Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Errands being run until they're tired.
My homage to the two major errands: The Surplus Store
10341 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Tel: 310.841.0289
(I've heard that Major Surplus & Survival and the Supply Sargent are both also very good) and The Salvation Army Thrift Store
1658 11th St
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(Out of the Closet is another great organization but this one is huge.)
10341 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Tel: 310.841.0289
(I've heard that Major Surplus & Survival and the Supply Sargent are both also very good) and The Salvation Army Thrift Store
1658 11th St
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(Out of the Closet is another great organization but this one is huge.)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Generating Permutations and Combinations
One of the things I did when playing around with the HL1606 is write a routine that ran through ALL the colors. I mean all 64 possible permutations both my way and Synoptic Labs' way to compare. Did I write these out by hand? Um, no. First of all, how do we know there are 64? If you look at the command byte for the HL1606 there are 6 bits involved in determining color, each of which can be one of two options (0 or 1). Doing the probability math: 2*2*2*2*2*2, 2 to the 6th... or 64. The other way to think about it is that we have 4 options to chose from: 01, 11, 10, 00 or (right to left) ON, DOWN, UP, OFF. We pick any one of these options 3 separate times (R, G and B). 4*4*4, 4 to the 3rd or again 64. Whether you think of it as 2 options 6 times or 4 options 3 times we can still simply count up in binary to generate the needed command bytes. Since I needed to create a predefined array for my purposes I wrote a function that would spit out something serially I could copy and paste:
<div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html">mathsisfun.com</a></div>
<p> </p>
</div>
void loop() { delay(2000); // time to switch over to serial mode if (i < 1) { // do it only once for (b=0; b<64; b ++) { commandByte = b + B10000000; // add the latch command Serial.print("colorArray["); Serial.print(b, DEC); Serial.print("] = B"); Serial.print(commandByte, BIN); Serial.println(";"); } } i++; } Just a heads up, this works because I added the 1 onto the left edge of the command byte by adding the actual value of B10000000 to the variable NOT by trying to tack a "B10" on to it on with Serial.print before. Why not? 63 prints out as 111111, 6 characters, but 23 is 10111, 5 characters. You can't just paste numbers to left edge with text and expect the value to be correct when you copy the printout. Writing your own program is way more time consuming for a non-numeric situation like writing out UP OFF DOWN and ON for the Synoptic Lab style code - In case you don't remember those lines look like: docolor(DOWN, DOWN, UP,128/(2*SPULSE),1); You'd start with something like the below, but I haven't tested it. void permutate(int n_options, int r_times) { int n; int r; for (r=0; r<r_times; r ++) { for (n=0; n<n_options; n ++) { Serial.print(r, DEC); Serial.print(" : "); Serial.print(n, DEC); Serial.print(" | "); } Serial.println(); } Serial.println(); } I just borrowed Math is Fun's permutations and combinations calculator (below). They generated the list and with a bit of find and replace magic in BBEdit I got the code I needed. Oh, and for those of you who are curious and don't care about having a pre-written array the following function does work, and is what the attached video is of. void playAll() { int b; for (b=0; b<64; b ++) { nextColor = colorArray[b]; nextCommand = nextColor + B10000000; // latch it doColor2(nextCommand); } } <div class="posterous_bookmarklet_entry"><div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html">mathsisfun.com</a></div>
<p> </p>
</div>
Generating Permutations and Combinations
One of the things I did when playing around with the HL1606 is write a routine that ran through ALL the colors. I mean all 64 possible permutations both my way and Synoptic Labs way to compare. Did I write these out by hand. Um, no. This is what computers are for. First of all, how do we know there are 64? If you look at the command byte for the HL1606 there are 6 bits involved in determining color, each of which can be one of two options (0 or 1). Doing the probability math: 2*2*2*2*2*2, 2 to the 6th... or 64. The other way to think about it is that we have 4 options to chose from: 01, 11, 10, 00 or (right to left) ON, DOWN, UP, OFF. We pick any one of these options 3 separate times (R, G and B). 4*4*4, 4 to the 3rd or again 64. Whether you think of it as 2 options 6 times or 4 options 3 times we can still simply count up in binary to generate the needed command bytes. Since I needed to create a predefined array for my purposes I wrote a function that would spit out something serially I could copy and paste:
void loop() { delay(2000); // time to switch over to serial mode if (i < 1) { // do it only once for (b=0; b<64; b ++) { commandByte = b + B10000000; // add the latch command Serial.print("colorArray["); Serial.print(b, DEC); Serial.print("] = B"); Serial.print(commandByte, BIN); Serial.println(";"); } } i++; } Just a heads up, this works because you add the 1 onto the left edge of the command byte by adding the actual value of the variable not by trying to tack it on with Serial.print before it. What I mean is that 63 prints out as 111111, 6 characters, but 23 is 10111, 5 characters. You can't just paste numbers to left edge with text and expect the value to be correct when you copy the printout. This writing your own program is way more time consuming for a non-numeric situation like writing out UP OFF DOWN and ON for the Synoptic Lab style code - In case you don't remember those lines look like: docolor(DOWN, DOWN, UP,128/(2*SPULSE),1); You'd start with something like the below, but I haven't tested it. void permutate(int n_options, int r_times) { int n; int r; for (r=0; r<r_times; r ++) { for (n=0; n><n_options; n ++) { Serial.print(r, DEC); Serial.print(" : "); Serial.print(n, DEC); Serial.print(" | "); } Serial.println(); } Serial.println(); } I just borrowed Math is Fun >'s permutations and combinations calculator. They generate the list and then a bit of find and replace magic in BBEdit got me the code I needed. Oh, and for those of you who are curious and don't care about having a pre-written array the following function does work, and is what the attached video is of. void playAll() { int b; for (b=0; b<64; b ++) { nextColor = colorArray[b]; nextCommand = nextColor + B10000000; // latch it doColor2(nextCommand); } }
Friday, August 21, 2009
Last significant HL1606 update before the burn...
I can now get my LED lightstrip to play through a button-calibrated gradient. In the video you can see I'm using an FSR in lieu of a piezo mic for testing. When the strip flashes green after the button press, the chip is taking a reading off the FSR to be the new gradientMax. When it goes red it means all of a sudden the values are higher than the system thinks is okay. You can set the last value of the gradient to be the same as the second to last if you don't care. Same with the "off" state, easily side stepped. Again the whole code is a little long to post here, but here some of the new stuff.
// ----- some stuff from the setup colorArray[0] = B10000000; // Dark colorArray[1] = B10100001; // Pink Red colorArray[2] = B10000001; // Red Red colorArray[3] = B10000101; // Yellow colorArray[4] = B10000100; // Green colorArray[5] = B10010000; // Blue colorArray[6] = B10010100; // Turquoise colorArray[7] = B10010001; // Purple colorArray[8] = B10010101; // White //gradient gradientArray[0] = 0; // what gradient does if sensor is out of bounds too low // set this to the same as the one after it if you don't care gradientArray[1] = 8; gradientArray[2] = 6; gradientArray[3] = 5; gradientArray[4] = 2; //what gradient does if sensor is out of bounds too high //set this to the same color as the one before it if you //don't care. // ---- end in setup //---- partial main loop gradientLineLevel = analogRead(sensorPin); // get a reading from the fsr gradientNum = getGradientLevel(gradientLineLevel); // get what gradient segment you are //in the future could run case statements that have light patterns doColor(gradientArray[gradientNum], 20); // low duration, more responsive system. //my version of doColor looks a lot like the doNote function is some previous code //but without the "white space" at the end of it. //---- end of some of the stuff in mail loop byte getGradientLevel(int myLineLevel) { int s; if (myLineLevel > gradientMax) { return (gradientArrayLength-1); } if (myLineLevel < gradientMin) { return 0; } for (s = 1; s <= (gradientArrayLength-2); s++) { int myMin = gradientMin + (s-1)*gradientSteps; int myMax = gradientMin + (s)*gradientSteps; // covers the extra little slop so I don't have to deal with // making gradientSteps a float if (s == (gradientArrayLength)) { myMax = gradientMax; } // range hit if (myLineLevel >= myMin && myLineLevel <= myMax) { return s; } } // if it made it through the for loop with no hits, out of bounds exception // should really never get here b/c of if statements at top of function return 0; } void setGradientRange() { gradientMax = analogRead(sensorPin); gradientRange = gradientMax - gradientMin; // gradient steps uses gradientArrayLength-1 as the divisor //because gA[0] is the out of bounds exception //gA[last] is the upper out of bounds exception gradientSteps = gradientRange/(gradientArrayLength-2); }
Thursday, August 20, 2009
HL1606: Separated timing and rate, rate based on potentiometer
See, better code. Posting the whole thing is a bit of a bear, I'm not loving the ePaper option, I will come up with something else but for now the important changes to the subroutines, rateModulo is the variable set by the analog sensor in the main loop.
