long time no blog etc etc

last 3 months have included:
finishing uni
getting a 2.1
leaving kingston
moving to islington

projects at the moment include:
Polite Publishing set up of Exquisite Pals zine and Awkward Art Campaign
Finding a goddamn job
Making more patchwork quilts
Learning to do fashion illustration properly

influences of the moment include:
Elan Zine (elanzine.blogspot.com}
Juneau Projects
Limoncello Summer Fete
Peter Land's suitcases
Bridget and Declan's baby
Chambord
Clare Revolta
Harry Pearce

hand in is tomorrow, hoping everything will look okay when I arrive in the morning.

have some exciting ideas about what next to do with the arduino, but not going to say yet until I've got them more figured out. will be good though!

arduino on the beeb

tuesday, 1 day til move, 3 days til deadline

lots and lots and lots of worry.

had to buy a last minute addition, a PIR sensor from Active-robots.co.uk to go with project two, the proverb machine. the buttons were just too clumsy and wanted something a little less touchy. the PIR sensor should be really quick to connect to 5V, GND & an14 so that's good.


Sketch will be as follows,



#include
#include
#include "util.h"
#include "wave.h"

AF_Wave card;
File f;
Wavefile wave;

#define playcomplete(x) ROM_playcomplete(PSTR(x))

#define DEBOUNCE 100

#define snsr 14 //sensor connected to analogue0

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // set up Serial library at 9600 bps
Serial.println("Wave test!");

pinMode(2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
pinMode(snsr, OUTPUT);

// enable pull-up resistors on
// switch pins (analog inputs)
digitalWrite(14, HIGH);


// open memory card

randomSeed(analogRead(0));


if (!card.init_card()) {
putstring_nl("Card init. failed!"); return;
}
if (!card.open_partition()) {
putstring_nl("No partition!"); return;
}
if (!card.open_filesys()) {
putstring_nl("Couldn't open filesys"); return;
}

if (!card.open_rootdir()) {
putstring_nl("Couldn't open dir"); return;
}

putstring_nl("Files found:");
ls();
}

void ls() {
char name[13];
int ret;

card.reset_dir();
putstring_nl("Files found:");
while (1) {
ret = card.get_next_name_in_dir(name);
if (!ret) {
card.reset_dir();
return;
}
Serial.println(name);
}
}


void pulseServo(uint8_t servopin, uint16_t p) {

digitalWrite(servopin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(600);
while (p--) {
delayMicroseconds(4);
}
digitalWrite(servopin, LOW);
delay(18);
}

uint8_t sensorstate = 0;

void loop() {
int distsensor, i;
long time;
/*
for (i=0; i<50; i++) {
pulseServo(servo,0);
}
for (i=0; i<50; i++) {
pulseServo(servo,400);
}
return;
*/
distsensor = 0;
for (i=0; i<8; i++) {
distsensor += analogRead(0);
delay(50);
}
distsensor /= 8;

putstring("Sensor = "); Serial.println(distsensor);

if (distsensor <= 10) {
digitalWrite(snsr, HIGH);
}
if (distsensor > 10) {
digitalWrite(snsr, LOW);
sensorstate = 1;
// nobody there. one out of 200 times play one of the sounds (once every few minutes)
i = random(200);
//Serial.println(i);
if (i == 0) {
i = random(3);
if (i == 0) {
playcomplete("rise so high.WAV");
} else if (i == 1) {
playcomplete("smoothseas.WAV");
} else if (i == 2) {
playcomplete("to climb steep hills.WAV");
} else {
playcomplete("exhalted throne.WAV");
}
}
} else if ((distsensor > 30) && (distsensor < 40)) {
if (sensorstate <= 1) { // play "smoothseas"
playcomplete("smoothseas.WAV");
} else {
i = random(60); // more often
//Serial.println(i);
if (i == 0) {
i = random(3);
if (i == 0) {
playcomplete("exhalted throne.WAV");
} else if (i == 1) {
playcomplete("to climb steep hills.WAV");
} else {
playcomplete("rise so high.WAV");
}
}
}

}
}




void ROM_playcomplete(const char *romname) {
char name[13], i;
uint8_t volume;
int v2;

for (i=0; i<13; i++) {
name[i] = pgm_read_byte(&romname[i]);
}
name[12] = 0;
Serial.println(name);
playfile(name);
while (wave.isplaying) {
volume = 0;
for (i=0; i<8; i++) {
v2 = analogRead(1) - 512;
if (v2 < 0)
v2 *= -1;
if (v2 > volume)
volume = v2;
delay(5);
}

}
//putstring("vol = "); Serial.println(volume, DEC);
}



void playfile(char *name) {
f = card.open_file(name);
if (!f) {
putstring_nl(" Couldn't open file"); return;
}
if (!wave.create(f)) {
putstring_nl(" Not a valid WAV"); return;
}
// ok time to play!
wave.play();
}





hope it's right!!

i want to be her

this is such a cool use of arduino that is so simple but amazing.

woohoo

finally uploaded sketch for wave shield onto arduino, works and everything.

hooray!

