Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy, Stuff That's Techy

Video Triptych

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy, Stuff That's Techy

From broken laptop to cool utility monitor

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy, Stuff That's Techy

Self Illuminating Responsive Tintype Frame

Stuff That's Arty

Tintype Photography, Part 2

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy

Cement, Succulents, and The Bliss of Stacking Stuff That’s Heavy

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Funny, Stuff That's Techy

Hacking, Creativity, Process

Stuff That's Buildy, Stuff That's Techy

Binary Clock, Part 2

September 22, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

The long awaited part 2 of this blog post has finally arrived! But first, a video, in case the whole “reading” thing isn’t your bag…

Though I’ve been tinkering on this project for the past two years, I decided to write it up to coincide with the outrageous arrest of 14 year old tinkerer Ahmed Mohamed who was hand cuffed because his teacher thought his electronic clock project looked like a bomb. This binary clock project of mine ended up being a personal electronic circuit design introduction course. You can download all the relevant files here if you want to make your own.
I forgot what the original inspiration was but what I’m ending up with is a working binary clock on a custom printed circuit board. Ultimately, this project will involve fiber optics inside polished cement for a unique time piece but we’re not there yet… Here’s what I learned so far:

Bit shifters

A binary clock needs 20 individual blinky things and the arduino has less than that, so I needed to figure out a way to create more individually addressable outputs. The solution I found is a the 74HC595N chip that can turn two inputs into 8. In fact, you can wire them in series and they can provide you with any number of outputs in multiples of 8. I decided to use one to drive the hours display, one for the minutes, and one for the seconds.

There are tons of tutorials for them so it was fairly straight forward to get it working.

Keeping time

While you can make a timer with just an arduino, it is not very accurate and it has no way to keep the clock going if you unplug the power. I used a rtc1307 chip which is designed for just this purpose. It keeps time accurately and uses a small battery to continue keeping time when the power is disconnected.

Again, there is an arduino library available and a good amount of tutorials out there so it wasn’t too hard to test it and incorporate it in the build.

Removing the arduino

Eventually, since I wanted to end up with a single circuit board, I didn’t want to have to plug anyting into an arduino. Once again, the internet is a wonderful resource which allowed me to figure out how put only the arduino components I needed onto a bread board. I can upload the code onto the chip by putting it on an arduino, and then pull it off of there to mount it directly onto the breadboard.

Code

The clock can be set to one of 4 modes: display time, set hours, set minutes or set seconds. There are two buttons. One button toggles between all the different modes, while the other increments the count of the hours, minutes, and seconds when they are in their respective mode.

#include <Time.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <DS1307RTC.h>



//Pin connected to ST_CP of 74HC595
const int latchPin = 8;
//Pin connected to SH_CP of 74HC595
const int clockPin = 12;
////Pin connected to DS of 74HC595
const int dataPin = 11;

//Pins for setting the time
const int button0Pin = 5; 
const int button1Pin = 6;

// Variables for debounce
int button0State;
int button1State; 
int previousButton0State = LOW;
int previousButton1State = LOW;

long lastDebounce0Time = 0;  // the last time the output pin was toggled
long lastDebounce1Time = 0;  // the last time the output pin was toggled
long debounceDelay = 50;    // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers
int button0Mode = 0; 

// object to communicate with RTC
tmElements_t tm;

void setup() {
  // Setup pins for the shift register
  pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);

  // Setup pins for manual time setting
  pinMode(button0Pin, INPUT);
  pinMode(button1Pin, INPUT);
}


void loop() {

  RTC.read(tm);
  // button 0 can be in display time, hour set, minute set, and second set modes.
  //
  if( button0Mode == 0){
    timeDisplayMode();
  }
  else if( button0Mode == 1){
    setHourMode();
  }
  else if( button0Mode == 2){
    setMinuteMode();
  }
  else if( button0Mode == 3){
    setSecondMode();
  }

