Tools Hack Daily: May 2017

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Open source 3D printed smartphone eye care kit #3DThursday #3DPrinting

New Zealand based social enterprise, oDocs Eye Care has officially launched its 3D printed smartphone based ophthalmic devices.

The two products, visoScope and visoClip, allow for images to be taken of the retina using an iPhone. It is hoped that the open source devices will benefit those in developing countries that have little access to professional eye care. It is hoped that the project will have measurable impact as the main causes of blindness are preventable with proper medical care. The devices were developed by co-founders Dr. Hong Sheng Chiong and Dr. Benjamin O’Keeffe.

Open source

The two ophthalmic devices have been created to work with a specially developed iPhone application, oDocs Capture. With accessibility and affordability a major part of the mission behind oDocs, the team turned to 3D printing to create the devices. Additionally, it was for these reasons that oDocs made the devices open source to allow for any clinician to download and print them. Dr. Hong explains this concept and how the devices compare to their professional counterparts,

learn more

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

ASK AN ENGINEER – LIVE electronics video show! 5/31/17 @adafruit #adafruit #electronics #programming

ASK AN ENGINEER – LIVE electronics video show! 5/31/17 (video). What is “Ask an engineer”? From the electronics enthusiast to the professional community – “Ask an Engineer” has a little bit of everything for everyone. If you’re a beginner, or a seasoned engineer – stop in and see what we’re up to! We have demos of projects and products we’re working on, we answer your engineering and electronics questions and we have a trivia question + give away each week.

http://ift.tt/1bb6MK4

This Warhammer 40K Inquisitor Costume Is a Work of Art

Warhammer 40K ensembles are a beautiful mix of fierce armor and intricate designs. It means when cosplayers tackle them, the results are usually masterpieces. The word definitely applies to Okkido Cosplay‘s gorgeous Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor build. Take a moment to compare the finished costume above with the sculpted Worbla below. She not only carefully made all the embellishments on the armor, she applied paint to make it look like metal. The first take on the costume took her nine months to craft, with the second version taking two extra months. The time she spent perfecting the costume is easy to see.

View more of the build process in this Facebook album.

via The RPF on Facebook, top photo by Csaba Szecsei

LEARN: Make a Glowing Seashell Necklace with Circuit Playground

Use Circuit Playground to make a classy seashell necklace that goes with every outfit. Change colors and brightness on the fly with a click of Circuit Playground’s onboard buttons. We even included a sound reactive mode to invoke Ariel’s necklace from the Little Mermaid. This is an easy project that kids and grown-ups of all ages will adore.

See the full tutorial at the Adafruit Learning Center.

It can be hard to find electronics projects that are good intro projects for kids. This is a great one — there is just a little bit of soldering involved, or you can make this necklace with no soldering at all if you prefer. And the finished necklace is truly stunning, a cut above most intro-to-electronics projects. I’ve been wearing mine everywhere and it’s definitely turning heads!

This Warhammer 40K Inquisitor Costume Is a Work of Art

View more of the build process in this Facebook album.

via The RPF on Facebook, top photo by Csaba Szecsei

Writing Hacks: What We Write About When We Write One Sentence At A Time

Language is a technology. It’s a particularly strange one that’s made of squiggles and sounds and maps of meaning, but like any other technology, it’s hackable. So’s writing.

The best hack for writer’s block is free writing — purposefully separating the act of composition from the act of editing.

But for those of us who just can’t help tinkering with every sentence, here’s a free writing approach that is about tinkering with every sentence.

Here’s Stephen Dobyns interviewing Raymond Carver from Catching Days:

In The Story Behind the Story, Stephen Dobyns writes that he asked Raymond Carver how he wrote a particular story. “He [Carver] said the first sentence had come into his mind and he just followed it.” …Dobyns was intrigued by Carver’s method of letting the writing itself be “a process of discovery.”

Raymond Carver wrote beautiful short stories built out of sentences so perfect they seem as if they were discovered rather than written. And apparently that’s how he did it.

