Keep reading for the full breakdown of how I did it, more pictures, and source files for the 3D models.

Printing

This was the easy part: I made the 3D models (OpenSCAD for the cufflinks, Blender for the crowbar), uploaded them to Shapeways, and had them printed in their Frosted Ultra Detail material. If you’re interested in printing your own or modifying the files, here are the cufflinks (Shapeways, Thingiverse) and the crowbar (Shapeways, Thingiverse).

Plastic 3D print

Casting

In addition to being a skilled jewellery-maker, my friend Norah professionally solders circuit boards for satellites. She is a total maker hero, and patiently indulges my requests for metallurgy and soldering help and advice. Norah pointed me in the direction of HL Casting, one of several professional casting businesses here in Toronto. The people at HL were a pleasure to work with. For about $20 each they made rubber molds of my originals. These molds are then injected with wax, which is then used to perform lost-wax casting to make the silver copies.

From 3D print to mold to finished piece

Finishing

The real work begins after the silver has been cast. At the point the pieces are whitish, have a piece sticking out from where the silver was poured (called a “sprue”), and show marks from the seam in the mold.

Unfinished cast, with sprue visible on left cufflink

Norah and I removed the sprues using a jeweller’s saw (which cuts through silver like a knife through hot butter) and filed down the marks from the mold, and polished them with a combination of tumbling in a polishing agent and detailing by hand. All told, it was several hours with of labour (including Norah teaching me what to do) spread out over three or four afternoons.

Why not just print in silver?

For the most part I’ve been happy with Shapeways’ sterling silver prints. The main place it falls short for me is pricing ($30 flat + $20/cm^3). If you’re making very small pieces, or multiple copies of the same piece, it’s much more economical to use a reusable mold. There are also other benefits to doing one’s own casting: it sidesteps Shapeways’ design restrictions for silver. That means much higher detail, more control, and multi-piece items become financially feasible. A mold can also be used for other materials, like gold, if you’re so inclined.
The downside, of course, is that it takes a lot more time and effort.
Would I do it again? Probably. I’d say the choice between casting it myself and having Shapeways do it really depends on the piece itself and my mood. Both ways have their merits, and I’m happy to have both options available to me.

My main role was in designing, manufacturing, and building small noisemakers to give out to the crowd. There were four different colour-coded notes, and during one performance the audience was prompted with coloured cards to play along.I was surprised and delighted by how popular the boards were; we gave out all 150 of them in a matter of minutes, and people were asking for them long after they were all gone. It seems there’s an untapped thirst for simple noisemakers; that might be something I have to follow up on in the future…

The circuit is just a simple 555 astable oscillator, with different resistors on each colour to create a different note. They were assembled in two marathon soldering sessions at Site 3, where I was joined by several student volunteers from Ryerson’s New Media. My eternal gratitude goes out to them! You can take a little peek behind-the-scenes in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Very briefly, kiwi drive is a “holonomic” method of moving a robot, which basically means it can move in any direction without having to turn first. It accomplishes this using three omniwheels mounted at the points of an equilateral triangle. With some vector math, you can find rotational speeds for each wheen such that the robot will move in whatever direction you like. I won’t go into the theory too much here, but here are some diagrams and here’s some math (via).

In the video I’m controlling the robot with a Wii Nunchuck. That’s because my 14-year-old cousin was hanging out at the shop when I built it; he saw the controller in my parts bucket and said “you HAVE to connect the nunchuck to the robot!” So I did. I used Tod E. Kurt’s breakout board and example code.

The robot is dead simple. It essentially consists of three different parts — a microcontroller, omniwheels, and servos — and it took about five minutes to put together. Keep reading to learn how it works and download the code.

Parts

• 3 continuous rotation servos (you can use other types of motors, but this was simplest for me; I used these)
• 3 omniwheels (I used these, but using these or these or any omniwheels should work
• Arduino (or other microcontroller)
• Good power supply (if you don’t use a good one, you may get power problems or brownout resets)
• Some sort of platform (I used a scrap of acrylic)
• Double-sided foam tape (or servo brackets)
• Superglue (or screws)

Building it

1. Attach your servo horns to your omniwheels using superglue or screws. Be sure that they’re centred!
2. On your platform, mark three lines that meet in the centre of the platform and are each 120 degrees from each other. Use a protractor!
3. Find the servo positions by lining up the shaft with each of the guidelines. Then, attach the servos to your platform using double-sided tape or servo brackets.
4. Connect the servos: one wire goes to ground, one wire goes to the power supply, and one wire goes to an Arduino pin (determined in code).

And it’s built!

Code

Download some example code! This inclues three Arduino sketches:
KiwiTest1.xml — runs a test pattern, moving the robot back and forth in twelve different directions
KiwiWii.xml — the robot controlled by the Wii nunchuck. Normally it’s controlled by the analogue stick, but if you hold down one of the buttons it switches to being controlled by the accelerometer
KiwiDrive — Doesn’t do anything on its own, but contains the functions used in the other two: give it an angle and a speed, and it drives the robot in that direction. Adding rotation is (for now) left as an exercise for the reader (because I don’t need it, and am too lazy to do it myself). Hint: see this site.

I wasn’t really planning on posting about them (at least not yet), but since they’re getting some coverage under my Shapeways username, I figured I ought to at least mention it. You can buy a pair here. The pictures show them printed in unpolished sterling silver. Stainless steel is much cheaper, but I’m not sure how much detail will be retained in the print.

I’m really happy with how they turned out and I already have a bunch more 3D printed projects in the works (some of which involve the video game references that I know you love), so stay tuned!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Leigh made the plushie and I made the electronics.

For more information, including source code, visit the project page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For movie lovers:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And for the Zork fans who felt the previous post was missing something important:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Introducing the Automatypewriter, a new way to experience interactive fiction! It’s still a little rough around the edges (in particular, you can see that the spacebar sticks a little, and the whole thing needs to be tidied up), but you get the idea: the Automatypewriter is a typewriter that can type on its own, as well as detect what you type on it. By reading what it types to you and responding, it can be used interactively to play a game or participate in a story (in this case, Zork).

Though the medium may be the message, a games platform is only as good as its content. To that end I’m collaborating with novelist, graphic novelist, filmmaker, community organizer, and award-winning interactive fiction developer Jim Munroe, who is creating custom software specifically tailored to the Automatypewriter.

Why?

Interactive fiction is a great genre that is too often overlooked. By providing a tactile and surprising way to experience these games, I hope to engage a wider audience. More generally, moving the platform to a typewriter highlights the role the user assumes as an “author” in helping to create the story, and not just as a “player.”

Also, the usual hacker reason: because we think it’s cool!

Where can I play with it?

Right now it is being tinkered with at Site 3 coLaboratory in Toronto, Canada. For the next few months you can come see it there on our Thursday night open houses (although it might not always be in working order). Soon you’ll be able to beta test Jim’s software as it’s being developed. Eventually we hope to exhibit it formally, in which case I’ll post about it here.

How does it work?

See the project page for technical details

Questions that may or may not be frequently asked, but that I’ll answer anyway

Isn’t this basically just a teletype machine?
Technically, yes (and it’s not even the first typewriter-to-teletype conversion that I know of). That said, I think the appeal lies in the keys moving “on their own,” and in the fact that it is in the guise of a familiar object.

Why didn’t you use a cooler-looking typewriter?
Cool-looking typewriters in working condition are expensive! I wanted to make sure it would work first. Don’t worry, there are plans to do so in the future.

Are those fibre optic cables at the back?
No, it’s just fishing line.

What happens when you get to the end of a page?
Jim’s software will be designed to have a full experience on a single page. For other software, well, you change the page!

Have you considered having it write “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over again?
Yes.

Thanks

Jim Munroe, without whose enthusiasm and support I never would’ve gotten this far on this project.

Dana Sarafinchan, without whose expertise I would probably still be trying to figure out how to turn pieces of wood into a box.

All the members of Site 3, for their support and tolerance while I’ve been working on this.

And, as always, Ali.

¡Gran trabajo!*

* I don’t speak any Spanish, so this is all machine-translated.