Freeside Atlanta

Update: Arduino Library Released If any of you guys were at Freeside this weekend, you would have seen me staring into the oscilloscope trying to make heads or tails of its output and comparing that to a couple of datasheets. One of those datasheets was for the Atmega328P microcontroller that is on the Arduino UNO, the other was the Sharp Memory LCD . These are cool because the are ultra low power 6uW and have extremely high contrast. The Sharp datasheet isn't what I would call straightforward, at least for the uninitiated (whom I count myself among). The power up sequence was pretty clear but once it came to pushing pixels it got a little vague. Really it was just a bunch of waves on the sheet. One of the waves is a constant 5-60Hz pulse. That is the sort of thing that would be very irritating to create if you are bit banging on the main loop of your program, so I needed to get the AVR to pump that out in an automatic way. Researching the interwebz and reading the Atme...

During one of the last projects I was working on, I found that the first programming jig I made had a serious draw back. It could only put the #1 pin of the programmer in two of the four corners. That meant that I could only program my board from one side. That was fine until I assembled the project in it's case. At that point, reprogramming was a difficult task that required disassembly, something I never considered when I designed the item and as it turned out it was almost impossible to do without destroying it. Annoying! Three weeks ago I decided I wanted to flash some new firmware on my motorcycle remote so I could use it to put a GPS on my Kindle Fire. That meant I needed take it apart and risk destroying it. Not an exciting prospect. Then I thought, why don't I just build another programming jig like the last one only upside down. That seemed like a winner, because it was fast, but I didn't have any more 2x3 ISP headers. Bah! Since I needed to wait on a shipm...

Inspired by THIS !SAFETY! This is some dangerous stuff. It will mess you up.   Zn + 2 HCl          > ZnCl 2  + H 2

This giant masonry blade has been sitting around Freeside forever: Rust and dust are indicators of abandonment. Please make use of the rusty and dusty. Note the diamond tipped edge I KNOW!  Let's make a giant scythe for my Halloween costume!!  (Never too early to plan)

Freesider's are evermore professional printistas of sorts.  As our sprints are ramping up, there seems to be a growing interest in "organic modeling".  Things often found in nature fall into this category for CAD artists. Here is a recent Thingiverse upload, which was made from some very simple modeling techniques in Newtek's Lighwave 3D application.  A little goes a very long way, indeed. per Thingiverse.com: There are 26 proper bones in the human foot; 28 if you consider the sesamoids of the 1st metatarsal phalangeal joint complex. That's over 25% of your body's total musculo-skeletal anatomy, hitting the ground every time you go for a walk or run! Quite impressive, really. Read More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot learnbones.com/foot-bones-anatomy This anatomic foot model was designed in Newtek's Lightwave 3D, as part of the podcast @ YouTube.com/DrGlassDPM Anatomic study models can be quite expensive, search.anatomywarehouse.com/...

Published in the May issue of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery : " A Novel Combination of Printed 3-Dimensional Anatomic Templates and Computer-assisted Surgical Simulation for Virtual Preoperative Planning in Charcot Foot Reconstruction ." This collaboration of specialties represents an undertaking by members of Freeside Atlanta , Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance , and The Podiatry Institute .  Charcot foot reconstruction remains on of the most challenging procedures in foot and ankle surgery.  These procedures are often lengthy procedures which can be riddled with complications. With the help of Freeside Atlanta Members, institutional researchers used open source Osirix Image viewer and 3D Software such as Newtek's Lightwave or Blender to create simulated surgical reductions as well as 3D printed templates.  Freeside Atlanta members assisted in providing 3D printing solutions and know-how to the project. Experimental test prints were done on a M...

OH look! A package! I wonder who it is from? Maybe it is something about the Soapbox race? Looks like it Oh Man! Red Bull and a note card saying "thanks but no thanks."   Don't they know I prefer diet?!?

Freesiders are continually tinkering with robotics and other such machinery .  Many of these embedded processors and firmware are becoming open source and every-more diversified in the wake of the modern Maker movement . One notable boost to the hackerspace arsenal is the Arduino (an like platforms).  This offers designers an incredible power to devise not just individual devices but even the emergence of complex, integrated systems . This evolutionary pace of modern technological systems may be significantly faster the biologic system development, but there may be a few well learned tricks yet to be mastered.  It seems that studying how nature has managed to solve many development challenges will aid in designing robotics, where efficiently counts just as much. One  challenge, that is particularly interesting, is data processing.  Artificial intelligence is labored with processing data and producing a meaningful and useful output.  When consid...

After seeing Joshua Oster-Morris with this little box I asked him to write a post for us on how it came it to being. Worth the read. Dateline: San Francisco, May 10 2011: Google I/O 2011 opens up with much fanfare and I, a lowly “software guy”, sit down to listen to a couple of sessions on Google Web Toolkit. I have been using it to develop a motorcycle navigation website ( http://www.dualsportmaps.com ) and its always good to try to pick up a few new tricks of trade. These are mainly esoteric talks about development tools, but there is also one about a new API called RequestFactory that allows state aware communication between client and server characterized by its low bandwidth. They discuss how it might be handy to use as a protocol for communicating with Android devices. To that, my ears perk up and I make my best impersonation (imdogination) of Scooby-Doo. I have been doing a little Android development for personal projects, I have an extensive craft cocktail recipe book that...

I was looking for ideas for tools to put in the little blue tool box I have been refinishing. I am giving this to a kid I have been working with and I was wondering if people had ideas for what tools a teen should have. What tools would you have wanted when you were a kid? What tools are you always needing? Here is what I have so far: Small hammer Metric and standard socket set Metric and Standard Allen Wrenches standard screwdriver bits and small screw driver. Small hand saw with switchable blades. Three different types of pliers.