Hair Of The Dog this weekend

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

Niftymitter update - Lingfest testing

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

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/

Niftymitter

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.