Kevin and I put together a little arduino circuit to control the solenoid in a valve we have for a project we are working on. This video explains what we have done and hints at why.
Author Archives: plural
Ridiculously Large Jacks
On June 18th, Milwaukee Makerspace participated in The Great Milwaukee Race as a challenge sponsor.
The Great Milwaukee Race is a scavenger hunt/series of challenges across downtown Milwaukee that was started in 2010 by Fit Milwaukee and friends. This year’s event was put on by Fit Milwaukee, AJ Bombers and Performance Running Outfitters. In 2010, 50 teams of 2-4 racers competed in the inaugural race. This year 75 teams raced throughout downtown Milwaukee and along the lakefront to find all 10 of the challenge locations and get their passports stamped.
The post i made a couple weeks ago (I’m welding! I’m a welder now!) about my Ridiculously Large Jacks was a preview of the challenge that we would run at the race. After the initial batch of jacks was finished, Sean, Kevin, Adam and David helped me fine tune the game a bit in our hangar before the event itself.
Shane helped me run the event on race day and it worked like this:
- Team would decode the clue to our location and decide on when they should come to our station.
- When they showed up, they had to nominate two players.
- One player was the bouncer and was in charge of bouncing and catching a kickball.
- The other player (the grabber) donned a pair of gardening gloves and had to pick up the jacks.
- On the first bounce, the grabber would have to pick up and hold onto one jack before the bouncer caught the ball.
- On the second bounce, the grabber would have to pick up 2 more jacks while holding onto the previous jacks.
- Repeat for 3 and 4 jacks.
The game only took a couple of minutes when done correctly, but some teams were faster than others. We also saw a variety of techniques. Some grabbers would try to stash the nearly 12″ diameter jacks under their arms. Some folks spread the jacks out between their hands and used them like claws to scoop up the remaining jacks. One women even stashed the jacks in her running shorts, but they were a bit heavier than she bargained for.
We were stationed at the underpass at water and pearson, across from Trocadero. After watching what was happening for a while, the Trocadero bartenders popped out to see what was happening up close. We invited them to play a game and they did pretty well! Another couple came by to watch and started laughing at the silliness they saw so we invited them to play as well. They had a few close calls with some wild bounces, but took care of the round with only a couple of do-overs. They looked pretty happy by the end of the game.
We heard really good feedback from racers and the organizers of the event. The game was odd enough to give people pause before they jumped in, but easy enough that it could be completed in a couple of minutes. The fun we had with this has led us to discuss making some more oversized games to bring to parks in the area. Stay tuned for more info on this front.
Thanks again to Fit Milwaukee and the other Great Milwaukee Race organizers for letting us be a part of this event and thanks to the racers for being such good sports!
I’m welding! I’m a welder now!
Well, ok, i’m a pretty poor welder, but i’m only making oversized jacks, not bridges, so i’ll take it.
I am making an oversized game of Jacks. Originally i thought i could use some steel rods, someone suggested tire irons and i picked up a 3/8″ threaded rod (Home Depot trip #1) to try out. After i talked with Tom and Rich a bit they suggested that i use Carriage Bolts instead of a bare rod. This looked great because the carriage bolts have a nice rounded end that help make the object really look like a jack. Ok, materials were set, so i ran to Home Depot (trip #2) with Matt G.
After returning with a set of 6 bolts to try things out with, Tom came up with a nice jig for me to use with slots for the 4 bars and a vertical hole so i could stand the bolts up. We dug through the scrap wood box and found a good piece and a few minutes after i plugged in the table saw, i had the channels cut out. Next up was the center hole. Rich gave me a quick tour of the drill press and we found a good hole saw to use and then my jig was complete.
Now onto the welding! Rich set me up with our MIG welder, which is pretty much as simple as it gets. Lay out and secure the pieces, put the clamp on one end, point and pull the trigger. We quickly had our first jack. At this point in my career as a welder, i am a firm proponent of the “More Weld” school of structural engineering. I know some of the academics in their ivory towers may frown on this, but I’m ok with that.
With the proof of concept ready, i headed back to Home Depot (trip #3) to get a couple boxes of bolts. After returning to the space, i cranked out 8 more jacks, low-efficiency assembly line style.
We had some fun tossing them around the space. They make a great sound when you roll out a pile of them and look great bouncing off the cement after being flung 15 feet in the air. The other folks at the space had a good laugh at my ridiculous build.
We’re going to have a test game with the jacks at the space on Tuesday. I’m not entirely sure how many of these things someone can pick up quickly, but we’ll find out soon. Why am I building an oversized game of jacks? Well, that’s a bit of a secret for now. :)
June Music Group Night
June’s Music Group meeting tonight was Kevin, Matt G and myself scheming, listening to cool stuff, having some whiskey and playing around with max/msp tutorials.
The MESSSSS (Makersace Eight Speaker Super Surround Sound System) that we debuted at Bay View Gallery Night Friday went over pretty well, but could use some work. We ran it off of 3 stereo receivers and 4 android phones coordinated by the PBST (Push the Buttons at the Same Time) protocol and want something a bit more controlled. Also, the levels on our pieces were very different so we had super subtle things followed by ear-splitting shrieks. While i’m personally into that kind of thing, it didn’t make for a terribly cohesive whole.
We left the meeting with 3 main actions:
- rebuild a spare PC I have with an 8 channel audio card to be the new brains of MESSSSS.
- Start on an android app to control playback from multiple devices at once.
- Kevin and I are going to spend some serious time learning max/msp. I have done a couple of things with it but they are ugly and hacky and i only made them work by pushing things together really hard.
If we can get the new MESSSSS brains up and running, we are going to refocus the music club meetings on performance and recording.
Skills Video
What skills do the members of the Milwaukee Makerspace bring to the table? What skills are they looking for? What will you find if you come down to the Milwaukee Makerspace? Find out from the founders and members what they know and what you may learn if you come down to join us.Millions of thanks to David of Korporate Media for the amazing videos! http://www.korporate-media.com