So here’s the hack: you can edit, but only one sentence at a time. Write a sentence. Take an hour. Take a day. Then move on to the next story.

The only rule is once you’re done with the sentence, you can’t go backwards. Also don’t worry about, structure, theme, thesis, or any of those other things you’re supposed to think about while writing.

Just write one sentence at a time until you’ve written what feels like the last sentence.

Then you’re done.

The idea here is to trick the editor — the thing that prevents you from composing — from freaking out about the big picture by giving it some tasty anxiety over each individual sentence.

Give it a whirl. Sentence by sentence.

Writing Hacks: What We Write About When We Write One Sentence At A Time

Language is a technology. It’s a particularly strange one that’s made of squiggles and sounds and maps of meaning, but like any other technology, it’s hackable. So’s writing.

The best hack for writer’s block is free writing — purposefully separating the act of composition from the act of editing.

But for those of us who just can’t help tinkering with every sentence, here’s a free writing approach that is about tinkering with every sentence.

Here’s Stephen Dobyns interviewing Raymond Carver from Catching Days:

In The Story Behind the Story, Stephen Dobyns writes that he asked Raymond Carver how he wrote a particular story. “He [Carver] said the first sentence had come into his mind and he just followed it.” …Dobyns was intrigued by Carver’s method of letting the writing itself be “a process of discovery.”

Raymond Carver wrote beautiful short stories built out of sentences so perfect they seem as if they were discovered rather than written. And apparently that’s how he did it.

So here’s the hack: you can edit, but only one sentence at a time. Write a sentence. Take an hour. Take a day. Then move on to the next story.

Just write one sentence at a time until you’ve written what feels like the last sentence.

Then you’re done.

The idea here is to trick the editor — the thing that prevents you from composing — from freaking out about the big picture by giving it some tasty anxiety over each individual sentence.

Give it a whirl. Sentence by sentence.

Here’s a Handmade 20,000RPM Nitro-Powered Rotary Tool

The video is long but filled with lots of beautiful machining shots. The device gets revved up shortly after the 18:00 mark and demonstrated on various materials – awesome!

And here’s a bit more context about this project:

After the nitro drill, I wanted to try and make similar projects with this kind of rc engines. Unfortunately, success didn’t come fast because I had to remake the whole build 3 times. I started with a Cox 049 (0.8cc) airplane engine which is very delicate concerning the fuel mixture as it requires at least 15% pure castor oil. Modern fuel blends include a small percentage of this oil, with the rest being synthetic. This lead to its failure due to the overheating of the crankshaft, which rubbed against the crankcase walls naking it useless. The second engine I used was also for model airplanes, a O.S Max 10 RC (1.6cc) from the 70’s. This one while it didn’t need special fuel blends, it was really difficult to start, not because it was stubborn, but of the way I made the tool to start: by spinning the flywheel with my thumb. It was almost impossible to make it start like this. Only a few times the engine run, but for a few seconds. Then I thought I should use the kyosho gx-12 (2.1cc). It had a pull starter, which meant no more trouble with starting up the engine. It’s also more modern than the previous two engines, so it was the absolute winner of the 3.

How Scientists Accurately Measure Big Forces With 1,000,000 Pounds of Force

Via LaughingSquid

To find out how individuals measure big forces accurately, Veritasium host Derek Muller visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to learn more about their machine that does just that. It houses a stack of 20 masses, equaling 50,000 pounds, to “create a maximum force of 1,000,000 pounds of force.” So far, they believe that their machine holds the largest mass objects ever calibrated in the world.

Before visiting NIST in Washington DC I had no idea machines like this existed. Surely there’s an accurate way to measure forces without creating such a huge known force?! Nope. This appears to be the best way, with a stack of 20 x 50,000 lb masses creating a maximum force of 4.45 MN or 1,000,000 pounds of force. I also wouldn’t have thought about all the corrections that need applying – for example buoyancy subtracts about 125 pounds from the weight of the stack. Plus the local gravitational field strength must be taken into account. And, the gravitational field varies below grade. All of this must be taken into account in order to limit uncertainty to just five parts per million (.0005%)

See more!

