Tools Hack Daily

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

The Robotic Sculptures of Server Demirtas #ArtTuesday

The mechanical sculptures of Server Demirtas move and shift with lifelike purpose. While some of his creations expose their interworkings, others are vague in their inner processes. “Scuffle” is meant to represent the refugees of the world, moving in unison with a startling fluidity.

Server Demitras

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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!

Step Inside a Photograph in this Installation #ArtTuesday

via COLOSSAL

Artist Chris Engman transports natural landscapes such as waterfalls, caves, and vast deserts to domestic interiors by securing large-scale photographs to the room’s walls, ceilings, and floors. “I believe photography derives its power precisely from the fact it can’t be entered, however much we may want to,” Engman tells Colossal. “When I make photographs I try to be mindful of this, even to exploit it.”

His most recent work, Containment, is his first installation which allows visitors to step inside. The work features a rushing stream surrounded on two sides by dense forest, and on the top by a branch-covered sky. Engman thinks of the work as a singular photograph, even though it consists of more than three hundred individual prints applied to the surface of the installation’s temporary walls. Although the piece can be entered, unlike his other works, there is still a hesitation on the part of the viewer. Engman explains that once one enters the work its believability as a singular landscape becomes penetrated. Each step deeper inside the work makes the photographed landscape appear increasingly warped and unreal.

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Monday, October 1, 2018

Ancient Bronze Hand Found in Switzerland

via Gizmodo

The bronze hand and its thin gold cuff, along with a bronze dagger and a human rib bone, were discovered by the metal detectorists near Lake Biel in the Bernese Jura, about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Bern, Switzerland, according to a Canton de Bern press release. The items were handed over to specialists at the Ancient History and Roman Archeology Department in the Bern Archaeological Service one day after the discovery.

The hand of Prêles, as it’s now called, is slightly smaller than an adult hand and was cast from about a pound of bronze, according to National Geographic. Radiocarbon dating of the organic, vegetable-based glue used to adhere the gold band to the hand’s wrist places the artifact to between 1,400 and 1,500 BC, back during Europe’s Middle Bronze Age. The archaeologists studying the hand, a team led by Andrea Schae, say it’s doubtful the hand was worn; a socket inside the hand suggests it was mounted on a staff of some kind.

UPDATED PRODUCT – Pimoroni HyperPixel 4.0″ Hi-Res Display for Raspberry Pi

As of September 19, 2018, we are now selling the 4.0″ version of this display.

Pimoroni’s HyperPixel features a 4.0″ display with 800×480 18-bit color pixels and a capacitive touch overlay, making it more sensitive and responsive than a resistive touch display. The plate uses the high speed DPI interface on the Pi and can use the mini display as a console, X window port, displaying images or video, etc. Best of all, it plugs right in on top – So easy!

The DPI interface is super fast, and has speed-optimizations just like HDMI, but it uses just about every pin on the Pi so it is a challenge to use this and also connect sensors, add-ons, device, etc to the Pi. You should stick to devices that interface with USB rather than the GPIO header.

This HyperPixel 4.0″ is designed to fit nicely onto the Raspberry Pi Zero, Pi 3, Pi 2 or Model A+ / B+ (any Pi with a 2×20 connector). Not for use with the old Pi 1 with 2×13 connector. If you’d like to use a 3.5″ display with the original Pi A or Pi B, check out the SPI-based PiTFT 3.5″

Everything comes fully assembled, so there’s no soldering required! The display secures to the HyperPixel PCB via a neat little flush-mounting FPC cable. Just pop HyperPixel on your Pi and run the installer to get set up!

Works with any 40-pin version of the Pi, including Pi Zero and Pi Zero W. If you’re using it with a larger Pi like the B+, 2, or 3, then use the extra 40-pin header that’s included to boost it up to the required height. If you’re using a Zero or Zero W then just pop it straight onto the GPI.

Features

High-speed DPI interface
4.0″ IPS (wide viewing angle, 160°) display (86.4×51.8mm)
800×480 pixels (~235 PPI)
18-bit color (262,144 colors) (that’s 262,144 colors! yowza!)
60 FPS frame rate
Contrast ratio: 500:1
Capacitive touch
40-pin female header included to boost height for Pi B+, 2, 3, 3 B+
Standoffs included to securely attach to your Pi
Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 B+, 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W
One-line installer

Please note: when installing HyperPixel onto your Pi, make sure not to press down on the screen surface. Hold the board by its edges and wiggle it to the extended header (or GPIO header).

We also have the Non-Touch version available!

In stock and shipping now!

Watch How a Wire Marker Ball is Installed on Power Lines

The two videos below show some impressive in-flight installations of wire marker balls:

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Here’s an additional video with some narration and additional (even more complicated) installations:

The Mathematical Madness of Möbius Strips and Other One-Sided Objects

File 20180917 158228 1ljv6dw

Möbius madness, via Smithsonian Magazine.

You have most likely encountered one-sided objects hundreds of times in your daily life – like the universal symbol for recycling, found printed on the backs of aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

This mathematical object is called a Mobius strip. It has fascinated environmentalists, artists, engineers, mathematicians and many others ever since its discovery in 1858 by August Möbius, a German mathematician who died 150 years ago, on Sept. 26, 1868.

Möbius discovered the one-sided strip in 1858 while serving as the chair of astronomy and higher mechanics at the University of Leipzig. (Another mathematician named Listing actually described it a few months earlier, but did not publish his work until 1861.) Möbius seems to have encountered the Möbius strip while working on the geometric theory of polyhedra, solid figures composed of vertices, edges and flat faces.

Adafruit Artist Spotlight: Ecken (Noe Ruiz)

The Adafruit Artist Spotlight series features the wonderful music made by creative and talented Adafruit staff members. In this installment, we’ll chat with Noe Ruiz (AKA Ecken) . In this feature you’ll get a chance to hear a little of their music and learn about what they do here at Adafruit. We’re excited to continue shining a light on the cool and exciting stuff that our friends and colleagues are working on!

What team are you on?
I’m on the creative engineering team.

How long have you been at adafruit?
I’ve been working with Adafruit since October of 2012. My first project I presented on the show & tell was a MIDI guitar with arcade buttons and NeoPixels. That became my first guide that debut on the Adafruit learning system.

Tell us a bit about your project!
I started working on an album a few years ago, Mobile Chemistry All of the music was going to be produced on a mobile phone/device using mobile music apps (NanoStudio, mostly). I released a few tracks already on my Soundcloud but its one of those projects that take many years to complete. I’ve made a few tracks of my own for project videos for Adafruit, also available on my soundcloud.

Any recent releases or upcoming performances?
Follow my musical creations on my personal Soundcloud or the Adafruit Soundcloud.

Where can we find out more?
I post lots of stuff on Instagram & Twitter.