  //
  // mode switching
  //
  // Just after a button is pushed or released, there is noise where the value returned is 0/1 random.
  // debouncing consists of reading the incomming value and, if it has changed, storing the time the change was noticed. 
  // It then continues to check and if after a certain amount of time (delay), it reads the input value and it is still the changed value
  // noticed before, then it means that an actual state change happened.
  int reading0 = digitalRead(button0Pin);
  // this only happens when the input value is different from the last time the value was read
  if (reading0 != previousButton0State) {
    lastDebounce0Time = millis();
  }
  // we only enter this loop if the returned value hasn't changed in a while, which means we are not in the noisy transition
  if ((millis() - lastDebounce0Time) > debounceDelay) {
    // if we are in here, it means we got two similar readings.
    if (reading0 != button0State) {
      // if the two similar readings we got are different from the stored state, we must have changed
      button0State = reading0;
      if(reading0 == HIGH){
        button0Mode = (button0Mode+1)%4;
      }
    }
  }
  previousButton0State = reading0;

  delay(100);

}

void timeDisplayMode(){
  int sc = tm.Second;
  int mn = tm.Minute;
  int hr = tm.Hour;
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(sc,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(mn,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(hr,2));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

void setHourMode(){
  int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);
  if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {
    // reset the debouncing timer
    lastDebounce1Time = millis();
  } 
  if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {
    if (reading1 != button1State) {
      button1State = reading1;
      if(reading1 == HIGH){
        tm.Hour = (tm.Hour+1)%24;
        RTC.write(tm);
      }
    }
  }
  previousButton1State = reading1;

  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Hour,2));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

void setMinuteMode(){
  int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);
  if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {
    // reset the debouncing timer
    lastDebounce1Time = millis();
  } 
  if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {
    if (reading1 != button1State) {
      button1State = reading1;
      if(reading1 == HIGH){
        tm.Minute = (tm.Minute+1)%60;
        RTC.write(tm);
      }
    }
  }
  previousButton1State = reading1;

  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Minute,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,2));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

void setSecondMode(){
  int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);
  if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {
    // reset the debouncing timer
    lastDebounce1Time = millis();
  } 
  if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {
    if (reading1 != button1State) {
      button1State = reading1;
      if(reading1 == HIGH){
        tm.Second = (tm.Second+1)%60;
        RTC.write(tm);
      }
    }
  }
  previousButton1State = reading1;

  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Second,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,2));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

// create binary value for each digit of the hour/minute/second number
// offset represents how many bits are used for the tens.
int setTimeBits(int n, int offset){
  int n1 = n%10;
  int n0 = (n-n1)/10;
  return n0 | n1<<offset;
}

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#include <Time.h>

#include <Wire.h>

#include <DS1307RTC.h>

//Pin connected to ST_CP of 74HC595

const int latchPin = 8;

//Pin connected to SH_CP of 74HC595

const int clockPin = 12;

////Pin connected to DS of 74HC595

const int dataPin = 11;

//Pins for setting the time

const int button0Pin = 5;

const int button1Pin = 6;

// Variables for debounce

int button0State;

int button1State;

int previousButton0State = LOW;

int previousButton1State = LOW;

long lastDebounce0Time = 0; // the last time the output pin was toggled

long lastDebounce1Time = 0; // the last time the output pin was toggled

long debounceDelay = 50; // the debounce time; increase if the output flickers

int button0Mode = 0;

// object to communicate with RTC

tmElements_t tm;

void setup() {

// Setup pins for the shift register

pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);

// Setup pins for manual time setting

pinMode(button0Pin, INPUT);

pinMode(button1Pin, INPUT);

}

void loop() {

RTC.read(tm);

// button 0 can be in display time, hour set, minute set, and second set modes.

if( button0Mode == 0){

timeDisplayMode();

}

else if( button0Mode == 1){

setHourMode();

}

else if( button0Mode == 2){

setMinuteMode();

}

else if( button0Mode == 3){

setSecondMode();

}

// mode switching

// Just after a button is pushed or released, there is noise where the value returned is 0/1 random.

// debouncing consists of reading the incomming value and, if it has changed, storing the time the change was noticed.

