STYLOTAR! (I have created a monster)

Edit, 4/20: Eeeeeeee! Hello, Adafruit people. They blogged two of my projects today – I hope my site inspires you!

These have been an exciting few months! Look out for upcoming posts on my brainwave-reactive animatronic wings and horns, and Stylophone-playing deltabots (from a robot design by Jason Huggins) – as well as the older Project Anglerfish and holographic hat. :)

I’ve been mucking about with Stylophones a lot lately! Here‘s an example of somebody using one to great artistic effect. These tiny electronic keyboards produce a reedy tone (with optional vibrato), and are played using the attached metal-pointed stylus. Older, analog versions of the Stylophone used a resistor ladder to produce the pitch variance between keys, but unfortunately, the more recent ones have gone digital. However, they also include upgrades like a headphone jack!

These things are a pain to get open; it basically involves a lot of prying. Have four or five flathead screwdrivers and throwaway plastic cards on hand. Here, you’ve got the stupid digital board up top, with the volume at far left, tuning knob at center left, in/out jacks and speaker on the right, and 3-octave switcher at the bottom. It’s a really versatile little instrument!

And here’s your keyboard. The white cable coming out is attached to the metal stylus that completes a circuit with one key at a time. (The Stylophone is monophonic, such that even if you connect to two or more keys at once, only the last-activated pitch is played. I wonder if this is different with old ones!)

TRANSFORM

I wanted to rock out a bit more on this thing, so I took the Ataritar apart in the service of making something that’s actually playable. I reclaimed the electric guitar body (originally found down at AHA) with its conductive backing on the neck.

This conductive aluminum tape runs opposite the fingerboard, along the entire length of the neck, so I hooked it up to the stylus wire coming out of the ‘phone. Next, I chopped up some cat 5 cable (a.k.a. Ethernet cable – with eight wires inside), and soldered an end of each wire to one of the 20 conductive pads on the Stylophone’s keyboard.

The other end of each wire was soldered to a thumbtack, which I pounded into the front of the neck with a monkey wrench, one thumbtack per fret. Playing the ‘tar is simple, and fairly similar to a real guitar: you use your hand to connect the back of the neck with one of the thumbtacks.

I still don’t have the cable lengths exactly right, but the yellow sheathing, along with some braiding, helps keep them in check. The Stylophone is attached to the body via four pairs of magnets, since that’s how you change the (three AA) batteries.

I just had time to fashion a rudimentary shoulder strap by drilling a hole through the body and sticking a cable through. This whole thing was put together in about three hours, leading up to the first NoiseJam Johny Radio arranged at Noisebridge! It’s a DIY instrument orchestra, and the event was stellar, including a kickwheel, a couple of electronic cellos, some software input from Alex and Ari, and a chime made from a vibromotor and a heatsink.

The lovely thing about the headphone jack is that you can hook it into an amp and really blast. I love playing the ‘tar with bass boosted and treble subdued, which smoothes out some of the reediness and imparts a gorgeous mellow tone. And I’ve extended the tuning potentiometer from the back of the Stylophone to a knob on the guitar’s body, so it can be used during performance as a pitch bender. This, along with the octave switch built into the front of the Stylophone, gives me a tremendous range from ecstatic highs to shuddering lows.

Both of these add up to a truly unique sound that I’m excited to share as soon as video from Noisebridge’s 5-year party is available! I got to jam out again as part of the NoiseJam orchestra, and also with the magnificent Dubious Ranger!

My favorite aspect of this misbegotten thing is that it’s an electronic instrument that must be wet to play. The conductivity isn’t great, so unless you’re a really sweaty person by nature, you need a little help to make the connection between the back strip and the thumbtacks. So, I coated the contacts in EEG paste and dip my fingers in water while playing. And this is the only way it will work.

Moving forward: I certainly plan to make this instrument more beautiful; the gaping hole in the wood isn’t helping matters any. And I may convert the pitch bender knob into a whammy bar!

Rich DDT + Stylotar, Noisebridge, 4/8:

Moldover + Stylotar, same night:

yay!

Anti-Love Bike Lights

Model: Felix

Somebody stole my bike lights recently, presumably either because:
a) they loved that friendly LED glow, or
b) they loved the idea of getting money for it.

