Making Toys

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  Adiel Fernandez 7:53 pm on April 25, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  Final Project proposals 

  1) My first choice for my final project would be to finally finish a project I have been working on for a while. Last semester I made a lighting project where a series of LEDs were embedded into a set of wall sconces and controlled by a wireless physical controller. The idea is that the wall sconces can display candle light without having to go through the trouble of lighting and blowing out candles. But since there is already electronics in them, why not add data to the display. I intended for the lights to display the weather but I was never able to add a wifi connection to allow them to show real weather data. I would like to finally finish this project! Below are photos of what it looks like.

  Controller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyGQ1oQidBs

  Wall lights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8o-h1SnHcI

   

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  Adiel Fernandez 8:14 pm on March 14, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  6 Concepts for midterm 

   

   

   

   

  Emotion: Hopelessness

  Automata: man lost at see on a boat that moves with the waves. A rangefinder causes the waves to move more as users move away, increasing feeling of desparation.

  

   

  Emotion: Curiosity

  Automata: A mystery box that shakes and moves when touched (using capacitive sensing). Box could possibly be made of stretchy fabric that has objects poking and pushing through it.

  

   

  Emotion: Awe

  Automata: A caveman celebrating fire. When a torch is brought next to the sticks (i.e. a magnet is brought next to the sensor), the fire “ignites”

  

   

  Emotion: Surprise

  Automata: When the user goes to feed a rabbit with a bundle of grass (with RFID sensor in it), a giant alligator snaps shut and eats the rabbit.

  

   

  Emotion: Jealousy

  Automata: Two girls fight over a guy in the middle, pulling him from side to side. Pulling happens according to frequency of pulse from heart rate sensor.

  

   

  Emotion: Fear

  Automata: Creature pulls man deeper into a dark cave when the lights are turned on. Uses a light sensitive resistor.

  

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  Adiel Fernandez 9:14 pm on March 7, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  Embedded Arduino Automaton Free Writing (3/7) 

  What did you find surprisingly difficult in this embedded arduino automaton project?

  -For me it was creating rigid structures that could support the weight of what I wanted to have the automatons do. In addition to supporting the weight, the structure had to support lateral stresses from using gears that were not as precise as normal meshing gears are. The first model I made from paper had to be reinforced after breaking several times, the second model was made out of cardboard and a little better but still prone to jamming and material failure. The third model was built right away with a wooden internal structure to firmly and precisely hold the gears and moving components in place.

   

  What did you find surprisingly easy?

  -The code for the projects was fairly straight forward and did not take much time. This is why I spent more time and energy working on the mechanics of the models.

   

  Did you get inspired with any derivative works from doing this project?

  -I was inspired fairly early on with these automata and adapted the very first one to have my own caricature on top. Instead of a bouncing kangaroo, I made a flying eagle. The second and third models were entirely designed by me. The second model would have several changes if I were to do it again, to make the mechanism function without the consistent jamming. The third automata is a spider with 8 moving legs. Although the legs move fairly well without jamming, the movement is not realistic. My original idea was to have a different mechanism that would make the movement much more realistic, but it would have taken too long to build a structure to support all the working parts from scratch so I abandoned it for a simpler mechanism that was less anatomically accurate.

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  Adiel Fernandez 1:02 am on March 7, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  Paper automata projects 1 and 2 

  For my first paper automata, I wanted to adapt one of the models from the book to have my own creature on top. I used the kangaroo base that had a circular motion causing the kangaroo to appear to hop forward and up and down. There was also a secondary movement created by attaching the kangaroo’s “hips” to the base so that they would move differently than the rest of the body. I adapted this form and made a cardboard eagle that would move back and and forward but I attached two struts to the wings and the base that made the wings appear to flap up and down, as shown in the video below.

   

   

  My second automata project was a bit more ambitious and only a moderate success. I decided to make not only the caricature myself, but I also wanted to make the mechanical linkages from scratch. I wanted to make a gun turret that would appear to have the cannon cylinders move in and outward. I 3D printed 4 gears and two crankshafts that would allow me to get motion from the continuous rotation servo onto two different axes. Pictures below show the inner workings of the turret. The servo is connected to the white drive gear while the red gear transfers the rotational motion to the other two white gears attached to the red crankshafts which in turn push the pisons, i.e. cannon shafts in and out of the turret body.

  

   

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  Adiel Fernandez 11:15 pm on February 28, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

  Adiel Fernandez – Bio 

  I graduated undergrad in 2007 after studying physics and education. Before applying to DT, I worked at the New York Hall of Science where I taught students and teachers, developed curriculum and eventually designed exhibits. A few years ago I attended Maker Faire for the first time and learned about the whole DIY scene and started learning physical computing with arduino. I have a bit of experience working with arduino at this point and enjoy using it whenever I can. If you have any questions or need help, I am always happy to help out so feel free to pull me aside!

  Physical computing is my main focus here at DT so I wanted to take this class to expand the different applications that are out there for p-comp type projects. Though I’m not terribly interested in making apps in iOS, I am looking forward to doing things via wifi/bluetooth. I look forward to making things of my own but also seeing the creative things everyone else does.

  I dont know if I had a favorite toy as a kid, but I remember I used to play with hot wheels cars quite a bit, as well building things with legos. My favorite toy now, however is my 3D printer. Its a really cheap, low-end printer by Printrbot so it doesn’t print very well and I have been spending the last few months trying to get it to print decently and it has actually been kind of fun.

   

  -Adiel

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