zero-waste blog

Amanda Wozniak at Chaos Computer Congress

2012-01-11T14:58:00.002Z

An excellent talk by Amanda Wozniak, basically outlining good design process practise for open source hardware creators. Super thorough.

This is foamcore.

2011-12-20T18:44:00.001Z

I've been spending a lot of time with foamcore this last couple of days, that is, the sheet foam styrene material sandwiched between cardboard oft used for model making and presenting boards on at design schools.

Anyway, it's a fun material to work with, with quite different techniques required to what I'd initially thought. I'd imaginged it was all guillotines and precise depth cutting, but it turns out its more forgiving than that, pretty good with hot glue, and much easier with a hand held knife. And with this great document from the Rolf A. Faste Foundation for Design Creativity. The .pdf is licensed under CC 3.0 as BY-NC, and was written by the following folk:
Originally compiled by Rolf Faste and Nancy, a Stanford TA, in the late 1980s. Drawings by Peter MacDonald, 1992. Additional content by James Pierce and Haakon Faste, updated and edited 2011.

Enjoy.

PS. In case you;re wondering, the image above is of a foamcore CNC machine.

Hair Of The Dog this weekend

2011-11-22T17:45:00.001Z

I've been helping Jonnie with his installation coming up this weekend, involving 8 Niftymitters.. Do come along, it is going to have to be good.

A full length album of material from Jonnie Common’s debut 'Master Of None' remixed by a talented bunch of his personal favourites. Available as a limited screen print with download. Featuring:
GEESE : DEMS : FOUND : BEN BUTLER & MOUSEPAD : ONTHEFLY : RIVER OF SLIME : GRNR : A LA FU : MIAOUX MIAOUX : THE JAPANESE WAR EFFORT : CAUGHT IN THE WAKE FOREVER

Nov 25 - 27 : Jonnie Common Sound Installation

Jonnie Common has worked with Zero Waste Design to produce an interactive sound installation at MONO that lets users mix the elements of his debut album with the added potential for lo-fi surround sound to be achieved.

If that’s not all, an exhibition by illustrator David Galletly will also be shown over the weekend featuring drawings and murals related to ‘Master Of None’.

Nov 27 : Exhibition Closing Party

live sets from: BEN BUTLER & MOUSEPAD + DEMS + GRNR
special guest DJ sets from: FOUND + THE JAPANESE WAR EFFORT

7.30pm : £4 : MONO : 12 Kings Court, Glasgow, G1 5RB

INFO + TICKETS: WWW.JONNIECOMMON.COM

Finding the right resistor for an LED

2011-11-08T16:57:00.001Z

This is a problem I've never really got a proper handle on until today, helping one of the students at DJCAD: working out the appropriate resistor for an LED.

Having looked up the datasheet for the LED in question, applied 3 volts and promptly blown it up, I had a look for some more info and found this formula here:

The resistor value, R is given by:

R = (V_S - V_L) / I

V_S = supply voltage
V_L = LED voltage (usually 2V, but 4V for blue and white LEDs)
I = LED current (e.g. 10mA = 0.01A, or 20mA = 0.02A)

Our supply for the radios is 3V, so I made an assumption and looked up a similar LED on Rapid, where we get our components. The spec showed it had a rated voltage of approx. 2V and current of 30mA (0.03A). Hence we need a resistor of 33.3 Ohms. We didn't have them so tried a 27 Ohm, which appears to work like a dream, although we held it arms length for a while to make sure it didn't blow up again!

Glad Cafe Voting

2011-10-21T16:23:00.001Z

Simon and I have been helping out the Glad Cafe every so often this year as they ramp up for their southside venue/cafe/arts space. I'm thoroughly looking forward to its establishment as a resource for the whole community in this area. They could do with some help however, so head over to this link to vote for their proposal and raise them some funds.

Niftymitter batch

2011-10-21T16:15:00.001Z

IMG_8563
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Over the last couple of weeks I have been making up the Niftymitters for Jonnie Common's forthcoming installation/launch. Eight boards, very repetitive, but great for streamlining the assembly procedure. In doing so, I discovered some glaring errors in my initial layout diagram, seemingly put in on a whim! Jumpers were moved, certain capacitors bent over in new ways to save space. Glad they're done! Now for the housings..

And we're back

2011-10-19T18:40:00.000Z

The domain is back up again, remarkably quickly, so As You Were.
www.zero-waste.co.uk/
roy (at) zero-waste.co.uk

Domain Issues

2011-10-19T14:29:00.001Z

Due to a clerical error not in my favour the zero-waste.co.uk domain is currently down. In the mean time, the website is still online at the snappy address: http://s176829495.websitehome.co.uk . My usual zero-waste email address is currently out of commission so in the meantime please use info at openthing.org . Cheers, Roy.

Radio tinkering and the ideal pot

2011-10-13T13:02:00.002Z

I am tutoring an. Industrial Design intro module at DJCAD, the theme of which is basically radio hacking. The unit every student has been given to hack is a Sony ICF-S22, I think the cheapest Sony radio, and one chosen as it appears to be more resilient for hacking than the Lloytron I was briefly using on Niftyradio before it got nicked and I lost interest somewhat!

Mike Shorter astutely pointed out after the studio session on Tuesday that as students might be changing out the volume control, we need to know exactly what spec the pot is in order to work with it. Measuring resistance in circuit is a bitch, and not very useful as you will only ever get the total resistance of a component and all its parallel branches, rather than the individual component. So I carefully removed the combined switch/volume control for measuring. Here it is:

The outer two pins are for the on/off switch, while the central three pins are for the potentiometer. Just after spending some time working the component out of the board I then realised that '50k' is engraved on the white top surface! This can be revealed better by rubbing pencil lead onto the surface. Measuring with the multimeter confirmed that the pot is roughly 50k Ohms, however what the engraving doesn't tell you, but using the multimeter does, is that this is a logarithmic pot, not linear. Jon warned me of this, but I'd never really thought about it - the theory is explained a little here - interesting stuff.

So for you second years: The ideal pot to get is a 50k logarithmic pot. I think the standard pot on order for the electronics workshop is linear 10k, which will also work to a certain extent, but probably won't turn the volume right down, and will sound irregular to the ear as you alter the volume.

Doug's Burnham Table

2011-10-06T17:09:00.001Z

Doug Young emailed these great images this morning of his Tengreen Burnham table - excellent work Doug! This is a nice, solid version made from 2x4 timber.

Dennistoun Drawing Lab

2011-09-29T15:39:00.002Z

Today I have been helping Anna and Simon with the Dennistoun Drawing Lab at the Market Gallery. It shall be a fine show, and resource for the public, do pop along - opening tomorrow night, and open thereafter for a month.

Maklab day

2011-09-19T16:32:00.001Z

Mike Vanis and I took the Makerbot along to the Maklab symposium on Friday. It was a good day, with some great workshopping with high school students courtesy of Kathy and Stuart - many thanks, and thanks to Bruce for organising the event. More info at the rather new website here, or on facebook here.

Ayla Shelves

2011-09-11T09:30:00.001Z

040111 058
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

I made these shelves for my sister last Christmas. Reclaimed timber, pound shop pencils and cable ties. The shelves were made to a detailed specification based around displaying and storing a collection of cards and postcards. More photos here.

Making Seedboms (belated post)

2011-09-10T16:20:00.000Z

About this time last year, I was helping Darren at the Southside Studios in meeting his ever growing demand for Seedboms. They are marvellous wee things, if a little dusty in the making. You can read all about them and buy them at his website. They are associated with South Seeds, the local community garden, who are having a fundraiser at Go Slow this very night!

Tengreen Burnham table

2011-09-10T15:51:00.001Z

Tengreen Burnham table
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Photos of the Burnham Tables are here.
The Insttructable for this project is here, and is proving quite popular.

Craiglinn Underpass

2011-09-10T15:49:00.001Z

040111 042
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Selected photos from the underpass project here.

Ironside Windowseat

2011-09-10T15:45:00.001Z

IMG_7947
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

A bespoke windowseat for a client in Glasgow. made entirely using timber from the Glasgow Wood Recycling Project. Photos here.

Johnson Shelves

2011-09-10T15:43:00.001Z

301010 001
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

A photo of the Johnson Shelves.

Tengreen Ferguson shelves

2011-09-10T15:41:00.001Z

Tengreen Ferguson shelves
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Photos of the Ferguson Shelves are here.

Today's 3D printing

2011-07-12T16:53:00.000Z

Today I have printed a part for Gaz and Jo's Clio car, and another part for Neel#s showerhead clip system, and am now tweaking the PID settings on the printer in the hope that might fix the extruder-not-getting-to-target-temperature problem. Slideshow below:

Makerbotting

2011-07-04T12:17:00.001Z

IMG_8311
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

I have mostly been spending my time recently 3D printing on our Thing-o-matic, courtesy of Mr. Mike Vanis of Dundee. (congrats to Mike, who will soon be starting on Design Interactions at the RCA, no less).

Current printing projects include:
A showerhead clip for my brother's bathroom, a capo for Adam Beattie, a latch for Blair's pimped up toolbox, a gearbox, and all sorts of fun things of Thingiverse.com! I always new 3D printing was hypnotic, but the conversino from ABS filament into solid object is more satisfying than I'd imagined!

Ordinary Adventures

2011-05-21T14:47:00.000Z

- HOME: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Fergus and Angie, who made the Love Calculator for which I invented some sounds, have a marvellous new website, linked to above.

