You can’t see it or hear it, but it sure can effect your electronics! Adabot and Minerva set out to solve the mystery of electrical noise … and maybe even watch a movie together.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
spool drawer organizer #3DPrinting #3DThursday
willdem0 shared this project on Thingiverse!
use this to recycle your xyz spool filament in storage
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!
“3D-printed calcium-phosphate-based bone-like scaffolds” improved by 30-45% when using Turmeric | #Zingiberaceae #3DThursday #3Dprinting
Quite intriguing news from DesignNews on using “a compound found in turmeric” to improve artificially grown bones:
Nutritionists and health-food proponents have long known about the health benefits of turmeric. Now, scientists are beginning to see how the spice can help improve the bone-growing capabilities of 3D-printed bones.
A team at Washington State University (WSU) has combined aspects of natural medical cures with modern biomedical techniques by pairing curcumin—a compound found in turmeric—with ceramic bone scaffolds. Their aim is to improve the capabilities of artificial bones to grow in a way that can benefit people who suffer from bone injuries or diseases like osteoporosis.
Asian countries have been using turmeric as medicine for centuries. Curcumin has been shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and bone-building capabilities, as well as success in preventing various forms of cancers. However, the human body doesn’t absorb curcumin well when it’s taken orally, as the compound becomes metabolized and eliminated too quickly.
The WSU team—led by Susmita Bose, chair professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering—found that by coating 3D-printed, ceramic bone scaffolds with curcumin, they could improve their ability to grow bones by 30 to 45 percent. Those bone scaffolds are composed of about 68 percent calcium phosphate.
Hanging UK Bird Feeder #3DThursday #3DPrinting
Shared by Willburforce1971 on Thingiverse:
First ever self-designed print. Will be a work in progress.
Work in progress. Feedback, thoughts appreciated. was looking at ways to minimise support requirements for “the roof”.
Download the files and 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!
Servo Tilt GoPro style mount #3DPrinting #3DThursday
jonbrotherton shared this project on Thingivers!
This is a 9 gram servo controlled mount for a gopro or anything that uses a standard gopro style mount. It is reversible depending on how you mount it.
The cap snaps on the back of the servo and has a pivot hole where you will need a small screw (2mm or 3mm will work) through the arm and into the cap. This makes the hinge for that side so the screw doesn’t tighten the two parts together, leave a little space between the arm and cap so it can pivot. I also use an extra screw to hold the servo horn in its groove but it may not be necessary.
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!
3D Hangouts – Crafting with Circuits Episode #188 #3DThursday #3DPrinting #PaperCraft #Paper
Spinning Hackaday
https://learn.adafruit.com/spinning-logo
Cardboard Template for Enclosures
https://learn.adafruit.com/cardboard-box-for-circuit-playground-express/
CRICKIT with MakeCode
Search crickit in extensions to download and install
https://makecode.adafruit.com/beta#editor
CRICKIT YouTube Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOW4YvQEoRLmocKUuOgvI-wh
CRICKIT Code for Projects
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Learning_System_Guides/tree/master/Crickits
Case for ItsyBitsy Joy Feather Wing
https://a360.co/2IYjQuP
ItsyBitsy M0 https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-itsy-bitsy-m0
Joy FeatherWing https://www.adafruit.com/product/3632
Layer by Layer – Foldable Box Designs using Sheet Metal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMjmMJSLYhk
Adafruit Fusion 360 Parts on GitHub
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CAD_Parts
This week’s Makes
Waving Hand robot with CPX MakeCode https://twitter.com/gravescolleen/status/1001229850626199553
Multistreaming with https://restream.io/
Visit the Adafruit shop online – http://www.adafruit.com
Join the Adafruit Discord http://adafru.it/discord
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!
Robot Archaeology: Toy Robots #Robots #MakeRobotFriend
In the Robot Archaeology series, we’ve covered a fair number of toy robots and brought one, the Nintendo R.O.B. back to being usable again. But have we covered all toy robots?
A quick visit to http://www.theoldrobots.com/ tells me, emphatically, no way!
Companies have pumped out toy robots for decades in all shapes and sizes.
The sites – theoldrobots.net, theoldrobots.org and theoldrobots.com all have lists of robots not documented elsewhere.
If you are researching a particular toy robot, this is the site you should check first.
And if you are looking for videos of the old robots, the accompanying Youtube channel oldrobots has vids too.
What is your favorite toy robot? Post it in the comments so we can all check it out!
16×9 Adafruit Led Matrix – Anti Leak Cover #3DThursday #3DPrinting
MrGnilhub shares:
Put this cover over the LED matrix to prevent leaking when the matrix is placed in front of holes or something like that.
download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2860640
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!
Plasma Pistol #3DThursday #3DPrinting
Erdrick shares:
Why? … Because a lot of people asked me too. Seriously, I got a lot of requests for this. Besides who doesn’t want to send a blast of searing hot plasma into the bodies of their enemies.
The design is fairly straight forward. Review the Explosion stl and you should be fine.
Note: There are two versions of the plasma core. A hollow one with thin walls, and one that is a solid piece
download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2860649
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!
Modular Arm Helper #3DThursday #3DPrinting
b03tz shares:
MaH was brought into existance because I really, really needed it at my desk. So many times when I’m busy doing stuff when I need to hold more then 2 things
(soldering iron, tin, wires or component?). This arm helper really helps me out to get stuff done more easily.
download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2860825
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!
Snap Mount for one-handed attachment of devices like Arduino or breadboard OpenSCAD #3DThursday #3DPrinting
eppfel shares:
Snap Mount for one-handed attachment of devices like Arduino or breadboard OpenSCAD
download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2860886
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!
Iris Keyboard Case #3DThursday #3DPrinting
Amedee shares:
Iris keyboard case. Print as they are oriented, with supports. There is enough clearance to socket your pro micros.
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!
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
NEW GUIDE: Stumble-Bot using CRICKIT & Circuit Playground Express #Adafruit #CRICKIT #MakeRobotFriend
This guide shows how to turn a cardboard box into a fun walking robot. “Stumble-bot” moves using servo controlled legs controlled by the Adafruit CRICKIT– A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit.
This guide takes you through the process of making a walking robot friend using any flat box, Adafruit’s CRICKIT and Circuit Playground Express, and materials you can find around the house.
This guide demonstrates how to control two servo motors simultaneously using CircuitPython and Mu.
Check out the Stumble-bot Learn Guide to learn more!
NEW GUIDE: Adafruit NeoPXL8 FeatherWing and Library #NeoPixel #AdafruitLearningSystem
NEW GUIDE: Adafruit NeoPXL8 FeatherWing and Library
NeoPixels are magical things. It couldn’t be simpler…a single data wire from the microcontroller, linking pixel to pixel for as long as you need. When NeoPixel projects get really large though…hundreds of pixels or more…this simplicity starts to become a bottleneck…
NeoPXL8 (pronounced “NeoPixelate”) is a hardware-and-software combo for our Feather M0 and related boards, bringing buttery smooth animation to large-scale NeoPixel projects.
NeoPXL8 splits the problem 8 ways…rather than one long strand, 8 shorter strands are refreshed concurrently, greatly reducing transmission times. Additionally, NeoPXL8 uses direct memory access (DMA) to allow the CPU to continue with other tasks while these data transfers take place in the background. Your code could start processing the next frame of animation, or load data from an SD card. All interrupts and timekeeping functions operate normally, no drift.
It’s not a new idea, but achieving this on the economy-minded SAMD21 microcontroller required hijinks and shenanigans, and we’re excited to share the results.
Working replica of Snake Plissken’s Lifeclock countdown timer watch from Escape From New York #WearableWednesday #Sci-Fi
At $300 this one is only for the die-hard fans, but it looks pretty fun!
Via Boing Boing:
The Lifeclock One: Snake Edition is a $300 licensed replica of the countdown timer watch worn by Snake Plissken in Escape From New York: it’s very cool looking and faithful to the original prop, but regrettably, the designers have added in a bunch of “smart-watch” features (Bluetooth, an app, text-message and app notifications from your phone) that raise the price, create needless attack surface, and add complexity.
the watches are custom made, with high-quality leather straps, a choice of anodized aluminum or stainless steel back, and custom backing engraving.
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!
Bosch Jet Thruster Blasts your Motorcycle out of a Skid
Via Engadget!
Modern motorcycles have gained safety features like antilock brakes and even (experimental) self-balancing, but riders still highly exposed in crashes. Bosch is trying to stop accidents in the first place in a crazy new way: using jet thrusters. Let’s say you’ve leaned into a steep curve, hit a patch of gravel or sand and started to slide in an unrecoverable way. A sensor will detect the wheel slip and fire gas from an airbag-type accumulator out of a tank side nozzle, creating a reverse thrust that miraculously rights your motorcycle.
The tech is not unlike the thrusters used to maneuver spacecraft and looks, as you’d expect, pretty cool when it engages (see below). The downside is that it’s for one-time use (like an airbag), increases complexity and is likely to come only to expensive motorcycles, if it ever arrives at all. It would have to work flawlessly, because if it engaged by accident, it could possibly knock you right over.
Bosch also showed off new motorcycle tech including adaptive cruise control, blind spot warnings and more. It plans to introduce those features in the Ducati Multistrada and KTM 1290 Super Duke, but didn’t say when, or if, the anti-sliding thruster tech would come to market.
Wear It Festival Berlin 2018 #WearableWednesday
This year’s Wear it Festival will be held at Kulturbrauerei Berlin June 19-20! Ticket sales end june 17 and late ticket sales end June 19. From WearIt-Bearlin.com:
19 and 20 June 2018:
Experience two conference days filled with inspiration, learn from successful companies and meet the most important influencers within industry, politics and culture. Wear It Festival brings together designers, artists, investors, founders, companies, research and media in the heart of Berlin and therefore bridges between people, ideas and products. Besides talks, roundtables and workshops there are going to be further highlights such as performances, an exhibition, a startup show and pitches.
Read more and see more on 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!
Interact with the World like a Cat with this Whisker Sensory Extension #WearableWednesday
From metaterra on Instructables:
This project, like my previous Ultrasonic Sensory Extension Wearable, was designed/created for multiple purposes, a couple of which being: wearable-assisted (See Figure 1) pet care and empathy research and application (specific to animals with vibrissae, see Figure 2) as well as basic sensory augmentation research (specifically, the tactile-to-tactile variety).
Here’s a cursory overview of the components and their functions:
– Two sets of custom built flex sensor whisker devices (total of 8, 4 per side) receive tactile information (bend, flex, etc.) from objects in the user’s immediate environment. The initial voltage/resistance information received by each sensor is then converted to bend angle information (e.g., a bend angle of 10 degrees). This bend angle information is subsequently converted to proportional pulse width modulation output and sent to corresponding vibrotactile displays on the user’s forehead.
– Each whisker sensor has its own SparkFun ProMini 3.3V/8MHz microprocessor that does the transducing/converting. There are two circuits operating on each ProMini (this approach was necessary to alleviate motor EMI disturbance issues). One functions to input whisker information while the other outputs PWM commands to the coupled vibrating mini motor disc located in the vibrotactile display situated on the user’s forehead. Each circuit is powered independently through one of the outputs of a dual output battery.
– Two vibrotactile displays supply tactile stimuli to the user’s forehead. Each motor housed within the two displays is coupled to its own whisker (in the same orientation as the whiskers on the face), functioning in such a way as to reflect the whisker’s bend angle in the form of vibration information. Vibration intensity is proportional to whisker bend angle (e.g., 10-degree bend angle –> 40 units PWM output, etc.).
Thanks to sensory substitution/augmentation phenomena (neuroplasticity; intra-modal plasticity), it’s plausible that, after a given training period, an individual could extend their pre-existing somatosensory apparatus into the realm of these new whisker-like appendages, as blind individuals utilizing tactile-to-vision sensory substitution do (e.g., the use of a walking cane, see Figure 3). It’s plausible that the somatosensory (SS) cortex (mediated through stimulation of forehead skin receptors) could, over time, develop a new “whisker representation” housed somewhere in SS cortex. This type of sensory extension has already been shown in multiple studies (e.g., Sensory Augmentation for the Blind [tactile-to-direction sensory augmentation through the use of a vibrotactile display worn around the waist], Embedding a Panoramic Representation of Infrared Light in the Adult Rat Somatosensory Cortex through a Sensory Neuroprosthesis [although brain-invasive techniques are used here, this supports the concept of cortical re-mapping], etc.). Now let’s make some whiskers!
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!
Functional MRI in the Nile crocodile: a new avenue for evolutionary neurobiology
Via Gizmodo
In a scientific first, researchers have used an MRI scanner to study the brains of Nile crocodiles. Sounds weird—and even a bit dangerous—but the experiment is revealing new insights into the evolution of brains and how mammals and birds acquired the capacity to comprehend complex sounds.
Our brains are the product of millions of years of evolution. Scientists would very much like to know how some of the most ancient brains functioned and evolved over time, but that’s obviously not possible, owing to the complete lack of primordial brains to work with. As a good consolation prize, however, scientists can work with crocodiles—an animal that originated more than 200 million years ago, barely changing over the eons. Accordingly, scientists can study crocodiles to understand at which point certain brain structures and behaviors first emerged.
The point of the new study was to determine how the crocodilian brain might respond to complex sounds, and to see how the resulting brain patterns might compare to those observed in mammals and birds. The scientists were hoping to identify precursor brain structures and functions that allow for the processing of complex sights and sounds.
To observe how complex visual and auditory stimulation triggers activity in the reptilian brain, a team led by Felix Ströckens from the Department of Biopsychology at Ruhr University Bochum set about the task of scanning Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) brains using a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner. These devices are typically used in diagnostic and research settings, and even for studying mammals such as dogs, but this is the first time a cold-blooded animal has been analyzed in such a machine. The results of the new study now appear in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Needless to say, the experiment was not simple and not without its perils, requiring the scientists to adjust accordingly.
“The difficulty in scanning crocodiles—beside being a little bit dangerous for the experimenter—is that they are cold-blooded reptiles,” Ströckens told Gizmodo.
For example, getting the crocodile’s BOLD brain signal—the oxygenation level of the blood, which drops in areas of the brain that are active—is dependent on the animal’s body temperature. In contrast to mammals, crocodiles are cold-blooded, and their body temperature changes as the room temperature changes.
“We thus had to find a temperature which allowed us to pick up a good signal and was comfortable for the animal,” he said. “We also had to keep this temperature stable within the scanner which is relatively difficult since the coils used for scanning also emit heat.”
To make sure the crocodiles didn’t move in the MRI machine, and to prevent them from snapping at the scientists, the researchers sedated the animals and taped their snouts shut just to be extra safe.
“Fortunately they seemed to like the scanner tube and did not move at all, which would have ruined our study,” said Ströckens. “We had to be very careful, since an angry crocodile could have easily damaged the scanner or injured us—even when they are only one year old, they have pretty strong jaw and tail muscles. But everything went fine and neither we nor the animals got injured.”
Wearable MRI Glove Provides New Viewpoint to Hand Anatomy #WearableWednesday
A team of scientists from NYU School of Medicine in the U.S. has developed a glove-shaped MRI component which has shown the first clear images of bones, ligaments and tendons moving together.
The researchers believe the MRI glove could prove to be useful in the future diagnosis of repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Because the new glove can show how different tissue types influence each other as they move, the team says it could also help construct a more adaptable map of hand anatomy, guide surgery in more realistic positions, or help design better prosthetics.
“Our results represent the first demonstration of an MRI technology that is both flexible and sensitive enough to capture the complexity of soft-tissue mechanics in the hand,” says lead author Bei Zhang, PhD, research scientist at the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R) at NYU, in a press release.
MRI (Magnetic Imaging Resonance) works by immersing tissues in a magnetic field so that any hydrogen atom present align to generate an average magnetic force in one direction in each tissue slice. These tiny magnets can be moved out of equilibrium by radio waves where they start to spin like tops and release radio signals indicating their position, which can be rebuilt into an image.
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!
Free Knit Pattern: Dalek-Themed Hooded Baby Blanket | #doctorwho #dalek
In the pursuit of creating a unique baby shower gift, I decided to design my own Dalek inspired hooded baby blanket. I used the super chunky Bernat Blanket yarn that knits up quickly and allowed me to create details like the the bobbles at a scale in proportion to the overall blanket. I was so pleased with the results that I wanted to share it for free!
More details and download link over at Knits and Prints.
[h/t knithacker for posting!]
Enclosure for IOT node with GPS #3DThursday #3DPrinting
Amedee shares:
This is a re-mix of my original enclosure for The Things Network (TTN) node based on Adafruit Feather M0 with RFM95 LoRa Radio and Adafruit OLED FeatherWing.
This version is taller to accept the Adafruit GPS FeatherWing in the middle.
See hackster.io project for details
The design is optimized for a 0.35mm nozzle and 2mm layer height.
download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2861438
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!
This Tiny Tooth Sensor Could Track Your Diet and Health #WearableWednesday
High-tech wearables have become a part of our life. They are everywhere, from our wrists to our pets, and now, they are in our mouths!
Scientists from Tufts University have developed tiny sensors that attach to your teeth, and monitor your diet and health in real time. The sensor, when communicating wirelessly with a mobile device, can transmit information on glucose, alcohol and salt intake. Researchers note that future adjustments of these sensors could make them detect and record a wide range of chemicals, nutrients, and physiological states.
Previously marketed wearable devices for monitoring diet encountered obstructions such as bulky wiring, requiring the use of a mouth guard, or needing frequent replacement as the sensors quickly became corrupted. The Engineers at Tufts sought a more acceptable technology and created a sensor with a tiny 2mm x 2mm footprint that can easily adapt and bond to the uneven surface of a tooth. The sensors transmit their data wirelessly via an incoming radio frequency signal.
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!
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Sculptmojis #ArtTuesday
via Inspiration Grid
Sculptmojis’ is a new personal project by Ben Fearnley (previously) featuring digital illustrations that combine traditional sculptural art forms with modern emojis.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!Sculptmojis #ArtTuesday
via Inspiration Grid
Sculptmojis’ is a new personal project by Ben Fearnley (previously) featuring digital illustrations that combine traditional sculptural art forms with modern emojis.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!Time Travel Tuesday #timetravel a look back at the Adafruit, maker, science, technology and engineering world
1568 – Virginia de’ Medici is born
Regent of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio during the absence of her husband, she was able to protect the autonomy of the city of Modena from the attacks of the local Podestà and Judge.
1913 – The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score, premieres in Paris, France, provoking an uproar among the audience.
It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. When first performed, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation and a near-riot in the audience. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.
1919 – Einstein’s theory of general relativity is tested by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
General relativity (GR, also known as the general theory of relativity or GTR) is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics. General relativity generalizes special relativity and Newton’s law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of partial differential equations.
1950 – The St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
RCMPV St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second sailing vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the direction west to east (Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean), going the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa went east to west, 38 years earlier.
1973 – Tom Bradley becomes the first black mayor of Los Angeles.
His entry into politics came when he decided to become the president of the United Club. The club was part of the California Democratic Council, a liberal, reformist group organized in the 1950s by young Democrats energized by Adlai E. Stevenson’s presidential campaigns. It was predominantly white and had many Jewish members, thus marking the beginnings of the coalition, which along with Latinos, that would carry him to electoral victory so many times.
Robot Archaeology: The History of K9 from #DrWho @DoctorWho_BBCA #DoctorWho
In this episode of Robot Archaeology, we travel to the world of Dr. Who, the long running British TV series. K9, occasionally written K-9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines (dogs) , first appearing in 1977. K9 has also been a central character in three of the series TV spin-offs: the one-off K-9 and Company (1981), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011) and K9 (2009–2010). Although not originally intended to be a recurring character in the series, K9 was kept in the show following his first appearance because he was expected to be popular with younger audiences. There have been at least four separate K9 units in the series, with the first two being companions of the Fourth Doctor.
Fans and Makers have built some really good replica K9 units. Here are some via Youtube:
- sdmcustom woodworking – built in wood
- PB Props restoration of a fiberglass K9 licensed fiberglass replica
- Podpad Studios
- The 8-Bit Guy – Full Sized K9 Replica
- Lego Dimensions came out with a K-9 kit 71204, instructions on Youtube here.
For some how and why on Dr. Who props, see Raymond Cusick Visits the BBC Props Department and Studios – Part 1
Adafruit loves Robots and wants you to #MakeRobotFriend with Crickit, the Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express that lets you code using CircuitPython, MakeCode, Arduino, etc. to make robotics, arts, crafts, audio animatronics, sensors, agriculture/robot farming, physical computing, kinetic sculptures, science experiments, telescope control and much, much more!
Do you have a favorite K9 memory or have you built a K9? Let us know in the comments!
An Exhibition that Posits Art as Evidence of Environmental Collapse #ArtTuesday #RaspberryPi
74 Million Million Million tons runs now through July 30 at the Sculpture center in Long Island City.
Via Hyperallergic:
Curated by Ruba Katrib and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 74 million million is an ambitious if sometimes impenetrable show that uses art to explore the technological indeterminacies of modernization. Robots and refugees, climate change and surveillance operations — the exhibition speculates on the inability of technology to understand itself and its repercussions on the environment.
If you think this framework sounds confusing, it is. SculptureCenter has organized its exhibition according to the tenets of Forensic Architecture, an emergent academic field that seeks to understand the reflexive relationship between urban environments, buildings and their media representations. A watered-down definition of a complex practice, forensic architecture advocates an advanced understanding of art and architecture as key witnesses in the prosecution of human rights, climate change, and war crimes.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!Museum Objects 3D-Scanned, then ‘Pulverized’ for ‘Digital Immortalization’ | #ArtTuesday
Fascinating project by Carolyn Clayton spotted over at the Elsewhere Museum project archives:
Past-life viewing station Glimpse gives viewers the ability to experience and speculate on the past, present, and future forms of Elsewhere collection. Four objects were intuitively chosen by artist Carolyn Clayton to undergo a process of digital immortalization using 3D scanning. Or perhaps, as Clayton believes, maybe these objects wanted to be selected, desiring a release from the forms they have held since entering 606 S. Elm St.
After three-dimensionally preserving these objects in full-color Clayton pulverized them using a variety of hand-tools and blenders. Transformed into indiscernible piles of colorful material, they were then individually layered into ornate encapsulated vessels with corresponding 3D files stored on internal USB flash drives.
In a space where nothing new enters and nothing existing leaves, the building itself functions as a giant grinder, slowly churning its contents into new arrangements and inevitably smaller pieces. While Clayton speeds up the material breakdown process, the objects’ digital preservation welcomes future potential and the promise of a longer, everlasting presence among heaps of objects in a constant decay. The viewing station displays these object urns and is equipped with single ‘future-life’ downloading, re-printing, and animating capabilities.
Read more here – watch the video below to see how the keys operate:
An Exhibition that Posits Art as Evidence of Environmental Collapse #ArtTuesday #RaspberryPi
74 Million Million Million tons runs now through July 30 at the Sculpture center in Long Island City.
Via Hyperallergic:
Curated by Ruba Katrib and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 74 million million is an ambitious if sometimes impenetrable show that uses art to explore the technological indeterminacies of modernization. Robots and refugees, climate change and surveillance operations — the exhibition speculates on the inability of technology to understand itself and its repercussions on the environment.
If you think this framework sounds confusing, it is. SculptureCenter has organized its exhibition according to the tenets of Forensic Architecture, an emergent academic field that seeks to understand the reflexive relationship between urban environments, buildings and their media representations. A watered-down definition of a complex practice, forensic architecture advocates an advanced understanding of art and architecture as key witnesses in the prosecution of human rights, climate change, and war crimes.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!Robot Archaeology: Robots of the 1980s #Robots #MakeRobotFriend #Atari
tedium.com wrote an interesting piece the other day about the robots of the 1980s. Writer John Ohno states:
From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, the home computer market went from a single half-broken $400 kit that shipped months late to an economic powerhouse and a major cultural presence, mostly on the backs of enthusiastic hobbyists willing to pay a great deal of money for extremely impractical and limited machines. This is the story of a time when important figures in that industry expected history to repeat itself, and were wrong.
First is the Arctec Gemini, a life-size robot that could self-navigate, self-charge, and included an advanced operating system for its time, it had a lot more in common with an Amazon Echo than a robot in an old sci-fi film. It spoke and took voice commands. It was self-charging, and retained a map of your home, a feature introduced into the Roomba line in 2015. Gemini could sing with synthesized piano accompaniment, recite poetry, and connect to early online services like CompuServe. A fully-loaded Gemini also came with BASIC and assembly language support.
The Arctec Gemini Robot, even mom could program it easily
Arctec formed in 1983 and built third party add-ons for Heathkit’s HERO robot. The 1982 to 1995 HERO was popular as an educational robot. Where the Gemini was user friendly, with speech input and BASIC support, the HERO was daunting: while it had a speech synthesizer, the primary means of input was a keypad, and the only display was a six-character seven-segment display!
According to Gemini engineer Michael Fowler, founder Jack Lewis anticipated that the company needed to sell 300 Geminis in its first year at a rate of $8,995 just to break even. “When it didn’t look like we would get anywhere near that, we lowered the price to $6,995,” he noted
The total number of assembled Gemini units sold, in the end, was only about sixty, compared with 800 RB5Xs, 120 TOPO Is (of 650 manufactured), and a whopping 14,000 Heathkit HERO-1s. The Gemini didn’t find its place in the home, as hoped. After financial difficulties, Arctec was shut down by its parent company late in 1986.
Next is Androbot. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, summarized the utility of robots as: “Fun sells.”
Ohno writes:
Bushnell, Chuck E. Cheese already behind him, had formed what we would now call a startup incubator, and was at the conference to promote one of its early graduates, Androbot. Androbot had one project—TOPO—a squat robot resembling a cartoon ghost, which had no on-board computer and instead was remote controlled over radio from a nearby Apple II. Bushnell was betting a lot on the idea that utility didn’t matter: TOPO didn’t just lack the advanced features of the Gemini and the arm of the HERO—it didn’t even come with bump sensors. It was a remote-controlled chassis with a speech synthesizer.
Nolan Bushnell and the Androbot TOPO (The Old Robot https://ift.tt/2shvwyy)
Bushnell estimated $25M (US) in sales for 1984, to include sales of a luxury model of the TOPO called B.O.B. The company went out of business before B.O.B. came to market. The company was on its last legs, having missed deadlines, delivered faulty products, and lost important staff. Androbot represented the economy end of the personal robot market, and perhaps had B.O.B. and the other mid-range machines (comparable in price and capability with the HERO) shipped, it would have made the industry more sustainable.
And the best quote from the era:
But when people asked us ‘What can it do?’ and we would list its capabilities, they would always scoff. They wanted a something that could wash dishes and clothes, clean the house, and wash windows.”
Ohne finally talks about the Nintendo R.O.B., who has been extensively covered by Adafruit in several blog posts including how to hack him without wiring.
Adafruit loves Robots and wants you to #MakeRobotFriend with Crickit, the Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express that lets you code using CircuitPython, MakeCode, Arduino, etc. to make robotics, arts, crafts, audio animatronics, sensors, agriculture/robot farming, physical computing, kinetic sculptures, science experiments, telescope control and much, much more!
Did you have a robot in the 1980s? Let us know your remembrances in the comments below!
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