to help construct the carousel.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Stay tuned for an announcement about the next meeting!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-34028450114114271982014-06-26T11:20:00.000-04:002014-06-26T11:20:04.841-04:00Steganography 101<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Disclaimer</b>: This is a blog post about a CryptoParty presentation, the contents of which should not be construed as official Freeside statements. Any opinions presented in this blog post by the author do not in any way represent an official endorsement of these opinions by Freeside Technology Spaces, Inc., nor is intended to reflect the views of Freeside and its membership.</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, Freeside hosted a <a href="https://www.cryptoparty.in/guiding_principles" target="_blank">CryptoParty</a> where I gave an introductory presentation on <a href="http://www.garykessler.net/library/steganography.html" target="_blank">steganography</a>. Like all my CryptoParty presentations, this wasn't very technical, but I did introduce some (very) basic techniques.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-amfIfBaTVXw/U6wrQem4lcI/AAAAAAAABjE/18g01vVJI4g/s1600/stegosaurus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-amfIfBaTVXw/U6wrQem4lcI/AAAAAAAABjE/18g01vVJI4g/s1600/stegosaurus.jpg" height="197" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first tool that everyone should know about is <a href="http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/" target="_blank">exiftool</a>. exiftool reads and writes to the metadata section of a variety of image formats. I showed an <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/43665/ExifLibrary-for-NET" target="_blank">excellent illustrated example</a> of Exif metadata in the JPEG format, which has some great diagrams which show how a JPEG file's bytes are laid out. There's also C# .NET code included to extract and modify this data, if perl's not your thing (Note: perl should not be your thing).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many uses for Exif metadata. The most common use is by camera manufacturers. You may have heard that digital photography can record data and store it into the photo itself. This is how and where it happens. It's not just a timestamp, either. Your camera, especially a smartphone camera, can store information like GPS, your phone firmware version, the OS it's running, model number, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Station_Equipment_Identity" target="_blank">IMEI</a>, and other information that can unique identify your camera as the source of the photo.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ytAGnCOeNKo/U6wrvw9Od6I/AAAAAAAABjM/IPv8Vi3d5jE/s1600/snake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ytAGnCOeNKo/U6wrvw9Od6I/AAAAAAAABjM/IPv8Vi3d5jE/s1600/snake.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Facebook, Google, and other social media use this feature to conveniently place the location of where the photo was taken when you upload it to their service. This is great when you want to let your friends know that the picture of you standing in front of the Grand Canyon was taken at the location of the Grand Canyon (for those friends of yours that don't know what the Grand Canyon looks like). It's less awesome when you've called in sick to work on Thursday and post a picture of a <a href="http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af337/jms8888/Fun%20stuff/Oscar_the_bald_cockatoo_-1.jpg">cool looking bird</a> on Saturday, especially if you work in Atlanta and that bird was on the outskirts of <a href="http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/50377328.jpg">Panama City</a>. Your employer can put two and two together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, there are <a href="http://bit.ly/UMvknA">tools to strip out metadata from images</a>. Consider using some before posting to social media! There's always opt-out, too (you don't have to post <i>everything</i> to Facebook).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can use exiftool to extract the information from some of the images in this blog post. For example, with the "Snakes are Awesome" image, we can run the following command at the terminal:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$ exiftool -l snake.jpg</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">...</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">User Comment</span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> <a href="https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Congressman_earmarks_$2M_for_firm_that_sold_spy_gear_to_Chavez">https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Congressman_earmarks_$2M_for_firm_that_sold_spy_gear_to_Chavez</a></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">...</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note: "$2" was removed when I wrote the value to the image, because $2 is a variable in Bash shell and the command was looking to substitute a value for it (which was nothing).</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this way, you can "hide" a URL in a picture. It's not very well hidden, but a person or software tuned to detect this sort of thing can fish it out. Still, it's a great way to communicate a "secret" with others that's not immediately obvious. There's also no reason the data you store in metadata can't be encrypted.