MAKIT this Friday

2011-05-04T21:26:00.003Z

Come along to the MAKIT maker's meetup this Friday, featuring a mobile
FABLAB from Holland! The laser cutter/3d printer/vinyl cutter endowed
van will be in the Gorbals this Friday from 10am - 5pm at:

St Francis Community Center, 405 Cumberland Street. Gorbals. Glasgow. G5 0YT.
Please pass this around to anyone that might be interested in coming along.

More details at www.skirmishes.org/?p=292

Bring an idea of something to make, or a
project to share that shows how useful digital fabrication can be! We
would like to make this event into a handy meet up for the wide
community of makers in Glasgow, to share, learn and make, in the same
way that we could in the Glasgow Fablab (AKA Maklab). It will also be
a great opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with these tools and
methods to experience the fablab and get a sense of what it could be
used for.

The event is an informal drop in and forms part of Skirmishes Edge
City design charette being held on the same day
[http://www.skirmishes.org/?p=263]. I shall be hanging round the
fablab all day though, documenting things and gathering ideas for
establishing the Glasgow Fablab, so do come along and say hello.

Olive

2011-04-09T09:12:00.002Z

An Open Design resource for Japan.

Totem Reader is live

2011-04-06T11:04:00.002Z

Over the last 6 weeks a team of us from TotEm have been rapidly producing a set of three RFID readers for the Oxfam Curiosity Shop, a popup shop in Selfridges in London that opens today. This Oxfam shop is entirely stocked with celebrity donations and vintage items, and 35 of the items are tagged with RFID tags. Upon scanning the RFID tag with our Reader, a video tale pops up on screens in the shop, told by the person who donated the item.

This system was trialled prototypically at a previous Totem/Oxfam event with excellent results, so for this outing we took the existing hardware, streamlined and repackaged it and scaled up the software to deal with several readers and many more videos. Some pictures of the resulting reader device are here on my Flickr stream.

How it Works
The basic principal is that an RFID sensor detects the unique ID number of an RFID tag, which is sent via bluetooth (radio) to the video software running on a computer behind the scenes. Meanwhile a PIC (programmable integrated circuit) chip detects that the sensor has been activated and triggers the clear acrylic part of the reader to glow brightly as feedback for the user. The software (running in Quartz) receives the ID number and finds the video associated with it, sending it to the monitor for playback.

How we Worked
The project has been a real team effort with lecturer Pete Thomas and myself (Roy Shearer) working on the physical design and production, technician Willie Henderson machining the housings, research assistant Mike Shorter programming the interface behaviour, IMD technician Ali Napier and head of product design Jon Rogers working on the software and Angelina Karpovich producing the video content. In order to deal with the tight timescale and the fact that we all have various other responsibilities, we pioneered an entirely text email based Gantt chart system. This basically consisted of an ever-evolving to do list assigned to dates and people! I actually think this worked surprisingly well, as it was immediate and easy to refer to across all our phones and computers, regardless of software. I won't pretend that things weren't missed, but I still think these were fewer than if we had used a more involved organisational tool. Lo-fi methods win for nimbleness yet again, I'd say.

The readers are now in use by the staff in the Oxfam Curiosity Shop, not to mention Annie Lennox, so do go and have a go - you have until the 14th April. Stay tuned for some video hopefully and a bit of coverage from today's opening.

*UPDATE* Excellent posts from Jon Rogers here and Andy Hudson Smith here, who worked on last year's deployment of readers.

Open Source Ecology

2011-03-02T00:00:00.000Z

Gareth astutely pointed me in the direction of this inspiring open design project with some of the furthest developed results I have yet seen! Apparently springing mainly from one team in Kansas at what they call the 'Factor e Farm'. Impressive stuff.

More at openfarmtech.org

Values in Design

2011-02-07T19:24:00.001Z

I often talk about design values when I introduce myself or industrial design as a topic. For me, these are things like elegance, sustainability, honesty and empowerment. Others' values might be functionality, aesthetics, or humour. A company might value profitability, a school, learning, or for a family it might be economy.

I think this is a great way* of interrogating oneself or the task one is undertaking, and draws into focus all sorts of aspects of your reasoning and the constraints that related parties are putting on the design process.

And when your values are directly at odds with those of a colleague, you know that it probably isn't a match made in heaven.

One beautiful example of this is last summer's story of one user of i.Materialise, an online 3D printing bureau, attempting to commission an 'ATM skimmer' for production (that is a parasitic device used for collecting bank card details as the card is inserted into a cash machine). The printers refused, fraud presumably not being one of their company values. The story throws up some interesting questions:

Were the printers right to refuse? Should the designer of the 3D model have refused? Was the purchaser the same person as the designer? Did the designer know the intended use? Could this disagreement have happened within a closed manufacture model (ie. one where design values are imposed throughout the production process)?

Design, like anything created by humans, is a medium through which values are embodied and questioned. I would say, for some reason, it happens to be a particularly good interrogator!

*one that the Product Design Department in DJCAD introduced me to.

An instrument a day

2011-02-07T18:29:00.001Z

moonmilk: Sound sculptor Ranjit Bhatnagar is making an instrument a day for a month. A brilliant idea, he has already come up with a fridge powered tone manipulator, whistles from drumsticks, and a lasercut ocarina.

Mouseymitter

2011-01-04T23:05:00.006Z

A while back Mr. Shane Connolly, percussionist and puppeteer extraordinaire, put me in touch with some lovely folk in NYC also messing about with short range FM radio transmitters. They are Ed Bear and Lea Bertucci, and their project is called ExiTrip, in which a number of 'iTrip' transmitters were sent out to makers around the world to make something with. This is my response.

Mouseymitter is an iTrip FM transmitter housed toy 'trainset' type thing for my 2 year old nephew, Laurie. Having spent a large part of last year designing housings for Niftymitter, I wondered how I might package a transmitter that might be of interest to Laurie. He likes fitting things together so I thought I'd separate out some of the functions of the transmitter and add a microphone, such that they can be pieced together to make what is effectively a cordless microphone on wheels. It remains to be seen whether this will be of any interest to Laurie. But it needs a little more tweaking first.

Full Flickr set here.

CoDesign Journal

2010-11-29T12:04:00.003Z

An interesting looking journal, inviting articles for a special edition next year on Socially Responsive design.

via Arthi

Common Thread

2010-10-22T11:42:00.005Z

Next week we are having a design-centric showcase event at Southside Studios, which I shall be participating in. There's more and more designers of different ilks in the southside generally - I'm really glad we doing this as its not that often we can show people what we do and where we do it. Hurrah!

The rather tasty flyer was designed by Paul Watson of Roobarb, a web design duo who have just moved in.

Making a x15 Scale Cassette Tape

2010-10-17T23:04:00.003Z

Back in June, Inspector Tapehead recorded a short video. Director Jonnie Common and I built a big tape for it, he overseeing the build, me charged with the electronics, which were achieved rather aptly with the drives of two old walkmen (that's right, walkmen). Jonnie's made a nice making of..

And the finished promo:

That's me on the drums.

General update

2010-09-05T11:53:00.004Z

Apologies for the lack of updates here. My only excuse is that I am particularly busy of late and have needed to concentrate more on the work than the documentation (for the first time ever I think!). I have got a little way to remedying this today merely by updating the projects page and making it more digestible by splitting things into their years of completion. Quite a sobering sight, 8 years of design projects on one page.

Of late I have been making another Tengreen based bit of furniture, this time for friends Jo and Gareth ho are demanding a huge bookcase, using some of Gaz's dad's gorgeous leftover timber. I have also been helping Darren of Kabloom! make Seedboms, and going about setting up the Craiglinn Lighting Project - that's another North Lanarkshire Council collaboration, this time with advanced higher students from St. Maurice's High School in Cumbernauld. The rest of the time I'm either plugging away at Openthings with Brian Loudon, Fablabs with Bruce Newlands, doing Inspector Tapehead stuff, or chasing people for money!

Dundee Exhibition

2010-06-06T10:39:00.002Z

Openthing and Niftymitter will be on show from Thursday this week in Dundee. More info over at the Openthing blog.

What the real big society means for the economy, charities and copyright

2010-05-15T12:48:00.002Z

Two excellent mini docs just posted to the Guardian videostream from Heydon Prowse and William Pine:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/may/11/ethical-living-diy-big-society

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/may/12/ethical-living-real-big-society-two

These make essential viewing in my opinion, if only to come some some way to understanding where I'm coming from: ie. spending my time and earnings on the sometimes seemingly pointless area of open design. Its the empowerment stupid.

This is going out as what one might call a three line whip, being blogged on the Slog, here and Censta simultaneously. Annoying to have to do it thrice, I wish there was a way to post to several blogs at the same time, or that Censta would get more feed friendly.

Noisemakers for the 'Love Calculator'

2010-05-14T00:15:00.003Z

Thought it was time to post up some photos from the Love Calculator project: a wee noisemaking machine that clanks and grinds and thuds while the machine is thinking..

..made up of three cranks, some old bike parts, a fork and a coffee tin..

.. that make these sounds ..

.. and a wee motorised thingummy that makes a pleasing hum when used with a mic and a freaking big PA..

They were fun to make. And indeed to play. The Love Calculator will be popping up again at the next Allotment and the Latitude Festival.

