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Sriracha embroidery

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 10:00pm MST

This really belongs on CRAFT, in fact, in was on CRAFT, posted by the inimitable Brookelynn Morris, but also being addicted to this stuff (and knowing many geeks who also have the habit), I couldn't resist posting it here. A friend of mine, a real ethnic food connoisseur, turned me on to Sriracha hot sauce decades ago. He spoke about it in such rhapsodic tones, I just had to try some. Endless bottles of it have since rotated through my cupboard ever since. They must put crack in it or something, because soon, you're putting it on everything, for an instant party in your mouth, a very spicey party in your mouth.

Brookelynn writes:

One of my flickr contacts, christ(ine), posted this perfectly rendered sriracha embroidery. This is the only hot sauce in my house, and its sweetspicy is addictive. In fact, it has an almost cult-like following. I'm not surprised one bit that she felt compelled to stitch this up, but I am shocked at how well she created the complicated characters. and details. Art imitates life, and in this case, craft imitates food.

Sriracha Embroidery

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This week in Maker Events

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 6:00pm MST

Enclosure: [download]

Looking to take a break from tinkering on your latest project this weekend? Here are some fine maker events to check out, from The Maker Events Calendar. Wish your event was on the list? Add it to the calendar!

Coming up this week:

BarBot 2010
San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 - Thursday, Feb 18, 9pm - 2am

Make: Denver February Meeting
Denver, CO
Thursday, Feb 18, 2009, 7pm+

Rockland Robotics Club Meeting
Nanuet, NY
Friday, Feb 19, 2010, 7pm - 9pm

Handmade Music Night, Toronto
Toronto, ON
Friday, Feb 19, 2010 10pm - 12am

Arduino + Gumband SMS @HackPittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
Friday, Feb 20, 2010, 7pm - 8pm

Public Arduino Night @ theTransistor
Provo, UT
Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, 5pm - 8pm

Learn to play the Didgeridoo @Pumping Station: One
Chicago, IL
Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, 2pm - 4pm

Intro to Electronic Soldering @The Hacktory
Philadelphia, PA
Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, 1pm - 4pm

NEMES 14th Annual Model Engineering Show
Waltham, MA
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 10am - 4pm

Using Transistors @Metrix Create Space
Seattle, WA
Sunday, Feb 21, 2010, 2pm - 4:30pm

Pure Data Workshop 2: Interfacing with the world
Portland, OR
Sunday, Feb 21, 2010, 1pm - 5pm

Musicians and DIY Electronics Swap Meet #7
Berkeley, CA
Sunday, Feb 21, 2010, 11am - 3pm

HacDC Lightning Talks
Washington, DC
Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010, 7:30pm - 9:30pm

Hackers in the Pub @Workshop 88
Naperville, IL
Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010, 8pm+

Start planning for:

Handmade Music @ the Hack Factory
Minneapolis, MN
Thursday, Feb 25th, 2010, 7pm - 10pm

Friday Night at The Crucible
Oakland, CA
Friday, Feb 26, 2010, 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Learn to control the Arduino @Kwartzlab
Kitchener, ON
Saturday, Feb 27, 2010, 1pm - 5pm

LVL1 Solder Your Own Freeduino Workshop @ UofL
Louisville, KY
Saturday, Feb 27, 2010, 1pm - 4pm

Maker Faire Newcastle
Newcastle, UK
Saturday, Mar 13, 2010 - Sunday, Mar 14, 2010
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Lost Knowledge: Sign painting

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 4:30pm MST

The Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those just slightly off to the side). Every other Wednesday, we look at retro-tech, "lost" technology, and the make-do, improvised "street tech" of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. "Lost Knowledge" was also the theme of MAKE Volume 17

When I was a tween, one Saturday afternoon, my dad and I went to the barbershop to get our hair cut. Outside the shop, an elderly man was standing there painting a new sign on the replaced plate glass window (which vandals had recently smashed). Walking by, I was mesmerized by the painter, deep in a kind of Zen-like concentration as he worked, his large, beat-up and paint-smeared wooden toolbox overflowing with brushes and small cans of paint, his palette, his maul stick, all of it was so novel and wondrous to me.

