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Archives: Chris Connors

MakerBots at Cambridge Mini Maker Faire

At the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire, we had a whole mess of MakerBot CupCake CNCs. People were very curious about all the plastic being extruded and had lots of questions to ask of the hardy Makerbotters. During the festivities, I had a chance to ask a few questions of my own.

Want to know more about the MakerBot? Get your hands on a copy of MAKE Volume 21. The MakerBot site is full of good info, and you can see and share lots of designs for parts that can be made over at Thingiverse.

Editor's Note: And don't forget our MakerBot CupCake CNC giveaway. Deadline for entry is May 5th!

From MAKE magazine:
make volume 21 little cover.jpg
MAKE Volume 21 is the Desktop Manufacturing issue, with how-to articles on making three-dimensional parts using inexpensive computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Both additive (RepRap, CandyFab) and subtractive (Lumenlab Micro CNC) systems are covered. Also in this issue: instructions for making a cigar box guitar, building your own CNC for under $800, running a mini electric bike with a cordless drill, making a magic photo cube, and tons more. If you're a subscriber, you can access the Digital Edition. Otherwise, you can pick up MAKE 21 in the Maker Shed

Josh Rosenstock and the Nomadic Remix Jacket

Josh Rosenstock brought his Nomadic Remix jacket and other projects to the recent Cambridge Mini Maker Faire. His jackets work by recording ambient audio from your surroundings and then chopping the sound up and playing it back through speakers sewn into the collar. You can control the recordings and remixing through sensors on the garment. For more info on Josh's amazing projects, visit his site.

Angela Sheehan talks about Soft Circuit Saturdays

Angela Sheehan has taken on a series of projects inspired in part by CRAFT and the Fashioning Technology book and site. She showed her work at the recent Cambridge Mini Maker Faire and walked me through it. Her site, Soft Circuit Saturdays has a nice collection of clever projects.

In the Maker Shed:

Fashioning Technology
Ready to take your craft projects to the next level? With "smart" materials, unorthodox assembly techniques, and the right tools, you can create accessories, housewares, and toys that light up, make sounds, and more.

Soft Circuit Saturdays at Cambridge Mini Maker Faire

Angela Sheehan runs a site of crafty creations called Soft Circuit Saturdays. She demonstrates lots of neat ways that you can combine circuits with fabrics to entertain all your senses and even protect your tongue. She will be showing her work at this Saturday's Cambridge Mini Maker Faire from noon to 4pm just outside the Cambridge Public Library.

Angela says:

Soft Circuit Saturdays is a collection of small projects that combine electronics, sewing, crafts, and technology into fun weekend explorations. I will show a temperature-sensing coffee sleeve, light up jellyfish magnet, a puppet that incorporates a drawdio to play fun sounds, and more.

You can check out Angela Sheehan and Soft Circuit Saturdays, along with lots of like-minded makers at the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire, this Saturday, April 24th from 12-4. This Mini Maker Faire is part of the opening events of The Cambridge Science Festival. Look for us under the tent on the tennis courts next to the Cambridge Public Library.

MITers at Cambridge Mini Maker Faire

After class, how do you blow off some steam, sparks, swarf? Over at MIT, they have MITers, a great on-campus hackerspace where students gather to build amazing creations. You can check out some of the more portable physical imaginings at the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire this Saturday, April 24 from noon to 4pm.

As we were preparing for the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire, MITers chimed in with what they expect to bring. Here is a brief listing of some of their projects you can expect to see:

Charles Guan:
RazEr, the hub motor nanoscooter.

Two 30lb combat robots, which will be display-items-only since they're both dead. Here's Überclocker Remix and Cold Arbor.

The infamous lolriokart.

Segfault, the formerly analog but now an Arduino sellout Segway.

Noah Vawter Will be showing some of his Exertion Instruments this weekend. These are musical instruments with built-in expressive electrical generators.

Shane Colton The BWD Scooter is a two-wheel-drive version of Charles' hubmotor scooter that doubles as a tow vehicle for lolriokart. He may also bring the DIY Segway.

You can check out these fine projects and their makers at the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire this Saturday, April 24th from 12-4. This Mini Maker Faire is part of the opening events of The Cambridge Science Festival. Look for us under the tent on the tennis courts next to the Cambridge Public Library.

Modkit at Cambridge Mini Maker Faire

Ed Baafi has been working up Modkit, a great new interface that combines the language Scratch with the ability to write programs for the Arduino. Like Scratch, Modkit provides the user with clickable, expandable code blocks. When you have the program the way you want it, you send it down to your Arduino to test it out. All those fussy semicolons and syntax are handled automatically; no typing required.

Ed will be on-hand to demonstrate Modkit at the Cambridge Mini Maker Faire this Saturday, April 24th from 12-4. This Mini Maker Faire is part of the opening events of The Cambridge Science Festival. Look for us under the tent on the tennis courts next to the Cambridge Public Library.

Electric cupcakes

Several years ago, my then science department head and former 9th grade science teacher was retiring. Bob Webster brought me many useful and entertaining ideas. He had our whole department making wikis to share information in the early 00's. Through him, I learned more about computer repair, web design, programming and electricity. He helped me to cultivate a positive environment encouraging kids to work with and understand concepts that many find intimidating. So what to bring to his party? Electric Cupcakes, of course!

The cupcakes themselves were a standard, dairy free affair, with rice milk substituted for cow milk and margarine for butter. The frosting was also made without butter, and tinted with food coloring. On top I coated them all with a neutral white frosting. Next came the fun part - schematic symbols. Looking around, I found a good set of example symbols in the Chaney 33 in 1 Electronics Kit workbook.

It was a fun project, and a few people at the party noticed the symbols on the cupcakes. Taking pictures of them at the time and sharing them in the MAKE Flickr pool helped create a record of these geeky perishables from days gone by. Designs like this would be neat to try with the Makerbot and its' Frostruder attachment.

More:

Scratch Board guitar

Wandering through the MAKE Flickr pool the other day, I saw what appeared to be custom-made game controlling guitars. Taking a closer look, I saw that they were actually using Scratch Sensor Board controllers. The Scratch Board is a neat device with four inputs for custom built sensors. On the board itself are a potentiometer, light sensor, sound sensor and a push button. Your program can look for user generated input on each of these, which can change your program or game based on the sensor input.

Chris, whose photostream the picture was in told me a bit about the project:

Using snow to see heat transfer

In these photos, you can see the heat transfer happening through a number of roofs in my neighborhood. In a wintery time like we have now, the snow acts as an indicator of your insulation. If you have a full roof of snow, then you're well insulated. If you have spots of bare roof surrounded by snow, then inside the house is an area where it's uninsulated, or poorly insulated. If your roof doesn't hold the snow at all, then it's time to look at your attic insulation. Sunny, South facing roofs will naturally clear faster on clear days, due to the input of solar energy. Any part of your building envelope that transfers heat is spending your money and wasting energy resources.

On some of these roofs, you can see areas of white lines. These are the rafters. The roofing structure is thicker there, and heat isn't transferring as well in those spots. A nearby antique cape, shows that the rafters are 3 or 4 feet apart. That is a big difference from the way it would be framed in modern times with the rafters at 16 inches on center.

One neighborhood house sports a chimney from a woodstove. It seems that the rafter bay where the chimney pierces the roof is totally uninsulated, judging from the lack of snow on that one section of the roof.

On my house, you can see thin spots about two feet from the gutter. That is the place where the studs from the wall meet the rafters. This unusual framing technique seems to have been done to save on materials when building the house. The wall is well insulated, as is the attic. Its just the junction point that is radiating heat.

Before this winter, there were three bare spots on a section of roof over the mudroom in my house. I noticed these spots, and really noticed the cold air flowing from the recessed lights in that room. For a few winters, I put up insulating window plastic over the fixtures to keep the warm in and the cold out. These lights have since been removed and the cavities insulated, there is still a bit of melting in those locations, but nothing like it was.

What can you see by looking at the exterior of the houses around you? Can you see the energy flowing from warm to cold? Does this help you see improvements you can make to your house?

Vintage miniature stories

Recently, I came across photographer Michael Paul Smith, who has an online showcase of his miniature scene photographs.

I asked him to tell of his process, influences and techniques.
I first start off with some very rough sketches on the particular building I'm thinking of making. Really, they are mere scribbles, but they capture the key points of the structure. I have to ask myself questions like: when was this building built and in what style of architecture. Has this building been added to over the years and if so, in what way. If you walk down the center of town, and really study the buildings, you can see their history. For what I'm doing, my structures have to be generic enough so they don't look too unusual, yet they have to have some character to them to make them interesting. I also study photographs from the past. There are books out entitled Then and Now, which show photographs of buildings taken in the 1890's and also in the present at the exact same spot. These are very telling because you can see how drastically or subtly things have changed. I want my models to have the feeling that they have traveled in time.

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