Aida
October 31, 2009
I love Audi even more now!
We have movement
May 4, 2009
I didn’t want it to come to this! After many attempts to get the printer to go forward on its own accord (many resulting in ruining the control board and having to buy a new printer) i have brought out the secret weapon – ARDUINO. I also bought a heavily geared down DC motor from Tamiya. These factors combined result in some serious direct to everything progress!
The video shows the printer stepping forwards at a pace set by the Resistance registered by a potentiometer. Later on the potentiometer will be very important in tweaking the printer so it outputs correctly. The DC motor has more than enough power to move the printer.
Circuit:
The black and red wires go directly to the dc motor. The power is switched using a simple transistor.
A lesson in failure
April 16, 2009
Recently I have been working on making a standard ink-jet printer free from the usual constraints of desktop printing. Looking at examples of direct to garment (DTG) printing and some of the ink-jet to 3d printer hacks out there i began tearing to pieces my desktop printer. The plan was to make the print heads as close to the bottom of the printer as i could. I also wanted to have the printer placed on wheels with the paper feed pushing the printer forwards. The result so far looks like this:
Although it looks the part so far it less than fulfills the part. I think in the build process i may have damaged the control board or something which is causing the results to be fairly unpredictable. I have been stressing and struggling with this thing for ages and have got any further. I was just about to abort the project when i started to look back over everything i had done one last time. What i realised was that although what i had first envisioned had not been realised some of the results were pretty damned nice.
Phosphorescence
March 12, 2009
Recently i have been experimenting with hacking old printers and in my research i came accross this:
Phosphorescence according to wikipedia allow absorbed radiation to be re-emitted at a lower intensity for up to several hours. It was built from a miniPov and adapted to radiate a phosphorescence panel. The overall effect is pretty creepy and would make for an awesome horror style B movie end credits.
original source: Makezine
BeatBearing Tangible Rhythm Sequencer by Peter Bennet
February 27, 2009
There are three main reasons why i love this project. Firstly the switches are ingenious. They look to be made out of washers cut in half and separated then as the ball bearing is placed down it connects the two half’s and joins the circuit together. Its so simple that is brilliant.
The second reason i like this project so much is that it uses the old CRT type screen. If you ever go to a dump you will see plenty of these thrown to waste replaced by the more convenient TFT monitor. Its nice to see the old monitors being put to use, i have always thought that the CRT screen would make an awesome base to a coffee table (project coming soon).
I also love that the interface is placed directly above the screen making it possible for the interface to react and change colour throughout the experience. I found this project on the MAKE magazine blog. The Make blog has more information on the build and techniques used for communicating with the computer so if this interests you take a look there as well.
Links:
Tactile time
November 14, 2008
I found this watch for the visually impaired while stumbling through vast content found at neatorama.com. The watch was designed by Matthew Wagnerfield. The first thing that grabbed me about this watch is the beautiful craftsmanship; its well designed and well made. The second thing that really impressed me was that the watch can be read by the blind or visually impaired. The clock face is based around a standard 7 segment digital character display but instead of using light to communicate the message this watch uses mechanically animated segments to convey the time. The segments lower and raise by a difference of 1mm so the time can be both seen and touched.
So thats what i have been hacking apart
November 5, 2008
Being quite new to hacking components i am completely curious about how the small things work. I have been on the hunt for a servo stepper motor for a while now just to experiment with and control using the Arduino. I was told that printers quite often have stepper motors in them so i blagged a printer and started yanking it apart in a rather brutal fashion. With components and plastic discarded everywhere i recoiled in disappointment. After reducing the poor defenseless printer into smithereens all i had to show for it was dc motors 
How then did the printer control the movement of the laser-jet so accurately?
Make magazine came to the rescue as always. Recently on there blog they posted a link to this blog :
A BIG MAGNET PICTURES FROM AN ACCUMULATOR.
A big magnet has a post explaining “Using a DC motor as a servo with PID control” which is what i have encountered when hacking my printer. This technology is not just in printers its everywhere. Its in your printer, Computer mouse, scanners and so much more. A DC motors and an optical encoder are used to replace expensive stepper motors. PID stands for proportional–integral–derivative.
PID is is a generic control loop feedback mechanism (controller) widely used in industrial control systems. A PID controller attempts to correct the error between a measured process variable and a desired setpoint by calculating and then outputting a corrective action that can adjust the process accordingly.
If you are wanting to control movement from a motor and don’t want to spend on expensive stepper motors you should really consider reading this blog.
thank you Big magnet
thank you Make magazine
Nxt Mindstorm
June 16, 2008
As a first blog entry this might be quite sub standard but I’m going to give it my best shot. Recently I had the opportunity to play with the Lego Mindstorm kit. Who would of thought getting your degree could be so much fun? The anticipation and excitement as i opened the box was reminiscent of the chaos i caused every Christmas morning of my childhood. The instruction were tossed aside and a shower of Lego pieces vacated their correct compartments and scattered noisily all over the desk. after a good half an hour of random, unsuccessful compilations of Lego pieces and the Lego Nxt brain itself i decided it might be time to admit defeat.
The Nxt might at first glance appear to be a playful, naive, toy but when you start researching its capabilities the possibilities are endless. The simplicity and speed at which the Nxt can be manipulated makes it an awesome tool for prototyping. Once i spent some time to read the instructions and followed some of the basic tutorials i was hooked. There is something quite liberating about just clipping components together and instantly setting them to work. One of the only things negative i have to say about the Nxt is that i found the software quite tiresome. Maybe after messing with code for so long i have conditioned my self for a top down style of thinking where as the Lego software was very visual based heavily upon drag and drop. After a little research i found a class library for C# entitled MindSqualls and this opened up a whole world of possibilities. MindSqualls can be downloaded here along with a lot of documentation and tutorials.
The end result – His name is Mo-B (Haven’t a clue why just seemed right 
)
Some inspiring robots from others and places for more information:
