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"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
We’ve still got room in Sunday’s 3D Printing class! You’ll learn how to use our Makerbot printers, how to design your own 3D models and use others’ models, and what to worry about when buying your own 3D printer. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Your instructor will take you through key concepts of 3D printing, demo the technology on our printers, and lead the class through the design process of creating a model and preparing it to print. We’ll talk about creating functional objects, creative objects, available materials, print reliability, and compare various printer models and features. Get tickets while there’s still room!
I recently published two guides for new electronics projects around tracking your social media stats. The first is a YouTube subscriber counter that resembles a Play Button Award and shows your subscriber count across two seven segment displays behind the framed paper.
The second is very similar but tracks multiple stats with the same board, and has more displays connected.
Both projects use the NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller and LED backpacks from Adafruit.
Next Saturday (27 Jan) NYC Resistor’s knitting guild, PKPTransistor, will be having our first annual Midwinter Yarn Swap. Cast off some of your old yarns, hook up with some new yarns, and get cozy with your fellow yarn hoarders!
Bring your stash to trade and share while enjoying good company, mulled apple cider, and hot choclety. We’ll put some Back to Back Challenge videos on the big screen and talk shop. Knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers, if you do it with yarn we’d love to have you. And if you have ideas for stash-busting projects, bring them along.
January 27
2pm – 5pm
NYC Resistor
87 3rd Ave. in Brooklyn
Photos by Trammell Hudson, Sarah Nichols, Ahd Photography, Sherri Lynn Wood, and Eli Carrico
We asked Adelle and Matt about their camera-based musical instruments. Here’s what they said.
What’s a camera-based musical instrument? Basically, it’s two cameras facing upwards, about a foot below a player’s hands. When they move their hand, it’s converted into different types of notes, sound effects and volumes, to create an expressive performance.
We made 3 of these. The form was shaped like a musical soundwave: we prototyped it on the laser cutter, and eventually got it CNC milled.
This is part of the CES Intel Keynote pre-show performance. It was the opening of the show, to show off the instruments’ nuance and control before the concert gets too big. The middle instrument was piano sounds; the one on the right was synths and electronics; the one on the left was chords and atmosphere. The show opened dark: the performer, Kevin Doucette, used his hands to bring up the lights on the instrument as well as the synthesisers, then waved his hands to switch keys on a virtual keyboard. Kevin played the Killers’ “Are we human or are we dancers?”.
In this instance, the performer is wearing gloves with sensors in them, and is using finger bends to trigger notes. Yes, it looks like a theramin – but it’s way cooler and has blinkenlights. But seriously, the LEDs are there to show the musician where they are on the instrument and the types of notes that they’re playing (ed: but they’re still cool).
We built this instrument to use the cameras (they’re good at doing fast hand tracking and depth); we added the LEDs because if you have an invisible instrument you don’t know where you are, and the LEDs give feedback to train your hand in space.
Here’s the lasercut and CNC versions side by side: here, we’re doing LED tests.
(insides of the camera-based instrument)
Here are the insides: the frame, the LED controller and the acrylic housing around them. The cameras are Realsense. There are two programs (developed by Nerdmatics) running on linux in the back end, and TouchDesigner to control the lighting.
Here are the guts of the instrument
Here are the cameras
And the camera teardown
Come talk to us about this project!
We asked Bonnie and Widget what to do at craft night if you don’t have a project. Here’s their list…
You could do things that have nothing to do with projecting: sit on your own surfing the internet or playing farm games (Hi Mikael!), sit and talk to people, grab a book from the library, ask people about their projects, offer to help with projects, or offer to help clean (which is a great way to make us love you).
More traditional projects: you could spelunk in thingsgiving (our pool of electronics supplies and mysterious arcane objects, aka a treasure hunt) and see what you could make. You could learn to solder. You could knit, or learn to knit (we have yarns and needles on hand), you could grab scraps of fabric and play around with a sewing machine. You could paint your nails: we have lasercut nail art blocks, some of which are very geeky (ed: I love the one with circuits). Or you could video DJ on our projector.
You could draw – we love artists. Or try out the 3D printers (or help get one of them working again). Mill your own PCBs on the othermill. Or you could bring things that you want to fix, and fix them.
Craft nights are Mondays and Thursdays – check out our Participate page.
So NYC Resistor now has a public slack channel. Why? Because we have awesome chats with people who come into the space for open nights and classes (see participate if you want to join in), and we want to extend this to the interwebz.
We’re here: https://goo.gl/bxJLGf (*). We’ve got the usual general and random (sometimes very random) channels, and new channels for knitting (pkpresistor), microcontrollers and more. Come join us!
(* if the slack link doesn’t work, contact widget@nycresistor.com to get added)
[Cross-post from Bonnie Eisenman’s blog at https://blog.bonnieeisenman.com/projects/clojure-puzzles/. Bonnie is often found at the NYC Resistor craft nights]
I spent the last week learning Clojure and generating jigsaw puzzles as part of my one-week programming retreat at the Recurse Center.
Why jigsaw puzzles? I was motivated by two things: first, I wanted a good-sized language-learning project. Secondly, I was heavily inspired by the amazing, beautiful, intricate jigsaw puzzles produced by Nervous Systems and wanted to experiment with similar-ish generative methods. (I’m a sucker for generative things and hadn’t played with generative algorithms too much before.) If you want a crazy cool puzzle, seriously, go buy one from Nervous.
I think they turned out well!
Because I have access to NYC Resistor’s laser cutter, the obvious thing to do was generate SVGs which I could then laser cut. If you haven’t worked with SVG before, it’s an XML-based format for describing vector graphics. It’s pretty easy to generate “by hand”.
Here is what an SVG looks like, if you open it up with a text editor:
<svg width="100" height="100">
<circle
cx="50"
cy="50"
r="40"
stroke="green"
stroke-width="4"
fill="yellow"
/>
</svg>
This produces a yellow circle, centered at (50, 50), with a radius of 40, and a four-pixel green outline. You can view an SVG file in any web browser, or edit it in an editor like Inkscape.
See? Easy-peasy.
I started by generating a “classic” jigsaw puzzle shape, and figuring out how to tile it.
But I wanted something more interesting than just a grid of similar puzzle pieces! My next step was to use a Voronoi diagram to draw more irregularly-sized polygons around “seed” points. At first this created some amusing failures:
Oops. This is what happens when you draw points at (x, x) instead of (x, y). Let’s fix those coordinates.
If we replace those straight lines with puzzle-piece edges, we get something that starts to look like a more interesting puzzle. There are still obviously flaws to be ironed out here (e.g. edge overlap).
I wanted to make more novel puzzle piece shapes, though, so I turned to the SVG path
type. You can draw Bézier curves in SVG pretty easily:
<path d="M 0 0 C 0 -100 50 -100 50 0 S 100 100 100 0"
stroke="blue"
fill="transparent"
transform="translate(0 400)"/>
OK, here’s what it looks like when we replace our puzzle piece shape with some random-ish curves:
Add more curves and it gets even better!
I also experimented with variations on how to place the seed points for my puzzle generation. Here’s one that’s based on a circular point distribution.
Now I had some monstrously-irregular puzzle pieces to play with. Cool! I wanted to take it one step further by implementing whimsy pieces. In jigsaw jargon, a whimsy piece is a themed, recognizably-shaped puzzle piece. They might be butterflies or people or letters or…you name it!
I modified my puzzle-generator to clear space for a whimsy piece, first testing it with circular whimsy pieces.
Then, using a kd-tree, I identified the whimsy piece’s nearest-neighbors and connected it back to the rest of the puzzle. Here’s a cat!
And, finally, I took these files over to NYC Resistor and lasered them.
It took a group of us about ninety minutes to solve the cat puzzle. Not bad for four days’ work!
All of the code is available on Github at bonniee/svg-puzzle-gen. (It’s my first Clojure program, so I’m sure there are plenty of non-idiomatic things happening there.)
Dependencies / thank-yous:
Testimonials from playtesters:
Want to get started with physical computing? Learn to program an Arduino and interact with the physical world on Sunday, January 21st! In our Intro to Arduino: Sensors and Input/Output class, we’ll cover an introduction to Arduino and learn how to manipulate outputs based on sensor inputs.