The Bar That I Helped to Build

2010-04-25T02:04:00.003Z

And more still at Gerry's Censta page..

Chalet Invitational - opening tonight

2010-04-23T13:58:00.003Z

Tension Table is being shown as part of the Chalet Invitational [ http://tinyurl.com/2d26wav ] opening tonight in Glasgow. Looks like a great show, featuring local and international furniture, painting and illustration in association with GI and Streetland.

Big Bag Badges on Instructables

2010-04-13T12:07:00.001Z

And finally got round to doing one for the Big Bag Badges too!:

Big Bag Badges: sew-on hi-vis badges for cycling/running - More DIY How To Projects

Bicycle Toeclips

2010-04-13T11:29:00.003Z

Have recently worked up a wee bike hack for softer, lighter, cheaper, quieter and hopefully longer lasting toeclips! Here's the instructable:

Bicycle Toeclips - More DIY How To Projects

There's a .svg layout wit it on the instructable page.

Love Calculator at the Forest Fringe

2010-04-12T11:04:00.004Z

I have built a few wee noisemakers for an interactive piece of theatre to be part of The Forest Fringe microfestival at the Arches at the end of this week. I shall actually be in it too playing said 'instruments'. The piece is called the Love Calculator and is amongst a whole host of other wee happenings in the festival - flyer above, tickets here

Openthing revamp

2010-04-09T10:29:00.002Z

Have given Openthing a bit of a revamp this week, from the comfort of my home and the discomfort of a stomach bug. Any comments welcomed, whether they be on the site, niftymitter or open design in genera

>> Sorry, have fixed that link now. That was a bit embarrassing.

Future Craft Exhibition

2010-03-23T09:48:00.004Z

Openthing and Niftymitter will be appearing in an exhibition at DJCAD as of Thursday, entitled Futurecraft. The exhibition marks the end of the Past Present and Future Craft research project, and kicks of their Scotland wide Craft Festival. Find it on Level 5 of the Matthew building.

Slides from GSA and Strathclyde talks

2010-03-23T09:37:00.003Z

I gave a short talk a couple of weeks ago at Strathclyde uni for DMEM students, and then at the GSA for Vis Com students. It was good fun, and I was paired up with Emlyn of Central Station at the GSA talk, which was highly interesting. Check out his work at central station here.

The slides for the presentation are downloadable here.

Dive! Cribbage Board

2010-01-07T15:13:00.004Z

IMG_6119
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

In the last week in Dundee I managed to get round to doing something that has been plaguing me for about two years: a cribbage board from my friend Suzy. I had already drilled the holes and it took me a while to think up something to laser engrave. I eventually decided on a kind of 'field of shapes' thing given that the board was already punctuated by hundreds of circular holes.

It would have been much easier to engrave first, then drill but hey, sometimes things don't happen in the right order! I have put up the .svg for the layout on Thingiverse so that others can do it in the right order. And an instructable here.

There is significance in the name of this cribbage board, but it might take you a while to realise..

The image set is here.

Ten Green in print. Well, pdf.

2010-01-06T17:33:00.002Z

A while back I was contacted by Drink Me magazine, a small US publication. They had come across the Ten Green project on the web and it featured in Issue 4, entitled "MacGyver"! Cheers guys. View the issue here.

Fiddling with the blog

2010-01-05T14:30:00.002Z

Above you will notice that there is a new panel. Basically, for months and months I;ve been starring items in Google Reader, thinking that I will at some point repost items with some comment. This has never really happened as i don't have loads and loads of time, or rather I do, but don't necessarily want to use it up typing at a computer. Anyway, I've found I can just mark the articles I like and add a note and then they automatically pop up above. You will have to click the items to read my notes, and that will take you to a separate page, which I suppose one can also subscribe to.
Hopefully this way at least those links won't waste away in my reader, but instead waste away up here!

Openthing is a thing!

2009-10-20T15:57:00.003Z

I haven't said what Open Thing is - its essentially Open Craft, but that isn't available as a domain. OK, what I mean is, it is the website I have set for my residency here in Dundee: it is a wordpress blog and wiki and project site for open source shenanigans. And it is now live and pretty much brought up to date.

www.openthing.org

Week one gone!

2009-09-18T16:44:00.004Z

So what have I been up to? Many things, as usual, and not necessarily what I said I'd be up to.

More tests on the laser cutter, made up a template for running of samples of the effects of various settings on different materials:

Cut out a version of the Air Vane Motor mentioned earlier in the week, need a can o' air and to glue it together..

Laser cutting some airvane motors from Zero-waste Design on Vimeo.

Lots of thoughts put down in sketch form for:
a) methods of encoding
b) platforms for sharing
c) appropriate production processes
d) ideas for what to do with the air vane motor
e) ideas for reusing juice cartons
f) development of the Niftymitter joints
g) analogies for Ladyada's layers of source theory
h) analysis of my various starting points for designs in the past, and the possibilities now.

Nothing is that developed but will write stuff up as and when here. I have had a great week finding my feet, and still have a few inductions to go to, so think it will take some time, but am anxious to get my thinking on track, and decide what approach I'm going to take for the next 10 weeks.

And then I messed around with the Freeduino for a bit - a good bookend to Friday!

Are Products Inherently Capitalist?

2009-09-17T08:39:00.003Z

It's a question that has been posed in many design studios I have been in, with varying responses, one most interestingly from an industrial designer friend of mine from the former Yugoslavia who argues strongly in favour. It was brought up again in my mind thanks to this quote in The Grauniad, from this article:

"we agreed that most of us have an ambivalent response to capitalism, and that even left-leaning liberals like iPods and jeans and all the things it provides." - Lucy Prebble, director of the play Enron

For me, its a naive simplification to say that it is capitalism itself that provides things like iPods and jeans - is it so hard to imagine these products existing in a world where capitalism is not the overriding concern? Surely the purpose of capitalism is to generate profit, the products are simply a by-product of this, their design, in the case of jeans, largely driven by function (originally), and in the case of iPods, by interaction.

It is disappointing to see well crafted products taking a hit from anti-capitalists as if they are the enemy. I guess its a symptom of the general lack of critical thinking that surrounds the capitalist/socialist debate. Surely we can have well designed products under either political/economic climate.

First days at DJCAD

2009-09-15T16:43:00.003Z

Lasercut Landscape
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

I have begun my Arts Council funded residency as part of the Past Present and Future Craft Practice project at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. - Have already been messing round with a laser cutter, one experiment pictured here: laser cutting from a heightfield bitmap to create a 3D engraving in the pages of a book. This heightfield image was found on Google image search, and was actually designed by the Creative Director of Simcity 4 in Photoshop as a source for a terrain in that game!

Have otherwise been getting my bearings, rummaging in a skip and thinking more on the Air vane motor:

which I'd still like to make and develop some things around.

Other things to do - properly document various means of fabrication encoding which I could use, look at various platforms/programs for collaborative development etc.

I am also going to work on Niftymitter a bit further and use the technical knowhow here to learn some Arduino/general hardware hacking skills.

'sall for now.

Misunderstood Excellence

2009-09-08T14:08:00.010Z

The Eco Chandelier project was officially wrapped up last Tuesday with the official lighting up ceremony at John Paul II Primary School, a joyous occasion for all. Sadly Florence of we are curious, with whom I was working on this project, was unable to be there, but it was great to welcome back last year's P7 pupils from their new home at high school to see the fruits of their labours.

The launch has already attracted some attention in the press:
TES article
BBC article

It is being heralded as a great example of a school-wide project that delivers many of the requirements of the 'Curriculum for Excellence', not a term I was at all familiar with until working on this project!
Curriculum for Excellence is basically a Scottish schools initiative to demand a more holistic educational experience for school pupils, in their words, "providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 to 18. The curriculum includes the totality of experiences which are planned for children and young people through their education, wherever they are being educated. ... [and] to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor."
These last four qualities are striking to me as they basically sum up the qualities required of a good designer: you have to be willing and able to learn, confident to try new things, responsible about the design you intend to release to the world, and an effective contributor to the design team. It would be easy to apply these qualities to all sorts of jobs but the truth is that the excitement that the Eco Chandelier appears to be generating has more to do with the way we went about the project than the outcome. And for me this is down to the similarities between the aims for Curriculum for Excellence, and the qualities that are engendered in the execution of a live design project. They are remarkably close. Maybe design projects are the answer.

So how did we go about it? I think the key consideration was to treat every individual as part of the design team, co-design basically. Because the project was live, and we kept reiterating this to the pupils, it was impossible for them to not take an interest, and take some ownership. Although we were there to coordinate the project and keep things on track, the stimulus was coming from the school. Although we framed various tasks and questions into a manageable format for school lessons, we never wavered from the insistence that it was the school who were designing their chandelier. In this way it was relatively easy to communicate the need for considering all stakeholders, choosing materials responsibly, work effectively in groups, all these factors that are essential in solving a design problem, and coincidentally, sought out by the Curriculum for Excellence. It was only really possible by shared responsibility, and trusting in the kids to deliver what was expected of them. And they didn't disappoint. In many cases the pupils (and staff) were surprised at what they could achieve, great for them, but we shouldn't really be surprised by this. This is simply making, doing, on a large scale. It is working as a team to create something of use for the whole community. I'm sure this didn't use to be something unusual!

