Wonders of the world…
A tunnel between London and NY, real time images, 100 mechanical and working… Telectroscope…
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Last day
Congratulations, Tillykke, Felicitări, Gratulerer, Glückwünsche, Gratulacje, 祝賀, Congratulazioni, hamingjuóskir, samfögnuður, čestitam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I hope I covered all of you!!! 
Today was the final presentations, comments and critique were given by Jamie, Michael, Keld and myself. We also had 2 guests from Robot Cluster, Mette and Louise.
The students had been working night after night to be able to achieve their goals. Set up an “fluid” sunlight installation up on the roof and a large delicate wind-interactive sculpture on the main square of the town, despite very windy weather; get a big bench to light up accordingly to passer’s by clothes; making a creative recycling station interact with you and look sexy; get a little robot to follow you, lighting up not only your path but your imagination. What else can I say?
Thank you for your dedication, hard work and your commitment to the projects!
Last but not least, make sure to update your blogs with the final videos, pictures, comments and your overall impression of the course. Remember to share your code, circuits, materials testing and experience in order to help the “future generations”. 
Take good care of your “babies” as we can hardly wait to see them live again on June 28th and 29th for the school final show! And remember to pass the word around!
Cheers!
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Before the last, press
So last night, the night before the final presentations, we had a photographer stopping by late at night to take pictures of the projects in the city. It was quite exciting to see the pieces in their “environments”!!!
Cheers!
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Over the Alps
Man flies over the Alps… He also dares…
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Final process…
So, here we are on the last week… Late hours, new discoveries and new challenges. I believe that, for almost every student, the learning curve has been steep. Happiness, tiredness and anxiety mix themselves. However everyone is surely working hard. It’s great to see the shine in the eyes, the “abracadabra moment”.
I hope the process, although now final, is opening up as a start. With the knowledge acquired throughout the course, this should open up new doors in later projects. You came across a lot and in many different aspects; you dared and you made work what seemed so far out a few weeks ago. Give yourself a clap on the back.
Despite the big groups, many discussions and many different perspectives, you are delivering. You are making it happen. It’s always a learning process. I surely learned a lot as well with all of you through both through your problems and your solutions!
Well done and keep up the good work!
Cheers!
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Wind Vane!
This is a robot – but without light or sustainability or urban space… but it’s a robot!
http://tuxgraphics.org/electronics/200704/wind-vane-ver01.shtml
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Videofootage
If anyone need some videofootage from the trip last wedensday I have a lot. So you can just come get it from me: Kristian group 3
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more, more project notes
Greetings from the proverbial road, all!
Nice to meet you this week and last – I think you’ve all got some wonderful ideas to flesh out into prototypes and working models. I look forward to seeing where you are when I come back to Kolding.
One general point is to make sure, in all your thought about interaction and physical construction, to come back to notions of sustainability in your designs. Beyond doing a proper estimate of the total area of solar panels you might need to power your design (for example, see here), try and get as educated as you can about the source of the materials you’re using, how they themselves are made, and be able to discuss this a bit at your presentation. This is increasingly important for designers to think about in “Our New Global Economy.”
On the purchasing front – FARNELL would appear to have quite a good local Danish distribution of electronic parts and such. Look there.
- Sound from the Arduino. There are a few groups needing/looking to do sound output for their projects.
- This is notoriously difficult, considering how simple and old the technology is, and Adafruit industries has decided to do something about it. Here is an “Arduino Shield” which adds sound functionality (low quality, mono sound, but still!) to your Arduino. Note that this may not be the right thing for THIS project, but it’s good to know about.
- Another way of doing this is the trusty PWM output – shown here.
- Those of you doing fading/triggering of LEDs – there are many ways to get this done, and I’ve discussed the simplest versions with the relevant teams. Here are some good resources online – reading through these kinds of things will help you get more comfortable with the concepts:
- http://fightpc.blogspot.com/2008/03/arduino-mood-light.html
- http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2008/01/32-led-fader-with-arduino.html
- http://www.upwardnotnorthward.com/2008/01/my-first-project-full-colour-rgb-monome.html
- http://www.arduino.cc/playground/uploads/Learning/multiple_leds2.jpg
(Note that this last one is the same as the transistor solution many of us discussed, but with the led position reverse – it’s the same, functionally and logically speaking as this. Note also that the ULN2003 mentioned above is just an array of multiple transistors, in one chip.) - http://www.instructables.com/id/SVTZ6GLFDYPTCYA/
- http://www.instructables.com/id/Circuits-for-using-High-Power-LED_s/
- http://www.instructables.com/id/EAI4SP8967EWIJMLTT/
- http://www.instructables.com/id/EJH3QIYN64EWIFO1PU/
Groups looking for high powered servo motors – I’ve confirmed with a few other experts that there’s nothing of reasonable price out there above the ~120 oz-in mark, without moving to hydraulics, etc. Should be enough for what those groups are trying to do, though.
You will all, at some point in this journey, need to solder. If you have not done this before, please watch the videos here.
Remember that mechanical soldering (for stained glass, for example), is NOT the same as electrical soldering. The electrical connections you make should bear no loads, weight or flex, as they are brittle and will snap. This can be avoided through properly isolating the connected parts mechanically. Some hints here, from a good man in Toronto.
Take care – If you have any questions, let me know!
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Tags: notes, project notes
