Spacexula to the rescue!

One of only two photos on Flickr that came up with the search term "Spacexula"

One of only two photos on Flickr that came up with the search term “Spacexula”

My friend Spacexula just sent in this AWESOME suggestion on how to display 1000 origami cranes in a durable pleasing way.1 2 I’m going to give you a link to his website and blog, but before you click, know that the top post on his site today is very NSFW.3 Spacexula suggests:

Cast all the cranes into a clear block of resin.

http://www.amazon.com/Entropy-Resins-11CLR008-Casting-Gallon/dp/B007NTU89E/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1367347089&sr=1-1&keywords=clear+casting+resin+gallon

Can be picked up locally for around $20 a gallon.

If you suspend them all on fishing line stringers you could likely fit them all in a single concrete casting tube

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SAKRETE-8-in-x-48-in-Concrete-Form-Tube-65470075/100321209

I freaking LOVE this idea.  The only thing I would need to test first is whether the resin would stick to the cardboard form creating a cloudy cardboard layer on the outside of the resin tower.  That said, I love love love this idea and feel quite committed to it already.

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  1. I should mention, this is not the first time I’ve blogged with the title, “Spacexula to the rescue!“ []
  2. Photo courtesy of John Abella []
  3. Okay, you asked for it…  Don’t blame me. []

Folding Cranes, Errata

Er, rat, aye?

Er, rat, aye?

I’ve been folding some cranes.1 Well, a lot of origami cranes.  I’m shooting for 1000 in 365 days.  I’m folding more than 10 cranes a day and at this rate I’ll finish in a little over 81 days.  Here are some random tidbits about these cranes:

  • Project Considerations.  My three big concerns for folding this many cranes were the ultimate volume of 1000 cranes, the price for all the paper plus ultimate vessel, and perhaps most importantly the time to fold.  The ultimate volume of cranes would dictate the ultimate size of the end project.  If too big, where would I put it?  Paper, even decent origami paper, is relatively cheap and even $50 to $150 for a nice glass enclosure isn’t outrageous when you consider the amount of time I’m going to be devoting to this project (about 60 hours).  Of all of these considerations, time is probably the most constraining factor.
  • Paper size.  When I placed the order for origami paper, I was thinking that I would ideally be folding the cranes out of 1.5″ paper so that the end pile of cranes wouldn’t be too large.  I wasn’t really paying attention to the size of the paper I bought – I just bought the cheapest set of 1000 sheets of origami paper, which was actually two sets of 500 each.  It turned out the set I bought was 3″ square paper and when I saw it I thought it would be “too big.”  I tore the very first sheet into four squares and folded those into really tiny cranes – which took a relatively long time to fold since the steps became more intricate.  As it turns out the 3″ square paper is probably completely ideal for my purposes.  It’s small enough that the end project won’t take up an entire room and that it’s easy to carry individual squares.  It is also large enough that the paper size doesn’t make crane folding more difficult.
  • Time to fold just one crane.  Folding at a leisurely comfortable pace, but not doing anything other than folding, I can fold a single crane in 3:29.  Folding as quickly as I absolutely can, I can fold one crane in 1:44.  That was my best time after four timed trials.  I’m working on developing some guidelines on how best to go about folding 1000 cranes.  There are a few minor tweaks to traditional folding techniques that actually help shave a little bit of time, on average, from folding a lot of cranes.
  • Displaying 1000 cranes.  I’ve seen pictures of them strung on a piece of string, or several pieces of string, and affixed to a wall, a frame, or the ceiling.  I’ve also seen them glued to a large flat surface.  The problem with these methods is that, while cool, the pieces would eventually become a dust trap and start to look shabby.2 Thus, I think I would want to do something different:
    • In a box.  A lot of cranes in a clear plastic box could be interesting and keep dust and little fingers or paws out.
    • In a big vase.  As long as a top was fashioned for a really tall clear glass vase, it could work pretty well.
    • A cube/sphere/other shape.  One idea I had3 is to throw all the cranes into a watertight container, add a water/glue mixture, and compress it into a small heavy cube/sphere/other interesting shape.  The constraints from the legend behind folding these cranes is merely that the folder must retain them rather than give them away.  While I’m not necessarily interested in trying to play a loophole in the legend, I don’t really see how committing the cranes to a permanent4 form could be frowned upon.
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  1. Photo courtesy of Socar Myles []
  2. I know from having made an origami mobile this is the case. []
  3. And I almost hate to admit it []
  4. If somewhat crushed/mangled []