How is it that our kids are surprised that they can create objects that they are already familiar with in the world, when our world has already been forged by human hands? It's almost as if the hands that made the world are not considered to be of the same type dangling at the ends of our arms. I would suggest that the pupils of John Paul II Primary could do it simply because they were told that they were going to do it: that those hands are the ones that would shape the chandelier.

Designing is making things that work. There is no better experience for honing one's personal skills than by making something that works. Inherent within the task is the need to consider others, work with others, consider maths, physics, aesthetics, policy, ergonomics, information, communication, money the list goes on. You can't get any more multi-disciplined than making! The great thing about making is that you can do it as a team, you can share information and experiences, and solicit outside help when needed, and it is super-simple for everyone to understand a)what they are aiming to achieve, and b) when it is done. Why? Because at the end of it you have something like the chandelier!

The Eco Chandelier project has been successful in terms of the Curriculum for Excellence because it was an ambitious making project, and that is all. The fact that this is noteworthy simply highlights our continuing divorce from the act of manufacture, and the need for a re-familiarisation with how things work and are made, simply to know that we can then do the same, better.

AutospokePOV fail

2009-08-21T15:11:00.001Z

roy making something work
Originally uploaded by suzy.glass

More Lingfest news:

Here is a picture of me in what turned to be a day long endeavour to make Neel and bro's idea of an automated SpokPOV machine work. And it never did. Not really. It did work briefly but it was wet and we think the motor might have got a little miffed and shorted! But it was a good challenge nevertheless, and the whole at distance design/construction thing actually worked pretty well. It was more the closeup nittygritty where we failed!

Net year perhaps..

Niftymitter update - Lingfest testing

2009-08-21T15:00:00.003Z

niftymitter alpha in sock
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Here is a picture of Niftymitter in a sock.

I hammered out two prototypical niftymitters for Lingfest at the start of August: One worked a treat, the other didn't. I don't quite know why, the thing is the one that didn't work was based on Kogawa's copper board soldering method, whereas the one I frankensteined out of stripboard as the proto-prototype still works a dream, along with illuminated switch and all. So more test runs of the circuitry are needed.

On the mechanical level, results were pretty good. Some problems in the acrylic with a couple of protrusions shearing off. Hopefully the give in a ply would eliminate this problem (occurring during assembly/disassembly). On further consideration I think I have abetter idea for the corner joints, finding that my cable ties don't actually latch on that well, occasionally popping off! I am still a little anti-push fits just due to the possibility of fatigue and the limitations this puts on design adaptation (due to constraining thicknesses/materials). I think we need a nifty method of joining laser cut materials at 90 degrees that doesn't involve friction fits or fiddly captive nuts. I don't know if I'm the man o do it, but I'm willing to give it a try!

Usability felt good, nice on/off interaction, light does the job I think, people liked the radio wave graphic emanating from the switch. 9V battery plops out a bit too easily, and general cumbersomeness to the sock/sleeve idea. I actually made this out of an old woolly sock so was particularly prone to catching. I think a neprene would be better but sourcing it is still a problem. Rethink needed.

Functionally, seems to be working great, with the addition of an antenna wire, which one needs to adjust to find the best performance. The circuit seems a little prone to distortion, not sure if there's a way to fix that? must take it down to the electron club for ideas. Anyway, the point is we broadcast three live band sets at Lingfest successfully to the gazebo, toilets and kitchen, all over a radius of approx. 20-30m. Once the levels were adjusted to kill the distortion, everything was amazingly clear. I think the folk in the kitchen appreciated being able to enjoy the gig without having to be in the barn or in the rain!

The venue:

So next steps: try Kogawa style circuit again, raid the EC boffins' brains, model up the alternative corner joints and get the remaining 8 boxes laser cut in bamboo at Ponoko, I reckon. No point hanging about.

Niftymitter update

2009-07-24T18:08:00.003Z

Have been working on the niftymitter amongst other things today - got a working prototype, laser cut in acrylic by Strathclyde Uni DMEM. Works pretty good, couple of errors in engraving, need more space in the conduit notch for the battery wires, electronics still work pretty well. Still haven't been able to test that on off switch, waiting on some resistors. Promising! Should have one or two prototypes at Lingfest next weekend.

photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zero-waste/tags/niftymitter/

Mechnics Alive!

2009-07-07T10:40:00.002Z

I went to see the Mechanics Alive! exhibition, by the Cabaret mechanical Theatre, at the Scotland Street School in Glagsow yesterday. More info here.

It's a great show, plenty of automata to have a go at, although presumably for the safety of the exhibits they are all housed in perspex and operated by push button and motor, which for me takes away some of the enjoyment. So the operator cannot enjoy that direct connection between their movement and the movement of the automaton, however needless to say, one can still enjoy the dynamics of the mechanism and the beautiful finishes. I thoroughly recommend checking it out, and there's a long video featuring the likes of Tim Hunkin as well as the 6 or so featured artists in teh exhibition (inc. my fave Paul Spooner). There are also some great books out and some posters explaining different mechanisms for the novices.

A statement

2009-07-07T10:36:00.001Z

via Superflux

Open Craft

2009-06-29T16:01:00.002Z

I have won Scottish Arts Council Funding for a residency at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. The residency begins in September and is part of the Past, Present and Future Craft Practice project.

Cardboard circuitry

2009-05-16T11:08:00.002Z

Just came across this article on making circuits on cardboard, posted by Ricardo Webbens, a member of a hacker group called Altlab in Lisbon, Portugal.

This would be of great use as a bit of source - you can directly print out your schematic to make the circuit..

via open materials via Superflux

Fablabs Glasgow

2009-05-15T15:38:00.004Z

I have set up a google group for those in Glasgow interested in setting up a Fablab. All are welcome to join here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/glasgowfablabs

I have been getting in touch with anyone I think might be interested, most useful has been finally getting more to grips with the Electron Club who have a new site here and have given the Fablabs project a page here.

We will be having a presentation/discussion about Fablabs at the Electron Club open day on 13th June, hopefully we can devise a plan of action as a group and get the ball rolling.

Makerbot and Thingiverse Musing on Open Design

2009-05-01T12:30:00.002Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Both Alan at Thingiverse and the team at Makerbot have been blogging most prolifically and interestingly on all things open design, including:

1. What the implications are for standards - will we be able to update mechanical standards like snapfits and screwcaps with simply a software update or patch?

2. Re-using CNC or laser cut offcuts - Get your screenprinter pal round for a drink and subtly direct him towards those annoyingly surplus squares of technoply.

[caption id="attachment_4030" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Makerbot's offcut screenprints. Image via Makerbot's Flickrstream"][/caption]

Now, I know what you're saying: "I'm not cool enough to be friends with a screenprinter, or indeed someone who does screenprinting!". Well, maybe you could work some patterns or artwork into the waste areas of your lasercutting file as a starter, using a Creative Commons image search as a starter, or perhaps using Context Free you could make variable design for each batch..

3. The natural link between personal fabrication and Long Tail economics:

"The argument that personal fabrication cannot compete with big production hinges on the notion that most people don’t need low-volume objects ... But really, practically everyone does." blogs Allan Ecker

I don't think the significance of this idea can be under emphasised: Design is both a personal and subjective thing, and an objective thing. Personal fabrication serves our desire for the perfect products for us as individuals, and I don't mean simply that it allows us to design our own objects: It opens up markets for designers to design for the small, niche areas, the long tails. And together with open design, we can share the objective elements of a design, such as the standard snap fits for example. We can have our (cup)cake and eat it!

Alan at Thingiverse is particularly adept at this kind of divergent thinking, categorising such posts under the title Future Watch, including musings on the potential of 3D printed Poly-lactic Acid for implantable devices. Loving it.

Niftymitter

2009-04-30T15:42:00.003Z

OK, so I thought it was time to kick off a new Zero-waste project:
FM transmission.

I went to a great workshop by Tetsuo Kogawa which brought the idea of building my own FM transmitter back into my head - I tried this one a couple of years ago with very poor results. However Kogawa really got me excited and he had a wonderful way with the 15 or so people who came to his workshop at the CCA. He was demonstrating his Simplest FM Transmitter which is a really simple design and an easy make for the most novice of novices - with his copper-clad board method you don't even have to be any good at soldering to do it!

Right, so we know that everyone likes short range FM radio transmitters for tuning into their iPod in the car. Kogawa uses them for sound art. With a mic, they make good wee walky talkies or perhaps baby monitors. And lastly as my uncle has shown, they're good for replacing a PA in a concert situation as a more gentle, distributed, way of transferring sound.

So I'd like to make a small unit that could serve all these purposes one way or another. And its going to be open, electronics, mechanics and all.

Here's a picture of the first one I soldered up from Kogawa's plans - it works! As you can see the thing is the size of a 9V battery. Nifty.

Dr. Neil Gershenfeld speaks in Manchester on Fablabs

2009-04-30T11:07:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Also while in Manchester last week I had the pleasure of attending a forum discussion on Fablabs, the MIT instigated open workshop platform. The morning was hosted by the well kept secret that is the Manufacturing Institute, the UK's national charity for promoting and educating about manufacturing - also a player in bringing about the UK's first fablab, to be sited in East Manchester.

The MI brought together Dr. Neil Gershenfeld of MIT's Centre for Bits and Atoms, representatives of the MI and of industrial sponsors, the regeneration director for New East Manchester, as well as, via video conference, 3 different Fablabs across Europe and Dr. Adrian Bowyer of the Reprap project (and the University of Bath). It was a very interesting morning, mostly to hear Gershenfeld and Bowyer speak, and to see just how many and how varied the existing Fablabs are.