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Text steganography is the next step up in hiding information in plain sight. For the presentation, I demo'd <a href="http://www.spammimic.com/">spammimic</a>, an online tool that takes a string and hides in within spam, a fake PGP signature, or even characters that make it look Russian! Let's say I want to send the message, "The only limit is yourself" - spammimic can make this look like a spam email:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dear Friend ; Thank-you for your interest in our publication . If you no longer wish to receive our publications simply reply with a Subject: of "REMOVE" and you will immediately be removed from our club ! This mail is being sent in compliance with Senate bill 1627 ; Title 6 , Section 303 ! This is NOT unsolicited bulk mail [...]</span></blockquote>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The way that works generally is by taking the characters and mapping them to a known snippet of spam. Note how the punctuation is always space-punctuation-space. If you know about spammimic, it's not difficult to write some software to detect and test for this sort of thing. Now, go through your spam folder and see which ones have hidden messages!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJcSQpqntT8/U6wzU-0MFCI/AAAAAAAABjc/6Wx__ea-bpc/s1600/xzibit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJcSQpqntT8/U6wzU-0MFCI/AAAAAAAABjc/6Wx__ea-bpc/s1600/xzibit.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, computers are basically machines that process strings, so anything you do with text is probably easily suited to reverse engineering and therefore, easily detected by three letter government agencies.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What about <i>images within images</i>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilians">man</a>?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a very simple technique to hide a zip file within a JPEG or GIF file. The reason this works is that JPEG/GIF files are interpreted and identified by the <i>header</i>, whereas zip files are read from the end of the file. So, in browsers and operating systems, the image will be rendered while the zip file remains obscure.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This technique is not without its drawbacks. For starters, depending on the data, you can really blow up the size of a JPEG or GIF (which are typically less than 500K in size, which is being generous!) A single PDF file could be 1-2MB. So, a naive software detector can simply scrape social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter and put aside images in excess of a certain size threshold. Still, you have to <i>know</i> to look for that. Most casual human observers will see a picture and think nothing of it.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's how to execute the technique:</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$ cat taxiderpy_original.jpg >> taxiderpy.jpg<br />$ zip secret.zip microsoft-spy.pdf<br />$ cat secret.zip >> taxiderpy.jpg<br /><br />$ ls -sh1 taxiderpy*<br />1.6M taxiderpy.jpg<br /> 40K taxiderpy_original.jpg</span><div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h6s7FbMoNBE/U6w23R9TnYI/AAAAAAAABjo/_fKaRGe6A1Y/s1600/taxiderpy_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h6s7FbMoNBE/U6w23R9TnYI/AAAAAAAABjo/_fKaRGe6A1Y/s1600/taxiderpy_original.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This does nothing more than use the *nix command cat to append the zip file to the end of the image. In this case, we have appended a PDF file with Microsoft's menu of services to law enforcement to the back of an image of a taxiderpy polar bear. As you can see from the output of ls, the file size has increased from 40K to 1.6M.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note: Blogger was able to detect that something was off about the taxiderpy image when attempting to upload it to this post. To fetch the actual file, <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13qKZOkVQvTH8tzgJYxOlhA5iCOah96n-cOqGngjdhEk/edit?usp=sharing">download</a> the original presentation.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Extraction is easy - you simply attempt to unzip the JPEG or GIF. Note that unzip warns about some extraneous data at the start of the file, which is the image, of course:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$ unzip taxiderpy.jpg<br />Archive: taxiderpy.jpg<br />warning [taxiderpy.jpg]: 37425 extra bytes at beginning or within zipfile<br /> (attempting to process anyway)<br /> inflating: microsoft-spy.pdf<br />$ open microsoft-spy.pdf</span><div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's some more advanced techniques that hold up better to closer scrutiny. For example, the same technique that professional photographers use to include a watermark can be used to hide a URL or other piece of data in a photo. Video is another great medium to hide information. In a complex animation or sequence, you could flash some secret text to the screen in a subtle way. The "key" that the recipient needs to read the data is the exact frame number.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more good times, come to the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/qvbgghyskbwb/">next CryptoParty</a>! We also archive all the past presentations and information discussed at CryptoParty on our <a href="https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/CryptoParty">wiki</a>. I'll be trying to get these into blog post format, to fill in the blanks between the slides, as it were.