As a welcome distraction from CNC machining of HDPE, I made a whole lot of little fish for a colleague of mine. Can you spot the difference? Each of the fish is about 65mm (2 1/2″) long by 45mm (1 3/4″) tall with a through-hole eye and a small detail cut to a depth of 25%. As these little beasts will get a lot of rough handling, I cut them from 13mm red oak, with the grain oriented along the…
I designed a new head for the seXY Machine to raise and lower a pen or stylus, under software command. My friend, Doug Commons (a real electronics whiz), built a new controller board for the seXY Machine that runs GRBL software so that the machine can execute gCode directly from my CAD/CAM applications. In real English, it means that the seXY Machine can now be controlled using standard software that is widely supported by most computer-controlled design tools. So it…
Introducing Surround Sound, the latest member of the Simpler Simon interactive games. One of the comments from users of the original Simpler Simon was that the sound effects were not loud enough. In addition, those users who had some musical background, found the “circular” sound aspect of the game somewhat confusing. They were more used to the idea of keys and corresponding notes being presented in a linear fashion; much like a piano keyboard… So, voila! The Surround Sound offers…
The “Dimmer Not Dumber” fader saga has not closed. In the spirit of invention being the mother of invention, introducing “Dimmer Not Dumber IV“, for a customer who wants to control slide dimmers. Here the “Dimmer Not Dumber IV” is going through its “homing” sequence. The stutter near the top allows the dimmer to travel beyond the proximity detection to reach maximum brightness. Once homed, the dimmers drop to the OFF “rest” state. The dimmers are programmed to move through…
s e X Y Computer-controlled mechanism for a new clock seXY is a motorized mechanism that under computer control can move a carriage slide in two separate axes: up to 380mm (15″) in the X-axis (side to side) and 350mm (13.5″) in the Y-axis (front to back). A huge “design space” to play with! My intention is to mount a head to the slider equipped with a servo that engages either a pen or an eraser… More to come on…
The Pop-Up Clock described in a recent post “Pop-Up Clock and Flipper Clock – Magnetic Digit Elements” is a work-in-progress proof of concept as I develop a full 4-digit clock (complete with flashing colon). So far, the design displays the time on this single digit display in a sequential manner: two digits for the hour, then a dash (“-“) followed by two digits for the minutes. Wishing to increase the illumination of the display and the contrast of the segments…
Introducing “SHAPE SHIFTER”, a tactile and visually stimulating shapes and colours game SHAPE SHIFTER sports large shaped illuminated tactile buttons and a big illuminated display. The bright and vibrant colours and playful melodies make this an engaging game for all ages. Aimed primarily at the elderly and people with cognitive challenges, the current version of the SHAPE SHIFTER sports five games – “Follow Me” (simple and blink), “Memory Pairs”, and “Memory Sequence” (slow and speedy). Similar to the SIMPLER SIMON,…
Introducing “The SIMPLER SIMON”, a fun game for seniors based on the original “Simon” 70’s game. Aimed primarily at the elderly and people with cognitive challenges, the current version of the SIMPLER SIMON sports three basic games – “Follow Me” (simple and blink), “Memory Pairs”, and “Memory Sequence”. Large tactile buttons, vibrant bright colours and playful melodies make this an engaging game for all ages. Here, the SIMPLER SIMON basic “Memory Sequence” game is being played. Based on feedback from…
Simply put, the Elemental Clock uses three fundamental shapes – the square, triangle and circle – to display the current time in hours, minutes and seconds. The design breaks apart the displayed elements of the common clock face, and repackages the “hands” into separate, distinct, and yet connected, representations of the measurement of time.
With the help of the founders of the Make613 Group (Doug, Dave, Darcy and Justin), I have been learning a couple of simple CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) tools to design and fabricate enclosures and other pieces for my most recent projects. The latest CNC’ed enclosure – seen below – does double duty as a 2-part case for my Weatherman and LifeTime Clock projects.