The 1000 Cranes Project

The ones I'm folding are just a bit more simplistic/traditional

The ones I’m folding are just a bit more simplistic/traditional

I recently mentioned one of my New Year’s Ambitions is fold 1000 origami paper cranes.1 As an ancient Japanese legend goes, a person who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a single wish.  There are some variations on this legend.  It’s possible that you “only” get eternal good luck rather than a wish.  There may also be a requirement for all the cranes to be folded by just one person, folded within a single year, the wish may only be made by the person who folded the cranes, and/or the person who folded the cranes must keep the cranes.

Whether the result is a wish, “merely” eternal good luck, or just a really impressive project this is something I want to do.  I’ve given a lot of thought to how I want to display them too – but that’s probably best left to another post entirely.

A little while ago I ordered two sets of 500 sheets of 3″ square origami paper.  They arrived on 4/17/2013 and I debated about when to start folding them.  I know the next two months is going to be super busy – and I would rather start later and be able to devote time to the project than start now and potentially doom myself to interruptions and possible faltering in my resolve.  Over dinner on 4/18/2013 I mentioned this dilemma to my wife.  She pointed out that there will always be interruptions, I might as well start now, and that she knew I could do it.2 Thus, I started folding cranes that evening.

I’m debating about how exactly to share my crane folding progress here on the blog.  Part of me wants to write a WordPress plugin that integrates a Google Docs spreadsheet with Google Graphs to show the latest progress here on the blog.  While I still like this idea and will probably come back to it later – that’s a lot of work to show off progress when I could spend that time actually folding some little birds.

This last week at work has been really really really busy, so there were two days when I folded no cranes at all.  Most other days I folded between 20 and 25 and a day like yesterday I folded only 9.  At an average of 10 cranes a day (which is very doable) 1000 cranes would only take 100 days or a little more than three months.

As of last night, I had folded 111 cranes in 9 days.

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  1. Photo courtesy of Emre Ayaroglu  []
  2. I love the hell out of that woman. []

More than you ever wanted to know

Don't we all

Don’t we all

I’m a big believer that small changes over time can have a huge impact.1 This year I made some commitments to bring about changes in my life.  These aren’t resolutions – I’ve had and broken resolutions before.  These were ambitions.  The most drastic changes to my lifestyle has been my work on losing weight and exercising more.