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-61025772720010257212014-04-09T22:06:00.002-04:002014-04-09T22:06:46.444-04:00The Motobrain Story<a href="http://www.motobrain.net/">Motobrain</a> began when I decided my options for a vehicle fuse panel where too limited. I wanted something better. A buddy and I started chatting about what we might want from a fuse block and I started drawing schematics and making prototypes. My first idea was an actual fuse panel that could measure system voltage and total current draw and had fused circuits. It's "killer" feature was that all the outputs were interchangeable so you could select the type of output you wanted. It had card slots and the card slots and the cards I developed with for high side switching, low side switching, USB charging, and analog inputs. It was cool, but not really durable enough for an automotive environment.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FqpWa4J4uq4/T6R81EJjIoI/AAAAAAAAB88/qGl-TnDCU3M/w1206-h674-no/Fullscreen+capture+542012+90501+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FqpWa4J4uq4/T6R81EJjIoI/AAAAAAAAB88/qGl-TnDCU3M/w1206-h674-no/Fullscreen+capture+542012+90501+PM.jpg" height="176" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cdex12_yEXA/T5mcVDV2ZHI/AAAAAAAACJM/oiqACrg25qk/w854-h759-no/IMG_20120426_150352-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cdex12_yEXA/T5mcVDV2ZHI/AAAAAAAACJM/oiqACrg25qk/w854-h759-no/IMG_20120426_150352-1.jpg" height="284" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
It was going to be controlled from a dedicated unit wired to the gizmo above. The more I thought that through, the more that was foolish since we all have computers in our pockets already, our smart phones. So I did a full reboot and decided to do a Bluetooth 4 gizmo, that was completely weatherproof. That meant I needed to get rid of the fuses and the interchangeable cards. The most practical card was the high side switching card so I decided to go with those. I designed in 8 channels because it was enough for most setups I could imagine and still was a comfortable size to fit on any vehicle. Motobrain was born.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-olc_4OZpFVU/UidkSvYBpKI/AAAAAAAAGNg/y5T9JcYNsDw/w1012-h759-no/ks4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-olc_4OZpFVU/UidkSvYBpKI/AAAAAAAAGNg/y5T9JcYNsDw/w1012-h759-no/ks4.JPG" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h8JMgnc6bdc/UeDI8PfkXuI/AAAAAAAAFdQ/Qj2lbx-KeZE/w1207-h679-no/IMG_20130712_232623_604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h8JMgnc6bdc/UeDI8PfkXuI/AAAAAAAAFdQ/Qj2lbx-KeZE/w1207-h679-no/IMG_20130712_232623_604.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It has gone through several variations mainly surrounding the signal inputs and how the current and signal actually go in and out of the Motobrain. In the photo above, you can see that system was designed with wires terminated inside the potted electronics. That is an easy way to do it but requires that I supply the wire and that it is right for all the customers needs. That seems like a big "if" to me, so redesigned the output board with screw down terminals and I have finally found the product I want to sell.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-szdbt6y4VTs/UtBPx4lcccI/AAAAAAAAHrM/CUAqjkKIZvg/w1057-h759-no/P1000776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-szdbt6y4VTs/UtBPx4lcccI/AAAAAAAAHrM/CUAqjkKIZvg/w1057-h759-no/P1000776.JPG" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Then I needed to figure out how to cast these things. This is not a skill I've ever learned so it took some time to figure it out. At first, I thought I would 3D print the mold in hard plastic, place the electronics in that and then pour in the resin. It seemed like a fine idea. It wasn't. I burned a couple grand on that before I gave up.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hYp6KF74vu4/UwKM9xqRVhI/AAAAAAAAIMo/mtTboEEmfnY/w1207-h679-no/IMG_20140217_172747_999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hYp6KF74vu4/UwKM9xqRVhI/AAAAAAAAIMo/mtTboEEmfnY/w1207-h679-no/IMG_20140217_172747_999.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-leOpYsinkZY/UwKtzXMoxJI/AAAAAAAAINI/bxixFvqltQY/w1145-h759-no/IMG_20140217_194648_030%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-leOpYsinkZY/UwKtzXMoxJI/AAAAAAAAINI/bxixFvqltQY/w1145-h759-no/IMG_20140217_194648_030%257E2.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2tNDw6OsdX8/UwU0P8lY-nI/AAAAAAAAITk/F_Oif0LKEP0/w1139-h759-no/IMG_0046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2tNDw6OsdX8/UwU0P8lY-nI/AAAAAAAAITk/F_Oif0LKEP0/w1139-h759-no/IMG_0046.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sYYvzfXM3Qc/UwS_yhPY6gI/AAAAAAAAIRY/DSClQY4BmJQ/w1016-h759-no/AAC2A198-D9E6-48B6-BF3B-C49CCD8D9F42.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sYYvzfXM3Qc/UwS_yhPY6gI/AAAAAAAAIRY/DSClQY4BmJQ/w1016-h759-no/AAC2A198-D9E6-48B6-BF3B-C49CCD8D9F42.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I ultimately got pretty good at this technique...</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/wFJSdg1PXuuHU3FR-ol8krLvdUkJgAxuXiE9lds6dR0=s192-p-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/wFJSdg1PXuuHU3FR-ol8krLvdUkJgAxuXiE9lds6dR0=s192-p-no" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
