I’ve been wanting one of these for a long time. I’m really impressed at just how neat a little device it is. I’m going to make a little video of it in action soon. It really is pretty cool.
Quantum VJ arrives
Tag: Geekery
Yeah, you know, just your regular geeking out with stuff.
Side by Side, the Apple Watch and the Pebble Time
Before you ask, no, I don’t have one of each. I was having dinner with a friend and he had an Apple Watch. I really wanted to compare the two physically. The Apple Watch is bigger. It has a larger footprint, but, more importantly it is a thicker watch, and, whilst it is only a little thicker, I think it is just too much for my liking.
This just confirmed what I’d already thought about the Apple Watch. My view now is that I doubt I’d get one until the revise the hardware. I’ve no idea how long that might be, but I’m sure that this version won’t be the only one. I’m guessing that the Apple Watch 2 will be slimmer and it’ll do more etc.
I think I’ll wait for that.
Romotive no longer selling the Romo?
I had a recent look at the Romotive web site and noticed that there’s a banner saying that the product is no longer for sale. That doesn’t look good to me. It sounds like they’re not going to be doing Romo anymore, or at least not in its current form. I hope that they’ll continue to do something with robotics as they were really good and I’ve had a lot of fun with my Romos.
Pebblits from the Pebble hackday
I thought I’d take a look at the stuff that was made at this event to see if there was anything of interest. There was, and this was the most interesting of all. As I’m both a littleBits user and a Pebble Time owner this is of especial interest to me. I hope that they do release their app to the Pebble store as I’d really like to tinker with this. However, even if they don’t I’ll be looking at their videos to see what they’ve done and how.
Romos I and II side by side
It’s interesting to see these two devices side by side and compare the quite startling differences between them. It isn’t just size, it’s build quality and finish, and, basically, everything!
Quite amazing really. It’s a shame the Romotive seem to have now vanished off the face of the earth.
Brighton Mini Maker Faire 2015
It has to be a dalek really doesn’t it?
I hadn’t been to the Brighton Mini Maker Faire for a couple of years, so it was nice to go back again. It felt bigger than the last time I was there, and certainly felt like there were a lot more people there too.
I had a good look around the whole show and there were a few interesting things there, but nothing that totally grabbed my attention. But then it really isn’t something that’s aimed at me I think. It’s more focused on kids and parents, which is good, and as it should be really. Even so I found it interesting and good to see a few companies I really like showing off their stuff.
Sad that the E&C Mini Maker Faire isn’t on this year
It’s a real shame. I went last year and the year before, and I was so sorry to find out that this year it wasn’t happening. According to their site it seems they weren’t able to get sponsorship for the event. It makes me sad because when I went last year there were so many people having a great time there. It was packed. All those people won’t get the chance to go again this year. It’s sad.
But there’s the Brighton Mini Maker Faire that’s happening on the 5th, and I’m planning to get along to that for a few hours if I can. It’s not as convenient as the Elephant and Castle, but it’s ok.
I hope that the E&C faire comes back in 2016. It would be a shame for it to stop for good.
Romo II
I’ve wanted a Romo II for a while now. I originally funded the first Romo on Kickstarter, but never got the second one. So I finally managed to get hold of one on eBay for just a few pounds.
So I’m looking forward to getting this one going and maybe even doing something using both of them together.
And then Phoenard arrived
I’d sort of forgotten about funding this on Kickstarter until it arrived. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with it. I did have a couple of ideas, and I’m sure I wrote them down somewhere, so I’ll have to look them out and see what I can do with it.
I’m sure it’ll find a place and I’m sure I’ll have some fun with it too.
A first go at weaving with Conductive Threads
A little bit of TouchBoard
Weaving with Conductive Thread
A first attempt
Messy
I went to a workshop today on weaving with conductive thread. Not something I’ve done a lot of before, but something I’ve had a previous taste of when I did a workshop of making interactive clothes. However, I’ve never done anything with weaving at all, but it always seemed like a fun thing to try.
So the idea was to weave something small and introduce a couple of conductive thread elements in that could be attached to a microcontroller board like a TouchBoard. In fact, it was a TouchBoard in this instance and that was very straightforward to use as it is nice and easy to connect up.
Well the weaving was ok, in fact easier than I expected although I made a few mistakes. Introducing the conductive thread was simple enough, and as you can see I managed to create a little piece of stuff at the end of it. It worked too. I connected it up to the TouchBoard and it worked a treat. In fact, when I got home I connected it to my Ototo board and that was fine too.
So what’s next? I’m not sure actually. I don’t know quite how I’ll take this forward if at all. There are a few possible applications to it, a few ideas bubbling around, but I need to think about them a bit more first.
Let’s see what happens.