[caption id="attachment_3955" align="aligncenter" width="215" caption="Dr. Neil Gershenfeld, photographed at Etech by James Duncan Davidson"][/caption]

Dr. Gershenfeld started by introducing the Centre for Bits and Atoms, and launched straight into a rather mind boggling animation depicting a protein-like string of particles, which, when programmed with a code, would gradually wriggle into the form of a wrench. Then, disassembled and re-programmed, into a hammer! This had the effect, I realised later, of both exciting and subsequently disappointing those in the audience less familiar with digital fabrication as they realised that this technology would not be available in their debut fablab in the very near future. But man it was cool.

What came across really strongly through both Gershenfeld and Bowyer were the links between digital fabrication and not only biology (Reprap is a reproducing machine after all), but economics and sociology. Both academics are engaged in biomimetics, and see digital fabrication, a) as an evolutionary thing and, b) as one that is approaching and should be inspired by natural models.

The Fablab is a workshop that provides open access to digital fabrication tools to all for free, and this model appears to work more efficiently than schools and universities for learning these topics - indeed the first one arose out of MIT's How to Make Anything course, basically a workshop course that took on a life of its own. Gershenfeld points out that as technology develops so quickly , we really should know how to use these tools before even getting to university, but that links between Fablabs and schools have historically floundered: they function much better as a community resource - like a library for making. Gershenfeld also kept coming back to five inter-related effects of Fablabs that can not be separated:

Empowerment - Education - Problem Solving - Job Creation - Invention

It made me think that these are all areas that can really help people in a variety of situations, for all sorts of reasons. At the end of the day, Fablabs are about making stuff, and making stuff, informally, on their own terms is good for people.

Finally, both academics emphasised that digital fabrication really redefines the divisions of labour - whether it be by removing designers and manufacturers, or erasing the lines between design, production and use. "Digital fabrication is good for personal fabrication - for making products for a market of one person ... mass production is for the least interesting things."

Incidentally, I'd really like to link up with others in Glasgow who would be interested in setting up a Fablab, do respond below if you have any comments. The Fab Foundation is a better source of info, and there is a site for Fablabs user in Fabfolk.com.

Update: Imran Ali also has a good post up about the Manchester forum discussion.

A Visit to Lazerian, Manchester's CNC Wizards - Part 2

2009-04-29T11:25:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

continued from yesterday..

An atmosphere of relaxed experimentation, and play, is apparent in Lazerian's workshop - although Liam's collaborators Richard and Jason are silently engrossed in their making, the place is festooned with prototypes and work in progress, and there is a sense of productivity not being a chore, more of a happy coincidence.

[caption id="attachment_3880" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The guys at Lazerian: Richard, Jason and Liam"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3881" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Making up some of Lazerian's handmade jewellery range"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3882" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Some Lazerian jewellery in progress"][/caption]

Jason is busy cutting polypropylene rings for bangles by hand. A seemingly laborious process, but apparently yielding much better results than the same process tried with the CNC - down to the rough edges from milling, as compared to the smoothness of a clean scalpel cut.

Lazerian sell a great deal online, through their custom designed website. About 70% of business comes from direct sales online and through selected outlets, and the rest from commissions. The day that I am there the team are busy preparing for 100% Design in London, featuring some of Richard's paper constructions on a grand scale. Curiously enough, I first encountered Richard years ago by happening across his Flickr site, showcasing his quite unbelievable aptitude with paper. Hopkins tells me that there is a good community of artists and designers in Manchester (he used to work in much closer proximity with such others but felt it more productive to be a bit more isolated!). He has no desire for the pull to London, and is very keen to keep production local in Britain, hence the studio's commitment to making as much in house as possible. It is admirable, and not an easy thing to achieve in isolation but something they clearly thrive on.

I was surprised by Lazerian - I think I expected them to be a bunch of tech-headed furniture makers, but what I found was an amicable bunch of makers concerned above all with physical experimentation. For Lazerian, the tools are a means to an end, their creative use of CNC coming out of completely separate, quite traditional design aims. Refreshing.

A Visit to Lazerian, Manchester's CNC Wizards - Part 1

2009-04-28T11:25:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Firstly, apologies for my unannounced hiatus from blogging here, it is nice to be back!

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of paying a visit to Lazerian, Liam Hopkin's studio workshop in Manchester specialising in beguiling forms for furniture, mobiles and jewellery. We covered them briefly back in November, and ever since I have been dying to go and take a closer look at their products. I was not disappointed.

[caption id="attachment_3931" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Lazerian logo resplendant on their T Shirts"][/caption]

It seems to me that everyone in Manchester either lives or works in an old mill, and Lazerian are no exception. I was greeted by a very upbeat Hopkins, easily recognisable sporting a two tone T shirt with Lazerian's trademark English Pointer emblazoned across it. He explains that the Pointer replaced their previous, (I would say, slightly less edgy) mascot of a squirrel. The dog is the latest inspiration for the studio's foray into angular ornament, a net being run off the plotter as I enter the office for turning the dog into a planar 3d paper model.

As we sit down for a cup of tea, Hopkins tells me about Lazerian's overarching ethos: experimenting with materials, seeing what they are capable of, making the most of them both in the sense of their properties and in the sense of resourcefulness.

[caption id="attachment_3923" align="aligncenter" width="407" caption="Lazerian's Mensa Coffee Table"][/caption]

My first destination as we enter their spacious workshop is to check out the CNC machine used to create pieces such as their Mensa tables. Why CNC?

"We wanted CNC from the start ... We can get a lot more out of the material that way - the components we cut would be much more wasteful to make by hand." Hopkins shows me a sheet with the negative forms left after CNC cutting, dozens of X shaped apertures crammed together on the ply. It occurs to me that this is not a big machine, and perhaps Lazerian's fascination with repeated forms and pattern are as much a response to what production resources they have on hand as aesthetics. "The smaller forms force you to be more creative," says Hopkins, "The CNC machine also allows us to keep production in house."

continued tomorrow..

Embodied in flash

2009-04-28T08:56:00.003Z

My cohort just alerted me to Herman Miller's Thoughtpile site, and , indeed, the site for their Embody chair - both charming exercises in interaction. Sadly no longer fully interactive due to 'some users trying to circumvent the rules and regulations' apparently. Still a great wee play, and a really simple and honest (yet slick) linking of product to values, aimed at office buyers. Although I still want a pixelated back.

Mechanisms 101 & Arthur Ganson

2009-04-27T10:48:00.003Z

A fantastic repository of mechanisms, Mechanisms 101, demonstrated with Flash.

Via Dug North

And, also via the above, an engrossing TED talk from kinetic sculptor, Arther Ganson.

Ecochandelier!

2009-04-05T16:52:00.003Z

Concept 1
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

I have been working with Florence of we are curious on a project with John Paul II Primary School in Viewpark since January. We are working with the P6s and P7s to design and build an 'Eco-Chandelier' for the school. I have uploaded to Flickr some photos from our recent concept selection and you can follow the course of the build at http://ecochandelier.wordpress.com

Manufacture @ Fridge Gallery

2009-01-27T01:42:00.001Z

IMG_3582
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

Have finally uploaded my photos of the exhibition in November!

The Best of Instructables means lasers

2008-12-04T18:14:00.012Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Instructables publish their first compilation in print this week, with 300 pages of top instructables voted for by the community and selected by the website editors. I got an advance copy, having an instructable in there, and have been devouring the book at every opportunity. Somehow instructables are even better suited to book form (or maybe its testament to the work of the publishers, O'Reilly). The book is easy to navigate and lucid yet still packed with both the original instructables plus selected comments and interspersed commentary from the website creators.

The book is available from Amazon and the Maker Shed - a fine Christmas pressie for any maker I'm sure. The great thing about the book is it is much more manageable than the website for the viewer - its all too easy to get lost among the 10,000 projects that have been uploaded, and the book seems to be a good representation of the variety of projects on the site.

One instructable that I had never seen before opening the book but that blew me away is the Universal Lamp Shade Polygon Building Kit. Steven blogged about this project way back - it's a great candidate for laser cutting and indeed the author, Dan, (of Squid labs, incidentally), provides a .dxf for doing this very thing. Even better are the responses in the comments however, including this corker from Travis:

New oDesign Site Geared Towards Source

2008-12-04T18:14:00.011Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Update: It appears I made a misjudgment as to the origin of oDesign, apologies. Massimo Menichinelli is a collaborator in oDesign rather than the originator. Sorry folks!

~~Massimo Menichinelli's~~ The oDesign project has had a facelift and a new site design, the most exciting part being, a Sourceforge-styled section for sharing product source files.

Do we need another place to collect product source information? After all, we already have sites such as Ponoko and Instructables. Yes, I would say - it would be good to have an equivalent directory such as Sourceforge for downloadable product data at least as an organisational/reference tool. Here you could keep cutting files/3D geometry files, as well as links to an instructable for assembly, Ponoko for buying the cutting, - user reviews and ratings, license information and prices are already incoroprated.

Already up there are a few projects originally from Ronen Kadushin - it will be interesting to see how the site evolves as more are added. The website is a little clunky at the front but nonetheless very much functional.

oDesign ~~appears to have come out of~~ features Massimo Menichinelli's extensive research in 'Open Peer-to-Peer Design', the website for which is here and the thesis here.

via oDesign

Wired on Open Hardware (plus Being an Open Design Geek)

2008-12-04T18:14:00.010Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Wired recently published an excellent article on Open Source Hardware entitle "Build It. Share It. Profit. Can Open Source Hardware Work?"

It's a great summary of the current situation, and writer Clive Thompson cites the likes of Arduino, Adafruit, NYCresistor and Instructables as he recounts our journey from the gestation of Linux to the popularity of Netgear's open source routers. Particularly, Thompson focuses on an interview with Arduino creators Gianluca Martino, Massimo Banzi, and David Cuartielles, and there are some interesting insights into the genesis of that project and where their business advantage actually lies:

"Because you're the inventor, though, the community of users will inevitably congregate around you, much as Torvalds was the hub for Linux. You will always be the first to hear about cool improvements or innovative uses for your device. That knowledge becomes your most valuable asset, which you can sell to anyone."

Arduino creator, Massimo Banzi of Tinker.it by Matt Biddulph

My favourite quote however comes from MIT professor, Eric von Hippel:

"In a sense, hardware is becoming much more like software, up to the point where you actually fabricate an object," von Hippel says. "That's why you're starting to see open source techniques in hardware. Design is largely going to shift out from manufacturers to the communities."

What an exciting idea: a shifting of design work from the brutal world of commercial manufacture as we know it, to communities of people sharing knowledge. Is it only me who finds the choice a no-brainer? Isn't this the future we've dreamed of making for ourselves?

Thompson writes of the difference that, as he puts them, 'geeks' have made to Arduino - it is their dedicated hacking that make Arduino and any successful piece of open hardware, well, successful. We as designers are the geeks of open design - and goodness knows I know a lot of geeky designers. I might go as far as to say that the reason you are reading this blog is that you might be a bit of a laser-cutting/digital manufacturing/design culture geek: design geeks have tools for open design laid out in front of us, and it is we who will shape our future products. We can only look to the open hardware movement as a role model for open design in general, as there really is an increasingly tiny difference. All it takes is some guts. Or some stupidity, if you take heart to Thompson's final paragraph.

via Wired

Patent-B-Gone: Mitch Altman on Open Sourcing

2008-12-04T18:14:00.009Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

TV-B-Gone inventor Mitch Altman was quoted on the Make blog today with some interesting experience on open sourcing his product:

"Even though my project was not open source, I benefited from the open source community. People hacked TV-B-Gone remote controls in wonderfully creative ways. (Search online for "TV-B-Gone hacks" and you'll get the idea.) These hacks increased the product's popularity, resulting in more sales and more people around the world experiencing the satisfaction of turning off TVs."

a TV-B-Gone - image from Maker Shed

Read more here at Make. Its interesting that when Mitch set out, he was going very much down the patenting route and it was only when he went to a hacker meet that he was first exposed to "people who are very critical of patents and other forms of intellectual property law". Now the TV-B-Gone (a remote for switching off any TV you aim it at) is sold open source from Maker Shed and the source code, board layout, TV power codes, and all documentation, will be available online.

via Make

Open Hand Grips: EMSLâ€™s Meggy Jr Handheld and Cardboard Chic for your iPhone

2008-12-04T18:13:00.008Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Evil Mad Scientist Labs have debuted a much more sophisticated version of their Meggy games platform in the Meggy Jr RGB.

Most interestingly for us, Windell and Lenore have designed the electronics to fit into customisable 'handle sets':

"A unique feature of Meggy Jr RGB is that it is designed to be mounted inside a "handle set" — a wooden or plastic case that's safer and more pleasant to hold than a bare circuit board. You can make, mod and customize your own handle sets to suit your taste– These are like faceplates in that you can switch whenever you want to suit your mood or the game that you're playing, however different handle sets can radically change what the Meggy Jr looks and feels like. Above, you can see what our basic handles (left) look like, as compared to a set of custom smoke-colored batwing handles (right)."

The source files for these sandwiched laser cut designs are available for download as .svg and .pdf, and come with some suggested engravings:

So, another fine and more than thorough offering from the Evil Mad Scientists , but their claim to uniqueness is at odds firstly with the many handset options for the Wii platform, as well as this DIY offering for the iPod touch/iPhone from ronnsprocket:

A neat bit of cardboard cutting there, sadly no templates available as yet.

via EMSL, Derek, and touchArcade

Web Savvy: Stani Michielâ€™s Commemorative Five Euro Coin

2008-12-04T18:13:00.007Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

In an excellently titled post, "How to make money with free software", Dutch designer Stani Michiels describes the design process behind his winning entry in a competition to design a new five euro coin for the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

Its a fascinating bit of software/graphic/product design, using amongst other things, a live internet ranking system of the Netherlands' great architects, an arrangement of books on a virtual shelf and the country's regional birds to depict standard design elements such as Queen Beatrix and the map of the Netherlands. Michiels doesn't say how 'live' that list is - whether each coin is generated on-the-fly to reflect the state of the internet at that time. Presumably not, unless the coins are rapidly manufactured! Those days are yet to come, although, as Michiels points out, the idea of open source coins can present some curious problems:

"I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that."

Fact: for anyone not feeling the financial pinch at the moment, the gold edition of this coin can be purchased for merely 39 of the regular version.

via Core77

Illustration Friday Hop Onto the Ponoko Zeitgeist

2008-12-04T18:13:00.006Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Brianna Privett over at the illustrator's blog Illustration Friday has posted a great account of her experience with Ponoko - most interestingly, her inspiration came from a public domain book, Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places by Frederick William Fairholt. Her showroom pitches her jewellery and other bits and bobs thus:

"Designs from public domain literary works - key fobs from the Wizard of Oz, ring designs from a Victorian anthropology collection, an early Celtic buckle, hair sticks from feather engravings from a book on birdwatching from 1881."

The designs are available for free at her showroom here. A great synergy of public domain artwork and digital manufacturing, thus creating public domain objects!

via Illustration Friday

Custom Fabric Printing from Spoonflower

2008-12-04T18:12:00.002Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Spoonflower is a web-based digital textile printing service run out of an old sock mill in downtown Mebane, North Carolina. Indigo has mentioned them previously in relation to the very apt Wordle.

At the moment the site is in Beta and as such does not offer any facility as an online marketplace or shared repository, but they will do in the next phase. This from their FAQs:

"When we come out of beta, … you will be able to choose to make your designs available for purchase by others. This feature — which will make Spoonflower into a marketplace for independent fabric designers — will probably take some time to evolve and grow in complexity. But displaying your designs, as well as selling them, will ALWAYS be under your control."

Looks like another good opportunity for makers, keep up with their progress on their blog, where the Spoonflower folk also post pictures of their beta users' creations.
via Make

Ben Lightâ€™s Forays into â€˜Lazzoredâ€™ Trees

2008-12-04T18:11:00.014Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Ben Light, whom we have blogged about previously, has been making some Christmas ornaments over at NYC Resistor's laser cutter. He is quoted over at Make's blog:

"The laser cutter is such a cool tool. To be able to design something and have the final piece in your hands 10 minutes later, it's like living in the future."

Ben was taking advantage of NYC Resistor's classes - every time I look at that site I get an inexplicable urge to live in NYC!
More cool happenings via Bre and NYC Resistor's laser cutter: Jennifer Whalen's animated horse and buffalo.

via Bre's excellent Things videos
and via Make

Design Process, the Maker Way

2008-12-04T18:11:00.013Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Chris Connors over at Make has posted a great piece that those of us without a formal design education may well appreciate, and even those with. Chris was writing in response to PBS' Design Squad program, from which the image opposite comes, and references the Android G1 phone and iPod iterations as examples of contemporary designs that blur the traditional deadline of 'product shipping' into simply another phase of testing and development:

"When your product is sufficiently complete, and you have resolved the most pressing problems determined in the process, it is time to deliver. This does not mean that the project is done forever, instead, it means that it is ready for more testing in a real world environment. As you (and your team, as may be the case) see the product in the world, you will hopefully be looking at it for examples of where it can be changed and improved. As you find aspects of the project that need refinement, you make a plan for revision and implement it. Hopefully these flaws you find at this point are not tragic enough to seriously stall or ruin the project."

Chris also recently posted a hugely inspiring 10 minute chat with Mitch Altman, recorded at the Austin Maker Faire. I've gushed about Altman before, and this clip does nothing but reinforce my view of him as an inspiration amongst open designers!

via Make

Human MRI Scan 3D Sculpture

2008-12-04T18:11:00.012Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Here's a greatly conceived bit of visualisation from Neil Fraser, one of the many brainy software engineers at Google (hoho):

Fraser has pasted prints from an MRI scan onto 60 nicely finished wooden blocks to make a part-puzzle/part-educational model representing a human head (interestingly, he doesn't mention to whom it belongs) from the inside.

Infosthetics, the information aesthetics blog says:

"Using touch as well as the third dimension to explore 3D data is an interesting avenue, as alternative interfaces need to be explored as much as representation."

We say, let's laser cut this puzzle!

via Make via infosthetics

Dinos Getting all Existential at Boston Fablabs

2008-12-04T18:11:00.011Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Just had to post this great bit of laser engraving from Danny at Boston Fablabs:

Dr. Egon Spangler famously stated in Ghostbusters, "Print is dead". Extinct or not, one cannot deny the appeal of a good hardback and with Danny's enhancements, even more so. Perhaps in the future Ponoko might offer blank books for engraving, or Cafepress might offer engraving on its journals?

If you're not familiar with Fablabs, Make's post on Danny's book includes a good synopsis.
via Make

Laptop Stands Summarised by The Closet Entrepreneur

2008-12-04T18:11:00.010Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Tomas Carrillo has published a .pdf source for his cardboard laptop stand along with some great discussion of the pros and cons and comparison with a couple of other designs, both open and proprietary.

Although he missed out Dan's Ponoko offering:

As every self-respecting maker should, Tomas has put up an Instructable on the design too. It would be great to see this up for sale through Ponoko, given that cardboard cutting has arrived on the scene!

I must say that the desire for a laptop stand is one that has passed me by, but there seems to be a tremendous demand for them. But then I am typing this with my chilled hands reaching awkwardly up to my laptop keyboard…
via Make

The Public Domain - James Boyleâ€™s Latest

2008-12-04T18:10:00.002Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

The Public Domain by James Boyle, looks to be an interesting new publication, billed as "introducing readers to the idea of the public domain and describes how it is being tragically eroded by our current copyright, patent, and trademark laws." - In many ways, a call to arms for people to use the Creative Commons, the licensing system which you already use when either selling or giving away your .eps product plans on Ponoko.

Boyle's book is available to buy physically, or to download for free as a .pdf, or indeed read online for free through the publishers' (Yale University Press) website. I have started to read the book by the latter method and found the website very lucid and usable and the writing clear and straight forward. I particularly like Boyle's point in the preface on the accessibility of this area of thought:

"Contrary to what everyone has told you, the subject of intellectual property is both accessible and interesting; what people can understand, they can change—or pressure their legislators to change… Every news story refers to intellectual property as "arcane," "technical," or "abstruse" in the same way as they referred to former attorney general Alberto Gonzales as "controversial." It is a verbal tic and it serves to reinforce the idea that this is something about which popular debate is impossible. But it is also wrong."

Boyle also writes on the Public Domain website about the benefits of simultaneously selling your book and giving it away. There's a cracking video from Creative Commons at the bottom of that page, which makes a great introduction for those of us new to the concept.

via Core77

Manufacture @ The Fridge Gallery

2008-11-18T16:51:00.001Z

Manufacture @ The Fridge Gallery
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

This Sat 22nd Nov from 7pm - all welcome!

Southside Studios, 17 Westmoreland St, Glasgow, G42 8LL

Sew sound waves onto your clothes

2008-11-14T14:23:00.002Z

A fascinating and exciting looking project from these folk.

via make

Sorry for the lack of posting - I'm still writing for the Ponoko blog of course, but its a bit of a pain reposting here. If anyone knows a way for me to automatically grab a feed of my posts from Ponoko and have them automatically reposted here by Blogger, I would be eternally grateful!

Furniture:manufacture exhibition- change of date

2008-11-12T20:42:00.001Z

Hello. Due to circumstances beyond my control, the opening of the Furniture manufacture Exhibition that I previously blogged about has been moved back to the 22nd November. All are still welcome!

Invader Big Bag Badge

2008-11-09T19:29:00.001Z

Invader Big Bag Badge
Originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design

I've uploaded some images from the recent making of a Big Bag Badge for my friend Kath.

Furniture:Manufacture Exhibition

2008-11-09T18:42:00.003Z

I will be exhibiting at the forthcoming Furniture:Manufacture exhibition at the Fridge Gallery, Southside Studios. It's on Glasgow's southside, on Westmoreland St., Govanhill.

The exhibition also features other Southside Studios designers, Eggmachine (Gerry Thomson), Modern Standard (Bevan Quinn) and Silo (Simon Harlow).

All are welcome to come along for the opening on Saturday the 22nd November - the exhibition will be up for a week thereafter, open at weekends or viewing by appointment.

I will post the invite when it is available.

Engraved Into Memory: Xylocopa's Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks

2008-10-20T23:30:00.001Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

File this under 'unique things to do with laser engraving':

Xylocopa's 'Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks' are building blocks for the budding young maker/inventor, or those big kids. They sport such home-truths as G for Goggles, U for Underground Lair and Z for Zombies, all engraved with beautifully detailed illustrations.

They're a beautifully executed product for the maker market, and the kind of low volume, high value product that perfectly suits on-demand production with a laser. Xylocopa is a husband-wife design team from Tucson, Arizona selling a range of really interesting jewellery, home decor and paper products, all using largely laser cut wood. It is design twists like this that can breath new life into previously ubiquitous products, thanks to the new-found economy of digital manufacture.

via Make blog.

Efficiency is the goal - The Art of Engineering

2008-10-20T16:34:00.001Z

Efficiency is the goal - The Art of Engineering

Duncan Drennan has some great examples of why I think of eco-design as a matter of efficiency and often vice versa too! He also links to an interesting page of statistics on cycling in comparison compared to other modes of transport.

I would add:

Efficiency is open source - when we share ideas, we stop duplicating each other's work (wastage) and can spend our time more usefully building on each other's ideas. Open Source Design leads to distributed and hence local manufacturing which is highly energy efficient in terms of transportation, and resource efficient in terms of sourcing of components/materials (small scale open designers re-use stuff more).

I like Duncan's concise, infrequent posting, I wish more blogs were like his!

George Murray, music therapist website

2008-10-14T19:19:00.000Z

I recently finished a site for my friend, George Murray, who is a music therapist. I'm like a one-stop-shop for the very niche market of music therapy websites! Except that I had to re-learn a lot of stuff so there were several stops on the way. For the record I don't really want to do websites as they seem like a lot of effort without even the pleasure of a tangible thing at the end or getting to go outdoors, say. But I'm pleased with the result, as is George.

Round and Round and Round: Ring Calendar by Sebastian Bergne

2008-10-11T17:01:00.001Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Icon magazine recently did a special feature on Ponoko with furniture and product designer of repute, Sebastian Bergne, and the results are available at his showroom on Ponoko. The feature has some great discussion as well as audio and video of Bergne and his experience with Ponoko.

I particularly like Sebastian Bergne's Ring Calendar as it reinforces my perception of time as an eternally revolving thing: day follows day, week follows week, month follows month, on and on. This idea might depress some more sensitive souls, but as the showroom Spunique placidly puts it, the calendar may otherwise "give you the everyday satisfaction of interacting with its calm composition".

Of course the other thing I like about the calendar is its elegant and technically simple design, completely laser cut from melamine faced MDF. The assembly appears to really exploit the accuracy achievable with laser cutting, as does Bergne's other Ponoko product, the Bandit. Bandit is a playfully conceived 30cm ruler/rubber band catapult, that uses a living hinge cut into acrylic as a trigger mechanism. Most cunning. The Icon feature has more to say about the development of this part of the design.

Bergne is no small name, with a vast portfolio of furniture and products designed for a wealth of clients, many of which form part of the London Design Museum's Collection. It's great to see the established names mixing with the new names in the Ponoko marketplace!

via Ponoko and google search

Drawdio Brings New Meaning to Sketching with Hardware

2008-10-10T14:13:00.001Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

The latest kit from Adafruit appears to be another banger. Ladyada writes on her blog about Drawdio:

"Originally designed by J Silver, when I first saw the Drawdio at Maker Faire I knew it would be a great project for beginners: A lot of fun with instant gratification! Essentially, its a very simple musical synthesizer that uses the conductive properties of pencil graphite to create different sounds. The result is a simple toy that lets you draw musical instruments on any piece of paper."

I am unfathomably excited by this project, combining as it does two loves of mine: abstract expressionism and atonality. Sorry, I mean sketching and music!

Ladyada posts a great video presumably taken at Maker Faire showing Mr. Silver and a whole host of people playing with the invention - there is a great social aspect to the experience too as users can create more possibilities by holding hands whilst interacting with each other's doodles. It is worth noting that Jay Silver comes straight from that hotbed of maker talent, MIT's Media Lab, specifically the Life Long Kindergarten group.

I wonder if there is potential for a Drawdio/Photomake mashup? You could certainly have any sketches that you think are worth preserving converted into a lasercut outline without much effort..

via ladyada's ranting

Arduino fuel economy gadget seeks designer.

2008-10-10T14:12:00.001Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

I've been keeping an eye out for Arduino projects that might require a bit of industrial design input, and then I found one where I should have started looking: The following, via the Arduino Playground seems a particularly well developed project.

MPGuino is "a reasonably low-cost device that will gauge your MPG, even for cars that do not have an OBD-II interface in their car... this device uses inputs from the Vehicle Speed Sensor(VSS) and one fuel injector control wire, both of which are easily found in just about all electronic fuel injected cars."

More technical info can be found at Ecomodder's forum, while the wiki carries some examples of existing enclosure solutions, mainly boxy off-the-shelf jobs from Radioshack et al. Perhaps combined with Flightsofideas' Sketchup plugin [blogged here] or Curious Inventors' method [blogged here] the indie designer community could come up with something more sleek for the discerning car owner. Even better, if any entrepreneurial Arduino-types would like to commission a design through Ponoko ID...

via google search

Own it or Share it?