...but this is just not how to do this job though. People kept telling me to make a silicone mold and it will be easy. I fought the idea because I didn't want to learn yet another skill when I was this far down the road. It was necessary though, so I purchased Solidworks and drew up a perfect replica of Motobrain and had it 3D printed.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KaAMvNlg2Q4/Uy2msldFHnI/AAAAAAAAIoo/LqXmHgH4tis/w822-h759-no/4A98AC0D-4E71-4F11-86F8-FE7216BB27F9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KaAMvNlg2Q4/Uy2msldFHnI/AAAAAAAAIoo/LqXmHgH4tis/w822-h759-no/4A98AC0D-4E71-4F11-86F8-FE7216BB27F9.JPG" height="295" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Then I ordered some fancy silicone and cast some fake Motobrains to learn how.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PjeNHlpaUwI/UzMUWT44aRI/AAAAAAAAIsA/BM1YVwkn7jQ/w1016-h759-no/E5D3E5EB-1E98-4CE4-B242-64B094667D7F.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PjeNHlpaUwI/UzMUWT44aRI/AAAAAAAAIsA/BM1YVwkn7jQ/w1016-h759-no/E5D3E5EB-1E98-4CE4-B242-64B094667D7F.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6uVY0A_OK0U/Uzg-en81KaI/AAAAAAAAIw8/-HKZZmjhlYc/w1016-h759-no/A086A32E-7A86-40C9-9AA7-7F72C5A67E2D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6uVY0A_OK0U/Uzg-en81KaI/AAAAAAAAIw8/-HKZZmjhlYc/w1016-h759-no/A086A32E-7A86-40C9-9AA7-7F72C5A67E2D.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UkQU2VYI7Hk/UzllPGD5bAI/AAAAAAAAIyI/Ze1jzyzIId0/w1016-h759-no/8E26A46B-7672-479E-995C-40CDE996409C.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UkQU2VYI7Hk/UzllPGD5bAI/AAAAAAAAIyI/Ze1jzyzIId0/w1016-h759-no/8E26A46B-7672-479E-995C-40CDE996409C.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X2Ac76GjX5w/Uzqw6fSEfbI/AAAAAAAAIyw/4F34f1YQ6iI/w1016-h759-no/CBF3610A-17F4-4114-8312-598B9A3BE5DE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X2Ac76GjX5w/Uzqw6fSEfbI/AAAAAAAAIyw/4F34f1YQ6iI/w1016-h759-no/CBF3610A-17F4-4114-8312-598B9A3BE5DE.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When I was finally confident that I figured it out I made some REAL ones.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CETWfFMNgYk/U0SyoB9dQnI/AAAAAAAAI14/aFDJl5T8Cc8/w1016-h759-no/347A9EA2-156F-4650-96A9-78788F2A3031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CETWfFMNgYk/U0SyoB9dQnI/AAAAAAAAI14/aFDJl5T8Cc8/w1016-h759-no/347A9EA2-156F-4650-96A9-78788F2A3031.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here is where we are today. Read the entire story at our <a href="http://www.motobrain.net/blog">blog</a>.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ib-qav3_5BA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-66493547825973519762014-03-10T19:30:00.000-04:002014-03-10T19:30:31.109-04:00Manual Pick and Place project<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I built a pick and place machine so I could build up my <a href="http://www.motobrain.net/">Motobrain project</a> easier. I used MDF for the platforms. 12mm rail and linear bearings for the Y and Z axis bearings. THK linear motion guide for the X axis. The Z axis is a piece of carbon fiber tubing attached to a piece of laser cut acrylic. The nipples on the tube are 3D printed. </div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 13px;">The laser cutting was done by OSHStencils.com. The bearings were purchased at Amazon. The 3D printing was done by approto.com.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9JWa5ydSHJI/Ux0WEq4JibI/AAAAAAAAIbo/O9CDqYAzlLg/w1024-h576-no/IMG_0015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0px; color: #6611cc; cursor: text; margin: 0px 1em; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9JWa5ydSHJI/Ux0WEq4JibI/AAAAAAAAIbo/O9CDqYAzlLg/w1024-h576-no/IMG_0015.JPG" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SwcOLpmxuEc/UxzpUiTJPmI/AAAAAAAAIas/G3thBnKO0Dk/w595-h796-no/5ECD7351-CC09-4EC3-8F75-4B836FC48D58.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0px; color: #6611cc; cursor: text; margin: 0px 1em; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SwcOLpmxuEc/UxzpUiTJPmI/AAAAAAAAIas/G3thBnKO0Dk/w595-h796-no/5ECD7351-CC09-4EC3-8F75-4B836FC48D58.JPG" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6ImOgzUy6QU?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CSHn2UtYbZ0/UwI9Ogz3TlI/AAAAAAAAILY/kc9ltWAMN68/w1067-h797-no/C63E8E16-6F2D-4189-8183-1D030E2EC0CC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CSHn2UtYbZ0/UwI9Ogz3TlI/AAAAAAAAILY/kc9ltWAMN68/w1067-h797-no/C63E8E16-6F2D-4189-8183-1D030E2EC0CC.JPG" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-18618028136975982282014-02-24T15:30:00.002-05:002014-03-02T23:50:38.241-05:00Lathon 3D Printer<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everyone seems to either want, have or use a 3D printer now
a days. I bought my first printer kit in 2012 and I quickly noticed I wanted a
one with more capabilities but since all of the high performance models were so
expensive I designed my own. Eventually I designed a $4,000 printer that I
could sell for $1,400 on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103495594/lathon-3d-printer">KICKSTARTER</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3fNnrcoHTwg/UwunkkY-WSI/AAAAAAAAJmQ/alBCQy4SgSg/s1600/nozzles.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3fNnrcoHTwg/UwunkkY-WSI/AAAAAAAAJmQ/alBCQy4SgSg/s1600/nozzles.png" height="240" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There were a few things that I wanted the
printer to have: two nozzles, Bowden extrusion, enclosed build area, and a
moving xy gantry. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The two nozzles seems like an obvious choice for anyone who
has printed before simply because it allows you to create way more interesting
prints than you could otherwise. For example dissolvable support, multiple
colors and multiple materials (which is pretty cool). I did notice on other
dual nozzle printers, however, that having two big stepper motors created a
massive moving mass so if I wanted any sort of respectable speed I was going to
have to go Bowden style.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nX18GtSvc7o/Uwunjm8uPtI/AAAAAAAAJmE/pAAhW0uE3qo/s1600/frame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nX18GtSvc7o/Uwunjm8uPtI/AAAAAAAAJmE/pAAhW0uE3qo/s1600/frame.png" height="175" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another pet peeve I have is a moving y-axis.