So I have made some that are love- (but not yet water-) proof. I will probably re-do them later on, but I wanted to get back to a rideable state as soon as possible.

Here are the basic materials, in sorta clockwise order:
• Soldering iron
• Wire clippers / strippers
• Roll of solder
• 9V battery, with battery connector
• Box cutter
• 2 switches
• Epoxy-coated strips of RGB LEDs, with adhesive backing
• Not pictured: extension wire (I’ve used speaker wire)

These are scraps left over from our interactive LED lab coats, made for this year’s Autodesk University. The black-capped ends appear at the end of each roll, and have solid-core wires or sockets pre-soldered onto the contacts, preventing us from soldering to both ends. That was fine for me, since almost all pieces would be connected only at one end.

Here, I’ve stuck a switch into the power line and soldered together the lights for the back of the bike. To get red, solder to the 12V+ pad (labeled on the strip) and the middle remaining pad. (These things still shine gorgeously on nine volts.)

Cut the strips down to size, if needed, and use a razor to remove the epoxy covering the solder pads.

I stuck everything together using the adhesive backing on the LED strips, as well as some hot glue. All solder connections were insulated (from each other and the elements) with more hot glue. I would apply a blob to the connection(s), wait maybe 15 seconds, then roll it between my fingers to ensure that everything was covered.

Despite my apprehension, the hot glue is barely apparent, and unless you look closely, the lights integrate naturally with the bike frame. I tucked the battery and switch underneath the bike seat, to protect them from water and other damage.

I decided against running a cable down the center pole, for a couple of reasons:
• The way I normally manhandle the bike would subject the cables to lots of pulling and bashing, and
• Somewhat ridiculously, I was trying to keep this hack job unobtrusive (or even attractive).

That means a second battery and switch for the front. Even so, this system is easier to deal with than the old lights, which required some arcane combination of pushing and holding to turn them off.

The initial idea here involved a Radio Shack project box (top left), some adhesive aluminum Dymo labeler tape (that doesn’t fit my labeler), and an enclosed clip to hold the battery (middle left). Ha! Ha! My first effort was hideous and unwieldy.

Also, one side wouldn’t light up. I hadn’t realized that TechShop was closing early for New Year’s, so I fumbled with this for a little while and gave up ten minutes past closing. (Immense thanks to the good people of TechShop for not beating me out of there with a broomstick.) Turned out that end was just busted; later, I flipped it around and the other solder points worked.

I took the design down a notch to get on the road sooner. The Dymo tape is a GENIUS item! It blends beautifully with the handlebar stock and battery clip. My current setup has the battery mounted to the bottom of the stock, as you can see above, and the LED strips branch out from a Y at the front/center. I have to watch the battery, and will need some better way of holding it in. Perhaps a strip of metal tape across the clip opening. In fact, I’ll do that now.

• 2 minutes later •

I went with blue for the front, since white would require powering all three colors, red is too dim, and aesthetics ruled out green. The blue solder pad is the one furthest from power. These strips were left long, stretching the full width of the handlebars, because they look cool under my fingers and provide more light.

I thought the front lights would be very ugly, but they have a low profile. You can’t even see them when you’re behind the bike (except at night), and oh, how they shine! I can see them radiating blue onto the ground, and the red shines onto my legs, which is nice because I can easily tell whether the back light is on or off. These are far brighter than regular lights, and I feel very safe with them; at least, as safe as one should feel in rush-hour SoMa traffic. And from the shouted compliments I’ve received, San Francisco likes them, too.

<3

• ADDENDUM •

April 2013: Since this post, Felix has been stolen, and I’ve got a new steed. Tybalt has less usable handlebar space, so I’ve shortened the front lights, which detracts somewhat from the forward illumination. I’ve pointed the handlebars downward to promote ground visibility, but the smaller light chunks also made it silly to have an entire 9V dedicated to them. So, ground lighting!

Do they wobble to and fro? – Necomimi teardown!

