Category: Making things

I enjoy making things a lot. I don’t get enough time to do it though. When I do make stuff it takes all sorts of different forms, like electronics, fixing stuff (with Sugru etc), using conductive ink, conductive textiles, and the list goes on.

Arduino experiments restart

Posted by on in Making things, TechLeave a comment

Finally I got back to my Arduino this weekend. It took a while to get it going again, but finally it is. My real aim is to get Android and Arduino working together and I’d found a site that explains how to do it. However, once I was quite a way through I realised that it required an Arduino Mega ADK and not the older model I had.

So now I’m wondering about getting an ADK model for £60 to continue this project. Perhaps a more sensible thing would be to get some stuff done with what I’ve got first and see where I get to with that before moving on.

Not sure.

A sketch a day, day 1

Posted by on in Making things, Tech

[processing width=”480″ height=”480″ file=”http://www.ashleyelsdon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Day_1.jar” method=”inline”]Load the applet[/processing]

I decided that I’d go through the ‘Getting Started with Processing’ book and do all the example sketches (well most of them anyway) and post each of the sketches as I go through day by day.

So, day 1. Today’s sketch is pretty simple really. Just move your mouse around to make little circles and when you click your mouse they’re black.

Next project

Posted by on in Making things

This is another kit I’ve had for ages and haven’t gotten around to, so it’s next on my list of things to make.

It’s a solar theremin kit, we’ll see how this one goes at the weekend.

Something for the weekend?

Posted by on in Making things, Tech

I bought this kit a while back and still haven’t done anything with it, but my plan is to change that this weekend. Hopefully I’ll have a bit of time to myself to get the soldering iron going without distraction.

Trying out the Processing app for Android

Posted by on in Making things, Mobile Applications

Having started to play with Processing on iOS, albeit with lots of limitations, I thought I’d see if there was a similar app for Android. There is. However, the Android processing app didn’t seem to be as smooth an experience as the iOS version.

Having said that, my Android device is much slower than my iPhone, so I might be doing the app an disservice. Even so, when I’ve put sketches on the same device from Processing on the desktop it performs very well indeed. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I gave up on that app fairly quickly.

Finding old Palm OS apps I’d started to make

Posted by on in Making things, Mobile Applications

In reviving the Tungsten C I discovered an SD card that I must have forgotten about. It had a load of test builds of Palm OS apps that I started years ago and never finished, but it’s interesting to go back and look at them. A few are even partially functional too.

What I love to see is the icons I made for them. My favourite being tDrum2, sQeeQ, and SliderOn in the picture above. Of these only one actually works, but I’ll take more pictures of the apps and show you what I mean. More soon.

Processing arrives for iOS

Posted by on in Making things, Tech

A brief play with Processing JS for iOS will tell you that it is very definitely a version 1.0. Having said that, I think it’s a good start and even though I’ve only messed around with it a little so far, but it is possible to get stuff up and running very fast.

This is processing JS and not processing. For me that meant that I’m not as familiar with this version as I am with the regular flavour of processing. Even so, I fiddled with the sample sketch and got it to do a few different things already.

I’m really hoping that this app gets some more functionality soon. Things like a way to export or email the code out would be handy, and a reference manual that’s on the device / app and isn’t just on the web. That would be good.

http://widgets.itunes.apple.com/appstore.html?wtype=0&app_id=492576043&country=gb&partnerId=2003&affiliate_id=http%3A%2F%2Fclkuk.tradedoubler.com%2Fclick%3Fp%3D23708%26a%3D2040619%26url%3D&ww=325

Starting out with Basic4PPC

Posted by on in Making things, Tech

It is pretty retro I know, but it is sort of fun to mess around with things like Basic4ppc to see what I can make. Having said that there is the small problem of what actually to make using b4ppc.

You can’t really make any worthwhile music app with this language, and it isn’t too useful for anything net related. So, what should I make with it?