SlowLight in Winter Lights show at Vermillion gallery

One of the best parts about being involved with Dorkbot is that it has kicked me into making some new sculptures.  The Winter Lights show at Vermillion Gallery opened last Thursday and our piece was in it. Bob Gallup and I collaborated again with great results I built the physical platform and Bob handled the software (with his usual skill and aplomb). The piece uses a UV LED to draw vector patterns on a phosphorescent screen.  It is controlled by an Arduino, with an Adafruit motor controller board to run the motors.

I am really happy with the way it turned out. The flotsam piece we worked on last summer was a bit of a compromise for me. I had not yet gotten the garage set up, and many of my tools and materials were still packed away. This time I had most everything out and ready to use.  I treated this as an exercise in patience and intention. Every step was carefully considered, and if I screwed something up (which was often) I did it over again instead of hacking it together. I wanted to try and build something that looked as if it would have been right at home in an early laboratory, so that meant it had to look handmade, but also polished and "engineered". Every decision was made based upon functionality, and I tried very hard to avoid any kind of ornament or decoration.  Although I would really have appreciated the milling machine I left in Philadelphia, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I could do just using my drill press, band saw, and hand tools.

I started by building a frame from scraps of reclaimed Douglas fir from a local architectural salvage place. I have completely fallen in love with stuff. It is everywhere out here, and I really enjoy working with it.

The next step was to start laying out bit and pieces of ink jet and scanner hardware. I was looking for a good pair of stepper motors that I could use as X and Y axis drivers. I have lots of these so it was not too hard to find two that would work together, I also dug out a pile of polished steel rods (also from printers and scanners) and some linear bearings that originally held the print heads of an ink jet.

The x-axis is almost a complete steal from an old scanner with the ink jet linear slide being the only addition. I made up a brass plate to ride on the x-axis and hold the y-axis motor and rod assembly. The y-axis is all custom made with bits and pieces from aho knows how many other machines. It was fun to machine up the various fittings I needed for keeping everything in place (even though I ended making many of them at least twice).
 
Brass was my material of choice as it is easy to work, and it looks great with the warm color of the Fir.  I was initially very concerned with how to manage the wires. I considered lacing them, but in the end I made long brass springs out of fine wire and slid the wires through them. They look amazing (if I do say so).
 
All of the materials, and most of the screws and fasteners are from other things I have taken apart or collected. I think that at most I spent $30 for materials, much of it on the phosphorescent paint.  A few coats of shellac gives the fir a perfect "old school" finish, and adds to the antique feel.  Once done I turned it over to Bob to write the code. He managed to build quite a sophisticated system in just a few days. I will let him describe it (hopefully) but I know he took his inspiration from the old logo turtle graphics and built a parser that can read simple "programs" to draw the patterns.  Here is a video he took at the opening, and if you are impatient skip ahead to about 1:11 to see it start drawing one of the 6-7 patterns it draws at random. Bob refers to this one as "triangle 90", but I call it "Iron cross". Bear in mind, it is called SlowLight for a reason...

LocalHackday May 30th

Joe Gray has been running an open lab night at 911 media arts center for quite a while now. I have been talking up the idea of an Arduino Hackday, and it seems like a natural combination. So on May 30th we are going to have an Open LocalHackday in the "lab" at 911. Bring your projects, bring your tools, bring your toys. Meet other local hardware hackers, artists, and makers. There won't be a formal leader, and it is not a class, but you will definitely learn something!

For me, the focus is going to be on Arduino projects, but that does not preclude you from bringing whatever you are working on.
Just show up!

I have also set up a google group for announcements of other similar upcoming events only:
http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-open-hackday

Here are the details:

Saturday May 30th 2:00PM - 5:00PM
911 Media Arts Center
402 9th Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98109

The event is FREE but I am suggesting a minimum donation of $5.00 to help 911 and defray their costs a little.

If you have questions email me at openhackday [at] gmail

made it

It took eight nine days to drive 3,358 miles (it was not the most direct route). Nine days in the car with my beloved and all the stuff we thought we would need for the next four months. Stuffed. In. The. Car.

In the end I have to say it was a great way to get here (Seattle). A plane ride would have been way too abrupt. Given the hyper-kinetic activity of the last few months (sell house, sell cars, sell possessions, pack house, say goodbye, leave) we needed some time to adjust to all the big changes. We needed time for a few melt-downs and some transcendent vistas. We got both (with the Spam museum as an added bonus). We got to see some of our far flung friends and family. We got to talk about the future and everything else we often don't have time for. In the end, we got to Seattle. We are now ensconced in our little apartment while we unscramble our brains and figure out what needs doing when. Tomorrow the house hunting begins with the inimitable Austin Chester (real estate agent extraordinaire). I am looking forward to it.

For a few pictures I give you Rae's flickr feed. I just want to point out that I took some of those, but not any of the really good ones.

the long road to Seattle

All my electronics tools are packed away. The work bench is taken apart. I am painting my office (last room in the house!). Two weeks left to get prepared. We list the house April first (fools!).

Then and only then will I be able to get downtown and start packing the studio.
Of all the things you can do as an accumulator, moving across the country might just be one of the most painful. There is only so much you can take with you, and the rest has to disappear. I am planning a major studio sale (stay tuned junk fans) and intend to bequeath whatever might be of use to the hacktory, but in the end I know I will have to throw some stuff out. And that my friends is just not something I want to think about right now.

The only thing that keeps me from despair is Rae's promise that Seattle will have fun junk too. I trust her. Junk happens.

crazy

So Rae and I are in Seattle on reconnaissance for our move this spring.
Looking at real estate, trying to do some professional networking, trying not to go insane from the expanding possibilities.

I found out last night that I landed a talk for the upcoming Ignite Seattle on Tuesday (that by the way is tomorrow). Very exciting!
My topic is "fun without function" and I am going to present the codification of our experiences with makephilly and the maker challenge. I am really looking forward to this!
It has been a while since I spoke to such a large crowd, and now is the nervous part. I know I can talk for 5 minutes, the real challenge is how to say it all in JUST 5 minutes. That and how to choose the best pictures (thanks flickr).