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Hand-crafted Charlie-Plexed Tile

This 5×6 LED tile is a key component in a secret project that I’m developing (in secret) with some other folks (whose names shall remain a secret).

Why be so public about something so secret? Because this tile uses a layout technique that lets you build charlie-plexed LED arrays quickly and cheaply — and that’s something worth sharing.

You need to flip the tile over in order to see what’s special about it. Here’s a quick list of features that make the assembly what it is:

  • The back of the tile has six “column” conductors and six “row” conductors.
  • These column and row conductors are connected along the diagonal of the row/column array.  At all other points in the matrix, the row and column conductors are isolated via a layer of masking tape.
  • LEDs above the diagonal have their cathode connected to the conductive row immediately above the LED.  LEDs on or below the diagonal have their cathode connected to the conductive row immediately below the LED.
  • All LEDs have their anode connected to the column that is to their immediate left.

The resulting circuit allows you to individually address any of the thirty LEDs in this 5×6 matrix using only six lines from a micro-controller. Continue reading “Hand-crafted Charlie-Plexed Tile”

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She Prints!

Modified MendelMax #2 was born today. Isn’t she purty. This bot is gonna live at Hive76 for the forseeable future.

Thanks to all at Hive76 for help and support during this build, especially to Rich and Andy for hanging tough in the trenches, Chris and Brendan for troubleshooting and tools, and Morfin for extra supply bits.

We’ve got big plans for this bot. Stay tuned. And here’s a video of the first print!

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OpenSCAD class August 4th: Learn parametric CAD for 3D printing

I have been using OpenSCAD to design the objects I 3D print these days. Take for example my printed towel rack pictured here.

3D printed Towel Rack
3D printed Towel Rack

The design is parametric, which means that each aspect of the design is customizable. I had a specific diameter rod to use, so I entered that value into the code. If you would like to make your own towel rod, you could download the code that I wrote, and change the diameter of whatever rod you find to use. In this way the design can meet everyone’s needs with very little effort. This also means that sharing the design is much more valuable for others.

In this class you will learn the basics of OpenSCAD and reproduce a simple design from scratch. Some prior knowledge is required; basically that when you code, you need to spell things right and close brackets. OpenSCAD is fully cross platform and easy to install. Feel free to bring an idea for a 3D printed object, but make it practical. OpenSCAD does not excel at organic pretty things. Continue reading “OpenSCAD class August 4th: Learn parametric CAD for 3D printing”

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JavaScript games

Just wanted to let everyone know that we’re about two weeks away from the class. You can still register for tickets at the Eventbrite page: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3943958486?ref=elink

In the meantime, check out some of these games that other people have written to play directly in browsers with JavaScript and HTML 5 http://www.netmagazine.com/features/top-20-html5-games

In particular, if you can read code already, check out the source on Runfield. It’s not commented at all, but the code is fairly well structured.

These should give you an idea of what is possible; basically anything, really. There’s even one game that’s in 3D, *without* using WebGL. We’re not going to go that far (and honestly, I haven’t written a software rasterizer in more than 7 years), but that is quite impressive. When I started learning to program and playing around with little games in JavaScript many years ago, you couldn’t even write a full clone of the original Dragon Warrior and expect it to run at a reasonable frame-rate.

Here are a couple of more links to some game lists
http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/browsers/10-html5-games-paving-the-way/
http://www.casualgirlgamer.com/articles/entry/28/The-Best-30-HTML-5-games/

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Intro to Game Programming with JavaScript

Programming is a lot of fun, and games are one of the best ways to get exposed to a variety of different programming tasks. My name is Sean McBeth and I’m versed in many ways of programming, having been working as a professional software developer for over 10 years. In that time, JavaScript has always been there for me. It is a language that everyone can run in some shape or form, thanks to the ubiquity of Web browsers; it is the BASIC of the modern computing era. Sharing that knowledge is important to me, so I am offering a class where everyone learns (or polishes) an extremely useful scripting language (JavaScript, aka ECMAScript, but NOT Java) in a very compelling medium (ahem, games).

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Exclusive: Zach Hoeken on leaving MakerBot and his future.

