12
Feb 09

Modular How-Tos

I had a little brain storm yesterday about Bildr and the feel I wanted it to give off/ what it is I wanted to do. As per Allan Cooper <– And his great book, I tried to completely stay away from features, and think of what I want from it, and how I imagined people using it.

Then last night, I was trying to explain it to Mary when I stumbled. I explained how I didnt want it to be an other instructables. I want how-to articles that are step-by-step, but nothing that makes anything in the end. Then after a minute, I figured out what it is I want to make happen. Modular Ho-Tos.

The Idea is this. On other sites, you can see step-by-step directions on how to make… Say a bike powered head light. So it takes you along and shows you how to make the bike generator, and an LED array to go with it. On Bildr, you can learn this, but the articles will be separate. One on how to make a generator. An other on how to make an LED array. But someone could come along, and take the generator article and make it power a horn. Or use batteries and make the headlight. The modularity of the site means less articles to make more things. And with the site being open for free editing. You dont have 20 so so articles about making the same thing. You get one really well done one.

Because this is the new incarnation of RISDpedia, it will be supported by an incredible materials library. Only this time, it will focus much more physical computing, software, and other fun things. So your making an accelerator controlled car, and it says to use a ADXL202JE. You can click on this part. Find out all about it, interfacing with it, where to buy it, potential problems etc…

-Night-

10
Feb 09

Bildr, Sensors, Filters. Oh my!

While you may have thought I died of the flu and was never going coming back… You where wrong. Actually I have been quite well for a few weeks, I just didnt know what to write about. But I have been working on some stuff. 

Sonar Sensors are great. In theory that is. In the past they have been way too jumpy for my liking, and for anything I wanted to do. But I had a concept for my internship I wanted to test out, so I needed to clean it up. I created an array (think of it as a box), and every new reading from the sensor I I put in the box. When the box had x amount of readings in it, I would remove the oldest one, and place the newest one. Then I ran a loop that would average (WHY is there no average array function) the array, and used that for the reading. The result was silky smooth. I even managed to surprise my boss with how well it worked. So I created some games based on the idea. Sadly, I cant go into any more detail than that.

Well sadly, it didnt work as well for this jittery accelerometer(they all are) im using. For this You need to use something called a Kalman Filter. This filter is a normalizer for real world electronic noise. I found an example of someone doing exactly what I needed, but written in arduino code, where mine is in actionScprit. I think this is actually a really poor language to try to make one in, but im giving it a shot. The problem right now, is that I am using an analog sensor, and the example was for a digital one. So I need to figure out what range he was converting it to, and adjust mine to be the same. Ill let you know and post it when and if I find it.

RIP RISDpedia, long live Bildr (builder). Im killing off RISDpedia, and starting over with Bildr. I started RISDpedia 2 years ago, and actually learned everything I know about web tech/ programming because of it. So all the concepts are from when I was learning. I figure Im at least 10 times better with interactive code now than I was when I started it. So starting over, I wont have to fix things, just re do them (usually takes less time in my mind). Bildr wont have any information about fine art materials, but instead will be focusing on Design Materials, Design Electronics, and Design Code. So that’s that. Expect to see Bildr in the next few months.

Speaking of interactive code. I just finished the flickr/photo site for my brother. Really nice stuff. I wish I could show it to you, but it is password protected. Ill have to make a copy for you all to see.


Copyright © 2013 ASM | a blog
Proudly powered by WordPress, Free WordPress Themes, and Search Marketing