Short version: Using an Android tablet, you can draw things on our Glass Block LED Matrix from the street, and it’s pretty awesome. Video here, photos here.
Long version:
Things have progressed recently on the Glass Block LED Matrix which Chris Davis and Paul Vincent started. For a couple weeks, the code was already in place to let Processing talk to it via simple serial commands to the Arduino & ShiftBrite shield. We wanted to use the tools from Project Blinkenlights to control things over the network; while this didn’t entirely work as planned, the project offered a lot of ideas and inspiration.
The most recent addition I made was the inclusion of oscP5 to the Processing sketch to let it listen for OSC (Open Sound Control) messages. As it happens, a brilliant piece of free software already exists (Control from Charlie Roberts) which turns Android/iOS devices into control surfaces that send out OSC messages. On top of this, Control comes with a handful of example UIs, one of them being “Multibutton Demo” which provides a UI with an 8×8 button grid, sort of like a monome. (The tablet in all of the photos is running Control with that Multibutton Demo UI.)
As our LED matrix is 7×8, this UI was a good initial match. I set Control’s destination URL/port to the backend machine that was running Processing, set the sketch to parse the pretty simple OSC messages Control would send out at every button toggle, and then I was able to control what was on the LED matrix by drawing on that 8×8 grid on my tablet.
I finally got to show it off outside on Tuesday evening when it was dark, and it’s working pretty well, as the video shows.
Next steps:
- Making a Control UI that allows for color control. These are RGB LEDs, after all – we can control intensity and color, not just whether they’re on or off.
- Making this web-enabled. I think Control allows this?
- Fixing the glitchiness that I didn’t show in the video; something cryptic is going on on the Arduino side.
Check out the github project here and the project wiki page here.
UPDATE: nerdydad will be giving a presentation and demo on upgrading the rom+memory+IOS on a Cisco 2600 router. i’ll do the dual boot talk if time permits.
Cinci2600 is this Friday, October 7th at 7pm. I’ll be giving an improved version of my hipster linux dual booting talk from last week’s NKYLUG. If you have something that you would like to present, or if you have something cool to demonstrate please feel free to bring it and show it off. Also feel free to take advantage of the hive being open to hang out and work on stuff.
maps, directions, and other details for arriving at hive13 can be found here.
The free online version of the “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course (http://www.ai-class.com/) based on Stanford CS221 starts next week. As several members signed up for this course, we are going to be meeting up at the Hive on a weekly basis to watch the lectures and work through some of the homework. We’ll meet first on Wednesday, October 12th, at 6:30 PM, and the intention is to keep meeting each Wednesday at the same time for the 10 weeks that the course lasts (course schedule is here – it runs through the week of December 12th).
Lectures are supposed to appear online each week, and I’m told they’ll also be downloadable. I will try to download the videos ahead of time and have copies of them locally. Other than that, we’re just going to play things by ear – I’ve never done a course like this before, perhaps because no course I’m aware of has been done like this before. Something you can program on (i.e. a computer) might be helpful to have. Quoth their website, “Programming is not required, however we believe it will be very helpful for some of the homework assignments. You may write code in any language you would like to (we recommend Python if you are new to programming) and your code will not be graded.” A textbook is not required but is supposedly helpful, and I think some people said they had older editions they could bring in.
If you’re taking the course, or you want to take it, please join us. You don’t need to be a Hive13 member. You don’t even need to be enrolled in the online course, for that matter – but it’s free and enrollment is open until October 9th, so you may as well.
If you’ve wanted to make your own circuit boards and turning the schematic you have on paper or in your head into a finished board is the stumbling block, this course is for you. This Eagle PCB CAD Crash course is intended for those who already know what an electrical schematic is and vaguely how to construct one – the focus will be exclusively on Eagle software NOT general electronics knowledge. The course will be an introduction to the Eagle software available from http://www.cadsoftusa.com You should have Eagle installed on a laptop prior to coming to class – both the Linux and Windows versions are fine. Creating schematics, creating boards from schematics, basic manual layout chores, the relationship between schematic and board, making gerber files for board houses, finding libraries, making custom parts will be covered. If you have a schematic that you would like made into a PCB, please bring it with you as a “real” example will be much more useful than a contrived one. If there is time, creation of solderpaste masks using the laser cutter will be covered. I’m going to try to leave around a third of the class time for questions and individual assistance.
Date 10/12/11
Time 7pm
Length ~2 hours
money $20 / $10 hive members (See discount code in email)
Max people: 15
Deatils and Signup: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2277391740
The Galileo project is progressing, and the next step is a board to drive its many many LEDs.