I’m presenting some electronic wearables at the Crucible‘s Hot Couture in a couple of weeks, including a pair of brainwave-responsive wings made from Necomimi. These are EEG cat ears, which twitch up and down depending on your brainwave emissions; the name comes from Japanese “neko” (cat) and “mimi” (ear). Here’s Deconstruction Level 1, from October of this year.

(A Parallax screwdriver, such as from a SumoBot kit, is perfect for this teardown.)

Let’s start with the ears. They come with furry white covers, stretched over white foam mounts. The two pieces separate easily, and if you want to go the Emoki route, you can create your own. The cover/mount assembly is friction-fit onto a plastic servo, which lives inside the ear.

Except for the removable head strap, this is about as far as you get before fetching a screwdriver. We’ll look at the left ear block next.

Big, friendly flathead screw! You can open this with a penny or whatever. It exposes the (four AAA) batteries.

On any piece of consumer electronics, a sticker is likely to hide screws. Pull this one off, and you’ll find four small Phillips heads. Remove them!

Next, tackle the tabs; there’s a slot in the back edge of the battery case, where one of the tabs can be pushed in with a screwdriver. The other four lie inside the top and bottom edges of the case. Release them gently.

Now, you can pull off the outer-facing part of the casing (where the on/off button is).

And here’s the circuit board… on/off button in the middle, forehead sensor arm to the right, ear sensor cable at the top:

Also near the top, you can see two white headers for PWM cables. These are our prize!

For my nefarious purposes, I’m cutting these and pulling them out of the case. They go to the ear servos, threaded through the two black bars of the headpiece. Since I’m removing those servos, I’ll need to re-route the cables elsewhere.

Leaving us with a head-squid!

In Deconstruction Level 2, the servos come off. The bottom of each nubbin is covered by a sticker. You can dent it with a fingernail to see where the interesting bits are. In this case, there are four more screws (the same as the ones holding the battery case together). Remove!

Two small screws inside attach the headset’s bars to the servo mount.

I snipped the PWM cables on this end as well, leaving them threaded through the bars and into the circuit board casing. Just in case. The right servo’s cable goes through the front headset bar, and remains in front on the circuit board.

The main issue with extending this cable is ensuring that it won’t be yanked out later. Hot glue mostly fixes this problem. It can also be blobbed on to insulate the solder joints from each other. Be sure to give the cable plenty of space to move as the servo rotates!

I recommend labeling the ear-nubbins, once they’re off.

THEY LIVE!

• • •

That’s it for now! Here’s a sneak preview for the show…

5 Minutes of Fame (Noisebridge)

A mystery guest!

Last night was Five Minutes of Fame at Noisebridge. This is a monthly gathering open to any and all speakers, devoted to silly and serious talks of all varieties. (I’ve given a couple in Octobers past: an interactive demo on piezos this year, and a holography primer in 2011.)

The evening’s highlights included a musical intro, an exploration of network security/censorship in Burma, and A DIY FRICKING X-RAY MACHINE! Here are my sketches of these exciting, creative humans.

Danny O’Brien: Our gracious host, bombastic as always.

Josh Juran led us in a singalong of “It’s the End of the World As We Know It”, as the apocalypse demands.

Jacob Appelbaum showed up to fill the “Mystery Guest” spot on the roster. He gave us an illustrated tour of how to get yourself into trouble in Burma. International SIM cards there easily cost 250-500 USD. Interestingly, although all network traffic appears to be locked down (or at least monitored), the same doesn’t apply to physical nodes. Hmmm.

Annalee Newitz shared some magnificent advancements in self-healing concrete (and other ways that architecture is learning to work with biology). Contrary to the prior prevailing wisdom, the best place to be in an apocalypse is a city. At least, that’s what she’d like everyone else to believe.

I can keep sitting here all day and eat whatever I want, as long as it’s all in one monstrous helping… and still be healthy! This is a gross misrepresentation of what Naomi Most taught us about nutrition, which was truly useful. Try an intermittent fast, eating just a couple of times a day to keep your metabolism high, and if you get hungry, grab a small piece of something fatty to gobble. (Not your pets.)

Liz Henry foolishly shared a few of her million-dollar ideas with us. I’m gonna get rich off of cat food spray.