void twoBits() { int l; for (l=0; l< 8; l++) { //add a check kill switch doNote(twoBitNoteArray[l], twoBitTimeArray[l], millis()); } // just a little extra white space at the end in case it isn't followed // by a clearStrip(); doNote(0,300, millis()); } void doNote (byte colorNum, int duration, long startTime) { int d; int r; int mCheck = 0; byte color = colorArray[colorNum]; long endTime = startTime + (long) duration; // release whitespace eats into the previous note!!!!!!!! while (millis() < (endTime-release)) { //add a check_kill_switch mCheck = micros() % rateModulo; if (mCheck==0) { //Serial.println(mCheck); mystrip.pushCmd(color); mystrip.latch(); } } while (millis() < endTime) { //add a check_kill_switch mCheck = micros() % rateModulo; if (mCheck==0) { mystrip.pushCmd(colorArray[0]); mystrip.latch(); } } }
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Shave and a hair cut... Color and Time on HL1606 (tags: electronics, physcomp, HL1606, Arduino)
So I guess I did a cheesey musical Hello World. I mapped a note array and a color array and a time array together and got my light strip to blink. I'm not posting the code because it has some fatal flaws, like no separate control of the rate of latching speed and the "human time" it looks like it is coming out of the end. It is also dependent on the clock speed for (t = 0, t < duration, t ++) style in a way that is easily broken. If you desperately need it, ask for it. But better will happen.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
HL1606 Digital Manual Control
So because I like to go simple and low level first I wrote code with Xanders library that would step through an array of colors every time you press a button. The main loop is some single button debounce code (Limor's from Arduino.cc) and this:
if (pressFlag) { nextColor = colorArray[i]; mystrip.pushCmd(nextColor); mystrip.latch(); i++; } if (i >= 9) { i = 0; } Which basically means every time the button gets pushed get the next item in the 10 item array and send it as a command byte to the LED strip. Because the latch is only thrown when the button is pressed it requires a button press for the colored lights to march on up the strip. I wrote this code to make sure I knew how the the bytes were flowing out and what they were doing to the LEDs because I was having some trouble with the original "doColor" function. The byte array I wrote looks like this: colorArray[0] = B10000001; colorArray[1] = B10000101; colorArray[2] = B10000100; colorArray[3] = B10010100; colorArray[4] = B10010000; colorArray[5] = B10010101; colorArray[6] = B10010001; colorArray[7] = B10000000; colorArray[8] = B10001010; colorArray[9] = B10100010; It looks a lot some colors we saw in John Cohn's Pixaxe code... The important thing to remember when looking at these numbers is that the bit furthest to the right is the one that gets send first, so when it is 1 the red LED is on. The command byte is explained in the Synoptic Labs library, but keep in mind it is explained as LEFT -> RIGHT, so the INVERSE of what you might think you're seeing here. I've added a couple of graphics to show the current set up and how it works. I'll make another video when the results are more exciting. I'm attaching the code as a compressed file so it won't get displayed in its entirety.
See and download the full gallery on posterous
Arduino Board Switch
So, hoping to be on the same platform as the other folks working on the lights to make sure troubleshooting would be seemless I updated my board to the Duemilanove and my software to v 16. I did this through my favorite US Vendor: SparkFun One of the nice things about buying an Arduino board from Arduino is that they have joined Zero Impact . Zero Impact is a carbon offset company. Even though CO2 emissions are really not the biggest environmental problem with electronics, it is a nice touch. Arduino seems to have picked building forests in Costa Rica, so, since I've been there, I get to think of my trip every time I use the board. To make the software transition: * I close the old version (Arduino 12),
* Open the new (Arduio 16)
* Switch the type of board I was using (there are A LOT of new ones)
* and then QUIT ARDUINO 16 AND REOPEN IT. I do this because then
Arduino writes a preferences file when it quits. I've found that
having the new version writes its own is just a nice just-in-case
that smooths over some troubles occasionally. And the good news... When I attached the wires to the new board and uploaded the code it just worked! Yay!
* Open the new (Arduio 16)
* Switch the type of board I was using (there are A LOT of new ones)
* and then QUIT ARDUINO 16 AND REOPEN IT. I do this because then
Arduino writes a preferences file when it quits. I've found that
having the new version writes its own is just a nice just-in-case
that smooths over some troubles occasionally. And the good news... When I attached the wires to the new board and uploaded the code it just worked! Yay!
101 Product Design - Ideas - Dwell
101 Product Design
We’re surrounded by legions of products, most of them unremittingly lousy. What separates the good from the bad from the ugly? Take out your well-designed pencils for Product Design 101.
via dwell.com
Nice neat little article on Product Design in Dwell this month.
Pros: Including "TIMTOWTDI" in the words to know (there is more than one way to do it)
Cons: NOT including Cradle to Cradle in the "Books you should read." I know, I know, they only picked 3... Although hopefully the Taschen book, Designing the 21st Century, might have some of that in it. I'll have to check it out!
Succulent Pie
So there were a lot of succulent fragments left after the quilt making and I took a small tupperware container home... a few days later after letting them "harden off" I planted them in left over nursery pots from the vegetable garden and when there was still more left over... a CLEAN aluminum take-out container. The nursery pots are going to be outside while the "pie" is going to live on top of my fridge for a bit. Plants seem to like it there.
Machine Project and the Succulent Quilt
"Denise King will be coordinating the construction of a “succulent quilt”, which will be made from donated plants and put on permanent display in the neighborhood. The succulent quilt is a vertical gardening technique that uses cuttings from existing plants that are contributed by the community. Please bring along some cuttings of your succulents to contribute. Learn how to start your own succulent quilt!" Some interesting things to remember... 1. They are using the water from air conditioner condensation and a recirculating trough to help irrigate the succulents. 2. Among other places Denise got some of the succulents used at the "Cactus Ranch" of California Nursery Specialties / 19420 Saticoy, Reseda CA / (818) 894-5694 3. Materials: Polyester Felt (gray stuff, any fabric store), Coconut coir Matting (hydroponics store), moss & soiless medium with mycorrhizal fungi (also hydroponics store), a rigid backing like plastic fencing cut to size (hardware store / garden center), nice black cover fabric (weed barrier fabric), black zip ties, a good knife... NOT dull scissors, drip irrigation system, and succulents! 4. Make sure you soak the felt before you use it so it will wick away the water from the top effectively. 5. I'm sure there is more... Thanks to Paul Grasshoff for the picture of me being really happy about the whole thing :)
Succulent Quilt at Machine Project
This was a great event at a really wonderful organization in LA... I'll be attaching my own photos soon.
Friday, August 7, 2009
New Chicks...
So weeeeeeks ago I started some cuttings from some the leaves of an Echevaria plant, otherwise known as "Hens and Chicks". At least I think they are Echevarias; there are some others that look the same and these were acquired with out official labels. So today when I went watering and harvesting for tomorrow (you'll have to wait and see what tomorrow is) LOOK! Yay! Look Ma! New Plants! Its like magic...
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Winner Coolest Factoid of the Week: Raspberry filling at the center of the Milky Way
Found: The Galaxy’s Flavor
Astronomers detected the chemical responsible for raspberries’ flavor—and one of the largest molecules ever found in space—in a dust cloud at the center of the Milky Way.
via popsci.com
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Chipped Tea Cup Changes
And for todays trick: Apparently some folks have my chippedteacup.net as my contact web address. Actually they have it as chippedteacup.com so I had to address that kind of immediately. A cracked tea cup from the cupboard, a little photo shoot, a little photoshop, and a couple minutes on Dreamhost.com fixing up the DNS... voila! A lovely one paged website. I don't want to even think about how many of these I have! Here is the before and after of the photoshopping just for fun. I wanted the tone to be a bit of a homage to Polaroid, now that they are so scarce! (the link is to Newsweek's piece with some great photographers saying what Polaroid means/meant to them... although the word on the street is that there may be hope! http://www.the-impossible-project.com/ )
Fry's: Fountain Valley vs. Manhattan Beach
On Tuesday I stopped by the Fry's I see from off the 405 when I drive back north. It always looks so much bigger than the one in Manhattan Beach so I thought I should check it out. No need really. The one in Manhattan Beach has more of what I need, is closer and has a KOI POND! Fountain Valley, CA
10800 Kalama River Avenue
(714) 378-4400
FAX (714) 378-4418 Manhattan Beach, CA
3600 Sepulveda Boulevard
(310) 364-3797
FAX (310) 364-3718
10800 Kalama River Avenue
(714) 378-4400
FAX (714) 378-4418 Manhattan Beach, CA
3600 Sepulveda Boulevard
(310) 364-3797
FAX (310) 364-3718
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