100 trials

This semester, as part of our design studio, we are designing 100 "ideal" houses. The meaning of "ideal" is more or less left up to us to decide and figure out. Through this project we are also producing many iterations of some basic geometrical shapes (cube, pyramid, cylinder and sphere) and trying to pick the most "ideal" out of the bunch.
Here is a TED talk that I saw a while ago, and it seems fitting to both studio and how with time the iterations might become better, and also smart surfaces and the idea that we should build on what works. 

:D Enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

Some inspiration!

Here is a project that is similar to what my group is doing this week! check it out! http://www.livinglightseoul.net/
This is a little preview to what we'll have for the presentation. More to come soon! :D

house7 _ cylinder+60 deg

house6 _ pyramid (cone)+60 deg

house5 _ cube+30 deg

house4 _ sphere+60 deg

house3 _ cube+60 deg

house2 _ cube+30 deg

house1 _ cube+flat

LEGO inspiration!

My excitement to make something cool in smart surfaces has inspired other people to give me ideas on things to make! My roommate Andrew who as a child was LEGO inventor and enthusiast, enlightened me on Mindstorms from LEGO! Check out the website and some of the sensors and other whatchamacallits! I have no idea if these can be used with arduinos but I think they are awesome! :D
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/products/default.aspx

Check out the accessories and sensors tabs!

Spin Motor Spin! :D

I added a little piece of paper so you could actually see that the motor was spinning! (exciting!)

Small Victories!!

So the motor set up that I had on Thursday was apparently not set up correctly because it did not work! So before I wrote about my failure, I wanted to make sure that I could correctly set up the boards to make the motor spin!! In hindsight I should have taken a picture of the set up I had before and compared it to the one that now works! However, I was so frustrated that I couldn't figure out the wiring or read the schematic drawing that I gave up.. rather quickly! 

Before I succeeded with the motor I did a couple of more tutorials with leds! I follow the instructions from the website recommended by John: http://www.ladyada.net/ .  Even though it was a little time consuming to go step by step (even simple steps I already knew) it was SUPER HELPFUL!! I won't lie, on the 3rd tutorial (http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson3.html) where you are suppose to rewire things based on the schematics... I accidentally burnt an LED (I didn't connect the resistor correctly!). It was a little scary but in my mind one of those inevitable things of playing with it! 

One light just on (no blinking) - starting simple!

After reading the tips on how to decipher schematic drawings I moved on to try to tackle that "spin motor spin" tutorial (I was determined!). So I looked at the few instructions from the CIRC-03 tutorial of the sparkfun guide and I felt like I understood a lot more! I still used the breadboard illustration sheet but I felt a little more informed about the decisions I was making! 

I admit, even when I thought I had everything set up correctly the motor didn't turn on! I found out that the diode was reversed, once I changed it it worked!

Anyway here are some videos and pictures of how my day with playing with the arduino went!

Final set up for the motor

Beginning to set up for the motor

Hello!

Hello!

This blog is part of the Smart Surfaces course, a course that is definitely OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE, but I told my self... how hard could it be? (guess we'll see!).

This blog will serve as a way to keep track of what I'm doing and how I'm doing (honestly right now a little scared of all this wires) and also document inspirations and ideas.

So far, I'm really excited to play with the arduino and the starter kit! I had a small victory on the first day of class when I made an LED blink! :D (believe if I can do it, anyone can!).

Even though I'm not familiar with the technology, I'm extremely interested in machinery and the ultimate goal of the class which is to provide efficient sources of power. I like the idea that at the end I might have the knowledge to maybe produce some gadgets on my own or at the very least be able to communicate effectively with those who can maybe help me with my ideas! 

There will be more to come! I'm waiting to resolve some computer issues but I have my boards set up to get a motor spinning!! I haven't set it into action yet but I'm crossing my fingers!

Wish me luck!