Random Nonsense – Page 7

Cephalopod Robot Friend Progress

Well, it’s here! Today is the start of #CephalopodWeek on ScienceFriday! There’s a little progress to report on my, tentatively named, CuttleBot. I’ll post a picture first, then get to describing the progress so far.

In the prior post I listed some of my sources of inspiration. Another such source is the work of Sean Charlesworth and his awesome Octopod, Gowanus Monster, and newly published Scuttleship. ((If you like his work, be sure and check out his Etsy shop!))

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Since I need special connectors for the articulated/articulating tentacles and I wasn’t able to edit the files in OpenSCAD, I wasn’t able to use Sean’s STL files. However, I really like the aesthetic of his designs¹ and how they really evoke the form of an octopus or cuttlefish. Here’s a mock up I used to help me visualize what a full-scale Scuttlefish head might look like with the tentacles I designed.

Scuttlefish with placeholders for tentacles

Unfortunately, the Scuttlefish head and body parts are just a tad too large for my small printer’s build volume. However, even if I were using a larger printer, I would still not want such a large robot as I’m hoping for this to be a shoulder-mounted companion.

Thus, I began work creating an OpenSCAD cephalopod cuttlefish head inspired by Sean’s work.

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Now that I had a design, I set the printer to work over night. This design is mostly to see if the various parts for the tentacles would work with this head. Since I want to put some LED’s in the eyes and possibly the mouth, I’ll need to hollow it out later.

The print took a little over an hour for the head.

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How about a video of it working?

I’m very happy with the progress so far. If I can shrink down the tentacle mechanisms, I can add more tentacles for more interesting emoting and animations. The video just shows the results of me yanking the fishing line running through the CuttleBot’s head.

Here’s a few more sketches of how I am planning on putting it all together.

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I might add some fabric frills / fins, instead of printed ones. I was also contemplating letting the top “shell” of the CuttleBot be formed from 3D printed spines with a fabric or thin plastic sheeting covering. This might help reduce weight or allow for internal lights to shine through the body.

Companion Robots: Building Robot Friends

Cephalopod Steampunk?! [↩]

Maker Faire Application: Vacuum Forming Workshop

I’ve been making some notes as I work on my vacuum former and the proposed workshop for this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire. Here’s some ideas and thoughts, in no particular order.¹²

Workshop Proposal
- I’ve demonstrated my bucket vacuum former at my daughter’s school a few times – and it is always a huge hit. The vacuum formed result looks like so much more than the product of very cheap and accessible materials. Two years ago I put on a presentation at Maker Faire about how to build a vacuum former – and this year I want to try something even more ambitious. Here’s the slideshow from 2017.

- I want to do an entire workshop on how to build and operate a vacuum former – and then let people try to vacuum form their own objects. One of my favorite things to vacuum form is an “Arc Reactor” and then augment it with an RGB flashing LED and a coin cell battery. However, I think people would also enjoy making goggles and phone cases. It takes about 30 seconds to heat up the plastic and just seconds to actually vacuum form a shape and let it cool down.

Things I’ve Vacuum Formed
- Arc Reactor (plus RGB fast flashing LED and CR2032 battery)
- Steampunk goggles (plus elastic)
- Phone case (this actually works!)
- Candy / chocolate molds (one of the kids made a chocolate fidget spinner)
- Here are some more ideas

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New Developments
- Several months ago, just before Thanksgiving, our stovetop stopped working. Yeah. I know. Talk about timing, right? While we scrambled to get a new cooktop ordered, delivered, and installed, we also purchased an inexpensive hot plate from Amazon. I had originally used an old hand-me-down large toaster oven to heat up the plastic, but wondered … is there a better way? That toaster oven is huge and takes a long time to heat up. This weekend I was delighted to learn the hot plate heats up very quickly, gets hot enough to soften the plastic, and works as a fantastic and compact replacement for the toaster oven.
  - There are a few caveats to using the hot plate.
    - The heat was more localized, causing the center of the plastic to become thinner and saggier. When the plastic plates were heated in the toaster oven, they tended to heat more evenly. Perhaps if I tried a lower heat setting or held the plastic plate higher, this might be mitigated.
    - It’s hard to get a sense of the plastic without actually watching it get soft and wobbly. This is especially true when the plate is inside the toaster oven – there’s only room enough for one or two people to see what’s going on. However, with the hot plate, there’s no enclosure³ to obscure an audience view.
    - I was somewhat paranoid about letting the plastic droop down onto the heating element. I’m pretty sure it would smelled horrible, made a huge mess, been nearly impossible to clean, and made the hot plate unsuitable for any other purposes. I may try to locate a cheap hot plate from a second hand / thrift store / goodwill to take to Maker Faire. Though, now I’m also wondering if it might be possible to repurpose an old coffee maker, grill, griddle, or panini press, into the heater for this project. Maybe if I covered the heating element in aluminum foil first, that would protect the surface?
  - The power switch of the vacuum head / bucket head is conveniently placed right on top for normal operation. For unusual operations such as this, where the vacuum is upside down, it is decidedly inconvenient. I used a power strip with a switch which made it much easier to operate the vacuum. I think I may invest in a dedicated foot switch extension cord for this project. It’s a very cheap upgrade that would make it a lot easier to do.
- I also have a prior post discussing some additional ideas on how to improve this process.