Praveen Sinha exhorts you to learn some statistics. You’ll feel better, understand guns and epidemics, and not sound like such an idiot when you talk about Sandy Hook.

Johny Radio is running an all-DIY-instrument concert and recording session at Noisebridge in January. He brought along a Martin to demonstrate some circuit-bending musical wizardry.

Jake Sternberg has a last name, as I just found out. He went full mad scientist with a homebrew X-ray camera. We looked at some bits of metal and a taxidermied mouse. As far as I know, he is still alive. (No word on “Mr. X”, the mysterious engineer who helped create this thing, which included most of a taser.)

Schuyler Erle: all board games, all time travel, all hard sci-fi. Most likely all nerd as well.

Ari Lacenski taught us the difference between Ionian and Aeolian scales. She also made the Cranky Scale Generator, which tells you how to use selected notes together in various scales. I’m looking forward to more strange musical things from her.

By this point, since a 5MOF talk is never actually 5 minutes, it was nearing 11:30pm. Snail, Tom, and I snuck out to get some apocalyptic nachos, and when we came back, it was over. I consider this a night well spent.

•••••

Website needs a revamp. Step 1: individual blog posts for sketches. While I work on this, all the past ones are gone, but they’ll be back… holy crap, 8 months yielded a giant mass of doodles. All will eventually be available under the “People” tab above.

Hackery in the UK, part 1: EMF Camp!

Sound begins at 1:45, when I pick up the mic…

From August 30 to September 3, we talked about bees, quadcopters, cyborgs, memes, why programming jobs suck, security, yurts, and the camp where we talked about all the other things. We slept in a cold and spidery field, drank booze under the M-1, and watched sound waves play out in fire. It was Electromagnetic Field, the UK’s first hacker camp.

Our event badge, the TiLDA, is a modified Arduino Leonardo designed by solexious. While the organizers worked feverishly to complete a game they’d devised, a couple of enterprising attendees developed a breathalyzer and a TiLDA that turns off others’ LEDs.

My own efforts (to make it blink my name in Morse code) were not so effective, partly because I had to abandon the project to put together my presentation. Though I’d long planned to propose a talk, it took me until Saturday to choose a theme (current and future trends in wearable/implantable technology). Jonty graciously gave me an Alpha Stage slot on Sunday, and I was regrettably rewarded for my stubbornness in holding out for more than a lightning talk. This was a lot of fun; I talked for about twenty minutes and then held a discussion with some brilliant humans, until Amran reclaimed the stage for the camp retrospective. We covered a few more technologies that I’d forgotten to mention, like magnetic finger implants and transcranial direct-current stimulation (TDCS).

The retrospective and camp wrap-up were thorough, honest, and poignant. I think they did an amazing job in their first year. There was a great variety of fascinating people, including the hackers from Bermuda with their tasty canned dark-and-stormys, the Hackeriet team from Oslo, and of course, my fellow traveler and captivating host, Fergus. (Jonty and Russ sponsored a tasty pint for the person who’d come furthest, which I ended up splitting with Toorcamp David of Seattle.)

David’s projection-hemisphere tent

Fergus and the Hackeriet crew

[Coming soon: people-sketches from lightning talks and general debauchery!]

After we’d recuperated somewhat, I spent a few nights at the London Hackspace working on my own TiLDA project: the Ardulele! More on this later, since I need to have its body shipped back to me from England…

Open-ish Hardware

How a HexBug dreams.

Sometimes, you begin to dismantle a gadget and it opens before you like an electronic lotus. (Or something less cliché; perhaps a corpse flower.) I praise those who design products with an eye to simplicity, labeling, and elegance in assembly, because they enable broke circuit hackers everywhere. To further this, I’m starting a new page that will soon feature my favorites.

•••

Right now, I’m working on a couple of light guns for a drum machine project. Each started out as a grey NES Zapper (super cheap!), which I’d assumed was just a projector, but which turns out to be a sophisticated light sensor. Since I don’t need that function, I’ve swapped out the internals with a modded $6 solar LED flashlight from Walgreens. Dismantling the guns was very easy, and the manufacturers chose not to paint over the ID on their interesting “one-dimensional” chip. (The second gun is getting a laser!)

•••