2008-10-10T14:11:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

At first glance, Own-It did not seem like an endeavour that I would like. The London and North England based organisation define themselves in this way:

"Own-it offers free intellectual property advice for creative businesses. Within your business or your practice, you've probably created a wealth of in-house ideas, designs, music, writing, images – in short, 'intellectual property' - which can make you extra money, as long as you give it the proper legal protection. Own-it will show you how."

Firstly, there is the proprietary nature of its title. Secondly, the promise of 'extra money' generally switches me off in any context. However I was pleased to find that beyond the usual dogmatic advice to ring-fence all IP by default, Own-it have a good amount of information on Creative Commons, Copyleft and Open Source here, alongside informative articles on design IP mechanisms in general.

There's no doubt that Own-it offer a valuable service and I like the well summarised definitions on their website, but there still seems to be little comparative relation made between the reasons for protecting one's IP by closing it off and reasons for freeing one's IP by opening it up. The two will have to meet at some point, at which time, citing the collaborative and evolutionary benefits of open sourcing, and the need to financially exploit one's ideas, while not addressing the inherent contradictions therein, will simply no longer suffice. Surely the likes of Own-it are best placed to explore this frontier, although they might have to change their name to 'Share-it' first to convince me.

Own-it sponsor Greengaged, which looks to be another exciting event partly from the folks over at [re]design. Greengaged is:

"a 7 day hub of events, debates, workshops, exhibitions, seminars and masterclasses bring together all sectors of the design industry to focus on sustainability issues, exchange ideas and carve out new roles for design."

All taking place rather conveniently during this year's London Design Festival, at the Design Council and on now.

Ten Green on Re-nest

2008-10-06T14:09:00.003Z

Perusing my website stats for September, I come across 'Apartment Therapy' portal, Re-nest who wrote some encouraging things about the Ten Green project(s) and added some really good ideas for developments:

We think that the beer bottle shelves might be a little too college dorm-room quirky in our place, though maybe we'll make one for our younger brother. But we can see the wine bottle shelves or coffee table fitting in right at home. The warmth of the glass might also be complimented if you used rustic reclaimed barnwood for the planks, or a dark high-gloss espresso-colored stain would give it a sharp, clean look.

In conversation with the Centre for Advanced Textiles (Part 2)

2008-09-18T05:38:00.002Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

"We want to do things you could never do with mass production," Andy McDonald tells me as we sit in the compact premises of the Centre for Advanced Textiles. From here, just five staff are delivering an on-demand textile printing service, retailing a range of classic designs on fabric, and exploring the boundaries of modern fabrication through several collaborative research projects.

One of the latter that Andy enthuses about is a project involving a "code-generated kimono". For this Andy wrote a script that allows the user to arrange a pattern on a virtual diagram of a kimono, chossing exactly where to place elements of the design. The script then takes these instructions and translates them into patterns for printing on CAT's digital printers, automatically calculating where seamlines should fall and making the patterm continue across them continuously (see bottom image).

More recently, CAT is working with local design heroes Timorous Beasties, a small enterprise specialising in unique wallcoverings and surfaces for home furnishing. JR cites the Beasties as just the size of business that CAT would like to target and who can benefit the most from digital on-demand processes. The business employs 12 people, screenprinting all their own surfaces by hand in batches, probably the most recognisable design being their very modern Glaswegian take on the 18th century 'toile' style. In their forthcoming collaboration, CAT are exploring new ways for customers to commission designs, using computerised interfaces to give the customer an experience which can then be captured uniquely in the product they take home. It is this factor of 'experience' that CAT see as the crucial value in digital manufacturing.

"Timorous Beasties' strength is in the aesthetic. We can take that digital, building interactions between the customer and, say, the 'toile' scene." In facilitating the customer in creating their own unique pattern, say as a character in their own pastoral scene, JR and Andy hope to create high value products that the customer has an experiencial, traceable link with and therefore will never want to dispose of.

The results of one experiment in customisation hang in CAT's offices

For Andy however, his work isn't about customisation:

"Mass customisation has sidetracked the debate for 10 yrs or so - multi-production builds in flexibility from the core."

Similarly to Ponoko, Andy's vision is of completely decentralised manufacturing, fully exploiting the reduction in design, storage and transport overheads that the digital age allows. He sees the future for CAT as the first of many platforms for small businesses, that would then be able to offer their own web based fabrication experiences to customers. Accordingly, fabrication would become similarly localised and distributed, a system he tentatively calls 'cloud manufacture'.

It's an exciting discussion that brings us round to the rather more traditional example of tartan weavers - local purveyors of technical skills for whose customers negotitation and customisation were easy. And there are few things longer lasting and more globally pervasive than a good kilt!

In conversation with the Centre for Advanced Textiles (Part 1)

2008-09-18T05:38:00.001Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of a very extensive discussion with the guys at The Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT) in this very city of Glasgow. CAT is a combined commercial/academic organisation housed within one of the Glasgow School of Art's design school buildings. It currently provides digital textile printing services to small and medium sized enterprises, whilst also quietly plotting a revolution in digital fabrication! I was speaking with researcher and interactions man, Andy McDonald, and surface designer JR.

The centre currently has 2 large inkjet textile printers, as well as the use of the small laser cutter down in the product design workshop. We talked about digital processes for textiles in general, the pair's various projects in using digital processes for customisation, and the state of on-demand manufacturing.

Digital textiles

JR is most interested in design using natural fibres and has recently been exploring the use of lasers to engrave fabric. The resulting surface is surprisingly pronounced and consistent - check out the detail below. In this example JR has been combining the printing and engraving processes, and in another sample, using digital embroidery too. Explaining the differences in approach between product designers and surface designers, he says that he uses multiple processes to "obsessively build a surface, pushing things to where they're almost not usable". Quite apart from my product designer head that I guess aims to hone each part for economy and simplicity! Oh yeah, and usability.

For the embroidery, CAT are working with Interface, a research institute at the University of Ulster, Belfast experimenting with what JR describes as "any process digitally for textiles". Not bad.

It is quite interesting to mark the differences between what I regard as product manufacturing, and the world of garment manufacturing. For one thing textile products tend to be so transitory - my interviewees were soon to be heading off to a conference on Creative Commons applied to fashion as a medium, implying that fashion is a form of media more than anything else, the textile simply the carrier for information: Information that is changeable, trendy and peculiar to people or time. And as JR puts it, the manufacturers rely on this, often tolerating piracy as it ensures obsolescence.

JR cites Zara as an example of "brutally efficient mass production, perfected", a super fast response manufacturer, able to bring new items to shops within weeks. And he points out that as production and retail become closer, there comes a crossover point where it makes sense for retail to precede production. The item is bought and then produced on demand, and at this point there is the opportunity to make an item completely customised for the buyer. Hence CAT's interest in developing a platform for customers to commission customised textiles or garments using digital processes.

Andy takes the concept a step further: "Manufacturers see [on-demand manufacture] as a new way to mass produce - I see it as an alternative to mass production." In contrast to JR, Andy comes from a manufacturing engineering background and summarises his research in this way:

"I'm investigating how web-based interface technologies can be used in conjunction with existing digital design [software] and manufacturing [hardware] systems to deliver a more accessible, sustainable and responsible alternative to mass production. The study focuses primarily on the textiles & apparel supply chain for a number of reasons but I feel the model I am conceptualising is certainly applicable to any craft-based product given the correct fabrication capability."

An early paper that Andy delivered on this topic can be read on the excellent P2P Foundation wiki here.

I shall go into more detail about some of CAT's specific research projects in the next post.

Aurora mixer recently both available and unavailable

2008-09-18T05:38:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

I'm a bit slow off the mark with this one - Make reported last week that the Aurora mixer (posted on Ponoko previously here) is now being distributed, and before I knew it the first batch had already been snapped up. The first batch was of 3 fully built mixers though, so its scarcity is unsurprising given the kind of enthusiasm there seems to be for this product. One of the first batch went out to Peter over at http://www.createdigitalmusic.com who wrote this thorough discussion on the item.

On its open architecture Peter writes this:

"... it’s a really remarkable piece of hardware, and one you can get right now and immediately open up and reprogram / repair / rework if you wish. The real test will be to see how people respond to its open-source design, whether that translates into people using it creating some of their own solutions to housing, customization, and software operation in the way they have with some other open projects.

"In other words, Aurora isn’t perfect — but that’s actually kind of terrific, because it’s something more important: open. ..."

"... Bottom line: it can’t be understated that this not only a unique controller, it’s a controller you’d have no problems taking apart physically or in terms of software to change something. And that’s a very exciting thing, indeed."

Looks really positive for this well conceived product. The makers are currently accepting group orders only.

Gift box from Cereal box and other Instructables news

2008-09-01T17:27:00.000Z

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.

Had to post this rather tasty Gift box from a cereal packet Instructable by Blightdesign, that is Ben Light, a multi-talented (Sculpting, ceramics, web animation, graphic design, painting) web developer from NYC. I particularly like that it uses the entire cereal box, but gives no outward sign of its origins! So you have pretty much a standard used material in a pretty much standard format, just needing folding and gluing to give it a new lease of life. Neat.

Ben also has some lovely bits of wood turning, carpentry and rubber dipping displayed on his site.

If you're really into making Instructables you could do worse than reading this one on How to draw illustrations for instructables. Or it could easily be renamed 'How to draw illustrations for design pitches/design reviews/manuals' in my opinion!

Instructables will soon be releasing their first book, The Best of Instructables Volume I containing over 100 Instructables chosen by a panel and by the Instructables community, out this October.