Accessories / Things to Bring to Maker Faire. There are SO many little parts to a project – forget any one little thing and you’re going to be making a last minute trip to the hardware store.⁴ Here’s a few lists of things I will need:
- Parts
  - Bucket
  - Vacuum head
  - Hot plate
  - Power strip or foot switch extension cord
  - One or two wire coat hangers
  - 6x Small to medium binder clips
  - Wooden dowel (1x 6″ riser, 3x 8″ legs)
  - 3D printed parts (1x plug, 2x riser caps, 3x leg holders, 3x feet)
  - Hot glue
- Building Tools
  - Drill (for drilling holes)
  - Ruler and / or paper grid
  - Chisels
  - Hacksaw (cutting the wooden dowels)
  - Hot glue gun
  - Sharpie
- Presentation Tools
  - Heat gun
  - Scissors (cutting plastic plates)
  - Old socks (DIY oven mitts)
- Materials
  - Examples of plastic plates in various stages of the process
  - Examples of items made, also in various stages of production
- Consumables
  - Plastic plates
  - Tape (clear packing tape works well)
  - Fishing line
  - Elastic cord
  - Pens (metallic permanent markers)
  - LED’s
  - Batteries
  - Maybe stickers to give away?

Bucket Vacuum Former

As always, as much to inform you, dear reader, as to order my own thinking and jot things down before I forget them [↩]
DOCUMENT!!! [↩]
And, now that I think of it, it may be the enclosure which causes more even heating… [↩]
Not that this is a bad thing. But, I’d rather have to go because I want to do go [↩]

Loudest 3D Printed Whistle – now with 100% more science

Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle v1

I ordered a decibel meter from Amazon the other day so I could drop some science on the claims from various 3D printed whistles on Thingiverse. There are several that claim to be the loudest. Well, today, I began my quest to put these claims to rest.

The closer the decibel meter is to a sound source, the higher it registers. To eliminate some of these variables, I placed the decibel meter on a counter in front of me and a chair 24 inches in front of that. For each of the whistles I was testing I stood just behind the chair and gave the whistle three hearty puffs. The decibel meter, which was set to record and display the “max” reading, would then tell me the loudest reading for that set of three whistle toots.

Without further ado, I declare the “Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle” by Whistleblower on Thingiverse the clear winner at 121.1 decibels. Both whistles by this designer took the top two scientifically determined spots.

Name	Thingiverse ID	Mass (grams)	Price	Print Time (minutes)	Decibels	Subjective Rank
Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle [v1]	2933021	3.9	$0.12	22	121.1	1
Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle [v2]	2933021	3.7	$0.11	18	111.5	3
v29 (Over 118 db!)	1179160	13.9	$0.42	90	110.4	4
2 chamber whistle (LOUD) [w5]	2616512	8.1	$0.24	49	109.5	2
Emergency Whistle with Solidworks 2014 source	495172	1.2	$0.04	7	101.8	5
Whistle Ring Modified [v2]	2027115	1.6	$0.05	9	90.8	6

Just how loud is 121.1 decibels? ¹ Well, for starters, it’s just above the pain threshold of 120 decibels. It’s louder than:

Your iPod headphones at maximum volume
A baby crying, next to your ear
A full symphony orchestra
The subway
A sporting event
A chainsaw
A jetski
A marching band

It’s on par with:

Thunder
A shotgun
An ambulance siren
A rock concert

And, if you didn’t have earplugs, you would exceed the daily safe exposure limit for 121 decibels in 7 seconds.

There may be louder whistle on Thingiverse² and, if so, please let me know. I’ll print the model and test against the others in my arsenal.