There are big debates on the RepRap IRC and even in the forums about what is
better for the print, a moving Y or Z. I will stand firm on the fact that moving
your print rapidly back and forth is a ridiculous idea. It definitely looks
cool and makes life easier in some regards, but having a variable moving mass
that is semi-molten does not seem like a good idea…</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now that I knew what I wanted to do, I starting creating a
CAD model of the overall design of the printer. This wasn't too difficult just
time consuming. I used V-Slot for my frame and thankfully they have Sketchup
models that anyone can download so it gave me a good starting point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qn-ED9Ejgy4/Uwunio1HB6I/AAAAAAAAJlk/gvm5vEUUpqs/s1600/evolution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qn-ED9Ejgy4/Uwunio1HB6I/AAAAAAAAJlk/gvm5vEUUpqs/s1600/evolution.png" height="92" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Once I started building the frame it became quickly apparent
that extrusions require some effort to get them in tight tolerances for a
square frame. This was the process that was recommended by Paul F.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How To Cut 80/20 Extrusions (within 0.002”):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rUvPpbZkuig/UwunimnBg9I/AAAAAAAAJlw/MuVSWRxGabU/s1600/calipers.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rUvPpbZkuig/UwunimnBg9I/AAAAAAAAJlw/MuVSWRxGabU/s1600/calipers.png" height="168" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Cut the rough dimension with a band saw</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2.
<!--[endif]-->Make square first cut on each side using the mill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3.
<!--[endif]-->Bolt an endstop for the extrusion at the required
length to the mill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.
<!--[endif]-->Cut the first piece. Now that you have an endstop at
the length of your first piece all of the subsequent pieces should be the exact
(or close) length<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5.
<!--[endif]-->Take your second piece make a first pass then flip it
butt it up against the endstop and then cut the excess with the mill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zdEjj3zi704/Uwunj1rHFbI/AAAAAAAAJmM/gZv3L2zmLwk/s1600/glass+frame.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zdEjj3zi704/Uwunj1rHFbI/AAAAAAAAJmM/gZv3L2zmLwk/s1600/glass+frame.png" height="205" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Super square frame on a flat sheet of glass</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Cy6CRdGi_s/UwunlPlQEnI/AAAAAAAAJms/KBR7xuyFLmE/s1600/xy+axis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Cy6CRdGi_s/UwunlPlQEnI/AAAAAAAAJms/KBR7xuyFLmE/s1600/xy+axis.png" height="240" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With my frame done the next step was to create the x and y
axis. This was a little bit difficult because I did not just want to copy
existing printers. I don’t particularly like the Ultimaker’s X/Y set up even
though it does produce great results. I wanted to be a little more creative so
I decided I was going to use my frame as the rails for my Y axis. Since I had
V-slot already I decided to use it for my X-axis. The details were a little
weird to work out, but I think it turned out nicely.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vgkWdQaHPO4/UwunlYkOTqI/AAAAAAAAJmw/qtDvErIzyks/s1600/zaxis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vgkWdQaHPO4/UwunlYkOTqI/AAAAAAAAJmw/qtDvErIzyks/s1600/zaxis.png" height="320" width="296" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Building the Z-axis was a little bit more
difficult because the print bed was so large and I was concerned about the
print bed bending as a cantilever beam. I eventually settled on a design using
a tri-point mounting system with V-Rails. For the production model, however, I
will change the design to something with less flex. For a production model I
would focus on making the whole z-axis assembly of only 2 or 3 pieces to
minimize play between the interfaces. After using the printer for several
months I think a 4 point mounting system is a better choice because with cyclic
heating and cooling the print bed appears to sag in the corners where it isn't supported.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOlRaebWkKs/Uwunk0TvOhI/AAAAAAAAJm0/Tv8vrMKzeUk/s1600/sidewall.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOlRaebWkKs/Uwunk0TvOhI/AAAAAAAAJm0/Tv8vrMKzeUk/s1600/sidewall.png" height="316" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Laser engraved logo on the side wall. Fun Fact: all the radii in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> this design are different ratios to pi</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">With the basic mechanics completed it was time to add the
print bed, nozzles and enclose the printer. </span>The print bed you will notice is
actually white plastic and not glass. This plastic is a plastic from GE called
Ultem 2300 and I thank the delta printer google groups because they were
definitely helpful in brainstorming ideas for a new print surface. Unfortunately
nobody really sells this plastic in small sizes so in small quantities it is
really expensive. However, it is an amazing print surface so far I can say that
it is great for printing PLA, ABS, HIPS, Carbon Fiber, NinjaFlex and LayWood
filament. Nylon really should be printed on Garolite simply because it is
impossible to remove from Ultem (I may have destroyed a couple prints proving
this).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enclosing the printer was actually pretty interesting
because I got to work with a laser cutter. I laser cut most of the parts based
off of my CAD but I ran into trouble when making the top cover. The Bowden tube
requires a large amount of room so that it doesn’t break the filament or create
too much friction so I need a tall top cover. Initially I made a square box which
was pretty ugly, so I figured it needed to round the edges. My first attempt
was to learn how to bend acrylic and that didn’t turn out so well….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kq7luJlJyek/UwunjQf2aTI/AAAAAAAAJmA/mK7dYj0xr1w/s1600/fail.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kq7luJlJyek/UwunjQf2aTI/AAAAAAAAJmA/mK7dYj0xr1w/s1600/fail.png" height="360" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I spent a day trying to get the acrylic to bend at a 90
degree with a 4” radius. Unfortunately I failed pretty hard but that is what
Makerspaces are for, failing and learning!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did some digging and figured that the best way would be to
make the bend out of acrylic a laser cut living hinge and I think it turned out
pretty well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J9KKjko7hsA/UwunkG1GWlI/AAAAAAAAJmY/Fzl-p5ReiSw/s1600/hinge.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J9KKjko7hsA/UwunkG1GWlI/AAAAAAAAJmY/Fzl-p5ReiSw/s1600/hinge.png" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last part and probably the most interesting was the
extruder. I needed an extruder that fit the E3D <i>DMfit</i> connectors and I really wanted it to only have one bolt for
ease of use. Actually, the first one I made was very similar to the makerbot
extruder, without a tensioning screw, but because I am printing in so many
different materials it didn’t work since each material needs a different amount
of idler tension. It took around 4 different prototypes until I finally created
a mechanism that works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AiQHE3sm46Q/UwuninPcseI/AAAAAAAAJlo/N3EZFthJj7A/s1600/extruder.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AiQHE3sm46Q/UwuninPcseI/AAAAAAAAJlo/N3EZFthJj7A/s1600/extruder.png" height="241" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall I think the printer turnout splendidly and it makes
some really great prints too. Check out the time lapse of a massive D20 below.
There are also many example prints on<a href="http://www.lathon.net/"> www.lathon.net</a>
and the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103495594/lathon-3d-printer">kickstarter </a>. I really enjoyed this project and I
hope I can make LATHON’s for other Makers and engineers because, for us, a 3D
printer is just as important as a hammer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iUkVQBo7ib0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xVE2wwg0hgw/UwunjnFOThI/AAAAAAAAJmU/YfDusKcOAvY/s1600/final.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xVE2wwg0hgw/UwunjnFOThI/AAAAAAAAJmU/YfDusKcOAvY/s1600/final.png" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-82321150549232439192013-12-06T13:17:00.000-05:002013-12-06T15:52:39.689-05:00Thermal imaging macro photography on a budget (sort of)I purchased one of the new <a href="http://www.flir.com/thermography/americas/us/view/?id=61194">FLIR E4 thermal imaging cameras</a> (TIC) a couple weeks back because I am working on a new project called <a href="http://www.motobrain.net/">Motobrain</a>. It is an automotive power distribution unit with a nominal current capacity of 100A. For those not in the know, 100A is a TON of current! Because this project is designed to move so much current and will be small I need to understand its thermal characteristics very well. To that end I've been operating the device and taking measurements. What I found is that I just could not get the kind of detail I wanted. The reason is that the resolution of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbolometer">microbolometer</a> in the FLIR E4 is not very high and the lens does not allow you to get very close to the device under test (DUT). The means that you cannot just zoom in after you take a photo either. So, what is a person to do if they want to take a macro photograph with a consumer grade TIC? Go to Amazon.com of course! I purchased a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) lens meant for a CO² laser for about $40 and waited patiently for it to arrive (via ox cart it would seem, it took weeks) from China. Then I mounted it up in a highly technical lens mount (a paper CD case cut with scissors and stapled together with the lens inside). This provides me a focus distance of about 2 inches which is great for close up work on a PCB. Different lens sizes will provide different focusing distances. I chose a 50.8mm lens.
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VgvN2hx7HBA/UqH6WZiK5KI/AAAAAAAAHLU/oNFdhsFM_tY/w1249-h703-no/IMG_20131206_112446_914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VgvN2hx7HBA/UqH6WZiK5KI/AAAAAAAAHLU/oNFdhsFM_tY/w1249-h703-no/IMG_20131206_112446_914.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lens.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t05MT5YLuUA/UqH5H8MYbXI/AAAAAAAAHLA/O9B7aD7Wxb8/w1249-h703-no/IMG_20131206_111922_478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t05MT5YLuUA/UqH5H8MYbXI/AAAAAAAAHLA/O9B7aD7Wxb8/w1249-h703-no/IMG_20131206_111922_478.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lens installed on the TIC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--oEX8DqCrM8/UqH428GCQpI/AAAAAAAAHK0/_e8xTRdlX-8/w320-h240-no/FLIR0029.jpg" /> <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D-zQnsUqLf4/UoTnPxwhnQI/AAAAAAAAHCE/hJ9a3z-HNpk/w320-h240-no/FLIR0011.jpg" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The photo on the left is with the new macro lens attached. The photo on the right shows the previous closest in focus image I could make. Both photos are looking at the same part of the PCB. My lens mount is causing some vignetting which I can fix if I want to bother to make a nicer lens mount on the laser cutter. Honestly I am quite satisfied with the current image quality. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GAicXd_cOj4/UqIL_d_trjI/AAAAAAAAHLo/_rnrJnDSFb8/w320-h240-no/FLIR0032.jpg" /> <img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f4MynOEFI-M/UqIMAHRn_iI/AAAAAAAAHLw/bK39S4TaJuM/w320-h240-no/FLIR0033.jpg" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The photo on the left shows an SO-8 PowerPak MOSFET glowing nice and warm. You can even see its drain and gate pins. The photo on the right is the same image from the same distance without the lens installed which shows you what it looks like out of focus. This is a significant improvement at a trivial expense compared to the cost of the instrument.
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x5_oU72hC40/UqITSTubKoI/AAAAAAAAHMI/oXI-y5J1NRY/w320-h240-no/FLIR0031.jpg" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This final image shows the same portion of the PCB as above only with the current flow having just been removed. You can see clearly the temperature gradient as we get further from the MOSFET. Neato!<br />
<br />
Special thanks to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lie771fzBaw">Mike</a> for the inspiration to do this hack.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-9490343764946144812013-11-16T00:27:00.001-05:002013-11-16T00:27:56.629-05:00A Portable Storage System for Dead Tree Information Storage (Bookcase)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dofzwHnYWKg/UocAQN5vjPI/AAAAAAAAAIY/_GnT_yCK89A/s1600/dtshelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dofzwHnYWKg/UocAQN5vjPI/AAAAAAAAAIY/_GnT_yCK89A/s1600/dtshelf.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I (Ben Bradley) have made several of these for my personal use. My early bookcases were three feet wide, but moving was a process of putting books into boxes, moving the shelving and the boxes, and putting the books back on the shelves. It was unknown whether the bookcase would hold together if tilted while fully loaded, because it was too heavy to pick up when fully loaded
<br />
<br />
This one was assembled at Freeside after the November 5 Open House and is based on my current design, as follows:
<br />
<br />
Components used (available at any Home Depot or Lowes):<br />
(4) 1" x 8" x 6 ft pine board (actual measurements 3/4" x 7 1/4")<br />
(1) 4 ft by 8 ft. x 1/4" plywood board. <br />
(48) 2" long wood or drywall screws, coarse thread preferred (about half of a 1 lb box)<br />
(30) 1" long wood or drywall screws, coarse thread preferred (about a tenth of a 1 lb box)<br />
<br />
<br />
Tools used:<br />
Chop saw, table or circular saw, hand sander, electric drill/electric screwdriver (two preferred, one for drilling and one for screwing), 1/8" or 5/32" drillbit, clamp that opens to 19"
<br />
<br />
Assembly:
<br />
<br />
Compare the lengths of the 6-foot boards. They can differ by 1/4 inch or more. Choose the two longest for the sides. If their lengths are different, cut the longer one to match the shorter one.
<br />
<br />
Cut the two remaining ones into eight equal-length pieces. The length of 17 3/4 works well as it gives enough space for the saw kerf and a little extra for variations in length.
<br />
<br />
Sand one side of each of these (this will be the top side where books rest on it), and on one long edge, sand a "curve" along the edge so it is rounded off. Alternately, use a roundover bit in a router to round this edge.
<br />
<br />
Put the side edge of the first or "bottom" shelf piece against the side of one of the side pieces at one end. A clamp may help here. The rounded edge should NOT be next to the bottom of the side.
<br />
<br />
The diameter of the hole drilled for screws depends on the screw size used. Older projects used #6 drywall screws, where a 1/8" drill bit work well, but the Home Depot used for parts for this project only had #6 (slightly larger) screws, and a 5/32" bit was used successfully.
<br />
<br />
Drill a hole about one inch from the front or back edge so that it goes through the side and into the shelf piece equidistant from the top and bottom (for a 3/4" shelf this will be 3/8" from the edge, but I always eyeball it as the center - it's good enough), and into the wood about as far as the screw will go, or perhaps 1/4" less than the screw (set the drikk into the chuck to extend this distance). Be sure to drill straight, so the hole is parallel to the shelf and the screw won't come through.
<br />
<br />
Screw the screw in, using a drywall screw setter bit. This is a Phillips bit with a metal ring around it that will cause the bit to slip out of the screw once it is just below flush with the wood. This gives excellent strength and prevents accidentally screwing the screw too far into the side, which is easily done with an electric drill/screwdriver.
<br />
<br />
Drill a second hole the same one inch distance from the other side and put a screw in it. Drill a third hole midway between the other two and put a screw in it. I do it in this order as it's easier to eyeball the middle of the board near the edge, and then it's easier to make the hole in the middle midway between the other two that are already drilled.
<br />
<br />
Drill the other side of the shelf to the other side piece as above, so that the two side pieces are parallel.
<br />
<br />
Make two "spacer" pieces of wood using scrap (such as a length of 1" x 8" or smaller), exactly 9 3/4" long. This will be the distance between shelves, and determines the height of the books that will fit between the shelves. Be sure the top and bottom edges of these pieces are parallel, as this is needed for the shelves to all be horizontal.
<br />
<br />
Put the two spacer pieces along the side pieces and touching the bottom shelf, and place a second shelf between the sides so it touches the other ends of the spacers. This gives a precision height to the shelf without measuring. Make sure the rounded over edge of the shelf is on the same side as the rounded over edge of the bottom shelf. Drill holes and use screws to attach this shelf. Pull out the spacer pieces. They may be moderately tight, but can usually be removed by hand.
