8 Step Sequencer

After proving myself that I could build a 4 step sequencer, I decided to move further and put it on a prototyping board, this time with 8 steps, and start messing with MIDI parameters like Velocity and Gate.

Because time is that precious thing, and this is being done after labour hours, I just soldered jumper wires to the components going directly into the Arduino headers, I really wanted to start programming this thing.

Such a crazy setup also means that hardware debugging will be a nightmare, I guess I have absolute faith in my soldering and wiring skills :D I totally disencourage anyone to approach a project this way, but anyway, do as I say not as I do..

The following video shows a quick test drive. The arduino sends MIDI messages to an Axoloti Core through MIDI, witch is the instrument being played.

BFB3000 meets “mancave solutions”

ABS warping and PLA broken filaments is a very well known issue in the 3d print world! At Artica we have our good old BFB3000 and we solved this problems using what I have later proudly called “mancave solutions”!! :D

Here I am using a heater pointed to the printer, this keeps the object and the platform quite warmy! and it works flawleslly! Besides it keeps the room quite warm wich feels good under the winter.. summer will be much hotter I suppose!!
ManCave Solutions for BFB3000

PLA filament lose elastic properties through the time and on the BFB3000 it simply snaps inside the rubber tubes.. I created a roof on the top of the printer as you can see, the filament enters the print head without any stress and no more snaps!
ManCave Solutions for BFB3000

ManCave Solutions for BFB3000

And the result is awesome!!
3D printed bevel gears

ICU2, almost there

ICU2 is going to Pavilhão do Conhecimento in February and we are finishing the hardware and software. Some servos needed to be swapped and I needed to print a suport for a standard servo, this video shows a bit of the printing process and the printed thing assembled.

There will me more updates very soon.

Arduino HackDay @ altlab

No último sábado, 5 de Fevereiro, o altlab organizou o Arduino Hack Day.
Participaram no evento perto de 40 pessoas, entre entusiastas em electrónica, artistas, programadores, arquitectos, fotógrafos, amigos.

Para muitos, foi o primeiro contacto com o Arduino, a descoberta da simplicidade desta plataforma para o desenvolvimento de projectos de computação física.
Distribuídos por quatro bancadas, os participantes começaram a experimentar assim que chegaram!

Arduino Hack Day Arduino Hack Day

Uma das bancadas, dedicada ao tema Arduino, motores e a robótica, ficou por conta do Guilherme Martins (Guibot). Noutra bancada, alguns principiantes aprendiam a dar os primeiros passos, com a ajuda de membros do altlab.

Arduino Hack Day Arduino Hack Day

Enquanto isso, a impressora 3D (“makerbot”) trazida pelo nosso convidado neozelandês, Tiago, ia imprimindo as primeiras peças.

Arduino Hack Day Arduino Hack Day

O Pedro Ângelo, do LCDLab, veio do Porto para nos ajudar e ressuscitou um projecto antigo do Maurício, que depois de pronto gerou alguma diversão…

Arduino Hack Day

Arduino Hack Day – FIRE! from altlab Lisbon's Hackerspace on Vimeo.

Logo depois do almoço começaram as apresentações. A Mónica Mendes e o Maurício deram a conhecer o colectivo altlab, o seu passado, presente e futuro. A Cheng Xu, também nossa convidada, apresentou-nos o Seeeduino Film. Por fim, o Guibot e o André, da Artica, falaram do Motoruino e do Farrusco.

Arduino Hack Day Arduino Hack Day

Passadas 10 horas de puro hacking e muita cerveja, o Arduino Hack Day chegava ao fim, todos os participantes muito satisfeitos com a experiência. O altlab conseguiu concretizar o principal objectivo desta iniciativa: juntar pessoas interessadas em partilhar conhecimentos sobre o Arduino, ajudar quem nunca tinha desenvolvido nada com a plataforma e conquistar novos interessados em pertencer a este colectivo fantástico!

ArduinoHackDay @altlab from Rita Carvalho on Vimeo.

Por último, fica aqui um agradecimento muito especial aos membros do altlab que contribuíram na organização deste evento:

Andre Almeida, Ferdi Meier, Guilherme Martins, Leonardo Marques, Manuel Alves, Mauricio Martins, Mónica Mendes, Nuno João, Paulo Rodrigues e Pedro Ângelo (LCD).

Some photos by João Nogueira e Rita Carvalho.

Flickr Photo Set: http://tinyurl.com/6f7vhsx

English version soon!

Post original aqui

Servo Motor Hack @ AltLab

Here’s another way to hack a servo motor. This time Njay shows us how to do it, and it is quite easy. The code to use is the same for a normal servo, when you point it to the center (90 degrees) it will stop, than if you increment the angle it will start moving on way, if you decrement the angle it will move the other way.

(the video is in portuguese)

AltLab opening with paper arduinos

I’m happy to introduce the paperduino  :D

This Tuesday AltLab had its first public session and we did a mini workshop on “paperduinos”, a new generation of cardboard arduinos. We had lots of fun and have many more ideas we’d like to try: different layouts, colored papers, and other materials. More info soon at AltLab.