Building (and Playing With) Oversized Jenga-Like Blocks from Ian Page-Echols on Vimeo.

Nils had the idea to make some oversized Jenga-like blocks for this year’s Georgetown Carnival in Seattle. So we made ‘em. This is video taken at the tail end of working on the blocks, as well as the first couple games played.

Idea
Bils Christian

Worker Bees
Tom Hall
Sebastian Kimura
Ben Flaster
Ian Page-Echols
Nils Christian

Video
Ian Page-Echols

This is a controller that I have put together for the purpose of controlling visuals software, and probably sequencers and synthesizer software as well. I hacked together a bunch of different controllers as a way to test out what works and what I would really use.

Here is a track I put together using just Apple’s Logic and my Minime as a basic midi controller.

Click “more” to see information on the construction of the minime and more photos.

I have tended to perform my visuals using the screen on my laptop to choose video clips, and then doing most of the rest using just a 16 dial controller. I’ve been looking a long time at a lot of different types, sizes, and shapes of controllers and just decided one day to put together a bunch of stuff I already have to see what I could come up with. The case ended up being larger than it would have to be, so if I remade this, I’d measure everything out to make it as small as it could be while also feeling good.

Contents:
1x Monome 40h kit (64 LEDs and 64 buttons, you can add a tilt sensor)
1x Evolution UC-16 MIDI dial controller (without the settings buttons)
1x Intec XBox controller joystick and controller board
2x BBC Microcomputer joysticks wired into aforementioned XBox controller
1x cheesy purple case from the thrift store
1x USB hub
1x USB A port, external
1x USB B port, external

Some of the component parts could just be partially disassembled and then attached to the case. The USB hub, and the UC-16 controller, that’s all I had to do. The rest was more work.

The XBox controller really is a USB device with a strange connector. To use it on the Mac, all you have to do is cut off the original connector, and then wire up a USB connector instead. With the Mac, you also need drivers. I’m currently using Carvware GamePad Companion for most programs, but I think with Max/MSP I can support it without the driver.

The most important modification you can do with a game controller is to take apart the joysticks and take their springs out. Once you do this, they will stay where you leave them. This allows you to use that stick as an X and a Y setting that won’t jump back to the middle. Very useful for audio filters, color filters, and the intensity of various audio and video effect plugins. I lucked out and found a couple joysticks that came from an old BBC Microcomputer (yes, that BBC).

I was thinking that once I figured out what worked, I would transfer things over to a new case. But, I just realized that would be somewhat insane, as I would have to de-solder and re-solder all of the almost 400 solder points on the minime section. So, if I like things, I will make a nicer version, and likely sell this one off as-is.

Click here to see a previous post on putting together the electronics kit for the monome in this project.

p.s. – I know the correct pronunciation of Monome is supposed to rhyme with gnome, but I still like calling the little monome section of my controller the Minime, pronounced “mini me”. That or Getome, which should be pronounced “Ghetto Me”

My ideas are from a lot of sources, but lately there has been so much amazing new gear coming out. The ideas for this are mostly from the last link (check out the videos in the gallery).

DSMidiWifi (home of the Kaos DS demo program),
Jeff Han Multitouch, and
Jazzmutant’s Lemur (check out the video gallery)

I acquired a Sansui VX-99 (NTSC) video mixer a while back. It didn’t seem to be fully working when I got it. Which is fine, it was in an as-is pile. I was just hoping to be able to use it to add some extra static and noise to live footage for visuals if nothing else. After opening it up to fix a broken fader with some hot glue, I still couldn’t get both channels of video to display at the same time. I eventually figured out that in order to mix the two video sources, you have to press the gen-lock mix button. After doing this, the mixer mostly works. I still have yet to figure out how to get the thing to display any changes when you press on the RGB color buttons. I’m assuming that these allow you to fade to a color instead of black, which I wouldn’t usually want, but could be interesting if you were doing some sort of video feedback.

Old video equipment is very frustrating. It causes all sorts of video glitches (can be good), which breaks the sync (bad) and causes your nice image to be indecipherable or, worse yet, blue screen. I wish the default was black.

I’m having fun playing with this thing. It has tons of adjustments inside using little trimmer dials. The VX-99 is a very capable video device when you include the possibilities of all of these dials, although since it is very hard to get back to a normal, well colored picture after playing with all of the dials, I can definitely understand why they left these out of reach. I am going to find some dials that I can mount on the outside of the case to replace the ones inside. I don’t like to destroy old things, but this one is much more valuable if I can use all of these settings without having the case lying open. I’ll make sure I put on markers for a “normal” setting once I figure them out again.

