00716, Backgammon pieces, part 2

If only one thing could be said about these backgammon pieces - beyond that you can play backgammon with them and they look nice - it would be that it feels really nice when you put your finger in them.

There, I said it.

Here's the process pics:

00715, Backgammon porn

Took these picture soooo long ago and never bothered to process them.

I stated with bare wood, muffed up the finish (oil on birch ply is horrible) and decided to go abstract.

Gave the board away - think they liked it. But do they play it?

00714, Tiny cosmonaut

Cosmonaut is a much better word than astronaut (IMHFO).

In no particular order, here's the 'making of' images from the nice camera:

00713, Secret Santa

It's that time again. Went a bit mental this time:

Nice images from the nice camera to follow.

00712, the Hand Thing

The Hand Thing is a project I've been obsessing over for a long time.

Editing films and creating motion graphics and animation means working a lot with keyboard shortcuts, you know, cut, paste etc. Most of this work is done with the keyboard and very few time is the keyboard used for typing text (like normal people do).

So this is what they call a Human Interface Device (HID) - something designed to make interactions with a computer easier and/or faster. Here's the end result:

It starts with designing the size and shape of the device with plasticine and placing buttons using ball bearings, so that the buttons fall where the buttons fall where your fingers can easily reach them:

Then it's down to importing the picture into a computer, tracing around the image, making a 3D kinda version of it and cutting the design out of wood using the CNC machine. Once cut, it's on to gluing on buttons and connecting them to a microcontroller (tiny computer), which takes the button presses, converts them into a combination of keyboard commands and sends them down a USB cable to the computer which thinks you're inputting a whole load of keyboard commands:

You could program it to input your name every tine you press a key, or enter passwords and emails automatically. Lots of stuff.

Here's an example fo the code that runs on the microcontroller (called a Teensy LC):


int overlayStatus = 0; // indicates whether to switch to title safe/proportional grid/off

void setup () {
  // initialize the pushbutton pin as an input:
  pinMode(0, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(1, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(3, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(4, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(5, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(6, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(7, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);

  Keyboard.begin();
}

void loop() {

  /*EASY EASE
    if (digitalRead(0) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_F9);
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(0) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    }*/


  //CENTRE ANCHOR POINT AND CENTRE IN VIEWER
  if (digitalRead(0) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT);
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_GUI);
    Keyboard.press(KEY_HOME);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_GUI);
    Keyboard.press(KEY_HOME);
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(0) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  //TIME REVERSE KEYFRAMES
  if (digitalRead(1) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT);
    Keyboard.press('y');
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(1) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  //SELECT ALL AND SHOW KEYFRAMES/COLLAPSE
  if (digitalRead(2) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_GUI);
    Keyboard.press('a');
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    delay(10);
    Keyboard.press('u');
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(2) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  /*SHOW OR HIDE GRAPH EDITOR
    if (digitalRead(3) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_SHIFT);
    Keyboard.press('E');
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(3) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    }*/

  //PLAY/stop
  if (digitalRead(3) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(32);
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(3) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  //ADVANCE 1 FRAME
  if (digitalRead(4) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_PAGE_DOWN);
    delay(150);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  //RETREAT 1 FRAME
  if (digitalRead(5) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.press(KEY_PAGE_UP);
    delay(150);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  //TITLE SAFE/PROPORTIONAL GRID/NO OVERLAY
  if (digitalRead(6) == LOW) {
    if (overlayStatus == 0) {
      Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT);
      Keyboard.press(39);
      overlayStatus = 1;
      do {}
      while (digitalRead(6) == LOW);
      delay (10);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
    }
    else if (overlayStatus == 1) {
      Keyboard.press(39);
      overlayStatus = 2;
      do {}
      while (digitalRead(6) == LOW);
      delay (10);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
    }
    else if (overlayStatus == 2) {
      Keyboard.press(39);
      overlayStatus = 0;
      do {}
      while (digitalRead(6) == LOW);
      delay (10);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
    }
  }

  //RESIZE & REFRAME COMP VIEWER TO FIT
  if (digitalRead(7) == LOW) {
    Keyboard.print('.');
    delay(10);
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_SHIFT);
    Keyboard.press('/');
    do {}
    while (digitalRead(7) == LOW);
    delay (10);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }


}

00711, return to the moon

This is a moon related dump (safe for work). It turned into a number of projects:

1. Just for the sake of making a moon.
2. to try to make a glowing moon shaped light (a cast plastic shell).
3. To add to the wall of boxes that I've put on the wall at work.
4. As a secret Santa (which went a bit turbo).

The process for making a light is:
Cover a polystyrene sphere with plaster of Paris.
Sculpt in craters and moon texture.
Make a silicone cast of the model.
Slip cast the mold by tipping fast curing resin into it and swilling it around and tipping out the remainder, then repeating, leaving a plastic shell, which can be lit from the inside.

More on the secret Santa in a mo

00710, Moon

So to go along with the rockets, I've started making a moon. Looks like it might end up on the wall at work.

00709, Rockets

For some reason I've started making rockets.
This tends to happen every now and again, so it didn't come as a great surprise.







The fins are made by taking a picture, importing it into fusion 360 and then using the image to trace the contours of the rocket body, meaning the fins are a perfect fit.

00708, Backgammon pieces

Quick pics of pieces being cut on the cnc machine

00707, Backgammon boards

I've decided to post from my phone as I never seem to get round to processing images from my camera.

Coming to the end of a board I agreed to make for some friends.