Inside the barbershop, as my dad got his hair cut, and then as I got mine, sitting in the cast iron barber's chair (which also always fascinated me) right by the window, I was transfixed, watching the painter work. I couldn't get over the idea that those nearly perfect letterforms, with their thick drop shadows, and the starbursts and other ornaments he was so effortlessly creating -- all flowed so confidently from his hand, held steady by the maul stick pressed to the glass. It looked like flourishes of magic. I'd already been interested in art and graphic design by then, but this experience made me become even more interested in pursuing commercial art as a career (which I ended up doing). It's amazing how, in one's life, a small, seemingly mundane encounter like this can have such a disproportional impact. I still think about that elderly signwriter (what sign painters are called), outside the small town barbershop in Chesterfield, Virginia, every time I see a handpainted sign.

But these signs and building-side advertisements (sometimes called "brickads") are very much a fading artform. But like a lot of dead or dying media, the form has found an avid and growing following online. There are a number of Flickr pools devoted to old and new handpainted signage, and online archives of "ghostsigns," signs from decades (or centuries) past that are all but fading away. The art of the "walldog," a slang term for signwriters, will not be forgotten. And like a lot of retro commercial arts, such as letterpress printing, there are some who claim that handpainted signs are even making a comeback.

Here are a few resources to check out:

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What Was I Thinking? Part 3: Barbie skull costume after Dali

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:30pm MST

We have covered Maine artist Andrew Salomone's work here at Make: Online many times before. Highlights include a portrait of Bill Cosby in Jell-O shots, a Ouija board shaped like a computer keyboard, a gingerbread house abandoned halfway through construction due to the economic downturn, an unfinished scrabble game which at a distance becomes a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and a ski mask with the wearer's face printed on the outside. We like Andrew, and we like Andrew's work.

But my fragile, inflated ego needs a break from these weekly pummelings. So today somebody else is in the spanking machine. And that somebody, dear Andrew, is you. Thanks for being a sport and for posting your failed Halloween costume in the first place. Andrew, himself, has this to say about the project:

I've been thinking about making a skull out of barbies after this famous image of Salvador Dali for a while now. I finally decided that the easiest thing to do would be to stitch the barbies onto a ski mask and wear it as a Halloween costume. But after seeing the final result, it seems like there may never be an appropriate time to wear this.

The Dali image he refers to is a tableau vivant featuring the bodies of naked women arranged to form a skull. It's pictured on the shirt he's wearing in the photo above, but because it's arguably NSFW, we're only going to link to a hi-res image. The work is a 1951 photograph by Philippe Halsman (Wikipedia), who famously collaborated with Dali on several portraits, and is based on a sketch by Dali himself. It is titled In Voluptas Mors, which my hack Latin renders as something like "In pleasure, there is death." The image is well-known, and was strongly alluded to in promotional art for The Silence of the Lambs and The Descent.

Thanks again, Andrew. Anybody else brave enough to step up? Send your What Was I Thinking? suggestions straight to me at sean@makezine.com.
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Building a CP/M 68k computer from scratch

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:00pm MST

João Silva's latest project is to build his own computer from scratch, and it looks like he is off to a great start. Based around the Motorola 68000 processor, he is attempting to build a system that can run the CP/M-68k operating system. Besides just figuring out how to wire the chips up correctly, he is also working on getting a compiler set up so that he can write C programs for his system. It's an ambitious project which harkens back to the good old days of building computers in one's garage using discrete components. I look forward to seeing his progress!
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EMSL's Drink Making Unit

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 1:00pm MST
One problem with the cocktail robot genre is -- at least until recently -- everyone's trying to make money off these devices so no one is willing to go open source. Well, trust our friends the Evil Mad Scientists (Lenore and Windell) to do it right. Their beautiful Drink Making Unit pumps liquids from three different carafes, somewhat limiting their drink options but still serving as a great starting point.

How *do* you build a drink-mixing robot? We spent a remarkably long period of time looking for true food-safe valves and pumps to use for this project. The "standard" way to do this is to use solenoid-controlled valves, or sometimes compressed-air powered valves, but the solenoid valves are notoriously unreliable and we aren't planning to keep compressed air (or CO2) around. The other obviously safe way to transport liquid in a known food-safe environment is to use a peristaltic pump. These are great, but we felt a little silly either making our own from scratch or paying about $100 each for commercial units that barely move milliliters per minute. We also looked at various diaphragm pumps, aquarium pumps, and so on, but mostly came up with products that were either expensive or of questionable construction for use with food, or gave completely uncontrolled throughput volume.

Finally, after making some progress on a design consisting in part of ketchup bottles and servo motors, we came across an unexpected solution while browsing eBay for other pump types: breast pumps.

Check out EMSL's description of the Drink Making Unit or see the DMU in action at BarBot 2010.

