20100620:
[14:47] <peters-tx3> I'd like to see the clock us UV LEDs to illuminate a flourescent painted clock face with hands
[14:47] <peters-tx3> us/use
[14:48] <steevithak> That sounds cool. I was thinking maybe use one Toenolla's paper/servo robots to make a robo-cuckoo clock
[14:49] <peters-tx3> hmm, perhaps we can make a clock that is painted black, mostly, and has a little stage
[14:49] <peters-tx3> the stage is where the robots appear and act out some scene on the hours
[14:49] <peters-tx3> like you are saying
[14:49] <peters-tx3> all illuminated by UV
[14:49] <peters-tx3> I love UV
[14:49] <steevithak> tack on an arduino and we can any sort of blinky lights, sounds, and motion we need
[14:50] <peters-tx3> totally
[14:50] <steevithak> UV / flourescent paint should work pretty well. Last year the auction was in a pretty dark room
[14:51] <steevithak> http://www.flickr.com/photos/steevithak/3799843918/in/set-72157600332409072/
[14:53] <steevithak> one limited factor is they require the clock to use the crappy battery-powered movement they provide
[14:53] <peters-tx3> movement
[14:53] <steevithak> I guess we could use the movement to power some other twirly decorative element and build our own clock
[14:55] <steevithak> it's one of those $2 clock movements you can buy at craft stores
[14:55] <peters-tx3> yah
[14:55] <peters-tx3> in retrospect we'd be better off building some sort of art-deco Dallas style clock, fashioned after one of the fair park buildings sort of
[14:56] <peters-tx3> hot-glue, scrap wood-bits. paint the whole thing antique bronze or gold-ish
[14:56] <steevithak> or we could use the cheap clock and hands, add sensors to read the hand positions, and use the data to position a second clock movement of our own construction
[14:56] <peters-tx3> lol
[14:56] <steevithak> I'm picking up our kit Monday and will bring to Thursday's meeting so we can brainstorm
[14:57] <peters-tx3> so about 3 weeks of build time
[14:58] <steevithak> yep, that should give us plenty of time to do something pretty cool
[14:58] <steevithak> in a sense, it's a contest - the coolest clock is the one that brings the most money at the auction
[15:00] <peters-tx3> and the auction $$ goes to that organization?
[15:01] <peters-tx3> the Seed org?
[15:01] <peters-tx3> but dprg/dms would get the publicity?
[15:01] <peters-tx3> 8)
[15:01] <steevithak> yep, this auction funds Art Conspiracy. The use the money to set up their big annual benefit that'll raise $10k or $20k for a local non-profit
[15:02] <steevithak> yes, we'll get some good PR just by being there. If we have the best clock, maybe some local news coverage as well
[15:03] <steevithak> and I'm hoping we can bid on one of the other crazy art clocks to put in the hackerspace :)
[15:05] <peters-tx3> yah 8D
[15:06] <peters-tx3> so you get a single panel of wood
[15:06] <steevithak> yes, you aren't required to use the wood though
[15:06] <peters-tx3> right
[15:08] <peters-tx3> well a basic basic setup would be to paint everything black like I was saying, paint the hands flourescent, get a bunch of UV leds, illuminate the whole thing, then build the little stage, a few papercraft bots
[15:09] <peters-tx3> perhaps we could have a 4 act play that would be something like "the struggle of the robots against the oppression of the humans"
[15:10] <peters-tx3> detecting the hour/minute for triggering, not necessarily easy
[15:10] <peters-tx3> but I know there's inexpensive IR emitter/detectors from sparkfun which is a start
[15:11] <peters-tx3> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=246
[15:12] <steevithak> yeah, those would probably work or some of the little IR proximity detectors like we use on robots
[15:14] <peters-tx3> I think perhaps we'd need 5 detectors to figure out which of 4 hours it is, and also when the hour hits within about 1 minute-ish
[15:15] <steevithak> these could connect directly to the digital I/O line on an arduino: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/959
[15:16] <peters-tx3> oh that's pretty cool
[15:17] <steevithak> yeah, so definitely one on the minute hand to detect exactly when it hits n O'clock
[15:17] <peters-tx3> right, and 4 others for 0,3,6,9
[15:17] <steevithak> then one for any hour we want to detect
[15:17] <peters-tx3> yah
[15:18] <steevithak> maybe we can get Pololu to donate 10 or 15 of 'em to the cause (worth a try anyway)
[15:18] <peters-tx3> I think the sparkfun one works via digital line too; checking
[15:19] <steevithak> it should
[15:19] <peters-tx3> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9008 uses this
[15:20] <peters-tx3> not sure the the ATtiny has dig lines O_o
[15:20] <steevithak> I think it will need a couple of resistors and mabye a cap to get it working?