  • What I am doing. I have logged everything I’ve eaten for the last 100 consecutive days into FitDay.com.  Doing so has made me more aware of what I eat and helped me make good food choices.  This along with some other really minor tweaks has allowed me to drop 20 pounds pretty easily.
    • I can eat whatever I want and as much as I want, just so long as I am willing to log it into my Fitday account.2
    • I try to stay under 2000 calories per day, but I don’t beat myself up if I go completely off the rails.3 Every single day when I wake up is a brand new day.  This is a two edged sword.  It doesn’t matter how “bad” I was the day before, I get a clean slate.  Then again, even if I was “good” the day before, I don’t get to give myself any extra leeway.
    • I try to incorporate a little extra exercise into my routine.  Instead of using the bathroom one door down the hall at work, I walk up a flight of stairs and use that bathroom.  Instead of driving to lunch or walking to one of the places near my work, I walk 0.3 miles to the second nearest grocery store and get my lunch there.
    • I only drink coffee, water, and very occasionally alcohol.  This actually isn’t any different from my usual routine, but I figured I’d mention it.  I’m not big on drinking juice or soda.
    • I avoid potatoes and rice when possible.  I eat bread and pasta sparingly.  I try to eat more leafy greens and veggies – usually spinach.  I eat tend to eat more yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese than I used to. (More of an explanation for these changes below).
  • Why these changes.
    • At the beginning of the year I found that some of my clothes were a little tight.  I decided that every day I could get a little bit heavier or a little bit leaner.  That day I decided I would get leaner.
    • Some of these changes are because of a news bit I heard on NPR a while back.  The study, discussed on the Harvard site here, was published in June of 2011.  If you get a chance, I highly recommend listening to the NPR clip, scanning the Harvard article, and then glancing through the index to the study where the findings are included.  The study basically found that after controlling for many factors, certain foods could be associated with yearly weight increases or losses.  Nuts, vegetables, fruits, and yogurt were all associated with net yearly losses and potatoes, red meat, and processed meats were associated with net gains.  Surprisingly, cheese didn’t seem to affect the net gain/loss.
  • What I’ve noticed.
    • After being on this “diet” for a few months, I’ve fallen into a little bit of a routine.  I tend to consume about 150-300 calories at breakfast, 300-700 calories at lunch, and the remainder of my 2000 calories at dinner.  At first staying below 2000 was very tough and now it’s pretty effortless.
    • I’ve found that as a result of this “diet” I’ve mostly lost my sweet tooth and I don’t seem to crave salty/fatty/fried/starchy foods nearly as much.
    • I probably lost a pound in the first week – which was good because I could “see” a change caused by my minor lifestyle tweaks.  At the end of two weeks I had probably lost about two pounds, and while my clothes were still snug – they were less so.  When I lost five pounds my clothes actually fit and felt better.  When I lost ten pounds I found I was sleeping better.  When I lost fifteen pounds people I hadn’t seen since the end of 2012 noticed and commented on my weight loss.  Now that I’ve lost twenty pounds I can fit into clothes I haven’t worn in about two years, I sleep better, and I feel like I have more energy.
  • Looking forward.
    • They say success begets success.  Having lost a few pounds, I felt encouraged to lose five.  Having lost five, I felt ten was a reasonable goal.  Then fifteen, then twenty.  When I was twenty pounds heavier, the differential between what I used to eat and my 2000 daily caloric intake goal was enough to account for fairly easy weight loss that was also reasonably forgiving.  If I had an “off” day, I still had a pretty big caloric deficient which meant I was going to lose weight.
    • Now that my caloric intake and weight have reached something of an equilibrium, something has to change.  My weight loss has leveled out at twenty pounds.  With the differential between my caloric needs at this weight and my caloric intake pretty close, a single “off” day is enough to erase any caloric deficits I might have accumulated over a week’s time.
    • Either I need to reduce my caloric intake a little below 2000 (which is possibly a little on the high side for my height/frame), get more exercise, or realistically combine the two.
    • I’ve installed a chin up/pull up bar in a doorway in my house.  A very very very long time ago I used to do pull ups several times a day.  When I installed the bar last week I could do two in a row if I struggled.  Yesterday I did five in a row.
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  1. Photo courtesy of m.a.r.c. []
  2. I call it “confessing” to Fitday. []
  3. One epic day saw me consuming 3,800 calories.  That was a GOOD day. []

New Year’s Ambitions!

Forward is the only way

Forward is the only way

At the beginning of the year I decided upon a few New Year’s Ambitions.1 I don’t like the idea of resolutions.2 Resolutions tend to be rule-driven.  And, the problem with a rule-driven resolution is that once it’s broken, your whole plan is shot.  An ambition, on the other hand, is a goal without a prescribed methodology for obtaining the goal.

Thus, New Year’s Ambitions.  Here is my list of things that, if I were looking back upon all of 2013, I would like to see as a list of accomplishments.

More on these in a little bit…

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  1. Photo courtesy of David []
  2. It’s not that I’m not resolute – I certainly can be.  I’m certain of it. []

Back on the wagon

Back on the wagon

Back on the wagon

FitDay.com is essentially a food diary site that lets you look up or enter the nutritional content for the food you eat, set goals, and track your progress.1 A very long time ago I lost probably about 25 pounds by using the site.  A friend lost about 80 using the same site!

Well, I started using FitDay.com again, at the time I’m writing this post2 it’s been 37 days.  To put this in perspective, in January of 2012 I was able to consistently use the site for three whole days.  Prior to that, I used the site for 35 mostly consecutive days.  In any case, 37 consecutive days is a pretty good record for me.

As before, my diet consists of trying to not eat like a pig and keep my caloric intake to no more than 2000.  While most days I stay below that number, there was a day in there where I just CRUSHED it.  In the past I’ve basically completely abandoned the site after having fallen off the wagon.  This time, I gave myself permission to go ahead and kick the crap out of my daily limit – as long as I still documented what I ate and kept at it the following day.  Several weeks after the fact, even with a mini-vacation in the interim, I’m still logging my diet.

In my experience, a food diary not only helps not only with monitoring caloric intake, but also helps me be more mindful of my choices of food.  Since I’m more aware of what and how much I’m eating, I find I choose things that are better for me.

