December 10, 2005
How to build a 3 foot tall spinning snowman
Start out with a nice beefy DC motor (this one wants to spin at 3000rpm - something a little slower would be more appropriate)
Find some way of coupling to the axle - I cut a disc out of 1/2" acrylic (note the notch on top that fits into the axle groove
We'll use a direct friction drive turntable setup made out of two wooden discs
Assemble the motor side of the transmission - apply hot glue liberally to hold things in place
The big wooden base rotates on a base made out of 80/20 and a disassembled office stool.
First test - we're spinning a LITTLE BIT too fast (avi soon)
Add snowman
The final installation in our lounge (avi soon)
December 02, 2005
Recent hardware hacks
An input converter for the Phidgets InterfaceKit - when you run out of digital ins, you can use some of your analog inputs with this handy little board. 10k pull-ups hold the a2d converter pin high (5V); pressing a button/switch/etc sends the sends voltage to 0.
I based the new d.tools controller board on the chip45.com crumb128 - much smaller than before and finally USB support.
d.tools media player prototype I took to UIST. Cut out of 1/4" acrylic on a Lasercamm.
mechanical prototype for a "drawer" tangible UI I am working on with Merrie Ringel for the Diamondtouch table. Didn't add enough space on this one so the push/pull action had way to much resistance.
Next iteration on the drawer - this time with built in slide pot for drawer position sensing - and all hooked up to d.tools. The USB key is used to hold the "stuff" that projected onto the Diamondtouch table when you pull out the drawer mechanism. That was probably not very clear as a description...