Loudest 3D Printed Whistle

This page has several charts to help explain. [↩]
Or some other online 3D design repository [↩]

Loud 3D Printed Whistle Test, Take 2

Impatient for my decibel meter to arrive from Amazon and eager to get more feedback on the loudest 3D printed whistle, I brought the four loudest whistles to work and enlisted the help of two friends. We performed the test much the same as the last time – only this time they were on one end of a large parking lot and I had driven to the far side to blow each whistle once, then repeated them each once. Here’s the result on their subjective test:

Name	Thingiverse ID	Mass (grams)	Price	Print Time (minutes)	Rank	Decibels
Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle [v2]	2933021	3.7	$0.11	18	1	TBD
Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle [v1]	2933021	3.9	$0.12	22	2	TBD
2 chamber whistle (LOUD) [w5]	2616512	8.1	$0.24	49	3	TBD
v29 (Over 118 db!)	1179160	13.9	$0.42	90	4	TBD

Whether the¹ loudest whistle is the v1 or v2 of the “Extremely loud and compact emergency whistle,” Thingiverse user whistleblower clearly designed an amazing, quick printing, low cost whistle. It has a very high pitched piercing tone that can be downright painful to be near, let alone create. ²

As before there’s a number of different things that could be happening here. Perhaps the particular tone of this whistle travels better through open spaces (such as a parking lot) rather than through a door and down a hall (such as inside my house). I know there are some whistles that require a lot of blowing power to hit maximum volume and others which almost “choke” on too much pressure.

In two days my decibel meter will arrive and I’ll try all of these tests again and post a new table. If you think you’ve got a contender or have seen a really loud whistle on Thingiverse, let me know in the comments so I can print and test it.

Loudest 3D Printed Whistle

Subjectively [↩]
Again, I had my earplugs in for the test [↩]

How to Back Up Files from Google Drive with a Supervised User

Google suddenly discontinued/crippled their Google Supervised User program in January of 2018. This was a fantastic program which allowed parents to set up a Google account for a child on a Chromebook and monitor and control access to the internet. Unfortunately, the “manage user page” redirects you a page “Supervised Users can’t be created or edited.” Sure, there’s Google Family Link – but that only works for Android and mobile devices.

This means the Chromebook we bought for our daughter and which she’s been using for about a year now, is borderline useless. How useless?

Imagine using a modern computer (or even a phone or tablet!) without the ability to copy, cut and paste. No being able to visit any new sites, since I can’t edit her access to whitelist the website. You can’t copy, move, or drag-and-drop the files from Google Drive to the internal microSD card or a flash drive.

And, as I discovered today, no being able to download files out of the Supervised User’s Google Drive account, since Google’s ability to zip the files is crippled.¹ Since my daughter’s account had hundreds of files, it was beginning to look like my only option was to download each file individually, one after the other.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, here’s how you can back up your Supervised User’s account out of Google Drive:

Create a new empty folder with a catchy name like “20180528 Backup”
Select all other files in their Google Drive
Tap the trackpad with two fingers² and select “Move”
Move all the files into your newly created folder
Select the newly created folder
Tap the trackpad with two fingers³ and select “Share”
Share that folder from the Supervised User with yourself (probably by typing in your email)⁴
Open up Google Drive in your web browser on a completely different, non-Chromebook device
Click on the icon that looks like two people and is labeled, “Shared with me”
You should see the previously named folder under the documents recently shared with you
Right click on the folder and click on “Download.” It will take some time as Google zips the folder and all the documents in all the sub-folders into a file
When prompted, save the file to your computer

I got through this with the usual trial and error. I really hope it’s helpful to someone else some day.

You can download a single file at a time – but not more than one at a time [↩]
This is the Chromebook version of a “right click” [↩]
Again, the Chromebook “right click” [↩]
You may get a warning that you won’t receive a confirmation email – don’t worry about it [↩]

Cheapest Easiest Easy Button Hack EVER

But... could it be even EASIER?! — But… could it be even EASIER?!

I’ve always liked the idea of the Staples Easy Button. Not so much a button that says “That was easy,” but the idea of having an enormous button on my desktop that would do… anything at all. Official “Staples Easy Buttons” used to sell for about $20 and are now only about $7. But, this is still a lot to pay for a big button that I’d want to gut anyhow. Recently I figured out a way to build a big useful button, very inexpensively.

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The secret sauce is … a tap light! You can buy a pack of 4 big (10cm diameter) tap lights for under $4 and they’ll ship free as a “Prime add-on.” For less than $1 each, you get a three AA battery holder, toggle on/off switch, a bright LED, all neatly organized into a big plastic button. This button also has another “feature” which is missing from many other pricier options. The dome over the light is white – which means you can put any color LED or, as I did, an Adafruit Neopixel inside and the dome will change color accordingly!