How Scientists Accurately Measure Big Forces With 1,000,000 Pounds of Force

Via LaughingSquid

To find out how individuals measure big forces accurately, Veritasium host Derek Muller visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to learn more about their machine that does just that. It houses a stack of 20 masses, equaling 50,000 pounds, to “create a maximum force of 1,000,000 pounds of force.” So far, they believe that their machine holds the largest mass objects ever calibrated in the world.

Before visiting NIST in Washington DC I had no idea machines like this existed. Surely there’s an accurate way to measure forces without creating such a huge known force?! Nope. This appears to be the best way, with a stack of 20 x 50,000 lb masses creating a maximum force of 4.45 MN or 1,000,000 pounds of force. I also wouldn’t have thought about all the corrections that need applying – for example buoyancy subtracts about 125 pounds from the weight of the stack. Plus the local gravitational field strength must be taken into account. And, the gravitational field varies below grade. All of this must be taken into account in order to limit uncertainty to just five parts per million (.0005%)

See more!

Ladyada @MIT (photos) @adafruit @medialab @coopmit

Ladyada @ MIT | Flickr (photo set).

Glove Controller with E-Textile Sensors #WearableWednesday

From rachelfreire on Instructables:

This Instructable is a step by step tutorial on how to make a data glove with eTextile sensors.

The project is a collaboration between Rachel Freire and Artyom Maxim. Rachel is the glove textile and eTextile sensor designer and Arty designs the circuits and software. In this Instructable Arty will be making the glove textile, following Rachel’s instructions to test our tutorial.

There is a full list of materials with links in the next step and the .PDF pattern can be downloaded in the third step

The glove was designed with VR in mind, but can be used for any number of applications which sense the movement of the fingers. The range of the sensors is not huge, and because we are using textile sensors, their readings will vary for each glove made.

This is the simplest version of the glove using stretch resistive fabric as the sensors. They are connected using wires and the circuit is on a breadboard.

Read more and see more from Rachel Freire here or YouTube

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

The Story of the Sub Marine Explorer aka the Pearl Island Submarine

Around this time of year I always get intrigued with stories about boats and marine culture (typically inspired by spending more time on the water, where stories are told and ideas exchanged). I was previously unaware of the story of the submersible known as Sub Marine Explorer – built & designed in Brooklyn and New York no less! The technique that the submersible used was quite sophisticated (for its time). Wikipedia states,

Water ballast tanks were flooded to make the vessel submerge. Pressurized air was then released into the vessel to build up enough pressure so it would be possible to open two hatches on the underside, while keeping water out.

This allowed divers to simply reach out and grab oysters from the ocean floor, from places that were otherwise out-of-reach using standard diving techniques. This of course also lead to crew members being exposed to decompression sickness, one of the suspected causes for the death of the submersible’s inventor Julius H. Kroehl. The Science Channel video below gives some glimpses of the wreckage, the Smithsonian also have their version of a short video on the submersible online here, and if you’re still intrigued Compass Cultura have a long-form article worth reading.

Pokémon Cubone Hunter Cosplay Can Catch Them All

I’m all about unique Pokémon inspired costumes, and cosplayer THWWIP got imaginative with his Cubone Valor Hunter ensemble. The design includes pieces made from EVA foam, Worbla, and lots of painting. EVA foam served as the base for the mask and armor and covered with with red Worbla. The material’s known for being smooth, but THWWIP still did some working priming the material. For the mask (pictured below), he explains he used wood filler:

that’s just some wood filler to help soften the transitions between the horns and the bone parts on the side. Wood filler is flipping awesome for getting rid of seams and such for Worbla. In general I use Auto Spray primer since it’s self leveling , I’m only gonna cost this guy once though because I want to keep some of the Worbla texture to help sell that old bone look.

Usually I do a skim coat of wood filler and then a combo of a few layers of spray shellac and auto primer with sanding between to get super smooth Worbla.

See some in progress photos for the Cubone Hunter cosplay below.

See more photos by following THWWIP on Instagram.

Pokémon Cubone Hunter Cosplay Can Catch Them All

that’s just some wood filler to help soften the transitions between the horns and the bone parts on the side. Wood filler is flipping awesome for getting rid of seams and such for Worbla. In general I use Auto Spray primer since it’s self leveling , I’m only gonna cost this guy once though because I want to keep some of the Worbla texture to help sell that old bone look.

Usually I do a skim coat of wood filler and then a combo of a few layers of spray shellac and auto primer with sanding between to get super smooth Worbla.

See some in progress photos for the Cubone Hunter cosplay below.

See more photos by following THWWIP on Instagram.

Intel Curie TinyTILE Dress #WearableWednesday

From Kitty Yeung on Hackster.io:

After making the Intel Curie Pattern Matching dress, I used Intel Curie module again to make this dress. This time, I used tinyTILE for its small form factor. It is designed for Helen for a special event, so I name the piece Helena.

TinyTILE is attached on the wearer’s right arm. As they move their arm, for example when they are dancing, the accelerometer in Curie will sense the movements and control the colors and patterns of the optical fibers flowing from the shoulder.

Featured Adafruit Products!

Adafruit Micro Lipo – USB LiIon/LiPoly charger – v1: Oh so adorable, this is the tiniest little lipo charger, so handy you can keep it any project box! Its also easy to use. Simply plug in the gold plated contacts into any USB port and a 3.7V/4.2V lithium polymer or lithium ion rechargeable battery into the JST plug on the other end. There are two LEDs – one red and one green. While charging, the red LED is lit. When the battery is fully charged and ready for use, the green LED turns on. Seriously, it could not get more easy. (read more)

Adafruit NeoPixel Strips

When You Need a Glam Audio Meter in a Hurry #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #Arduino #DIY

It’s always exciting to see a successful build, and this time it’s our LED Ampli-Tie. This one is by Tim Storsved who is a maker and lover of physics, although by the sound of his video, he may also be a well paid voice-over artist. I will say right now that I’m seeing some straight stitching lines with the conductive thread and the Neopixels look superb on the dark tie. Tim also decided to opt for the clip-on tie for those sudden award ceremonies; the press won’t notice what’s not under the collar. If you would like to get ready for your next big ceremony with plenty of shine, check out our learning guide for the Ampli-Tie. It uses our FLORA microcontroller, which has become a staple for wearable tech. It’s Arduino friendly and allows for stitching or soldering. The addition of a mic is the secret sauce for the Neopixels, allowing them to react to sound. So, get stitching before you get caught with a bland tie! We are here to share your video success story.

When You Need a Glam Audio Meter in a Hurry #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #Arduino #DIY

MetaLimbs Gives You an Extra Pair of Robotic Hands #WearableWednesday

Via New Atlas

We’re not going to lie, an extra pair of hands would be pretty useful sometimes (dare we say, handy). Imagine you’re typing out an email while a third hand is bringing a coffee cup up to your lips, or reading a book while chowing down on some potato chips and petting the dog. A team of Japanese engineers has come up with a solution dubbed MetaLimbs – a set of robotic arms that are controlled with your feet and knees.

Based at the University of Tokyo, researchers at the Inami Laboratory saw our limited number of limbs as a problem they could engineer a solution to. MetaLimbs, or Multiple Arts Interaction Metamorphism, is a set of robotic arms that reach around under your human arms and are controlled by sensors attached to your legs.

Positional tracking balls on the knees and feet direct the arm movement, while a sock device allows the movement of your toes to control the grasp of the robot hands. There are even haptic sensors on the robot hands that generate force feedback on your feet. The arms are intended to be worn while sitting, but can be used while standing depending on the task at hand.

CheerLights Photon Hat #WearableWednesday

Nice light up hat project from Bling the Book on Instructables!

This festive e-Textile hat combines the magic of CheerLights with a Particle Photon, a microcontroller that can connect to the cloud to help you with all of your Internet of Things projects! The result of my tinkering was an internet-enabled wearable that changes colors in sync with lights all over the world, in response to Twitter messages mentioning @CheerLights and the name of a desired color.

According to CheerLights’ Twitter bio, “CheerLights is an #internetofthings project by @scharler to synchronize lights to the same color at the same time all around the world.” If you haven’t tried it, prepare to be dazzled and amused by this charming global phenomenon!

When You Need Your Workout Gear to Be Alive #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #biotech @tangible_media

MIT’s workout gear that is equipped with bacteria has hit the news again according to the Washington Post. The bacteria allows vents to open and close based on the wearer’s level of sweat, much like pores on skin. The project bioLogic from MIT’s Tangible Media Group is an example of biofabrication, and it was recently detailed in Science Advances. Here’s the team’s description of the wearable tech.

bioLogic is growing living actuators and synthesizing responsive bio-skin in the era where bio is the new interface. We are Imagining a world where actuators and sensors can be grown rather than manufactured, being derived from nature as opposed to engineered in factories.

The garment is printed with a layer of Bacillus Subtilis natto cells, which happen to be the same cells used in the fermentation of a Japanese soybean dish. The reason this bacteria was chosen is because it is considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration and it seemed well suited for the moisture changing wearable. The team has used a similar technique to bring life to running shoes, only they’ve hacked E. coli cells to add luminescence. Imagine shoes reacting to warmth and moisture by opening and illuminating! The shoes are a proof of concept and they will be updated in the future with another type of bacteria. This continues to be an exciting development and I’ll leave you with a video of the most curious part of the process—the method used to print the bio films. Good ideas feed off of other good ideas, so keep learning and hacking!

When You Need Your Workout Gear to Be Alive #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #biotech @tangible_media

bioLogic is growing living actuators and synthesizing responsive bio-skin in the era where bio is the new interface. We are Imagining a world where actuators and sensors can be grown rather than manufactured, being derived from nature as opposed to engineered in factories.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

How to Make Wings and Become a Happy Bird #WearableWednesday #wearabletech #Arduino #gaming

Everyone dreams of flying, but does everyone dream of flying through New York City? Students at University of Southern California (USC) decided to embark on this flight project for Tactical Media, a class which empowers users to explore software and hardware for solutions. Named HappyBird, not only does it have the humor of a “Junior Birdman” outfit, but it allows the wearer to control their flight through movement. Looking to have a co-pilot? Just have two people each take a wing! The ruffled paper wings have tilt sensors connected to Arduino, allowing for a responsive experience while flying through a sim of NYC. There is definitely some glam equipment here including the matrix of flat screens and industrial fan. However, it does create an immersive environment.

Although the project is amazing, what is most interesting is the last line of the video, which is a “thanks” to John and Pete @Oblong. Remember all those gesture controlled goodies in Minority Report? Well, we have Oblong to thank for that. The company seems to do seminars with USC, and although it is not obvious what the connection is for our HappyBird team, there is an inspirational link since this is the perfect example of a UI that considers real world space. Check out John Underkoffler’s TED talk from 2010 to learn more about gesture based UIs.

I’m sending a big congrats to the hardware loving geeks at USC— Elisa Alfonso, Grant Lee, Thomas Watson and Kayla Paredes. I’m hoping Marvel Studios includes you for the future of Ironman gaming! For the rest of you, if you have a desire to create your own responsive interface, you should check out our learning guide for our 9 Degrees of Freedom Breakout. You get an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope in one package; so start planning the movements you would like to use for controlling your device. Send us a video of your finished project and we’ll make you famous.