Kontraptioneering!

So where are you located? Love your work.

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:20:32 -0400

Los Angeles!

A fresh batch of relays for the Kontraptioneering 32 channel...

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:40:20 -0400

A fresh batch of relays for the Kontraptioneering 32 channel Arduino plug and play controller board.

550 more “cores” for the second of two giant scale...

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:18:48 -0400

550 more “cores” for the second of two giant scale core memory arrays, threading begins NOW!

Core memory array module 1 progress…. SLOW. Looks amazing...

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:32:32 -0400

Core memory array module 1 progress…. SLOW. Looks amazing though, and once I get the “sense” wire in there, it’s going to reall look cool.

Core memory panel progress - we successfully strung up a...

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:53:36 -0400

Core memory panel progress - we successfully strung up a whopping 22 bytes of RAM tonight. 1 donut (core) to one bit, 8 bits to a byte, 1 byte to one row, 22 rows. The good news is it’s going faster and faster. The bad news is that it’s less than 1/6 complete.

The beginnings of the 550 bit core memory module. 50 bits...

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:46:13 -0400

The beginnings of the 550 bit core memory module. 50 bits down… THIS antique technology will make you appreciate modern RAM. Each bit of memory - each 1 and 0 is stored in its own little metal(ish) donut, eight of them making one BYTE, which is exactly one key press, one character, one letter on the screen. Do the math and you’ll realize that the entire array would theoretically store less than one single SMS text message. Wow for modern computers.

37,000 tumblr followers just now! Here are some steel frames...

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:03:59 -0400

37,000 tumblr followers just now!

Here are some steel frames I’ve been working on. We’re at the blackening and sealing stage at the moment. These are going in to a hotel in SF. These are cool, but not even close to being as cool as some of the OTHER things I’m working on for this project… Stay tuned for more, like the giant (replica) core memory array - tipping the scales at 200 lbs and storing a mere 137 bytes.

R.I.P. 4 horsepower CNC router motor (AKA the spindle) The front...

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:27:19 -0400

R.I.P.
4 horsepower CNC router motor (AKA the spindle)
The front bearings started to degrade and fail over the past few days, and now it sounds like a bad set of skateboard wheels. When we finally called it, the collets and collet nut were getting hot enough that it was impossible to hold on to with bare hands. You’ve given many years of good service. Now its time to get rebuilt.

Teeny tiny soldering! I think these are 0805 size surface mount...

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:42:14 -0400

Teeny tiny soldering! I think these are 0805 size surface mount resistors, 330 ohms, used as current limiters for the equality tiny green LEDs that correspond to each of the 32 relays on the new control board.

The 32 channel Kontraptioneering relay board for Arduino or...

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:11:03 -0400

The 32 channel Kontraptioneering relay board for Arduino or anything else. Natively connects up to the ICSP port on pretty much any arduino, or any set of 3 GPIO pins. You can daisy chain many units for massive installations. There are a few design issues with rev.1 that make it annoying to assemble that will be corrected in upcoming versions. Projects to follow.

What relays are you using for your arduino project? I'm in need of some smaller footprint guys that have a const current of 30A at 14V that can be safely switched at 10Hz max.

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:51:00 -0400

Hey Christopher,

I’m using an Omron product - A G5T-1A. It’s only rated to 5A. I’m a little worried about the 10 HZ duty cycle. What kind of load are you switching? AC? DC? If you’re switching DC, there are also MOSFETS that can very easily switch 30 amps, or AC with various solid state relays. The advantage of the SSR (Solid State Relay) and MOSFET control is a matter of component life and noise, both audible and electrical. 30 amps switching at 10Hz is going to vaporize the relay contacts in no time. For example, a T9AS1D22-24 relay, rated at 30 amps, is predicted to fail after 1000 cycles when switching a 1/4 HP motor. As for where to find them? Digikey has an almost uselessly huge selection of EVERYTHING, and used solid state relays can be found surplus for next to nothing. Good luck with your project!

Assembly time! The relay board prototypes came in and now its...

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:14:44 -0400

Assembly time! The relay board prototypes came in and now its time to get soldering. 32 channels of high power daisy-chainable goodness for the Arduino.

The amazing and talented people at 1028 Designs in Los...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:22:00 -0400

The amazing and talented people at 1028 Designs in Los Angeles called the Kontraptionist in to play robot jockey for a marathon foam cutting extravaganza, followed by a painstaking all-night finishing job by their crew of dedicated craftsmen to deliver an amazingly complex job in record time from some very gnarly files. This was a design by spiritual and psychedelic visionary artist Alex Grey for what ended up being one extremely fancy DJ booth for a show in San Francisco. A very cool project that I’m happy to have been a part of.