More:
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Circuit Skills: Circuit Board Etching, sponsored by Jameco

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 12:00pm MST

Enclosure: [download]
I very much enjoy making my own circuit boards. It's a satisfying process that ties together my love of electronics with materials I used back in my art school days. It's also the most accurate way to build a circuit short of sending away to a PCB manufacturer, and it's much more fun.

Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube.

I actually got my start in electronics etching others' designs I'd found online -- long before I understood how they worked! Churning out fully-functional devices early on proved to be a great way to keep me motivated and making. The above video documents the ins and outs of my process, and can hopefully serve as a starting point for your own.

Materials I use for printing, etching, and drilling my own boards:
- Transparency stock for laser printers (inkjet setups are likely as effective)
- Nitrile gloves (thicker reusable gloves are good too)
- Dust mask & eye protection
- Good ventilation (if you can smell it - you're breathing it!)
- Inexpensive photo frame (or specialized exposure frame)
- Red safe-light (optional - brief exposure to dim light is ok)
- Chemicals - positive type developer, ferric chloride, nail polish remover (or acetone)
- Pyrex dishes w/ lids (plastic storage containers work as well)
- Desk or clip lamp + ~30W CFL bulb
- Drill bits, .8mm, 1mm, 1.5mm (+ others, dependent on source design)
- Small drillpress (or suitable dremel attachment)
- Misc. tools - xacto knife, metal ruler, permanent marker, vacuum, etc.
Additional tips I've found helpful:
- Warm developer and etchant do speed up the process, but keep an eye on your board's progress!
- Orient your design before printing (text should appear reversed in most cases)
- Keep etchant away from any metal you don't want etched - including stainless steel sinks!
- Drilling holes systematically (i.e. left to right, top to bottom) can help prevent oversights
- Keep the board clear while drilling to improve visibility/accuracy
- Dedicate a workspace & prepare materials ahead of time (plastic drop-cloths are handy!)
As part of their sponsorship of these Circuit Skills videos, Jameco is offering two product bundles to help jumpstart those new to the realm of homemade PCBs -
- Etching supplies bundle
- Drilling tools bundle
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Software MIDI bridge uses serial port to transmit MIDI

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 11:30am MST

Got a cool idea for a physical computing project (or actual music instrument) that uses MIDI, but don't have a computer with an actual MIDI port? Use a Windows-based computer? Then Stephen Hobley (of laser harp fame) has you covered with his serial port MIDI relay project. After getting tired of relying on expensive, unwieldy adapter boards, he wrote a slick piece of software that monitors a regular serial port, and passes messages between it and the operating system's MIDI interface. Excellent idea!

Under Linux, I *think* you can configure the snd-serial module to achieve the same effect, however I don't have any experience with OS X. Have you done this with your favorite operating system/program? Got tips, or a better way to accomplish the same thing?
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In the Maker Shed: Ice Tube Clock kit

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 10:30am MST
Somewhere at the junction of modern open-source hardware and early 80's Russia lives a beautiful DIY kit from the Maker Shed called the Ice Tube Clock. The centerpiece of this old-meets-new clock is a Russian-made, 9-digit, vacuum florescent display (VFD). Included in the kit is everything you need to build a complete VFD clock.
Features:
- Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits, PM dot and alarm on/off indicator
- Adjustable brightness
- Alarm with volume adjust
- Precision watch crystal keeps time with under 20ppm (0.002%) error (Clear acrylic enclosure protects the clock from you, and you from the clock
- Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
- Selectable 12h or 24h display
- Displays day and date on button press
- 10 minute snooze
- Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
- Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9" x 2.9" x 1.3" (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
- Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!
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Party time hax0rs at the N900 showcase

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 9:00am MST

Nokia put on a project showcase for the finalists in their (mainly) European N900-hacking contest. The projects are pretty interesting and range from remotely viewable kite aerial photography to GPS-aided haptic navigation. Oh, and it looks like it was a good party, too.
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Letters From the Fab Academy, Part 3

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 8:30am MST

In this series, "Letters from the Fab Academy," Shawn Wallace, member of AS220, the Providence, RI community arts space, shares his experiences with the Fab Academy, a distributed learning collaborative, built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. -- Gareth
Mold making and casting By Shawn Wallace

Noah Bedford from the Providence Fab Lab made this flexible spider coupling for use in one of the machines built in the lab.

