Time’s a passin’ – DIY Arms, Music, and invention

smackaay — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:26:11 +0000

Well, the past few weeks have been eventful and interesting. I’ve been busy and school is almost over. I’ve had a few things on the go and I’ve come up with some interesting ideas and implementations. Sorry for the lack of images in this post but I’ve been lazy taking them.

The DIY Measuring arm
This idea came from the need to build a measuring arm at a very low cost. I simply used some wood and some regular linear potentiometers.

The cheap and quick measuring arm, this image doesn't show the wiring or the board behind it.

This so far works reasonably, though it does have some linearity issues. I will need to bring this unit in to the shop to measure the joints and determine the exact positions in order to calculate the position.
Rock band device
I was inspired by a fellow classmate to build a device for teaching children how to play the drums and other instruments. I can’t get into any hot and heavy details, however it was a success for two drums to be made. The sensors worked and transmission of the data was reliable and the software worked. It was a lot of fun to build and we may work further on the idea with better design specifications.
Auditory Camera level
My idea for an auditory camera level is working to an extent but I’m having difficulty filtering out the vibrations from arm shake and the like.

Anyways, things are going well but it’s a lot of birds in the bush and none in the hand. I’m just writing to keep a log of what’s happening

Steve's Junk » camera level

Time’s a passin’ – DIY Arms, Music, and invention