Oh PS - The finishing router bit was hand ground from a piece of hardened drill stock on a bench grinder. :-)

Got to CNC route this thing out of 4# urethane foam this...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:00:00 -0400

Got to CNC route this thing out of 4# urethane foam this weekend. Yup, that’s Alex Gray, the famous visionary psychedelic spiritual artist. Trust me, you’ve seen his work. The amazing and talented people at 1028 Designs in Los Angeles called the Kontraptionist in to play robot jockey for a marathon foam cutting extravaganza, followed by a painstaking all-night finishing job by their crew of dedicated craftsmen to deliver an amazingly complex job in record time from some very gnarly files. And this is only about half of the piece… it wraps around to form a very fancy DJ booth, along with a pair of 6 foot angels and a great big banner. Well done to everybody involved. I feel privileged to have been a part of such a challenging project.

robbgodshaw: Little mistakes made in high school and then...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:57:05 -0400

robbgodshaw:

Little mistakes made in high school and then uploaded to oblivion manifest themselves physically years later. In 2009 I painstakingly traced the face of an Oreo cookie and uploaded to Wikipedia. Today the freshman girl unknowingly gave me my own file to CNC cut in foam. All the corners I cut in 11th grade become apparent. Look at that R. It’s easy to forget the Internet is a real place. Forgive cut quality, serious hurry.

I don’t reblog often, but when I do, I reblog Robb Godshaw. Nice work Mister.

There are a lot of relay boards out there for your Arduino, but...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:26:00 -0400

There are a lot of relay boards out there for your Arduino, but none of them are this awesome. Featuring 32 channels of “normally open” relays (that is, simple on/off switches) with each handling up to 5 amps of 250VAC current. They are linked in to four groups of 8 relays, with the common pole for each group connected to one of four hefty screw terminals. But wait… there’s MORE! You can daisy-chain multiple boards together for 64…96…128 relays or more all controlled from 3 IO pins, WHICH conveniently connect to the ICSP / ISP port on an Arduino with a nice clean 6 pin ribbon cable - the same kind of cable you link them end to end with. No messy break-out boards, breadboards or wonky wires. Imagine the ridiculous holiday display you could make!

Specs:

SPI Control via ICSP port (or any 3 output pins)
Daisy-chain multiple units
32 Channels, 5A each, 20A/Group, 4 Groups/Board
250VAC rated N/O relays
Jumpers to allow power pass-thru to the Arduino

The first round of boards should be ready for testing in a couple weeks. Want one? Let me know! The more interest there is, the bigger the production run, the lower the price I can offer.

I don’t fancy myself much of a computer nerd… but...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:14:00 -0400

I don’t fancy myself much of a computer nerd… but with all noise about Bitcoin in the news lately, I figured… “Hey - Let’s see how fast an Arduino can process SHA256 bit hashes. Other people on the internet have wondered this too… and here’s your answer:

SLOW AS DEATH.

But how slow exactly? And how efficiently?

I ran the code on an Arduino Pro with a ATMEGA328P chip, 8 bits, and clocked at 16 MHZ. At that speed, we’re generating 10.154 hashes per second, and using a paltry 0.09 watts of juice. I didn’t desolder the power LED from the board before taking this measurement, so technically it takes even less power than this. SO, where does this leave us? Well… about a million times slower.. No really… actually more like 1.2 million times slower than using the chip on your 3D graphics card to calculate these hashes, which it can do at a rate of 10-15 MILLION per second. Granted, the GPU takes a LOT more power than an Arduino, but almost 110,000 watts? Nope. Try 60 watts.

The take-away from this? It was a fun exercise, but Mining Bitcoins on an Arduino, while technically possible, is incredibly inefficient and slow. And those are the numbers to prove it.

Geek out.

To all my Swedish people, Happy Våffeldagen! (and yes, a robot...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:00:22 -0400

To all my Swedish people, Happy Våffeldagen!

(and yes, a robot probably DID touch your cheap frozen waffles)

The results of the relief cuts in the slotted plywood. This is...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:05:21 -0400

The results of the relief cuts in the slotted plywood. This is maple faced “Shop Ply” which is usually used for internal and structural components. Occasionally a sheet with some really neat looking veneer (That’s the front paper-thin face of wood that makes up the very outside, visible part of the plywood) sneaks in to the stack, but for the most part it’s pretty generic “wood”

These fit together to make a large armature for a projection mapped art piece.

Slotted construction - It’s a pretty nice thing to do on a...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:10:13 -0400

Slotted construction - It’s a pretty nice thing to do on a CNC router. You just slip one sheet in to another, and if you make the joints tight enough, many times you can have a nice piece of construction with hardly any fasteners or glue…. but there’s always this pesky inside corner problem. You just can’t cut a sharp inside corner with a router bit, but you can do a few clever things to the bottom of the slot to eliminate hand chiseling or filing the inevitable round corners.

The left is your ideal slot. You can make something a lot like this with secondary hand operations, but you want the machine to do the work.

The second drawing shows one way - Reliefs in the bottom of the slot. This is the most easily concealed method, but isn’t quite as strong if the slots will be loaded in a way that forces them in to each other.

The third drawing has its reliefs cut in to the side of the slot. This makes for a large, sturdy base to support sheets that are loaded in to each other, but is also the most conspicuous.

The fourth is a cross of both of these methods, being quite sturdy and not terribly visible, and the corners of the mating slot contact the edge of the relief cut, but it takes a bit more effort to draw in CAD.

Making these small changes to your design will save a lot of time and stop a lot more of whining from the assembly floor.