The sketch looks for the switch, when it's pressed it plays the files on the sd card. well, it should anyway. It plays a set of stupid and pointless proverbs - reflecting the aluminium slapping fortune teller sculptures' beginnings.

had to change the switch to make sure project was completed in time, instead of twitter through ethernet shield, now just going for a simpler microlever switch, with paddle adaption so that it will be triggered by people inside the room, rather than outside in internet space.

would still really like to do the twitter thing, and have the sketch in a draft state to do it, but realistically not going to get it all finished with everything else like log book and drawings and setting up exhibition space by friday afternoon. The plan is to place the twitter machine in a gallery setting sometime in the autumn, maybe in the 'da girlz' exhib?

as for project one, the repetitive sound one, in need of a power amo as the one i have is far too weedy. On testing it out in the space on sunday it sounded weak and feeble and definately not annoying. Need it louder, louder, louder and much more oomphier.

speakers will need gaffa taping as the connectors are a bit wobbly, plinths to house speakers still not here, hoping that workshop guys will have done them so I can get on an paint. Threy prob won't be, but one can hope. Have rediscovered that I am the world's most impatient person ever.

Saturn film

This is incredible, it's a film of saturn's rotation filmed from Hubble. It looks like a cartoon, almost not quite sure if it's real.

the single most happiest thing

i've seen today is this

Chasing Children with Hoovers

from Graham Lineham's Twitter - i think it's impossible not to smile at this

Makezine does good again with their twitter library

Arduino alert!

Really interesting Interactive Vending Machine by Ellie Harrison.

Everytime the recession is mentioned on the BBC the vending machine in the Viewpoint Gallery gives out free food.

I am thinking that this is being done in a very similar way to the twitter bubblino machine, with a microcontroller constantly checking and relaying info from a website, in this case the BBC RSS feed. RSS feeds are constantly being updated, esp on such a busy site as the BBC. Perfik.

Annoying machine update - shields ordered and shipped. circuitry confusion at a controllable level. for now.

TapeScape Audio Robot by PlayPatterns

The TapeScape Audio Robot - More DIY How To Projects

awe

some

imagine this hooked up to an arduino.

...

quite

limpit shell lights!

how fantastically fun are these?!

Limpit Buttons by Hannah Perner-Wilson

I get more ideas by the minute. I, officially, am in love with electronics.

just to rub it in that i need a mac

too much to get excited about, too little time to fit it all in before degree ends

TIL116 opto-isolator
- may need one to go in between the arduino and the mp3 player

- another interesting way of controlling audio through an arduino

1 and a half weeks left!

til studios get cleared for end of year shows. eek.

Plans as always becoming more and more complicated as the time goes.
so far degree show piece will be:

an audio sample playing through surround sound speakers in the big proj space,
it will be triggered through twitter (plan A) or through a simple whisker switch attached to a door somewhere around the uni (plan B).

the audio is a 32 beat finger click that i've zushed up a bit on cubase, the idea being that it's a rhythmical metronome-esque sound that should fill the space and go on a little bit longer than is really comfortable.

Out of the whole of this year the one thing that i have been pleased with is my work being described as dominating and annoying, something I have been called as a person anyway, and by no means take offense to.

The twitter plan would be ace, have my arduino dem. all ready for action and am just trying to figure out code and circuitry. I am a complete novice at arduino tinkering, having entered the realm of the super exciting 'makezine' a few weeks ago thanks to Gail. Adrian McEwan made a very similar bubble machine operated by Twitter, of which I have already shown my jealousy and wonder at, (I started this year with bubbles and filling spaces with them, so it's a bit of a confidence punch when someone does it so much better!) but yes, the whole of the headaches and magical alchemy that is the arduino will be all hidden from view and my input to the show will look quite sparse. thinking it isn't enough.

the basic switch plan would be quicker, and more immediate for the people at the degree show, with none of the technology existing in the ether of the internet.

and therein is my dilema:

- to arduino or not to arduino?
- enough or not enough?
- impressive or understated?

Getting Started With Arduino How To Build A Twitter Monitoring Alertuino

Adrian who invented Bubblino has ever so helpfully put this up! A thousand thanks in every direction.

Getting Started With Arduino How To Build A Twitter Monitoring Alertuino

View more presentations from Adrian Mcewen.

A little stunning animation found through Adam Buxton's BUG series. It's a glorious lesson in timing, editing and the importance of gestures. And it's wickedly funny.

Jeff Lewis & Laura Marling

Anti-folk 'too cool for everything but still love them' songwriters Jeff Lewis and Laura Marling have done a cover of Eminem's Brain Damage for Lewis' new Guardian online column JEFFREY LEWIS - NEWS TV.


can't link the video in properly so you'll have to click, shame

Laura Marling always feels suitable for a flu-infested Saturday morning slob-about.

getting excited for glastonbury already

john peel passes? - check
echo and the bunnymen? - check
brucey? - check
sonic youth? - maybe

eezagonnabeeyagoodaone

wow

On from aram bartholl on Vimeo.