Making things
Monday, May 5th, 2008 | William J. Turkel
I’ve been having a lot of fun recently making interactive gizmos (a.k.a. “history appliances”) using microcontrollers and other small electronic and mechanical parts. If there is any interest, I could arrange to have some Arduino kits shipped to CHNM and we could have a session of building and programming gizmos. It is easier than you might imagine. Depending on the amount of interest, I could either provide the kits myself, or arrange a deal for participants to buy their own kits to take home.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’d love to buy a kit. And I can bring my own USB cable- I have a bucketload somewhere…
May 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
i’d be up for gizmos at thatcamp, esp. if they are like the ones you showed off in montreal
May 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Count me in. And depending on the numbers, I’m willing to buy a kit — I’ve been wanting to take a stab at Arduino for a while.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
OK. So far we have five people on board:
Me
Karin Dalziel
Elena Razlogova
Dave Lester
Jeff McClurken
The discounts seem to kick in around 10 kits, so we can wait at least a few days to get some idea of how large this session is going to be. My plan is to order a bunch of stuff from Spark Fun or Adafruit or wherever and have it shipped directly to CHNM (that way I don’t have to worry about bothering to bring “improvised electronic devices” with me through the border). If people have fun and want to take their Arduino with them, they can reimburse me at the conference. I’ll ship the rest back to Canada for the edification and amusement of my students.
The USB cable (if you want to bring your own) is the kind that has a rectangular plug on one side, and a squarish plug on the other with two rounded off corners (technically the A-to-B cable, NOT the A-to-mini-B that cell phones and music players use).
Another thing we might want to do is think of some potential projects. With inexpensive sensors we can sense heat, light, movement, distance, vibration, magnetic fields, etc. We can also control buzzers, LEDs, motors, bells, relays.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I’m there with it! Making devices sounds terribly fun!
May 7th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I’m down with this. Even if it does seem a little silly for me to go all the way to Fairfax to get you to show me how it’s done.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I can bring an old Olympus digital camera to take apart as well, if that might be of use. I’ve seen a few interesting things done with cameras.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I’d be interested in an Arduino session. I bought a USB arduino and a bunch of sensors more than a year ago, but I haven’t done anything besides blink an LED.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Please add me to the list. The how-to does sound like fun, and I’d also like to hear more about the “history appliance” idea and how this can relate to the humanities.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
At this point we have 9 people, which is a good number.
Me
Karin Dalziel
Patrick Gosetti-Murrayjohn
Douglas Knox
Jon Lesser
Dave Lester
Rob MacDougall
Jeff McClurken
Elena Razlogova
Tomorrow I will put in an order for 10 Arduinos and a few other odds and ends and have it shipped to Tom Scheinfeldt at CHNM. Jon, if you can bring your own Arduino with you, we should have two extra. Anyone else who wants to get in on this session, please let me know ASAP, so I can order extras if need be. I will try to bring along a few small tools in my checked baggage… if any of you can bring your own Leatherman, small screwdriver or needlenose pliers, that would be cool. If not, no worries.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I would also be interested.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I have an arduino, will bring it along and hopefully join you!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I should have replied earlier — I would like to try this out as well. I can order one for myself if you’ve ordered already.
By the way, on the subject of gizmos… Tom told me the CHNM had purchased a One Laptop Per Child xo. I purchased three for our afterschool program (jumpstartlearning.wordpress.com). I can spring one free from the kids if you would like — its more fun when they play together. We also loaded the Sugar OS onto a laptop that I’ll bring along. I plan to talk about something else but these are fun.
Margie McLellan
May 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Dan Chudnov and Marjorie McLellan: welcome. I didn’t place an order yet, so there will be an Arduino for everyone. I’m looking forward to seeing the XO, and will be bringing my Asus Eee PC. If no-one else wants to jump on board… I’m going to place the order.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I have an XO I’ll probably bring as well. 🙂
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:07 am
Bill– If it’s not too late, please count me in, too. I’ll buy a kit.
May 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
[…] will give this a try. Sounds pretty ideal. I’m also hoping to give this a try, when I get my Arduino at THAT Camp. […]
May 29th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I just want to look over peoples’ shoulders at the Arduinos, but I have an XO laptop, too (well, when I can get it away from my son), and will plan to bring it!
March 9th, 2010 at 4:09 am
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