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Explorations

Explorations done within and outside of the fabrication course.

Arduino

Rainbow colour experiment

I tried making a rainbow cycle experiment with the LED strip given to us as a part of the pre-course. I also tried adding a transluscent material as a lamp-shade experiment to see how the colour diffuses.

Test

Code

I used the Arduino IDE to create a rainbow cycle. After many failed attempts i finally created one that works:

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#define PIN        17
#define NUMPIXELS 10
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(NUMPIXELS, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
#define DELAYVAL 10 // Time (in milliseconds) to pause between pixels

void setup() {
strip.begin();
strip.show();
strip.setBrightness(20);
}

void loop() {
for (long hue = 0; hue<65536; hue +=250)  {
    for (int i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
    int modHue = hue + (i*65536/strip.numPixels());
    }

    strip.rainbow(modHue);
    strip.show();
}

Biomaterials

Resin Explorations during the Fundamentals for Future Makers Course

RESIN BASED BIOMATERIAL EXPERIMENT

Details

Exploring Biomaterials was a great hands-on experience. It felt like a cooking class. I loved the variety of materials, their qualities, and the results. I tried getting some amount of transparency. The pine resin was fragile so I realised I had to add fillers, or more wax, which would kill the transparency either way. I decided to add fillers but in a limited quantity. I also chose the filler with larger size so that there would be gaps to bring my transluscent effect to the material. The recipe and process are provided alongside.

This material would make grest lamps if thinner, although it would be more fragile. Could also be used to create interesting lighting effects for sets in stop motion or claymation.

Images

RECIPE

Ingredients

  • 60% pine resin
  • 35% filler (orange peel mix + dried avocado seeds)
  • 5% casting wax
  • Alcohol (solvent for pine resin)
  • Diluted Indigo dye (few drops)

Process

  1. Crush the pine resin to chunks to make it easier to melt.
  2. Heat it in a pot while adding sufficient alcohol. Cover until entirely dissolved.
  3. Add casting wax flakes to the mix. (I used half a handfull, and the result was a bit delicate. Add more for strength, at the cost of transparency)
  4. Crush the dried avocado seeds and mix with the dried orange peels. Mix it in.
  5. Pour the mix into any kind of mould. I used an embroidery ring with butter paper to form the base and frame.

3D Printing

Interconnected Models

I attempted to print many things as I set out on the journey to learn 3d printing. THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT MY DESIGNS.

NASA chain mail

I downloaded a single unit of this chain mail designed by NASA, and put it together and started testing with scale and material. It printed great on the standard opaque PLA, but had some issues with the transparent PLA. The unit tests were fine, but there were errors in the final print for the transparent material (possibly due to the smaller scale). I also tried creating my own design (triangle) which did not work and will have to br redesigned more carefully.

Single Unit:

The final chain mail

The Printing Process:

Interlocked Shark

The shark gave me trouble, and the print failed multiple times. This is how I discovered and figured out the ‘brim’ function that finally allowed me to successfully print the shark.

Failed Sharks:

Successful sharks & process with brim:

Herringbone gear fidget spinner