No Chaos No Order

Author Archives: fairyguts

More craft room … a discovery! 20101016

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I wanted to put some decorations and tools up on the walls, but I dont’ want to put big holes in the wall since it’s lathe and plaster. Instead, I got some free wood scraps and covered them up.

Here’s the big one. I just need to get another molding hook so I can hang this one up.

While I was doing this, I noticed something in my closet…  A whole shelf taken up with foam pumpkins.  ??

What’s the big deal, eh?  Well, I realized that I got those pumpkins several years ago and the whole point was to carve them for Halloween, and Halloween was coming up in just a few days!  If I just FINISHED that project, I’d have a whole shelf to hold more stuff!  And then … I realized if I just finished ALL of my projects, I wouldn’t feel so cramped in the craft room!  And, because I’m a bit obsessive, I realized that I needed to put all of my projects on the table right then.  So, here they are!

So, I put everything away except those pumpkins …

… and actually carved them and now they’re out on the porch (still) and will later go up in the attic with the rest of the Halloween decorations.  Yay, a clear shelf!

 

Enameling class 20101023

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My grandfather did some enameling and had an oven and supplies in his shop.  Now that he’s gone, no one knows how to use it!  So, I signed up for a class at the OSU craft center.  I’m mostly planning on enameling things for costumes and props etc.

I enjoyed cutting the copper out most, but the enameling is fun.  I only finished one thing, but we’re getting together next weekend and I’ll post finished pictures afterwards.

 

All cut out!

 

Adding texture to trees

Progress on the cat feeder 101310

Posted on by Posted in Microcontrollers, Random .

I may have decided NOT to hack my servo.  After doing more reading, I’ve learned that when you hack it, you can’t specify how many degrees it turns. You can only change the rate with which it turns and in what direction.  I’m not sure if that will work well. I can imagine getting it to turn very slowly over a 15 minute time period and by adjusting the gears, change how far the dispenser is turned. OR, keeping the ability to specify how many degrees it turns.  I figure the next thing I need to do is get a way to start attaching gears and actually try it out. That, and buy an appliance timer.

So, tonight I used some very sophisticated and high-tech materials and tools to start that process. First, a very important thing I realized I should share with you all: my thinking head band.

Its a sparkly yellow flower!

Ok, then onto the working!  Here is a very sophisticated and high tech material for the grasping part of my turning gizmo.

Check out my precision measuring and marking skillz!

My very sophisticated and high tech precision tools.  I actually love my tin snips – they cut everything! … I wonder if they ever get dull?

I learned two things cutting these notches out: 1) the pvc pipe cutter breaks the plastic all the way to the end and 2) the tin snips work well, but don’t snip it closed at the end – you’ll get a small break.  Here is the notched graspy thingy!

Look! It fits! At first I thought I was going to drill a hole and glue in a shaft to which a gear would be attached, but now I think I’ll just find a big gear and just glue it to the bottom. I’m all about function here…

Actually… I am harboring fantasies of rebuilding the cat feeder when I know it works using brass and aluminum and the Steampunk aesthetic! Yay!

It’s arrived! 10/09/10

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Warren and I went to Vancouver on the 6th and I bought this lovely industrial brother serger – what a great deal! And I made a good contact.  Ryan seemed to be both knowledgeable and personable … he said he may be able to help me fix or replace the motor in my Elna!

So here’s the serger all threaded and ready to go!

Now I need to cut out a bunch of footed pjs, get more thread, and get goin! 😀    It has made my Craft Room Optimization Operation more challenging, though.  That and the treadle table!  Not much room to move, anymore… (imagine the treadle table between the serger and the white table.)

In unrelated news, I have collected the pieces I need to hack my servo for continuous rotation. Now I just need some time to fire up the soldering gun and do the hacking!

Tonight’s cat feeder progress.

Posted on by Posted in Microcontrollers .

So, I started out the night trying to figure out how to install DateTime into the Arduino library and then into my Teensy.  What this really means is that there’s some special programing that someone else went to the trouble to write which I could concievable use to keep track of time on the Teensy without having to have it hooked up to a computer all the time and then run the program at set times. For my purpose, that would mean that the Teensy would keep track of the time and know to turn on the servo at the times I specify to feed the kitties.

I think I got the library installed alright, but there’s supposed to be a special place to save the example file so I could load it into the Teensy to see if it worked … and I couldn’t figure it out!  I’m still not sure where my “sketch library” is … I have learned that “sketches” are what they call the programs that go into these microcontrollers (like the Teensy) – that took me a few minutes.

While I was looking for where my sketch library is, I saw some people advocated using a separate device called a RTD (real time display) – which really means: a clock – that you wire to your micro controller. Since that was a bit beyond me, I was getting frustrated.

But while I was getting gritty eyed trying to understand all this my brain was working at it from an old angle.  “Are you sure an appliance timer wouldn’t be easier?” it asked.

“Well, yeah it would,” I responded with some asperity, “but I still don’t know how I’d get the servo to turn only once in a 15 minute span of being turned on… even 1 minute is too long!”  Here I imagined to my brain Malley scarfing up a huge mound of food that is pouring from the continually turning dispenser.