[15:21] <peters-tx3> probably
[15:22] <peters-tx3> the sparkfun flame uses the IR detector on the ATtiny RESET line apparently O_o
[15:22] <peters-tx3> hmm
[15:22] <peters-tx3> or maybe not gah, hard to figure out 8P
[15:22] <peters-tx3> http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Widgets/Graffitti_Board-v03-Normal.pdf
[15:23] <peters-tx3> "ADC1" and "ADC2" hmm 8) no idea
[15:24] <peters-tx3> so 4 acts--act 1, "robots attacking humans", act 2, "peace #1", act 3, "humans attacking robots", act 4, "peace #2" 8D
[15:25] <steevithak> I've got a spare arduino around here somewhere we can use. I need to hunt it down so I can bring it thursday.
[15:25] <peters-tx3> k
[15:26] <steevithak> Ha, or act three, humans and robots make each other extinct
[15:26] <peters-tx3> lol
[15:27] <peters-tx3> act 1 attack; act2 attack; act3 extinct; act4 regenesis perhaps ? 8)
[15:28] <peters-tx3> so I think need 2 "robots" and 2 "humans"
[15:28] <peters-tx3> act 1 "2 robots, 1 human" and 2 "2 humans 1 robot"
[15:29] <peters-tx3> little LEDs at hands for "weapons" humans have red for "machine gun blinking" and robots have blue for "laser blasts on/off" hehehe
[15:30] <peters-tx3> how about a little PC speaker for some sounds? hmmm we'd have to figure out how to sample, replay sounds
[15:31] <peters-tx3> and how to move the robots/humans through the stage... whew
[15:31] <steevithak> Found it! It's an Arduino Duemilanove board
[15:32] <peters-tx3> sweeet
[15:32] <peters-tx3> we could probably get-er-done with much much less
[15:32] <peters-tx3> arduinos cost like $5 just for the chip
[15:32] <peters-tx3> so just solder the whole thing together
[15:33] <steevithak> Sure, that's cool too. Have we got the parts to do that?
[15:34] <peters-tx3> I can order a few of the raw chips, only thing we'll need is a rig to directly flash its firmware... we can do this to get it working *after* all the development
[15:34] <peters-tx3> develop/use duemilanove, but put in the raw chip when we're done
[15:39] <steevithak> Need to figure out how much I/O we'll need. Clock hand positions for input and maybe PWM out to the servos that move the robots.
[15:42] <peters-tx3> yah
[15:42] <peters-tx3> might be able to have 2 seperate more dumb arduinos
[15:43] <peters-tx3> or just one smarter arduino
[15:56] <peters-tx3> I'm trying to figure out what the standard story is that's depicted by cuckoo clocks, the automata ones
[15:57] <peters-tx3> I seem to remember people with hammers for some reason
[15:57] <peters-tx3> like miners or railroad builders or something
[15:58] <peters-tx3> ahh. wikipedia says 'Along with the common projecting cuckoo bird, this style of clock may also display other types of animated figurines as well, examples include woodcutters, moving beer drinkers and turning water wheels. Some "traditional" style cuckoo clocks feature a music box and dancing figurines as well.'
[15:58] <peters-tx3> under " The "Chalet" style, the Swiss contribution"
[15:59] <peters-tx3> haha, perhaps we could have a deep ellum scene with beer drinkers 8P
[16:00] <steevithak> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_clock
[16:00] <peters-tx3> yah
[16:00] <steevithak> I like the deep ellum scene idea, maybe some familiar store fronts or something on a rotating platform
[16:02] <peters-tx3> maybe we could have a "Saturday night ride" play... featuring a matchbox car driving down central lol
[16:02] <peters-tx3> honk honk honk, near miss, passing lol
[16:03] <peters-tx3> beat-up pickups w/ mowing accessory trailers, high-riders w/ 24s (easy to get as matchbox), etc
[16:03] <steevithak> ooh and a big pendulum, that would be cool
[16:03] <peters-tx3> maybe a "robot attack on Deep Ellum"
[16:04] <steevithak> or just robots drinking beer in deep ellum
[16:05] <peters-tx3> we could have sheets of cardboard w/ scenes either painted on or glued on (from magazines?) .. the cardboard sheets get lowered into position and the "rear" of the stage
[16:05] <peters-tx3> and then the conventional bulb lights illuminate the stage
[16:05] <peters-tx3> and/at
