doing strange things with electricity
Thanks For The Memristors
Mar 17th
Neurons
I’m psyched! My dream of going to Fry’s to get parts for my brain may become a reality. OK, so I tend to take things too far but this is certainly interesting to my addled brain. I’m curious to see what happens with this technology aside from my own neurohacking. Now see here:
Dorkbot 23 – Thanks to all
Mar 14th
Thanks to all of you who attended Dorkbot 23 @ SXSWi this year. We had a great turnout and some fantastic presentations. ArcAttack performed again this year, showing some feats of amazement with their Singing Tesla Coils. You can catch some of the presentation here. (Thanks to austin360.com for the video!)
Thank you to our sponsors! Without them, our annual SXSW Dorkbot events wouldn’t be possible!
- SXSW Interactive
- Silicon Labs
- Mr. Data Consulting
- QRANK by Ricochet Labs
Special thanks to @bluedeerdesign for this photo.
OK Go: New video includes Rube Goldberg machine from Syyn Labs
Mar 4th
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – RGM version
If you are not one of the 2,625,758 people (at the time of this writing) who have watched this video from the band OK Go, then you really should check it out. It’s a fantastic Rube Goldberg machine, all filmed in a single take for their song, “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album, “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. Here’s what their YouTube channel had to say about it:
The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.
Update: Make Magazine posted an opportunity for you to interview the makers of this video, Syyn Labs, in the comments on this post. So go ahead and start questioning.
Austin Hacker Space Opening Soon!
Feb 26th
Austin Hacker Space is opening soon and will be at Dorkbot 23 on 3/13 in Brush Square Park to tell you all about it. In the meantime, check out their website/wiki at http://austinhackerspace.org/ for more information. Seems like a great space for creative collaboration.
Here’s what Austin Hacker Space has to say about their objectives:
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Create an open community of hackers, artists, and open source/hardware enthusiasts to create, share, learn, and collaborate
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Help spread knowledge to the larger community, especially in the areas of: technology, DIY, and security
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Provide a space for creating, collaborations, workshops, and classes
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Provide resources (hardware, tools, materials, access, knowledge) to members and the community
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Assist other groups that share similar objectives
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Seek to enable others, and others’ projects; to help break down barriers; and to avoid erecting barriers
Look for a Nerd Movie Night at their place coming up on March 4, and hopefully another Dorkbot after SxSW! Also, there’s a Group Build-Out scheduled every Saturday from 10am – 5pm till they’re ready to open, if you’d like to volunteer some time, check out their space & help out for a bit. Austin Hacker Space is located at 209 E Ben White Blvd, #106 – enDesign.
Dorkbot 23 – SXSW Interactive 2010
Feb 24th
Saturday March 13, 2010
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Brush Square Park 5th and Neches Austin, Texas
RSVP BEFORE FRIDAY MAR 12th, 11:59PM
You must RSVP if you’re not a SXSW-interactive badge holder!
RSVPs through facebook will be registered to win giveaways from Make magazine!
Co-Sponsored by:
- SXSW Interactive
- Silicon Labs
- Mr. Data Consulting
- QRANK by Ricochet Labs
We’re still in need of at least one more sponsor to help cover rental costs. If you’d like to help out and have your name attached to one of the visible and popular SXSW-interactive events, please let us know!
Current presenters include:
6:00 – 6:20pm
- Waterloo Labs – Mind controlled gaming devices, iPod controlled vehicles, and more
- John Boiles and Gabriel Handford – iPhone controlled devices and the yelp light
6:20 – 6:40
- ArcAttack – Singing Tesla Coils
6:40 – 7:10
- Handmade Music Austin with Dr Bleep and Eric Archer
- Mikal Hart – Reverse Geocache box
- Bre Pettis – Maker, hacker, inventor, and founder of Makerbot
7:10 – 7:30
- ArcAttack – Singing Tesla Coils
7:30 – 8:00
- Bodytronix – Eric Archer and Erich Ragsdale play live electro with handmade synthesizers and drum machines
Build your own stereo vacuum tube amplifier!
Jan 13th
Lone Star School of Music in Austin Texas
Will be hosting a class this month (Sat. Jan 23, 2010) offering instruction and guidance while you build a commercially offered stereo tube amp kit
The class will consist of practical discussion about the easy to build kit but will also offer discussion of how to solder,commercial recordings, diy high end sources, vacuum tube lore and audio tweaks for this kit. This class aims to give the participant a rounded view of audiophiledom and to desconstruct the exclucivity of “high end” audio. This puts the user in control of the sound they’re looking for and is a spring board to other audio projects and most importantly is a way to get closer to the music.”
Drake Wilson
Dec 16th
Project: Firefly jars – Dorkbot 22
Drake presented at Dorkbot 22 a set of electronic lightning bug jars created for Murder Ballad Murder Mystery at the vortex theater in oct. 2009. Each jar powered 12 randomly flickering LEDs and was powered by a single pic microprocessor.
Drake Wilson is an eclectic creature from the conceptual world currently puttering about in Austin. He often works with the ACTLab, mainly doing volunteer sysadminry and being akin to a second-chair teaching assistant of some stripe. He can be found on the Web at http://begriffli.ch/~drake/
Dan Hemingson
Dec 15th
The Ambisonic Microphone
Dan Hemingson is the ACTLab TV’s Lead Audio Engineer. His work has been so successful that he recently presented his work to the Audio Society of Engineers in Munich Germany. His work in the ACTLab includes surround sound environments, microphone development and audio hardware development.
Project: Ambisonic microphone and recordings – Dorkbot 22
Using only a few dollars worth of microphones, some custom circuitry, and a little bit of post-processing, Dan is able to create three-dimensional audio environments that rival the atmosphere created by thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
Check out dan’s website for details more on some of his work.
More about Dan Hemingson:
Dan Hemingson made his first audio recordings on a wire recorder and a Wilcox-Gray disc recorder in about 1953 and 4 years later received his amateur radio operator license, building his transmitter from surplus military equipment. While a high school senior, he built a digital computer from discrete components, winning a Ford Foundation Future Scientists of America Award. He worked for 30 years for LaCoste and Romberg, Inc., a manufacturer of gravity meters, then for Avnet Corporation as a programmer, and for Brookhaven Instruments, where he designed a digital storage oscilloscope for use in ion implanters.
Since 1964, he has been a sound engineer at the First Baptist Church of Austin. In 1974, he formed Audio Productions Company, providing sound and recording services for corporations. In 2004, he returned to The University of Texas at Austin where he was introduced to surround sound by Professor Sandy Stone of the Advanced Communications Technology Laboratory and Professors Mark Sarisky and Bruce Pennycook of the Butler School of Music. He is a recording engineer for the Butler School of Music.
John Boiles
Dec 15th
Update: John Boiles will be presenting 2 new projects during Dorkbot 23 @ SXSW Interactive on 3/13, 6-8pm in Brush Square Park!
John Boiles lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes software, builds things, and presents his amazing ipod and internet controlled devices at Dorkbot Austin
Project: Dimlet – Dorkbot 21
The Dimlet is an ipod touch controlled light dimmer circuit. By reading accelerometer output in four directions, a user is able to control the power output of four independent electrical sockets. The Dimlet was originally built for a friend’s party in July 2009. John’s Dimlet video is not to be missed!
Project: Tilty – the ipod touch controlled RC car – Dorkbot 21
Project: Christmas-spirit-meter (powered by twitter!) – Dorkbot 22
The Christmas-spirit-meter monitors twitter and adjusts Christmas light intensity based on a 2-week moving average of Christmas-related tweets. John is hoping to finish the spirit-meter prior to Christmas 2009 – if not, we’re sure it will be easy enough to convert into a president’s day-spirit-meter
Project: iphone controlled oldsmobile – Dorkbot 22
John worked with the guys at Waterloo labs to adapt his iphone-controlled RC car into an iphone-controlled actual car… And then surf it.
Check out John’s website for details more on some of his work.
Dorkbot 22 – 12.14.2009 @ACTLab
Nov 18th
Dorkbot 22 is coming to UT’s ACTLab!
Monday, December 14, 2009
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Once again in the CMB Building at Dean Keaton and Guadalupe, on the 4th floor, Studio 4B aka the ACTLab. (parking map)
Current Presenters
- Drake Wilson presents his Firefly Jars
- Dan Hemingson presents his ambisonic microphone and recording work
- John P. Funk presents his modern space-age lighting fixtures and props built with recycled materials and LEDs.
Original LED Space Lights and atmosphere lighting
Quest for the Dark Planet space film - Erik Debill presents his custom temperature sensing and data logging project using a custom arduino compatible board, shields, and Ruby on Rails application
- John Boiles presents his Christmas-spirit-meter powered by twitter
See you there!
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