And, not in words, but in motions and streams of jibberish programming my brain showed me how to change the angle and delay times in the servo sketch so it only ran once!!  Wow! I love it when my brain works better than I do!  Which means, in the program that someone else already wrote that I used to successfully run the servo off the Teensy, I can change some of the numbers so it turns a certain number of degrees and then waits for a long time before moving back to the original place. “DUDE, brain! That should be easy!”

So, I’ve been playing with the delay times, with not a whole bunch of success, but I’m learning stuff none-the-less. The original sketch says to turn the dohicky 180 degrees and then wait for 15ms before turning it back.  NO, wait! It doesn’t, really!  And I know this because when I changed the delay time to 60000 ms, I thought it wasn’t turning.  What I wanted it to do, was turn 180 degrees and then wait a minute before turning back. But instead, it didn’t turn and was making clicking sounds which my brain, I guess I should say Brain cause it’s so awesome and seemingly separate from my brain, just realized was the servo turning one degree every minute!  I think!!  ??  Wa? Tomorrow I will do more experimenting with the variables…

But now it’s time for bed, so I have to stop… Golly, I make a great team!

“Too much”?

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So, a friend asked me if I thought I took on too many projects.  I immediately thought of the 40+ projects logged in my project list and answered with an emphatic “YES!”  She asked how I could change that … and I was confounded.  Why would I want to do that?  I figured, so long as I got some things done, it was ok…  I still don’t see this as a major problem. Even when I’ve decided to go to Washington tomorrow to buy a used industrial serger.

And even when I went and got an old treadle table so I could use my Elna Grasshopper with the burnt out motor.  grasshopper

And especially when the treadle table is pretty cool, but really decrepit and in need of repairs…

So, that’s at least three new projects.  It’s a good thing I haven’t officially finished the “Optimize the Craft Room” project, because I’m going to have to do some fancy rearranging to get both of those things in there and would have to consider that a ‘new’ project, too…

So excited!

Posted on by Posted in Microcontrollers, Random .

I just hooked my servo up to my teensy board and loaded a 180 degree sweep program and it worked!  My heart actually started beating hard and fast in excitement!!  Now I have to figure out how to get it to sweep the servo once at prescribed times and then figure out the mechanics of changing this rotating motion to a continuous motion effecting two cat food dispensers…  Fun nights ahead!

Random home repair 092910

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My waffle iron had a missing shoe. Which made the pancakes have bad posture and list a little lop sided.  For many years.  Tonight, I stopped and got some polymer clay. And then I actually used it!  I was going utilitarian tonight, but while I was waiting for it to bake, I tried a little artistry.  I liked it a bunch until I tried to flaten it a little and obliterated the neat-o twists. But… oh well!

Silk painting 092810

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I fixed the dyes this evening and they are now drying in preparation for the final ironing before wearing. Or something. Still not sure what to do with them. But it’s interesting how the color intensity decreased a bit upon drying. And I may I have waited too long to use the salt – I noticed very little effect.

My favorite part of my favorite scarf (mostly just cause of the colors) although the interesting pattern from the squirt bottle diffused and is no longer noticeable:

favorite

I think the swirls in this one are super awesome!

And here’s a little bit of the salt effect:

PS: Got my servo! If I’m not feeling too icky tomorrow, I may play with it a bit! Woohoo!!

Cat Feeder 091110

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I have gotten tired of my cats scratching and meowing at me before I want to wake up to be fed.  I have also seen how powerful frequent, portion controled meals can be in reducing and maintaining weight and would like to try to share that with my cats. Having a job makes it impossible for me to feed my cats 4-6 times daily, though. So, I naturally decided to make an automatic cat feeder.  I looked a several tutorials on instructables and MAKE, but none of them did what I wanted: multiple, small portions delivered indefinitely. This cereal dispenser is the first part towards my feeder. $38.89 (s&h included)

I took the long back parts off because I’m planning on mounting this on a board out of kitty reach.

While the knob clearly has four lobes, the spindle inside the canister is divided into 6 sections. So, when I build the turning mechanism, I’m going to have to get it to turn only 60 degrees, rather than 90. Turning 90 releases two sections of food. Each section releases 1/4 cup of food. If the knob is turned 90 degrees, 1/2 cup will come out.  If my goal is to feed the cats at least 4 times a day and, since they’re on a diet, they get fed 1/2 cup a day, I’ll need to make each section smaller. Preferably releasing 1/8 cup. 1/16 would be even better though!

I have to decide how I’m going to make the sections smaller.  Using cardboard and tape were suggested to me, but you know how tape can curl and leave sticky residue on the things around it. I’d prefer not to muck up the spindle or feed residue to my cats. I’m thinking about using some sort of styrofoam or spray foam, but am not liking that idea – I’d imagine it would be hard to clean and not be good for cats to eat.  I just now thought of using fimo. I can mold it to shape inside the spindle, take it out and bake it and then varnish it in nontoxic varnish.  I’m guessing two-part epoxy would not be “healthy” so I’ll have to come up with a safe glue.

Once I get that figured out, I have the turning mechanism to build which will be attached to a Teensy or Dorkboard which will do the timing and turning on and off of the turning mechanism servo.  The servo is in the mail and should be here soon! Yay!