Friday, March 20, 2009

Just got an email last night...

I'll be at Maker Faire in May showing off Tangólumen.
See me at Maker Faire!

YEAH! Now I've got to figure out all the logistics.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tangolumen Completed / Post Review Reflections


Tangolumen

The Space

Servos and pulleys


After living in my studio for the better part of a week, reviews finally came, and Tangólumen was up and doing things. It wasn't doing exactly what it was supposed to...but it was doing things, and that's something.


Tangólumen In Action from Andrew Parnell on Vimeo.


People seemed to enjoy it, and I got a lot of really useful feedback ranging from what to do next, tweaks to make, things to consider, possible redirection, and so forth. Now that I've gone back and adjusted the lights and programming so that it's actually to spec, I really need to start inviting people into the space and use data I gather from that to further development.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Assemble Flooring - CHECK

Floor is totally down!


The flooring is 100% operational and 100% assembled. I do need to run some gaff around the perimeter to keep it in place, but that has to wait until after I glue the Vcc line into place.

[X] Strip Cat 5 cables + Glue them to the panels with conductive epoxy
[X] Assemble flooring
[ ] Attach Vc to flooring
[REDACTED] Recut 1 servo-box
[ ] Cut 2x 1' of threaded pipe
[ ] Attach pulley rig to dimmers
[ ] Cut and crimp steel cable.

Oh man, it's so close I can almost taste it. It tastes like the floor, which, coincidentally, I've slept on the last 2 nights.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Progress Report

Started putting down the wood flooring on Sunday/Monday, then ripped them all back up last night, started taping down strips of fun foam, and putting the flooring bag down last night. It's tedious (see: I am the for loop.) but the results are quite satisfying.

Panels with some flooring


Even more satisfying is seeing them in action:
Daniel using the lights on top of the active panels
Daniel using the lights on top of the active panels
Daniel using the lights on top of of the active panels from the sensor's point of view
Daniel using the lights on top of the active panels as seen from the panel's point of view


[X] Strip Cat 5 cables + Glue them to the panels with conductive epoxy
[~50%] Assemble flooring
[ ] Attach Vc to flooring
[REDACTED] Recut 1 servo-box
[ ] Cut 2x 1' of threaded pipe
[ ] Attach pulley rig to dimmers
[ ] Cut and crimp steel cable.

I just went home for about an hour, and returned with the following:


Seven cans of dr pepper
A bag of pistachios
Oregon Chai
A block of cheese
Tortillas
A toaster oven
Two eggs
Waffle mix
A waffle iron
An electric mixer
A coffee grinder
A costco bag of coffee
A quart of 2% milk
Slippers
Pajama pants
and a blanket.

...that's not a good sign.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

I am the for loop.

There's one thing that seems nearly thematic in my current project: repetition.

This is a side effect of the modular design I'm really proud of across the board in this project, but at the same time it's making the assembly portion of fabrication really repetitive.

Some examples:
Panels
Cables


There are 64 pieces of chipboard in this project, each with a 17" long strip of aluminum tape running up their center. Each piece is then taped into a grid, with cat 5 cables shared among every eight panels.

Assembled Servo Cases


When I designed all the acrylic pieces for the pulley system, I designed it around an interchangeable system of pieces. Six pieces combine to make 1 part, there are 32 parts in this system, meaning that I cut 192 pieces (not including extras, or the pulleys). Cutting took ~30 minutes (well, an hour, but that's because I had to do it twice), assembling them was another story all together.


Review prep checklist:
[19/64] Strip Cat 5 cables + Glue them to the panels with conductive epoxy
[ ] Assemble flooring
[ ] Attach Vc to flooring
[ ] Recut 1 servo-box
[ ] Cut 2x 1' of threaded pipe
[ ] Attach pulley rig to dimmers
[ ] Cut and crimp steel cable.

i++;

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

In most cultures...

a thin, sharp, piece of aluminum would be called "a knife." Still, because I've been calling it tape, I was really surprised when I just cut my finger.

...moron.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Bacon We Can

Everything is better with bacon


Saw this image on my desktop as I was cleaning it up and I realized I never got around to posting it. Can't believe it.

Bacon served by Bacolicio.us.

[via swissmiss]

Key to surviving on under 4 hours of sleep:

Drink a large coffee right before bed. Once the placebo effect of having just drank a large coffee wears off, you have a bit under 4 hours until the caffeine actually hits yourself and sends you flying out of bed at breakneck speeds.

It's actually kinda nice.

Some Assembly Required

The downside to laser cutting is that if you want undercuts, you basically have to create them as separate pieces and then laminate them together. The upside is that they look, and are, awesome.

Laser Cut Pulleys


Last leg of cutting is scheduled for tomorrow. Then I just have to cut the threaded rods down length and assemble.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

"The secret to success is being able to make mistakes faster" - Stuart McFarlan <- yes