I met Zach Hoeken Smith at one of my first Hive76 events. I donated to the pledge drive to buy a MakerBot Cupcake CNC and extruder. Once the drive was successful and 3DPO built, Hive76 held a workshop to learn how to design and print with SketchUp and the MakerBot. Our instructor was MakerBot co-founder Zach himself. Afterwards, everyone went out to West Philly for some Ethiopian food. It was a nice time. I haven’t seen him since, so I was surprised to hear from fellow member Jordan Miller that Zach had left Makerbot and was living in China. I reached out to Zach for a chat and here’s what I learned about my favorite hardware innovator. Continue reading “Exclusive: Zach Hoeken on leaving MakerBot and his future.”

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Oolong, and Thanks For All The Mitch!

Zen and the art of soldering …

This Friday, we were able to inaugurate our newly completed class space with a most auspicious visitor — Mitch Altman!

PJ, Brendan, Robert et al were working until the wee hours the night before making sure that the space was ready to rock — and it was — literally.

Mitch arrived a bit before the appointed time, snapped a few photos, schmoozed, chowed down some local Chinese food etc. and, while documenting our stash of Elephant Heads,

Even this Diavolino was glad to see Mitch

anointed Hive76 as the most organized hacker space he’s seen. Quartermaster Brendan took appropriate pride in the observation.

Mitch basically talked about the Maker/Hacker movement in general, showed some of the kits that were keeping him company on the train, and weaved it all in a thematic web reminiscent of Arlo Guthrie’s is-this-guy-rambling-no-holy-shit-he’s-a-genius-because-it-all-makes-sense-in-the-end style.

After that, everyone bought a kit or two and lost themselves in the task of soldering.  I don’t know whether it’s the solder fumes or just the act of soldering itself, but I felt pretty good at the end of it all.

The new space is completely awesome and turned out to be nearly perfect for the event. Hats off to Brendan, Robert, PJ and Jordan!

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How to: Innovate in Science with Open Source Technology

One of our core members, Jordan Miller, has just published a scientific paper using RepRap 3D printing technology to engineer living tissues for regenerative medicine. I’ll give you a rundown of the science and a step-by-step guide of how Jordan got to this great spot in his career. Jordan is quick to point out that this is work that would not have been possible 5 years ago, or without the help of RepRap, Hive76, and this wonderful city of Philadelphia.

There are other labs around the world that are attempting what Jordan and the rest of the team at UPenn and MIT have been working towards. The end goal of regenerative medicine research is engineered tissues and replacement organs for treatment of human disease. As Science news says,

Imagine a world where if your heart or kidneys failed, you wouldn’t have to endure an agonizing, possibly futile wait for a donor whose organ your body might reject. Instead, a doctor would simply take cells from your own body and use them to “grow” you a new organ.

Other lines of research are attempting to 3D print directly with living cells and gel. These so-called “bioprinting” approaches involve loading cells and gel in syringes to be used as feedstock to create a structure from scratch. The problem is that healthy liver cells, for example, usually die of starvation (lack of nutrients) and suffocation (lack of oxygen) while enduring the slow 3D printing process.

Inspired by this structure
Jordan’s 3D printed vasculature approach was inspired by whole organ vascular casts like this one.

Enter Jordan and his innovation: since vasculature provides the lifeblood to resident cells, why not focus on the vasculature first?

Jordan and the rest of the research team at UPenn and MIT have developed a new way to create vasculature for living tissues. This 4 step process involves: 1) 3D printing a network of sugar filaments, 2) surrounding it with living cells in a gel, 3) dissolving away the sugar to leave behind a vascular network for 4) the delivery of nutrients and oxygen. He accomplished this with a custom built 3D printer, extruder and control software.

Here’s a step-by-step of Jordan’s many year process:

  1. Get a crazy idea to link sugar and vasculature when comparing the interior of a 3D print to a capillary network.
  2. Get a PhD in bioengineering
  3. Move to Philadelphia
  4. Join a hackerspace
  5. Get introduced to 3D printing, MakerBot and RepRap
  6. Assemble your first MakerBot
  7. Invent a heated build platform to dry your sugar while printing.
  8. Add a heater to the Frostruder so you can print molten sugar.
  9. Assemble a customized RepRap Mendel that fits your new extruder.
  10. Get help from your hackerspace to properly control your pneumatic extrusion.
  11. Work for months perfecting recipes and methods for printing vasculature.
  12. Write it all up in a research paper and submit!

You can read the Penn press release about this awesome science, an overview from Science News, or the full paper. A more detailed post about the hardware used in this project will follow and soon you’ll be able to make your own sugar extruder. (It prints chocolate too!)