Our next laser cutting class is coming up on January 13th. Learn to use our Epilog 60W laser cutter and get laser-certified so you can come back and use it at our public Craft Nights.
Our laser can cut and etch materials like wood, acrylic, paper, and even pie.
We partied ourselves out last night. No Craft Night today.
Happy New Year’s everyone!
Dominion is an award-winning deck-building card game that has ten expansions released as of this writing. There are a wide variety of proposed storage solutions to the problem of toting about several thousand cards and sundry mats and tokens, and Sherwin decided it was high time he moved on up from the method he had been using to a proper receptacle.
First, a look at the final product:
We managed to fit about 3700 unsleeved cards along with the other odds and ends in with room for further expansion. The dividers make every card easy to locate and access, and the box dimensions keep the whole package relatively compact and portable.
Our starting point was an ad-hoc solution that involved storing each set of Kingdom cards in separate pockets on 9-card sheets, with the base cards being held in deck boxes and the tokens in a bead container, all of which were piled into one of the original game boxes and wrapped in a tote bag. This system worked for a time, but as further expansions were released, both box and tote showed increased signs of strain, neither having been designed to hold more than one game or expansion at a time.
The sheets can be seen overflowing from the game box, which barely squeezed into the tote
The box had already been replaced once before, and when the replacement itself began showing severe signs of wear we began looking into other options. We debated building one out of lumber, but eventually settled on using a case that had been tried and tested in other storage solutions for our first attempt.
We knew that we would require some sort of organizer to keep each column of cards in line, and laser-cut some test pieces out of cardboard to check the fit.
Determining the dimensions of the caddy and how to fasten them
Assembling the mock caddy, then testing the fit of the cards
We also planned to engrave the game’s logo onto the box using the laser cutter, and had two waxes and two stains we wanted to try. The case came with a tray insert that was made of the same wood, though unfinished, so we did a test burn both before and after applying the four coats to observe the effect. We also removed the hardware from the case and sanded off the veneer in preparation.
Mocking up the logo and testing burn parameters for the wood
Applying the coats of wax and stain to the test piece
The logo we used had too much background and shading for a clean burn. We ended up using Pawel Pawlak’s
Dominion icons
to generate an appropriate vector image of the logo and banner outline for the laser cutter.
Testing the final logo
After finalizing the dimensions of the caddy pieces and wax choice, we then cut the pieces out of clear acrylic, assembled and affixed them with acrylic glue, burned the logo into the case cover, then applied the coats of wax.
Assembling and checking the fit of the final caddy
Applying the wax to the case exterior
To minimize cards sliding around and give them a cushion, we cut a segment out of poker felt and glued it to the bottom with spray adhesive. We attempted to replace the stock hardware with sturdier options, but found the wood to be too thin to support any of the screws from the cabinet fixtures.
Testing different adhesives on felt samples and reattaching the hardware to the finished bottom
Finally, after completing assembly of the box, we had to transfer the actual game components from the old box to the new one. We created the divider tabs using sumpfork’s
Dominion Divider Generator
and had them printed on cardstock and trimmed at a local print shop.
The finished box ready to receive the game materials
Moving the cards into their new home
Ready to play!
Robots are neat, but everyone has one around the house these days. From Roomba to Alexa, there’s an army of soothing plastic helpers to help you look up actor names and eliminate your least favorite repetitive tasks. Aren’t you curious what is out there chasing the horizon of robotics, on the seam between the artificial and the biological?
Well, that’s what you’re going to learn if you’re one of the lucky ITP Camp attendees this year. Our members Kari Love and Matthew Borgatti will be teaching a class on Soft Robotics and Bioinspiration this week at NYU’s ITP. It will cover how they – real actual researchers in soft robotics – perform research, build prototypes, and solve problems with inspiration from biology. It’s also got hands-on prototyping and playful learning for everyone excited by design and creative process.
From the course description:
Roboticists frequently find inspiration from the incredible evolved forms of nature, and translate them into fresh thinking and solutions. This workshop invites you to explore this fast-growing domain where biology and robotics collide.
Holidays? What holidays! Resistor will be open as usual tonight for Craft Night / Knit Knight.
Hey NYCR visitors – have you done something neat lately? Let us know, so we can blog about it!
Julia learned to knit in December at NYC Resistor. And then, uh….this blanket happened. Julia, you’re amazing. Students outshining their teachers, etc.
I can vouch for this blanket being extremely cozy. You’re looking at 30 skeins (6,540 yards!) of yarn and 1,040 tails that needed weaving in. It comfortably fits three people.
If you want to make your own blanket, the Infinite Rainbow Throw pattern is free from KnitPicks.
Don’t know how to knit? Wish you had more knitting time? Join us every other Monday for our Knit Knight, 730pm-930pm. We’ll teach you – beginners get their first pair of needles free. (You don’t need to be as intense as Julia in order to attend Knit Knight, we promise.)
Join the fun at the NYC Resistor Interactive Show this Saturday, where you can play Dance Dance Running Man by Colleen AF Venable, Eric Skiff, and Astrida Valigorsky:
Dance Dance Running Man revives the dance-game classic DDR as dystopian chase game. Keep those feet moving while the chasers chase from behind the arrows and Arnold keeps them at bay. Featuring images from the film and pro-level DDR pads, you’ll be dancing for your life!
Come play with it yourself at The Interactive Show on May 13th! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door), and the libations are on us. Get your tickets now!
Come to the NYC Resistor Interactive Show this Saturday to see “Who Do You Love” by Adelle Lin, Olivia Barr, and Matt Pinner:
A deplorable reality television host rises to power by exploit people for the sake of entertainment. He uses a nightmarish cacophony of violence and catch phrases to control his audience. In The Running Man this media mogul shouts, “Who Loves You and Who Do You Love?”
Who Do You Love is an interactive sound installation that samples Donald Trump saying the word “China” in phrases from his campaign and presidency. The interface device for the installation consists of three acrylic towers, dispersed through the space. Each tower houses three buttons where players can activate the sound from different locations. Pressing a button triggers the Commander and Chief to say “china”, “i love china”, “i know china very well”, or “china all the time”.
The phrases overlap each time a button is pushed to create an ambiance of garbled memetastic catch phrases. The towers encase a teensy audio shield, teensy 3.2, xbee, and our custom oshpark pcb. the devices connect to each other using these 900mhz xbee radios and light up clear acrylic portions with led sequins when buttons are pressed anywhere in the space. The new echo of “China” is channeled into the exhibition room’s speakers or through headphones. Multiple players of Who Loves You collaborate to compel the distortion of Trump’s reflections on China into noise.
We hope this raises some discussions about your feelings around entertainment media and representative governments.
More info on Github.
Come play with it yourself at The Interactive Show on May 13th! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door), and the libations are on us. Get your tickets now!
Here’s another Interactive Show preview, this time of “Panorama Lamp” by Kirill Shevyakov, Alexander Savvy, and Paul Koch. Check it out in action in this video.
The Panorama lamp is a tribute to a monumental Soviet architecture. Inspired by a colossal concrete curves and extraordinary aesthetic of USSR structures this lamp is a miniature replica of a soviet movie theatre. The surface of the lamp is divided into 70 units creating a 360 degree visual grid. Each unit encompasses an LED which forms a vast “canvas” for various interactions, light sequences, and data visualizations.
Come play with it yourself at The Interactive Show on May 13th! Tickets are just $15 in advance, and the libations are on us. Get your tickets now!
Time has been flying and we’ve been frantically getting ready for The Interactive Show. It’s just 17 days away! Here’s a preview of “Red Rider” by Ranjit Bhatnagar and Colleen AF Venable.
A modern take on Little Red Riding Hood with a NYC twist. The story is told in six voices, each giving their version of what happened—including Red Rider (the fastest bike messenger in the city), the now-vegan Wolf, the Lumberjock (who always gives 110%), three very bizarre little pigs, and a maybe-not-so-sweet-and-innocent Grandma. Find the six listening stations and see if you can you figure out what happened to the Wolf.
Tickets are just $15 in advance, and the libations are on us. Get your tickets now!
There’s still time to submit a project before the May 1st deadline, contact us!
"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
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