// It then continues to check and if after a certain amount of time (delay), it reads the input value and it is still the changed value

// noticed before, then it means that an actual state change happened.

int reading0 = digitalRead(button0Pin);

// this only happens when the input value is different from the last time the value was read

if (reading0 != previousButton0State) {

lastDebounce0Time = millis();

}

// we only enter this loop if the returned value hasn't changed in a while, which means we are not in the noisy transition

if ((millis() - lastDebounce0Time) > debounceDelay) {

// if we are in here, it means we got two similar readings.

if (reading0 != button0State) {

// if the two similar readings we got are different from the stored state, we must have changed

button0State = reading0;

if(reading0 == HIGH){

button0Mode = (button0Mode+1)%4;

}

previousButton0State = reading0;

delay(100);

}

void timeDisplayMode(){

int sc = tm.Second;

int mn = tm.Minute;

int hr = tm.Hour;

digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(sc,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(mn,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(hr,2));

digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}

void setHourMode(){

int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);

if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {

// reset the debouncing timer

lastDebounce1Time = millis();

}

if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {

if (reading1 != button1State) {

button1State = reading1;

if(reading1 == HIGH){

tm.Hour = (tm.Hour+1)%24;

RTC.write(tm);

}

previousButton1State = reading1;

digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Hour,2));

digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}

void setMinuteMode(){

int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);

if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {

// reset the debouncing timer

lastDebounce1Time = millis();

}

if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {

if (reading1 != button1State) {

button1State = reading1;

if(reading1 == HIGH){

tm.Minute = (tm.Minute+1)%60;

RTC.write(tm);

}

previousButton1State = reading1;

digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Minute,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,2));

digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}

void setSecondMode(){

int reading1 = digitalRead(button1Pin);

if (reading1 != previousButton1State) {

// reset the debouncing timer

lastDebounce1Time = millis();

}

if ((millis() - lastDebounce1Time) > debounceDelay) {

if (reading1 != button1State) {

button1State = reading1;

if(reading1 == HIGH){

tm.Second = (tm.Second+1)%60;

RTC.write(tm);

}

previousButton1State = reading1;

digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(tm.Second,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,3));

shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, setTimeBits(0,2));

digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}

// create binary value for each digit of the hour/minute/second number

// offset represents how many bits are used for the tens.

int setTimeBits(int n, int offset){

int n1 = n%10;

int n0 = (n-n1)/10;

return n0 | n1<<offset;

}

Schematic and board

Once the breadboard was working, I set out to sketch the circuit in Fritzing. While it’s not quite as intimidating as EAGLE cad, I ended up using the latter after running into some limitations with the former (I don’t remember what they were). There was a lot for me to learn there but, in the end, it’s conceptually pretty simple: all the pieces have to be connected together correctly. It’s just another way to represent the circuit. Once that was done, I started with the board. I laid out all the components and let the software automatically figure out how to create the correct traces.
One cool thing is that if you choose the correct electronic components in the software, all the size and shapes are properly represented when you are designing the board. It’s a huge pain in the ass to sort through all the libraries of components, though, specially when you don’t know what all the specs mean.

The eagle cad files are included in the download file at the top of this page.

Manufacturing the board

Super simple: just go online and find a service that will manufacture them. For this project, I used oshpark.com and dirtypcbs.com, which allow you to upload your designs right out of EAGLE cad. After a few weeks, you get your board in the mail, ready for you to solder the components on. I order my components from mouser.com, which allows you to save a collection of various components into a project specific list. Again, finding the right components amongst the tens of thousands they have available is really time consuming and annoying. But now, I have my parts list so I never have to go through that again if I want to solder up new versions of the board. The list of parts in included in the download file at the top of this page.

The ugly truth

If you were paying attention, you no doubt noticed in the preceding paragraph that I used two board manufacturers. That is because the first board layouts I had printed actually had shorts. I suppose it’s probably not that uncommon, but it’s really frustrating to upload your designs, order the boards, wait for them to be delivered, spend all this time soldering the board to find out it doesn’t work, and then it can be challenging to figure out where the wires are getting crossed. In the end, I spent about $150 on boards and parts that ended up not working. I guess that’s the cost of learning… My first two board designs were ordered through Oshpark, and the minimum order was 3, for about $50. The third order was done on dirtypcbs and was $25 for 10 boards. They feel cheaper and took forever to get delivered but you sure can’t beat the price.

Stuff That's Techy

Flashing Arduino bootloader with Teensy 2.0

August 5, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

What

If, like me, you want to flash the arduino bootloader onto some blank ATMEGA328 chips on a breadboard and only have a teensy 2.0 on hand (because you’ve short circuited all the working ATMEGA chips you had and so can’t use your arduino), and, unlike me, you don’t have hours to spare trying all freaking possible software/hardware/wiring combination to get it working, here’s what worked for me. Also, since I didn’t want to bother with the crystal, capacitors and resistor, I went for the minimal setup.

Why

Because a chip with the bootloader already loaded costs $5 and a chip without costs $2. And also, really, just because…

How

I used arduino 1.0.6 on a macbook running osX 10.6 (For those running Yosemite, there are documented issues recognizing the USB port)
I downloaded Breadboard1-0-x.zip and installed the contained breadboard directory in the “hardware” folder of my sketches.
In arduino, load the ArduinoISP sketch from the examples, change the LED pin to 11 (#define LED_HB 11), select Teensy 2.0 as you board and upload the sketch
Wire up the ATMEGA as follows.
Relaunch arduino and for your board, select Tools > Boards > “ATmega328 on a breadboard (8 MHz internal clock)” and Tools > Programmer > “Arduino as ISP”
Select Tools > Burn Bootloader
Done!
This is basically the steps outlined in the official Arduino website, except for changing the LED pin to 11 in the ArduinoISP sketch and wiring the ATMEGA to the proper pins on the Teensy 2.0. (Note that you don’t even have to change the code to reflect the different pin numbers since they are referred to by their function rather than their number).

There

Here’s a picture and a schematic…

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy

June’s pot harvest

June 27, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

This month, I am deciding to make bigger and heavier pots, but still keeping with the monolithic shapes. I was spurred into creative action by a cardboard tube I saw in a trash pile at work. I noticed it and a lightbulb flashed in my head; I immediately grabbed it, knowing exactly what I was going to do with it. The world is full of gifts indeed and I love the process of finding sudden and unexpected inspiration at random time. All you have to do is remain open, hone your discernment skills, and channel whatever comes your way. Also, I’m experimenting with black cement coloring and black river rocks on my old 6 inch round model.

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Buildy

I’m a pot dealer in Venice Beach

May 8, 2015 Thomas Hollier 2 Comments

These pots, or ones that look like it, are available for sale, ranging from $30 to $100. I hand polish them myself to a nice smooth finish with a cement grinder that reveals the pattern of the aggregate, and for the amount of labor I put in them, I really can’t afford to have you buy them, but hey: my house can only accommodate so many of them so I have to somehow get rid of them. I do not have a store set up but leave a message or email me and I’m sure we can figure out something.

Uncategorized

Three raspberry pies talking to each other

March 24, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

My current project involves three raspberry pies playing video in sync. For this to work, they need to communicate with each other so any one of them can trigger the two others. Using pyosc, they can do so over ethernet in a python script.

"""
For detailed info on pyOSC functionality check the OSC.py file
or run pydoc pyOSC.py. you can also get the docs by opening a python shell and doing
>>> import OSC
>>> help(OSC)

This is a simple setup for 3 machines to communicate together.

"""

import OSC
import time, threading, socket


ip = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())
if ip == '192.777.0.0':
    receive_address = '192.777.0.0', 9000
    send_address1 = '192.777.0.1', 9000
    send_address2 = '192.777.0.2', 9000
elif ip == '192.777.0.1':
    send_address1 = '192.777.0.0', 9000
    receive_address = '192.777.0.1', 9000
    send_address2 = '192.777.0.2', 9000
elif ip == '192.777.0.2':
    send_address1 = '192.777.0.0', 9000
    send_address2 = '192.777.0.1', 9000
    receive_address = '192.777.0.2', 9000



### OSC clients
# this sets up clients for this machine to send messages to
clients = []
clients.append(OSC.OSCClient())
clients.append(OSC.OSCClient())
clients[0].connect( send_address1 ) # set the address for all following messages
clients[1].connect( send_address2 ) # set the address for all following messages


### OSC recieve
# this sets up this machine to recieve messages
s = OSC.OSCServer(receive_address) # basic
s.addDefaultHandlers()

# define a message-handler function for the server to call.
def printing_handler(addr, tags, stuff, source):
    print "---"
    print "received new osc msg from %s" % OSC.getUrlStr(source)
    print "with addr : %s" % addr
    print "typetags %s" % tags
    print "data %s" % stuff
    print "---"

s.addMsgHandler("/print", printing_handler) # adding our function

# Start OSCServer
print "\nStarting OSCServer. Use ctrl-C to quit."
st = threading.Thread( target = s.serve_forever )
st.start()


# single message
msg = OSC.OSCMessage()
msg.setAddress("/print") # set OSC address
msg.append(44) # int
msg.append(4.5233) # float
msg.append( "the white cliffs of dover" ) # string
[c.send(msg) for c in clients] # send it!

# bundle : few messages sent together
# use them to send many different messages on every loop for instance in a game. saves CPU and it is faster
bundle = OSC.OSCBundle()
bundle.append(msg) # append prev mgs
bundle.append( {'addr':"/print", 'args':["bundled messages:", 2]} ) # and some more stuff ...
bundle.setAddress("/*print")
bundle.append( ("no,", 3, "actually.") )
[c.send(msg) for c in clients] # send it!

"""

For detailed info on pyOSC functionality check the OSC.py file

or run pydoc pyOSC.py. you can also get the docs by opening a python shell and doing

>>> import OSC

>>> help(OSC)

This is a simple setup for 3 machines to communicate together.

"""

import OSC

import time, threading, socket

ip = socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname())

if ip == '192.777.0.0':

receive_address = '192.777.0.0', 9000

send_address1 = '192.777.0.1', 9000

send_address2 = '192.777.0.2', 9000

elif ip == '192.777.0.1':

send_address1 = '192.777.0.0', 9000

receive_address = '192.777.0.1', 9000

send_address2 = '192.777.0.2', 9000

elif ip == '192.777.0.2':

send_address1 = '192.777.0.0', 9000

send_address2 = '192.777.0.1', 9000

receive_address = '192.777.0.2', 9000

### OSC clients

# this sets up clients for this machine to send messages to

clients = []

clients.append(OSC.OSCClient())

clients[0].connect( send_address1 ) # set the address for all following messages

clients[1].connect( send_address2 ) # set the address for all following messages

### OSC recieve

# this sets up this machine to recieve messages

s = OSC.OSCServer(receive_address) # basic

s.addDefaultHandlers()

# define a message-handler function for the server to call.

def printing_handler(addr, tags, stuff, source):

print "---"

print "received new osc msg from %s" % OSC.getUrlStr(source)

print "with addr : %s" % addr

print "typetags %s" % tags

print "data %s" % stuff

print "---"

s.addMsgHandler("/print", printing_handler) # adding our function

# Start OSCServer

print "\nStarting OSCServer. Use ctrl-C to quit."

st = threading.Thread( target = s.serve_forever )

st.start()

# single message

msg = OSC.OSCMessage()

msg.setAddress("/print") # set OSC address

msg.append(44) # int

msg.append(4.5233) # float

msg.append( "the white cliffs of dover" ) # string

[c.send(msg) for c in clients] # send it!

# bundle : few messages sent together

# use them to send many different messages on every loop for instance in a game. saves CPU and it is faster

bundle = OSC.OSCBundle()

bundle.append(msg) # append prev mgs

bundle.append( {'addr':"/print", 'args':["bundled messages:", 2]} ) # and some more stuff ...

bundle.setAddress("/*print")

bundle.append( ("no,", 3, "actually.") )

[c.send(msg) for c in clients] # send it!

Stuff That's Buildy

Hey! What happened to the giant camera?

March 8, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

Good question. Yeah, yeah… I know: I said I was building a big 20×24 camera but I have written nothing about it in the last 4 months. Was I just a tease? Was I showing off before actually delivering the goods?
In a word: yes. I got to a place where “Things Got Complicated” and I wasn’t sure what the next smart step was. Solving the building challenges started to feel like work. So I did what sane people do when faced with challenges: I walked away… I’m sure it is an affront to some notion of puritanical work ethic dictating that one doggedly apply oneself to a problem until finally overcoming it. Cue in the inspirational music celebrating triumph over adversity, drink the cool-aid, master your id, pay your taxes.
Except we’re talking about Relentless Play, not Relentless Work. It’s about engaging in what feels good rather than bowing to some flawed abstract concept of what should be.

I am still very determined to see the project through; I just don’t feel it right now. I need to let it sit for a while and let the correct path forward bubble up into my consciousness on its own, specially since it will end up costing a a fair amount of time and money to make. Basically, my problem is I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I bought some 80/20 extrusion to serve as a base and some linear bearing carriages for the lens mount and the film back to slide on but they are pretty heavy and I need to figure out a way to keep them steady. Also, I need to figure out what we are going to do about bellows. Whatever it is, it needs to be built well enough to not bleed a bunch of light in the camera and onto the plate.
Some people like to have a project fully planned out before they go into action. Me, I typically like to figure it out as I go along. In fact, once I’ve done something and have a clear idea on how to go from A to Z, I’m not really that interested anymore.
Anyway, I have a lot of other similarly on hold projects and I picked a few back up in the meantime so it’s not like I’m giving up.

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Techy

Binary Clock, Part 1

February 12, 2015 Thomas Hollier

Binary clocks are a family of ubiquitous geek toys which display each digit of the time using binary notation. If you do a search for "binary clock" in Google, you will see a nearly infinite number of implementations. The reason I like the whole genre is that a binary clock is an electronic system that claims to exist for the purpose of conveying information when in fact it's all about finding an obtuse excuse to make something blink. The delight of it is that it's completely impractical to read but the geeks don't care: the coolness of the blinky lights joyfully trumps any need to be practical.

Speaking of geeks, I've been wanting to look into this whole Angular.js framework thingy all those overly bearded tech-hipsters are talking about (when they are not crafting their own cheese or riding fixed wheeled bikes), and so I'm using this blog post as an excuse to program simple apps that illustrate the process I am talking about using Angular.

Displaying numbers in binary

You can see below how to calculate the value a binary number. It's pretty straight forward: a particular place can only be 0 or 1 and once you increment above that, you loop back to 0, add one onto the digit to the left, and if THAT one is already 1, it also loops back to 0 and the behavior ripples leftward.

binary number	{{get8()}}		{{get4()}}		{{get2()}}		{{get1()}}
	x		x		x		x
place	8		4		2		1
	=		=		=		=
total	{{8*get8()}}	+	{{4*get4()}}	+	{{2*get2()}}	+	{{1*get1()}}	=	{{count}}

Notice that the highest number we can represent a maximum of 16 values with 4 b(inary dig)its. 8 bits can represent 256, 10 bits, 1024, and so on...

Displaying the time in binary

The following table shows how to display the time in binary format, with each digit represented by a four bit binary representation arranged in a column. The current time is {{getTheTime() | date:'mediumTime'}}, which you can see displayed in 24 hour format in the bottom row.

From math to art

Not comfortable with numbers? Replace the 1's with teale and the 0's with burn sienna, on a background of deep emerald. Bam! Suddenly, you've become an artist, conjuring a playful visual dance of colors on an abstract rhythmic canvas. You're a fucking genius!

(Note that since the highest number for the hours is 23, the first column never has to go above 2 and we really only need the bottom two places to represent that number. Similarly, the value of minutes and seconds only goes to 59 so the third and fifth columns only to represent the value 5, which can be done with only 3 bits.)

What's next?

Stay tuned... Part 2 describes how to build your very own binary clock, using LED's, chips, electricity, obsession, and patience.

Stuff That's Funny

Mangled Metaphors Medley Mayhem, Maybe?

January 18, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

There is nothing that warms my heart more than someone mangling a metaphor during a boring work meeting. It’s the verbal equivalent of slapstick comedy. It’s a sudden and unexpected fail, usually involving a very serious and maybe slightly pompous speaker getting tangled up in fancy rhetorical footwork they clearly were not ready to take on.

The List

We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.
It’s not rocket surgery.
Does the pope shit in the woods?
It will be a walk in the cake.
For all intensive purposes,…
If you can’t take the heat, spoil the soup.
We will jump off that bridge when we get to it.
You’ve got the tiger by the horns.
Up shit creek without a paddle.
Time wounds all heals.
The cows are coming home to roost.
Does a bear wear a funny hat?
You gotta take the balls by the horn.
Cut me some slacks!
That train has sailed.
The ship has left the station.
That’s a slippery door to open.
Flying by the seat of their tail.
Six of tom-ay-to, half a dozen of tom-ah-to.
You have to just roll with the flow.
Squeeze the lemon till the milk runs dry.
Catch two tigers with one toe.
I’m going to milk that lemon for all its worth.
Half of one, six dozen of another.
You don’t miss your water till hell freezes over.
Don’t count your horses before they hatch.
You’re counting your chickens before the cart.
Straight from the horse’s ass.
It’s more fun than shooting monkeys in a barrel.
You nailed it out of the park.
You gotta reap just what you saw.
You really pulled a rabbit out of your ass.

Stuff That's Techy

^[strange]+6\s[regx]+5\s[obseion]+9$

January 17, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

I find regular expressions obtuse, maddening, and at the same time, strangely compelling. For those who don’t know, “regular expressions” (usually referred to as “regex”) is a common way for most computer programs to search text for particular patterns of characters, like for example a date or an address. Regex gives you access to atoms that represent individual character (“a”, “6”, “#”, etc…) or general character types (digits, symbols, uppercase…), as well as a concise grammar defining how these characters appear. Regex is a set of small blocks with specific rules that define how to put all these blocks together to represent something bigger.

A quick example

How to match a date like 2014/12/24?
Digits are represented like this: \d so the following regex will represent any character from 0 to 9:
\d
What if you are looking for a series of 4 digits? You could do this:
\d\d\d\d
But it can get a little heavy if you are looking for 200 digits, so you can use the following notation:
\d{4}
Okay, so now you have matched the first 4 digits, how about matching the “/” character? In this case, since it’s just a specific character, just go ahead and type it in:
\d{4}/
Then match 2 digits, another “/” and two more digits:
\d{4}/\d{2}/\d{2}

It’s a mental puzzle that requires you to visualize how patterns can be broken down into concise nuggets of representative abstraction.

Regulex

The following web site creates a diagram out of a regex expression to give you a useful visual graphic depiction of the logic.

Regexpress

This next one uses similar visuals but allows you to build the expression by stringing along icons that represent the patterns you are looking for.

Regviz

Here’s another one that doesn’t use fancy charts and graphics but it does allow you yo see the matches in real time with text you specify.

Stuff That's Arty, Stuff That's Techy

Dexter’s Head

January 9, 2015 Thomas Hollier Leave a comment

Quick little test of photogrammetry software. Nothing revolutionary here… It’s simply something that I’ve been interested in for a long time and haven’t gotten around to working with. Until now, that is, since I have been capturing and modeling real environments for live projections.

From this:

19 still images.

to this:

Click and drag in the window to tumble the geometry.

Bit shifters

Keeping time

Removing the arduino

Code

Schematic and board

Manufacturing the board

The ugly truth

What

Why

How

There

Displaying numbers in binary

Displaying the time in binary

From math to art

What's next?

The List

A quick example

Regulex

Regexpress

Regviz

From this:

to this:

Creating, Working, Playing, Hacking, Making, Breaking, Thinking, Learning, Sharing…