***

I started writing this post back in February.  At the time I’m hitting publish on 4/18/2013, I’ve logged everything I’ve eaten into my Fitday.com account for 100 days in a row.  In this time I’ve lost 20 pounds – but more on this in a little bit.

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  1. Photo courtesy of Dave Wilson []
  2. You never know how long it takes to actually click Publish []

Your vote could stop the Robopocalypse!

Okay, before you read any further, take a moment to click here and vote for my PlotterBot for the Road to Maker Faire Challenge.

Vote for our future.  Vote PlotterBot!

Vote for our future. Vote PlotterBot!

I’ve been blogging about every little aspect of my own drawing robot – with this post1 it’s more than 80 posts on the topic. ((Photo courtesy of Vox Efx)) Everything from a list of other robots, to where I sourced the parts, to my failed attempts at designing parts, and a lot more posts about what I’ve done that does work.  Using what I’ve learned from my own really colossal failures and the brilliant open source work of others like Sandy Noble and Dan Royer, I’ve designed all of my own printable plastic parts from scratch, explained my thoughts and considerations behind the designs in excruciating detail, and shared all the files and my source code for everyone to use.

The winner of Maker Faire’s contest “The Road to Maker Faire Challenge” gets $2,500.00.  Dear gentle reader, should I be fortunate enough to win – I hereby make you these two promises:

  1. I promise to spend every last dime on building more and better robots.
  2. I promise to continue blogging relentlessly about what I did, how I did it, what worked, what didn’t work, and how you do it all yourself too.

So, please vote for my PlotterBot for the Road to Maker Faire Challenge!

  1. Which really doesn’t count… []

Drawing Robot Penmanship

Not a robotic pen holder

Not a robotic pen holder

Until very recently, I had only considered a drawing robot’s pen holder maintaining the pen at an angle to the drawing surface as an obvious and positive thing.1 I have now been cured of such illusions and understand that when the pen is mounted at something other than perfectly perpendicular to the drawing surface, it is possible for the pen tip skip or stutter across the drawing surface.

I’ve already droned on at length about the various ideal attributes I considered while designing a pen holder.  In light of this new important attribute of pen tilt other than perpendicular causing pen skipping, would I modify my design?

It probably depends.

First let’s consider what causes the skipping itself.  It seems to occur when the pen holder moves faster than the pen tip “wants” to be dragged across the drawing surface.  The result is that the pen tip tilts slightly with an upward movement instead of drawing upward for a short distance, then the pen holder swings a little to compensate for the upward jerk, then the pen tip skips upward – leaving a gap the pen tip skipped over. (I feel like I”m not explaining this well…)

Once I read that post by Dan, I did some half-scientific tests.2 I dragged the pen holder around on the drawing surface.  This is not even close to an operational simulation because I’m sure I didn’t keep the pen steady and the pen holder would almost never move that quickly.  I found that when the pen was moved very quickly upwards, the entire pen holder would indeed skip.  I tried the same “experiment” again after having adjusted the pen so that it was perpendicular to the drawing surface.  This time the pen still skipped – just a little less than when it was at a 15 degree tilt in the pen holder.  However, the pen I was using was a big marker.

Setting aside the pen tilt for a moment, I can’t think of any other benefits besides skip-reduction behind putting the pen perpendicular to the drawing surface.  The next thing to consider is whether all pens skip equally.  Not having actually performed a specific test to determine this, and speaking only from experiences in using different pens, I would suggest that not all pens skip equally.  Specifically, good ball point gel based pens do not appear to skip when operated very quickly.  In fact, running a gel based ball point pen seems to work quite well since it seemed to keep the itty-bitty ball inside the pen tip moving, which keeps the ink flowing.

I would suggest that the desirable pen holder tilt would depend upon (a) pen holder speed and (b) type of pen possibly as follows:

Marker, perpendicular Ball Point Pen, perpendicular Marker, tilted Ball Point Pen, tilted
Fast Pen Holder I would hypothesize a fast moving marker is going to skip whether it is mounted perpendicularly or not.However, from a semi-scientific test, I a tilted marker would skip a little more.  It is important to note that a marker will draw equally well whether it is perpendicular or tilted. First, gel ball point pen will quickly stop being able to draw ink if it is not held at a tilt.  A non-gel ink ball point pen might not have this problem since at least some of the ink comes through via capillary action.Either way, drawing perpendicularly is a problem for ball point pens.  However, since their tip makes a small point of contact with the drawing surface, they don’t seem to suffer from skipping problems, even at high speed. I don’t think a marker held at an angle is going to draw lines any better or worse than one that is held perpendicularly.However, my limited testing suggests that markers drawing at an angle quickly will skip a little more than quick drawing markers held perpendicularly. I suspect a ball point pen of almost any kind would work well if drawing at an angle.  Almost every single drawing made with my first drawing robot was done with ball point pens operating at about a 30-45 degree angle.Admittedly, that robot never drew very quickly, but then again I never seemed to have problems with skipping.
Slow Pen Holder If a pen holder with a marker is moving too slowly, the result will be ink bleeding all over the drawing and through the paper and pens that dry or run out too quickly.  It’s really quite a mess.I suspect that running any marker too fast is going to cause skipping problems – whether it is at an angle or not.  A marker’s tip either starts out much wider than a ball point pen, or it will end up that way after hours of drawing and being dragged across a large sheet of paper.  In my experience, using a marker in this fashion will basically make the marker unsuitable for any other purpose. With the caveat that pretty much any kind of ball point pen is going to have a difficult time drawing perpendicular to a vertical drawing surface, I would posit that moving the pen slow-to-medium would result in gaps in the drawings.  However, I think those gaps in the drawing would likely be more due to the ball point pen not have sufficient friction to keep ink flowing consistently. A slow moving marker makes about as much of a mess as an oil spill.Even assuming a medium-speed marker, I don’t think skipping would be that big a problem as long as the pen was not tilted at too severe an angle. A ball point pen could probably be operated anywhere between slow and fast.As long as the pen is moving relatively continuously, a ball point pen should be able to provide a continuous stream of ink.

Taking into account the potential for skipping, I would suggest based on the analysis above, that skipping is a problem for markers no matter the angle and largely irrelevant for ball point pens.  I would also suggest that a very slight pen holder tilt of 15 degrees is extremely helpful, if not crucial, to ball point pens and mostly irrelevant to markers.

Hey Dan, what do you think?

Last but not least, this is post #80 in this DrawBot Adventure Series!  And there’s still so much to cover!

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  1. Photo courtesy of Creative Tools []
  2. Which, I suppose is not much better than not-scientific… []

Skipping! How could I forget the skipping?!

Hubris, I haz it

Hubris, I haz it

Mr. Noble is not the only one prone to hubris.1 After taking into account every post on ideal drawing robot pen holder criteria, I found one more post that I should have read first.  Dan Royer of MarginallyClever.com suggests2 as good pen holder should:

  1. A single cord convergence point.  “Have the two strings meet at a single point, or as close as possible.  The moment they separate the math gets really ugly.”
  2. Deal with friction.  “Friction causes the pen to drag and lean.  If I tell the robot to draw a square corner and it comes out rounded then I know my pen is dragging because it never reached the corner.  The pen has to stay at a right angle to the drawing surface.  So far I’ve found that having at least three points of contact is enough to eliminate the problem.  That’s why I tape my business card to an eye bolt on the bottom of the ring – the bottom edge of the card forms a large contact area with very little friction.”
  3. Be well balanced.  “If the pen is balanced wrong it may point up or down.  If it points up then it might go dry.  If it points down then it might have extra friction when moving downwards, causing the pen to skip and create a dotted line.”
  4. Have an easy way to switch pens.  “Not only should it be easy to replace a pen but every pen should “lock” into the pen holder at the same distance and angle from the drawing surface.  In order to simplify this problem I only use one kind of pen that comes in many colors.”
  5. Works on a slanted surface.  “Works on both vertical and slanted surfaces up to a maximum of 10 degrees.”

My own prior post on ideal characteristics in a pen holder took into account Dan’s number 1, 3, 4 and considered 5.  What I failed to consider was how friction can cause the pen to skip or stutter when the pen is mounted at an angle and the pen travels upwards.

Although I started diving into this consideration, but I’m putting all that over-pontification into its own post.  This post is really about (a) Dan considered a very important factor in pen holder construction which I neglected and (b) how awesome open source is.  My own pen holder would be a terribly complicated mess doomed to multiple revisions had I not had the benefit of being able to review a veritable legion of pen holders used by many many other people in their many many different kinds of vertical drawing robots.

So – Yay Dan!  Huzzah open source!

The next post will be about whether this consideration would cause me to change my existing pen holder design.

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  1. Photo courtesy of Markus Krispler []
  2. I’m keeping all of Dan’s words, but reformatting them []