You need to undo the silver screw in order to get the case off. It’s the ground connection between the bottom and top of the case. The power switch also held the case on, so you have to lift the case by the power button until it comes off.

Since a large number of the tiny dials inside of this video mixer do interesting things that don’t exist in the original controls, I am adding more controls to the outside of the case. The hardest thing about this is finding dials with similar values to the ones originally in the mixer as well as hopefully looking somewhat natural on a very 80s looking device.

The varieties of dials and their markings are:
(most likely only helpful for myself)

black
103
222
223
224
471
472
473
blue (smaller)
721C 471
721C 472
612d 333
5398 683
722C 104
609d 223

650A 332
710C 222
706C 103
silver tall box with dial inside
1x – 4835 0000 760
2x – 4835 0100 760
short black box with yellow top
1x – no markings that I can see

It’s turning out to be harder to find a bunch of these than I thought. I’ll be playing with this more to figure out what I would actually use. I’ve found it to be fairly hard to get back to anything resembling stock settings, so I would definitely have to mark an approximate normal setting on the case. More later.

I made a little cheapo kids laptop toy into something useful. It’s now got an LCD panel from a PSOne, and I wired up the buttons as a USB keyboard. Makes a nice 40 button clip launcher.

I have been creating visuals for various dj, band, and electronic music gigs since late 2003. I always bring various different video, data, and USB devices to play with and interact with the software. But I tend to have a few regulars. One very useful device is a video preview monitor. You can plug this in to your video mixer to see either the final product if you can’t see the screen easily from where you are located, or you can preview the different feeds before you mix them in with or from whatever is currently playing.

Another thing I bring with me is a MIDI controller with a bunch of dials on it. I use this to control the software that I use. I can use it to change the hue and saturation of the clips, I can use it to mix between the different effects that I currently have available to me. I find more uses for this thing all of the time. This plugs in either via MIDI or through USB.

Another thing that most visual programs can do is take triggers from either music keyboards or standard computer keyboards. It would be nice to have a bigger key to hit.

What I need is a custom device that includes these features and others down the road. And I just happen to have a little kids laptop sitting around waiting to be hacked apart.

Ingredients:
Apple USB Keyboard (just the circuit board and USB cable)
PSOne LCD Monitor (out of casing)
VTech Little Smart Letter Fun (already partially converted)

Directions:

1) Take all electronics out of the original toy laptop, making sure to remember where all the screws went.

2) Figure out where all of the various wires lead to inside of the toy. Do this also for the USB keyboard. Below are also a chart and a visual representation of where all these leads need to connect to for my specific devices.

3) You are going to have to create your own board like in figure 2, but instead, match the wires to what the USB keyboard is expecting. It’s a fair amount of work.

4) Finish the LCD monitor part first, as this is easy compared to the rest and you can have something useful while you work on the new circuit board.

Related Links:
PSone LCD – VDR Wiki
bit-tech Forums – PSOne Mod

I’ve been wanting to make a robot costume for Halloween for quite some time. For Halloween of 2004, I finally went ahead and did it. Instead of building a cumbersome cardboard box to wear and do the robot, I decided to just build a helmet and wear a shiny silver jogging outfit. Funny thing is that I didn’t finish the costume until well into the morning, missing any parties that were happening. Or at least all of them I knew of. That’s ok though, I had fun. Next year, I plan to actually wear it.

Ok, so, you want to build a robot helmet? Here’s a possible parts list:

Laptop with audio input (just need the logic board, drive, battery)
My First Sony karaoke tape player (cheap at thrift stores, like $1)
Samsung micro-cassette recorder (to send audio to the laptop)

Sony PSOne LCD Display
Cardboard, or some other easily cut and glued material
Foam for padding
Twisty ties
Hot glue gun and lots of glue sticks
Spray paint in desired robot helmet color
Screen material for speaker grille and for your eyes to see through
Thin plexiglas to protect the LCD screen
Various cables and adapters found and made

Misc bolts to hold on the speaker, or just more hot glue

This is definitely looking mostly like a list of the old things you find in the back of your kitchen drawer, no? Well, maybe besides the plexiglas and the laptop. And maybe the karaoke thing.

Ok, anyway, you have this desire to be a robot. Cardboard is good stuff. My
studio classes from architecture school really shine through in the fabrication of robot skulls. Hot glue guns are your friend. Funny thing about glue guns is that I always thought they seemed really annoying and I didn’t try them until after college. Hot glue is one of my favorite ghetto tools now. Right up there with duct tape.

The specifics before building that I wanted to keep in mind were: an LCD display that I wanted people to be able to see, a speaker that I wanted people to be able to hear, a mic I had to be able to talk into, and a head that I had to fit into the thing once complete. I started by making a frame for the LCD as I wanted to make sure not to damage it. I even went so far as to lay a thin plexiglass sheet in front to protect the LCD panel.

Then I set this face down on the table and started attaching other shapes on, sticking my head on the table every once in a while to make sure something would be far enough away from me, or that it would fit one of the items. For example, the recorder is attached in such a way that it juts out to the left of the main shape. This was fine with me as I didn’t really want the whole form to be symetrical.

To test fit for the back angles, I had my digital camera on a tripod and used the remote to take shots of what I could not see.

Most Halloween costumes just have a shape, a form. I wanted a robot costume with function as well. So besides looking kid of weird, I had the idea to have a computer (which happened to be in pieces at the time) modulating my voice in a robot kind of way. I realized about two microns later (yeah, I know that’s length) that I could use the screen from my toy laptop and also give my robot a smiling face. Obviously, I just was not in a party mood.

In my helmet, the voice comes in through the Samsung microcassette recorder, with the tape paused. I just realized that the microcassette recorder could have just been a cheapo mic, or even a USB mic. I think I had a specific reason for using the microcassette, but I’m guessing it was availability at 4 in the morning. This audio input goes into my laptop and into a program called Plogue Bidule. This program can route audio through filters and equalizers and all sorts of things. So I played around for a while and came up with something kind of robotic.

After the laptop, the sound gets piped into the hacked apart karioke tape player. I wired the switch to just turn the machine on and off. I figured if I coughed, I didn’t need to robotocize that. I also had no idea how long the batteries would last.

Below is an image of the circuit board for the karioke tape player. You can see from the first one that there are multiple wires coming off of the board that I needed to deal with. On the left there is the audio input coming from the computer, and the switch to turn on and off the power. On the far right is the speaker connection, and coming off the bottom right is the power.

Next is an image of the battery connections. Luckily, this board was quite specific in it’s markings. That made it much easier to deal with. Here you can see that the positive was on the left and that my soldering job was not so great. I remember that left solder point just never holding. It took forever for it to stay like it did.

Just connect these wires to a battery holder that gets velcroed or hot glued somewhere out of the way, probably across from the laptop to balance things out. I used the same amount and kind of batteries as the device took initially using a battery holder from Radio Shack (part 270-396).

Here is the speaker connection. The speaker wires had to be elongated to be able to reach from where this board is located. Just snip the speaker wires in the middle so that you can tell which color goes where.

This next one is kind of hard to see. The black wire is connected to a point marked GND for ground. To get audio into the board, you will need one wire connected to here and the other connected to the place marked SIG for signal. The wires for audio came from an end of a stereo headphone jack cable. Since I only had mono inputs on the karioke board, I just connected the left and right leads together when soldering onto the board. This gave a cheap and easy mono input. If you wanted to, you could have two speakers in the helmet aiming a bit away from the front center and make sure the laptop was outputting some highly stereo effects. That could be very impressive. I might even do that for next halloween. The only thing here would be to see if the batteries could power two boards at once.

To hook up the switch (any switch that will stay on after you flick or press it), you also use the ground connection, but then hook up the other side to the CTRL, or control point.

Here is an image of the viewing area where my eyes were looking out. I wanted it to look something like a vent or neck divider or something. Anything so that it wouldn’t draw your eyes to it. I ended up using two layers of light plastic screen material like you might use for a window. I could still see out pretty well, and it made it less obvious that there was actually a human in the costume.

Here is an image of the speaker bolted into the top section of my helmet. Any time you can use real hardware like bolts, sheet metal, fans, or anything a real robot might have, it makes the effect that much better. On the very top you can see the wires and a piece of a fan that I install into the top. My thinking here was partially for effect, but mostly because I didn’t want to be in an uncomfortable outfit for very long. Turns out the box is large enough compared to my head that there was airflow.

Below are a couple images of the bottom front of the helmet showing placement of the voice input, some of the construction details of the eye piece, and the general mess you can have going on inside as long as you pay attention to the outside.

Related Links:
Plogue Bidule

Troikatronix Isadora
Radio Shack battery holder for 4 “D” Cells (part 270-396)