Center column of Galileo display
Dave B. put together a schematic and board in EAGLE for this purpose, based around the TI TLC5940, a 16-channel LED driver, and had the boards made at DorkbotPDX. Schematic is here, board layout here.
Unsoldered PCB
(Sorry for the light fogging. I really should just get a real macro lens instead of putting an old Series E 50mm on extension tubes.)
Paul and Jim then used the laser cutter to make a solder mask out of acetate film (i.e. garden-variety transparencies). The cream layer in EAGLE provided the mask to cut, and here’s the stencil created from that:
Here are two of the attempts to laser-cut this stencil from acetate sheets. The imperfection on the top one (see the right of the two holes on the bottom left) came from etching the edges of the hole rather than rastering it, supposedly; the bottom one came out a bit better.
Less-successful stencil
More successful cut
Here’s one finished board, having had solder paste applied through the stencil and reflowed on a cheap electric skillet. It looks good aside from a solder bridge at the chip’s 2nd- and 3rd-to-last pins:
Soldered PCB
Keep following the Wiki page - the project progresses pretty regularly and Jim updates the page.
Hive13 is offering another Arduino 101 class. This is a great intro class designed to get the student comfortable with using an arduino and how to build out their ideas. This class has been taught at UC in the design school and is targeted to teach from the ground up. You do not need to have any electronical or programming background to attend this class. This is a hands on class where you will build out cool blinking light projects and play digital music over a speaker all using a tiny microcontroller.
This class is always a lot of fun and will teach you the tools you need to build out any project on the arduino. You will become comfortable using the kit and troubleshooting problems. You will learn how to use the many wonderful arduino resources to expand your knowledge and learn how to use new components. This class will not use slide show presentation but is 100% hands on and you are encoraged to work in groups or with friends.
In this class you will use an Arduino, breadboard, wall wart, wires, LEDs and speaker. You should bring a laptop and a USB cable to program the ardiuno. These are the USB A to B cables (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/512) We will have some on hand but you will have to share. We are offering two types of tickets. One with the kit and components included and another ticket price to bring your own arduino. We will supply LEDs and speakers regardless of which ticket you purchase.
It is recommended you download and install the Arduino software ahead of time. Software and installtion instructions can be found here: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
The instructor for this class is Craig Smith (http://www.linkedin.com/in/agentcraig)
Just got back from the Opensource Hardware Summit and I have 20 Hackerspace passports that I picked up from +Mitch Altman. These passports can be used while you are visiting other hackerspaces around the world. You simply bring your passport and have the hackerspace stamp it. Simple! These are very new and not all hackerspaces have stamps just yet but you might as well get your passports now! I will be bringing a stack of them to the Hive on Tuesday. They are $3 each (This is the price I paid for them) I should have enough for anybody who is interested.
More info on the passports can be found on adafruits blog.
I took forever to post this item, but here it finally is. The Hive had an experimental music show (the post about it is here) months back, and Douglas Lucas kindly shared his photos from the event.
Here is LitterBoxFriends:
Here is Mu (and the aforementioned Douglas Lucas):
And here is Thriftsore Boratorium:
Last night Jon and a visitor to the hackerspace, Al, spent a good amount of time working on getting this set up. It is now securely mounted to the wall and thanks to Jon we have an assortment of chalk waiting to be used for your drawing and diagramming pleasure. The chalkboard came from a member of Ars Clan who offered the chalkboard to us over a year ago. Pickup coordination fell through several times, however a month or two ago the chalkboard arrived in all its glory.
*Note* While we have plenty of chalk, we appear to be missing erasers… We should probably rectify this situation.
Recently at last weekends PAX event a new game called Life is Crime was announced. It is a mobile game that takes your GPS location and uses that to build a virtual world overlaid on the real one. Using this virtual world you then can go on crime sprees, have gangs, sell drugs, etc. It’s kind of like Mafia wars meets foursquare. You just need to ask yourself…while waiting in line would you rather ‘check-in’ or go on a crime spree?
I’ve been playing this game for less than a week but I can already tell you I’m addicted. I realized I was addicted when I was robbing a bunch of local stores while my wife shopped and checked nearby activity. Down the road I saw somebody had taken over a UDF and a Bank. When my wife got back in the car I told her I wanted to make a quick stop. I then found this location, pulled in and preceded to take over the turf. If you like GTA or any of the gangster style games you must check this game out.
After helping out on the forums a bit the super friendly people at Red Robot created Hive13 as a Cincinnati Landmark! That’s right! If you head over to the Hive right now you can deal contraband and rob tourists (In the game of course…hehe) I love the idea of Hive13 being featured in a game! So swing by sometimes, my R2 name is “zombie”
Game homepage: http://www.lifeiscrime.com/