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Here are some pictures of the disassembled tap light so you can see if it would work for you. I had originally bought these so that I could put a light right next to my newest 3D printer.¹²³

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There’s actually quite a bit of room inside the tap light for a small project. I was able to pack a Neopixel, a small buzzer, an ATTiny85, and a rat’s nest of wires. I expect this project to take a lot of abuse at Maker Faire, so I applied a liberal amount of hot glue inside to hold the wires down and out of the path of the springs, switch, case, and the likely path of the button dome.

Once reassembled, there really isn’t any way to tell the button was hacked. It looks identical to three other tap lights. I just love that I was able to make use of the battery holder and existing switch inside the project. The 4.5V supplied by the batteries is perfect for powering my ATTiny85 and lone Neopixel. If you’ve got a junk drawer, you could probably build something very similar for about $2-3.⁴ As it is, I “splurged” by using $1 worth of Neopixel because I was being lazy and didn’t want to either wire up three sets of LED’s or track down three resistors to go with an RGB LED. Even so, this is an incredibly cost-effective project enclosure.

In case it’s of interest to you, this project is the newest iteration of our 15 Second Timer-Buzzer from my daughter’s 15 Second Drawings project for Maker Faire Bay Area 2017. The prior version used an Adafruit Circuit Playground, a 100mm Red Button, and a LiPo battery and probably cost around $40 or so. ⁵

All of the code is on Github. Basically, the buzzer flashes amber three times with a very short tone in between flashes, then turns green for 14 seconds, amber for one more second, and then turns red and buzzes angrily to let you know time is up. I had written most of the code to work on an ATTiny45… until the code ballooned to a whopping 4560 bytes and I had to switch to an ATTiny85.⁶ If I had to build this over again, I’d solder in an 8-pin DIP socket for the ATTiny rather than mutilating the chip and hot gluing it directly to the inside. ;)

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I have a power strip next to it, but it’s fully utilized, I only need a little bit of light sometimes, and I was getting tired of holding a flashlight on it at night [↩]
In my tradition of naming my 3D printers after characters from Futurama, my Monoprice Mini Delta is named “Roberto.” [↩]
My prior 3D printers are Bender the MakerBot Cupcake CNC, Flexo the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, and HedonismBot the Replicator 1 Dual [↩]
I figure about $1 for an ATTiny85 and $1 for the button. Most people can find a way to scrounge an RGB LED or a few different LED’s, an old buzzer or piezoelectric disc, and some bits of wire [↩]
Not counting the gelato we ate, of course [↩]
What a waste!!! [↩]

Art Docent Program – Posters, 10/12/2017

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Keep Calm I'm the Doctor — Keep Calm I’m the Doctor

Organizing

Everyone utilizes their own method of organization, notetaking, and motivation. Some use “Getting Things Done,” others go with “Inbox Zero,” or the “43 folders,” there’s Jerry Seinfeld’s “Don’t Break the Chain,” and a new one called the “Bullet Journal.”

I’ve tried some of these methods, combinations of these methods, and here’s what I’ve come up with for my own life.

