Archive for October, 2008
New Top Design and Flash Tests (New Videos!!!)
by Peau on Oct.23, 2008, under Uncategorized
During my trip to Home Depot today I picked up some base board rail things which had paper covering a 90 degree thin piece of metal. I ripped the paper off and got a rail that was only 1cm or so tall/wide:
Like before I measured out the spacing to drill the holes for the LEDs:
I only made two rails, and pushed the LEDs in, twisted the wires, taped up the metal rails with electrical tape, and wired it up to the power supply:
I got really good blobs, though since it’s a side DI, if your unused fingers or rest of your hand dips into the light plain it shows up as blobs, which isn’t cool. Oh well. It works really good so I am super happy.
I finally figured out how to get the flash apps working with the touch inputs (run FLOSC Nolan! duh…), and so I got some really cool interactions as seen in the following pics and videos (my roommate Jeff was a good model…haha):
(Photo App)
(Physics App)
(Seth’s Piano App)
(Tangrams)
Woohoo, yeah multitouch!
Attaching the LCD Boards and More Prototyping
by Peau on Oct.22, 2008, under Uncategorized
Drilled recessed holes in the side of my box and attached the LCD board to the front inside wall. Made my own wooden washers with my dremel since it’s cheaper than buying some 
It looks really clean now and I’m glad it’s secured so that I don’t damage the LCD cables.
Decided to prototype the new design that I had thought of for the LED arrangement with the top bezel being half the height of the current one. Took some thin wood paneling, made two 3 x 46 cm pieces, and taped them together. Took the piece of cardboard cereal box that I had prototyped the previous LED rails on, stuck in 8 LEDs spaced again 2 cm apart, and taped it to the bottom of the panels:
Then flipped it over and butted it up to the edge of the LCD. Used screws to hold the top flap up so that the IR light could be spread out over the screen:
It worked pretty well, though since the LEDs are so directional I got only a small plane to work with, but it has convinced me that this method can work. Going to go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy some materials to make it afterwards.
On another note, my cheapo web cameras arrived. They are Logitech Express ones, cost $5 each but $30 total with shipping. Going to dissect them and hope that the IR filter is easy to remove. Have a couple projects that are similar to using IR but a little different, so stay tuned.