This week's topic, mold making and casting, came as a welcome change from the previous two-week session (embedded programming), which was creating a bit of anxiety here at the Fab Academy. The materials and processes for molding and casting are easy to learn and yield satisfying results; programming microcontrollers can be satisfying in its own way, but is a more intractable topic to learn in two weeks. The assignment this time around was to model an object, machine a positive mold, then cast a flexible urethane mold that could be used to make multiple objects in a variety of materials.

Here are a few samples of the work created in the class:
Food-friendly silicone molds can be made to cast edibles, like these candies, modeled by Susanna Tesconi in Barcelona.

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HeatSource Invention from L-MIT

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 8:30am MST

Another Make: television-produced video highlights an invention called HeatSource. Using paraffin wax stored in plastic chambers to store heat, HeatSource was created by students for the MIT IDEAS competition.
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Hello, gorgeous! "Spectacular" views from ISS Cupola

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 6:30am MST

Image courtesy of NASA

Last night's third and final spacewalk for the STS-130 crew resulted in the opening of the Cupola's seven shutters, revealing what Station commander, Jeff Williams, called "spectacular" views of the earth below. The seven-window Cupola offers 360 degree views of Earth as well as the outside of the station, giving crew members the most wide-eyed look from a spacecraft ever known. Die-hard space geeks watched live footage of spacewalkers, Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick, floating around on the outside of the station while the Cupola shutters were slowly opened, but had to wait for views from inside the Cupola to be beamed back to Earth (none of the live-feed ISS cameras can reach inside the Cupola). The wait was well worth it.

The new bay window view of the Earth will likely be a hot topic at today's NASA Tweetup at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. I'll be along for the ride, tweeting and sending pictures, as participants get a special behind-the-scenes tour of some of JSC's hot spots and have opportunity to chat with several astronauts.
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Another year... another Toy Fair

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 3:30am MST

Another year... another Toy Fair... Someone asked me if this is upsetting. Some thoughts...

i didn't go to toy fair this year, but this is interesting to hear (and not surprising). As far as it bothering me, earlier in life, it would have, but now, not so much. Now, there are products at toy fair this year that are "based on" projects I've worked on/ or supported).
That being said, when issues like makers not getting proper credit comes up, i don't mind helping a maker who simply wants proper credit (last year's Bristlebot fiasco, for example, Scholastic and Klutz eventually did the right thing) - we didn't need a lawyer, just a great community to rally. if companies break the law, other things might need to happen -- and we'll likely see or hear some examples as the DIY community gets larger and their ideas flow to and from more commercial ventures. For me personally, I really don't want to compete on lawyering, I'll move on to the next idea, hopefully :) a lot of maker projects are "based" on other ideas too, so origin can get complicated. Creative Commons, patents, trademarks, copyrights, are systems we all currently have access to -- and although there are problems, it's pretty exciting to be making things at the moment.

Many of us have seen our own projects "ripped off." Now i consider it validation our work is both good and interesting. i can't speak for everyone, this is just me of course -- I also reserve the right to change my mind :) i think we're all doing amazing things and the makers out there are leaders of a huge movement. Hobbyists, customers, makers, fans, and community will reward all of us. Sure, there might be sales that "leak" away to toy makers who don't work with makers or give proper credit, but that's always going to be true, taxation on being popular :) What we all need to do is provide the best value and customers service, that's what cannot be commodified or cloned. And lastly, we can all try harder helping folks to choose makers and support makers via Maker Faire, Maker Shed, Maker's Market, and companies like EMSL, adafruit, Sparkfun, etc. -- PT

Thoughts, makers?

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CubeStormer

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 3:00am MST

We have covered other robotic Rubik's Cube solvers before, but the CubeStormer is a little different. It's fast, really fast! Apparently it's able to solve any 3x3x3 Rubik's cube in less than 12 seconds. Then again, maybe it isn't that fast compared to Erik Akkersdijk!

The Worlds Fastest Lego Mindstorms RCX Speedcubing Robot. Built entirely from lego elements now scanning and solving any 3x3x3 Rubik's cube combination in under 12 seconds.
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Grant Hutchinson's workshop slash server room

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:00am MST

I'm a big fan of workshops, the messier the better, and this one definitely fits the bill. I especially love the old school Macs that Grant has turned into servers. The super old ones are an 8500 and 9600 working as web servers, while a relatively modern G4/450 dualie serves as a file server. But these old school devices can't compare to Grant's pride and joy, his Apple Newton server. See this photo's Flickr page for lots of notes about the various items in the shop.

What's the oldest working electronics equipment you have in your workshop, readers?
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