STUDIO KMD » Physical Computing

blunderbus

Bryce — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:05:30 +0000

The blunderbus toolset was developed to streamline the development of projects that require linking low cost arduino micro-controllers to Internet enabled mobile devices. Users will be able to load the muzzle of the system with all kinds of sensor data and then transfer that data to remote interface that can monitor the data and shoot a response back to the micro-controller. In order to make the system accessible to both experienced programmers and newcomers alike, blunderbus focuses on making the toolset easy to use and set up. It is intended that this open source project will expand capabilities of open source hardware platforms whilst remaining true to the nature of the DIY electronics culture.

The alpha 0.0.0 release is now available. Please check it out and let us know what problem you run into. This is a test release and requires your feedback for improvements

Lilypad Workshop

Bryce — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:41:31 +0000

Bryce and Matt were invited to conduct a workshop at the Adidas Wearable Sports Electronics Division located in Wilmington Delaware on Fat Tuesday (hence the beads). The topic of the day was the wearable and textile electronic prototyping. We had a quick introduction but most of our day was spent diving head first into the use of the Arduino Lilypad. Bryce expressed “I have never seen such an ambitious group, these guys weren’t going to settle for blinking LED’s. . . They were able to grasp the logic behind the Arduino code faster than any group I’ve seen.” The group went on to experiment with several types of digital and analog sensors with quite impressive results.

Attached is the code that was prepared by Matt and Bryce to help help solve some of the common issues they thought the newcomers might face. Of course if you need the Arduino software it is available here and don’t forget to check out the site of the developers Leah Beuchley and SparkFun.

Photo-resistor to Vibration Motor

LillyPadPresentation

Fast Freeze

Matt — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:02:47 +0000

The Fast Freeze was a fully functional Prototype built as a proof of concept for our client to raise investment capital. It was designed to cool wine, beer, soda or any other round bottle to drinking temperature rapidly and also dispensed ice and cold water. He was heading to the International Home and Housewares show so we also whipped up a logo and some vinyl graphics for him.

The body of the prototype consists of brushed aluminum panels, aluminum hardware, laser cut and thermo-formed PMMA panels. The internal components included three water tight PMMA chambers, a removable sealed ball bearing rotational chilling assembly as well as a custom silicon cast duel chamber ice maker.

When prototyping this version of the Fast Freeze we used hand sketching to help resolve many of the issue that developed. This rapid ideation allowed our design team to stay on the same page with this multifaceted product.

The prototype contains 3 pump, 1motor, 5buttons, 1 switch, 2 temperature sensors and a handful of relays. They were all controlled by 2 Arduino micro controllers. The full functionality of the Fast Freeze was coded in the Arduino development environment by Studio KMD. The code used in this project is available upon request to help advance this type of physical prototyping.