<br />
<br />
Continue attaching shelves in this way until you get to the top shelf. Align the top of the top shelf with the tops of the side pieces, and drill and screw it.
<br />
<br />
Cut the 4' x 8' by 1/4" plywood to the dimensions of the back of the bookcase, which should be about 19 1/4" x 6 feet. Align it with the back (the side opposite the rounded over shelf edges), and attach it using 1" screws spaced about every six inches.
<br />
<br />
This bookcase is for Octavo sized books, and the top shelf is just large enough for mass-market paperback books. I've made a similar shelf that fits (almost?) all Quarto sized books and magazines with 1" x 10" boards cut about 14" wide (five shelves per 6-foot plank, seven shelves per bookcase) and with 11 3/4" spacing between the shelves.
<br />
<br />
These bookcases may weigh 200 lbs fully loaded, but can be moved by one person with a handtruck. Push on the side until the bottom lifts up, put down on the handtruck, then pull back with one foot on the handtruck axle, and move while balanced as shown in the photograph. It can lay down in a pickup truck bed, or stand up in a tall enclosed truck with it tied to the walls.benbradleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913177302145223457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-34283673916982028762013-10-28T21:30:00.000-04:002013-10-28T21:30:30.800-04:00How we built the Infinity Portal<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lQcBZxDWGAg/Um8O4rBE_cI/AAAAAAAAAK4/XufrfkMXKYs/s1600/sidebyside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="404" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lQcBZxDWGAg/Um8O4rBE_cI/AAAAAAAAAK4/XufrfkMXKYs/s640/sidebyside.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Some of you may have seen our most recent monster creation at <a href="http://alchemyburn.com/" target="_blank">Alchemy</a> or <a href="http://makerfaireatl.com/" target="_blank">Atlanta Mini Maker Faire</a> - The Infinity Portal.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The Infinity Portal is a 10 foot tall archway with a 7 x 4 ft infinity mirror inside of it. The mirror is made with two-way acrylic, so you can push on it to warp the effect for people on either side of it. It is lit with addressable LEDs, so there is a counter-rotating rainbow vortex in there too. You may remember seeing our write-up about <a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/2013/07/infinity-mirror-prototype-build.html" target="_blank">prototyping</a> the design a few months ago.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Defying all expectations, the thing actually survived both events that we brought it to! So we're really happy with it and will find a place to keep it in the mean time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We actually (surprisingly) did a pretty good job of documenting this build, so we cut it together into a video to show how we built this huge, epic piece of art. Enjoy!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iCqha3sSh14?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Freeside Atlantahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02696038191157867862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812278125280220743.post-71997513445903847002013-10-15T19:41:00.000-04:002013-10-15T19:41:37.564-04:00This Week at FreesideAgain with the weekly (more or less...) list of delectable offerings by Freeside, your friendly local dragon and hamster breeder.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday, 10/20: <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/144426342/" target="_blank">Freeside Laser: Basic Usage and Safety</a> at 2pm</b><br />
Learn how to use Freeside's new Laser Engraver/Cutter (<a href="http://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Laser_Cutter" target="_blank">wiki page</a>). You'll learn how to use the software toolchains to cut or engrave vector and bitmap artwork into a variety of materials. And after the class, you'll be eligible to schedule a one-on-one session an approved user to supervise and assist with your first project, and thereby gain authorization to use the laser unsupervised. That's right. Just you and the laser. $40/person. Pay on Meetup.<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday, 10/22: <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/dvpjwgyrnbdc/" target="_blank">Chump Car Build</a> at 7pm</b><br />
Ever wanted to race a car, build a moving art project, or learn to work on a car? Here is your chance to do one or all three! Please join us at Freeside to learn more! And it's totally free, man.<br />
<br />
And simultaneously...<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday, 10/22: <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/140549752/" target="_blank">Open House</a> at 7:30pm</b><br />
Where the house is open, and the tours are free. If this is your first time to visit Freeside, or you want to hang out with the members, here's your best chance. Happens every week, but you want to go this week, I promise. Free, so long as you are more than 50% organic, original human material.<br />
<br />
<b>Wednesday, 10/23 and Thursday, 10/24: </b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/143833122/" target="_blank">Introduction to Electricity, Magnetism, and Energy </a>at 7:30pm</b><br />
In this class you will learn the terminology of electricity, magnetism and energy. You will learn some of the history behind the works and discoveries of Einstein, Maxwell, Tesla, Faraday and many other experimenters and theorists from the past to the present. We will not avoid discussing controversial aspects of the differences in the views of these larger-than-life individuals. Two nights only! (Attend one or both nights!) $20/person. Pay on Meetup.<br />
<br />
As always, check out the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/" target="_blank">Meetup</a> for more info, and to RSVP to classes and stuff. And don't forget to take a snapshot and <a href="mailto:kendrabeewings@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">email it to me</a>!<br />
<br />
May the rest of your Octuber be spudtaculous.<br />
<b><br /></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0