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Make a black iPhone/iPod headset

Sep 082008

I like the stock iPhone headset. They sound okay as headphones, their mic is pretty good, and setup is much easier than with a Bluetooth headset. Plus they’re pretty cheap at $29. I also liked the stock iPod headphones, for similar reasons. I’m clumsy with headphones and tend to break or lose them. But these stock headsets stand out. The white headphone cables has become part of the Apple marketing message that I’d rather not take part of. So all I want is a black version of the Apple headsets. Since no one sells that, guess I’ll have to make my own. After trying many different substances (PlastiDip, black shoe polish, vinyl dye, & regular MarksALot), the best solution appears to be Sharpie Magnums.

Sketching08 talk: Good Hardware APIs et al

arduino, general, sketching 8 Responses »

Jul 312008

The Sketching in Hardware ’08 conference was held at RISD in Providence, Rhode Island this year. Both RISD and Providence were very welcoming and I think we had a lot of fun. Once again, Mike pulls off an awesome conference.

For my talk, since I didn’t have one big thing I’ve been working on this last year, I decided to shotgun blast a bunch of different topics out there, arranged roughly on the topics:
- Good Hardware APIs – about the evolution of BlinkM’s layout,
- USB not on Rails – an update to a previous Sketching talk of mine, and
- From 2D to 3D – experiments in 3D shapes from 2D lasercutter output

The PDF of my talk with notes:
- sketching08-talk-todekurt.pdf (5.8MB PDF)

And some screencaps of a few of the slides:

BlinkM & Arduino 3D models

arduino, blinkm, general 16 Responses »

Jun 232008

Here’s a really quick 3D model of BlinkM, if anyone needs it. It’s accurate to ~0.1mm.

- blinkm.skp — BlinkM SketchUp model
- rgb_led_piranha.skp — Piranha RGB LED SketchUp model

And here it is plugged into the awesomely done Arduino Diecimila model by Jon-Paul from the Google 3D Warehouse.

SketchUp is pretty great, but I found a problem with it if you’re trying to make accurate to-scale electronic parts: it won’t create surfaces with an area of <1mm. Took me a while to figure that out. The solution is to make a 10x or 100x size version and then do a scale by 0.1 or 0.01 when you’re done.

Get on the BlinkM Bus with a BlinkM Cylon

arduino, blinkm, general, hardware-hacking, ideas, thingm 28 Responses »

Jun 172008

BlinkMs are a lot of fun by themselves, but they’re also little network devices, each having its own address on an I2C network. Here’s where I think BlinkM can really shine since it makes controlling multiple RGB LEDs pretty easy. For Maker Faire, I wanted to show off this facet by having a single Arduino control a dozen or so BlinkMs on a single I2C bus. The result is shown in the little video below.

Read on for how this was put together.

“WiiChuck” Wii Nunchuck Adapter Available

arduino, blinkm, general, hardware-hacking, ideas, programming, thingm, ubicomp 287 Responses »

Feb 182008

Want to hook up a Wii Nunchuck to an Arduino but don’t want to cut up the cord on your Nunchuck? Yeah me too. So I made some of these:

It’s a small PCB that adapts the Wii Nunchuck connector to standard 4-pin header. I call it the “wiichuck adapter”. It plugs directly into the Arduino, no wiring necessary. You can get one too for $4.

Available from the following wonderful shops:
- FunGizmos.com. FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING. International shipping for $1 more.
- Little Bird Electronics (Australia)
- SparkFun. Ships domestic & internationally. Be sure to order header pins too!
- and just about any SparkFun distributor

In Memoriam: Jed the cat, ~1992 – 8 Aug 2007

general, ramblings 15 Responses »

Aug 082007

Jed, aka “JedJedJed”, “Jedders”, “Jedbutt”, “Little Wacko” died today after living approximately 15 years. He died quietly in his home with me at his side.
Continue reading »

WineM, a ThingM technology sketch

general, ideas, sketching, ubicomp No Responses »

Jan 152007

At my new company ThingM, Mike and I have completed a technology sketch for WineM, a smart wine rack. Below is a video demonstration and an abstract. A full description can be found on the ThingM site. We periodically create Technology Sketches as a way to explore the ideas we’re thinking about.

(revver link)

Abstract:
WineM is a Technology Sketch of a smart wine rack. It’s designed to locate wines in a wine rack using RFIDs attached to bottles and to display which wines have been located using LED backlights behind the bottles. Collectors (or anyone with a large wine cellar) can use it to search through collections, track the location of specific bottles and manage inventory with a minimum of data entry. Linking bottles to networked databases can provide information that would otherwise be too time consuming or difficult to obtain (for example, the total value of a collection, or all the wine that is ready to drink).

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