E-Mail
1. Reply quickly.
  1. As Tony Soprano once said, “more important than the particular decision is that it happen in a timely fashion.” My number one rule of email management is simply this – reply immediately to anything that deserves a reply. Any timely response, even a non-optimal one, is better than a polished late response.
  2. If you can’t get a quick response out because some action is required…
2. Act or Delegate, even to yourself. If there’s something to be done, do it already. From now on, you live in a world of “to done’s” not “to do’s.” If you can’t do it, then figure out what needs to happen first and work on that. If someone else needs to do it, ask them to take care of it and let you know when they’re done. If you need to do something else, copy yourself on the email and ask yourself to do it. Your own email will arrive in your inbox and you’ll need to…
3. Start a draft. If the matter really requires more information than you have at your fingertips or isn’t urgent, start a draft.
4. Turn drafts into emails. Every day turn drafts into emails and send them out. Since my job has become roughly 80-90% email, this is how I manage it all.
5. Ignore unimportant emails. Most of your emails are unimportant. Ignore them, mark read, move on.
Web Surfing
1. Tabs. Tabs are the enemy. They will rob you of your productivity. If you open a tab, read it, enjoy it, and close it or decide it is information you want to retain. If it is truly important and something you’ll need to refer to all the time, bookmark it. But, remember…
2. Bookmarks. Bookmarks are the enemy. These are kept to an absolute minimum and only for sites you really visit all the time. Otherwise, that information you wanted to keep will be lost in difficult to search bookmarks forever.
3. Everything else. If you find a web page, tweet, or some other information that you want to keep or reference in the future, share it or make a note.
Sharing
1. If you share information you help a friend and preserve the information in your sent folder, twitter stream, etc. Otherwise, make a note. The thing with notes is…
Notes
1. There are only two kinds of notes in the world. Information that is of temporary use and information that is of permanent use.
2. Temporary notes. Write these on whatever you have lying around. Discard when done.
3. Permanent notes. A permanent note really comes down to how you want to treat information. I like information either in an electronic searchable format or I want it written down so I can reflect on it or refer to it later. A permanent electronic note goes into Google Keep or an email to myself, in outine format, listing things in no particular order, with a few keywords in the subject line and body of the email near the link. When I need to find it again, I just search in Google Keep or for emails from me and specific keywords. A permanent written note goes in my…
Notebook
1. The problem with the Bullet Journal method is that it requires setup, discipline, and maintenance. If you screw those up, the notebook and all the lovely page numbers and organization systems become a burden, a hassle or, worse, useless.¹
2. There are so many great things about keeping a notebook. It’s a quick and easy way to record interesting and useful information. While my handwriting is horrible, but I’m pretty decent at drawing and sketching. A notebook for me is something where I can brainstorm, start drafting an idea I can return to later, or where I can record information for posterity. I tend to work out ideas on scraps of paper before recording that data in a more permanent format by committing it to my notebook. Sometimes this means copying information by hand or, my personal favorite, literally cutting and pasting information into the notebook. The worst thing is probably that it isn’t particularly searchable.
3. Title and Date. Every entry in the notebook starts on a fresh page with the date at the top right corner and a helpful title at the top of the page. The date does more than provide you with context.
4. Cross Referencing. The dates at the top of the page function as your page numbers. When you need to refer to a page in the past, rather than referencing a page number, just reference the date of the prior page. When you write a cross reference down to a prior page, note the future date on the prior page.
5. DIY Flags. I placed several pieces of duct tape inside the front cover of the notebook. On top of that, I put several small 1/2″ x 1″ pieces of duct tape. These can be peeled off easily and folded over a page for a sturdy bookmark. More on this later.

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Well, this is my theory. I don’t actually know since I haven’t actually tried the Bullet Journal method… [↩]

Vacuum Former – Things to Form

Here’s a list of things I’m thinking about vacuum forming:

Arc Reactor parts
Star Trek communications badge
Cell phone case or cell phone stand
Hair clip accessories
Replacement emblem
Goggles
Paint or small part tray
Molds from play dough, sculpey, or model magic
Molds for soap, candy, ice, lollipops, or popsicles
Light switch cover, electrical outlet cover
Christmas ornaments
Lego toy car shells
Rocket nose cone and fins
“Shrink wrap” parts to make them smoother and/or watertight

Bucket Vacuum Former

SMUD Tiny House Competition 2016

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District sponsored a Tiny House Competition, modeled on the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathalon, started in October of 2014 and presented to the public on October 15, 2016. The goal was for each team to design and build a zero net energy house on wheels for 100 – 400 square feet, with up to $25,000, using green building techniques and sustainable living.

I’ve been interested in tiny houses since first seeing some of the Tumbleweed homes at Maker Faire many years ago. In the last few years it seems like the idea of tiny homes has really exploded – with multiple television shows devoted to the design, construction, and purchase of very small homes.

The event this weekend was held in a parking lot at the Cosumnes River College in Elk Grove from 9am through 4pm and included music, prizes, food trucks, and a little bit of windy and rainy weather. Despite the seeming niche appeal of the competition and inclement weather, the crowds and lines to each the houses were unreal. People were waiting 45 to 60 minutes to see the inside of these houses! Since each house is so small and only reasonably accommodate a few people at a time, the lines moved slowly. While we were able to talk to a few people from the various colleges and teams, we didn’t get a chance to see the inside of any of the houses.

A big part of the competition was “communication” including documentation, brochures, and educational videos. Unfortunately, most of the tiny homes either didn’t have or had run out of their materials by the time we arrived around noon. Some of the teams had websites or Facebook pages for their projects, while others had a few posts on their college’s pages. Hopefully the teams will post more information and pictures in the weeks to come. (More than one team suggested they’d get right on it – after they caught up on their homework…) Here’s the links I was able to find: