My Hedgehog Eddie 3D

Details

Published: Tuesday, 25 October 2016 14:01

Written by Kyle Granat

By happenstance, I'm in Ohio, a short drive from Cleveland Heights, so I started Listening to Crying (which I love) and decided to get tickets to the show.

When I went to see Streetlight Manifesto, I made a tiny Streetlight for Toh Kay (not sure if he ever got it, I had to give it to a roadie to pass along). But how could I possibly top that?

I present to you My Hedgehog Eddie 3d. I found a great Sonic the Hedgehog model and an awesome Totoro model that I did unspeakable things in Meshmixer. I made some rookie mistakes the first time and sonic's face melted off, but the second time was a charm. The model is too big for its own good (I'm not a 3D modeler, I just play one on TV). But it printed quickly and for the small amount of time I had to get it done, I was happy with the results. Now to see if I can hand it off to Crying tonight.

Thing a Month September - NPC Mini Head

Details

Published: Thursday, 13 October 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle Granat

So it's more than half past October and I never got around to posting this. I don't know that this counts as a real thing, it was more of an experiment, but it was fun. Please forgive my ineptitude with stepper motors, I'm much better with them now. And sorry for the pictures, I was on the road.

Read more: Thing a Month September - NPC Mini Head

Robot and the Human Connection Video

Details

Published: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 18:27

Written by Kyle Granat

Just before the Northside Mini Maker Faire wa upon us, I got a call from Patrick Martin, a journalism student at Northwestern. He asked if he could come by the office to interview me and create a news piece on Trossen Robotics. Patrick is a great guy and a one-man production crew, handling the camera work, lighting, interviewing and editing. The piece that patrick produced ended up focusing not on Trossen, but on the maker movement as embodied by the partnership I have with my mother, a huge contributor to the work that I do.

DRNK-BRD-8000

Details

Published: Thursday, 18 August 2016 00:38

Written by Kyle Granat

In July, Wade and I entered our second Robot Riot (Robot Riot: Mile High Voltage). We made a couple of improvements to Butter Buster and sent him off for training to a friend in the mile high city. However we decided that just sending in an old robot wasn't enough: we decided to build up a second robot.

Read more: DRNK-BRD-8000

Check out RobotGeek 101!

Details

Published: Monday, 25 July 2016 16:59

Written by Kyle Granat

I always wanted to have a substantial set of lessons that I could point people to for getting started with RobotGeek and Arduino in General. RobotGeek 101 is my attempt at that set of lessons. The lessons go over the basic concepts of getting started with the Arduino ecosystem

• Serial Communication
• Digital Output
• Digital Input
• Analog Input
• Pulsed Width Modulation
• Servo Control

Each lesson has a web-page and a video version, so you can follow along with the exact directions in the video, or follow along with the text. Using Youtube's time-code links, each video is sectioned off based on each code example. Code can be downloaded as part of the RobotGeek tools/libraries, or copy/pasted from the lessons themselves.

I shot the videos using a LifeCam Cinema and a Logitech Clear Chat connected to ScreenFlow which made it a breeze to produce videos. Screen flow is great at syncing the audio/video to my computer screen as well as adding audio, intros, and example pictures.

To get the life cam to film from above I made a rig out of an old extending lamp and a Custom 3D printed part.. It was a big improvement to my tripod setup for the HR-OS1 videos.

Theses lessons are great, but they are designed more for individual learners and don't have assessment or projects. I'd really like to convert the lesson structure over to an actual curriculum that could be used in a class. Arduino curriculum, here I come!