GENERAL POINTS
I am an artist and not an electrician. Talk to me about ideas and then we can think about how to build things.
My role is as a tutor that gives you advice and teaches you the basics of electronics and programming. I can help you build some fairly small scale projects but if you want to create something complicated YOU will also have to do some learning.
Think for WHO and WHY you are doing this. What you want the viewer to experience/understand? This will hugely change what and how you build something. If you come to me and you have not considered people’s EXPERIENCE of the interaction it will take us a long time.
I am not allowed to help with projects that hack mains power electronics – sorry.
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“Can you build me a giant crane / hovercraft / swarming robots?”
Please be realistic about what you are trying to do! If you want to build something big and complicated YOU will have to have to put the time in to do the learning. Also make sure you give yourself enough time to make things. if you come to me with a project due tomorrow, then you are likely to be disappointed!
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“How do I make something move in response to people’s presence?”
This is the classic Bartlett student project and has been done many times.
Ok there are three ways to go:
1 Buy a ready made kit from QuasarElectronics or Maplins. The kit uses a basic sensor connected to a relay which is basically an electronic switch that you can use to turn something on.
2 Hack something together by finding a device that does 80% of what you want it to do and build the remaining 20%. Look at Usman’s work
3 Build something from scratch using a micro-controller or or an analog circuit. This allows you lots of flexibility but YOU will have to do quite a bit of learning which takes time. Please factor this in. Take a look at the Arduino platform (google it)
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“How do I build something that follows people around / does video tracking?”
There are a lot of ways of doing this but they almost always require a computer to do the tracking – ie. serious programming. Have a look at Processing and the camera plug-in for Blob detection as well as OpenCV
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“What about Zigbee / Wireless / Mesh networking of electronics?”
This is a big area. Some people just want to connect two things together and should look at some sort of cable or basic radio connection. True mesh networking with Zigbee devices doesn’t really work properly and put a massive power overload on node devices. Are you sure you need this level of sophisticated network design? If you do then you need to start doing some serious research 🙂
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“How do I wire up LEDs?”
Well have a look here for a basic guide and for more complicated set-ups have a look at the brilliant Parallel Led Array Wizard
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“What motors can I use?”
There are 3 different types.
DC Motors which are easy and cheap and can be geared
Servo Motors like in model aeroplanes that are accurate but weak and normally only move 180 degrees
Stepper Motors which are accurate but expensive and hard to control
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“How do I change the running direction of a small motor?”
That is surprisingly difficult. You need an H-bridge
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“How can I control something with my hands ie. Multi touch screens?”
Here are some basic starting points This is a quite difficult area though.
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“Can you turn something on when it gets dark / light?”
Yes you probably want this . You can change if they should detect light or dark. They use a relay so that you can you something else on like a solanoid or a motor for example. on though
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“Can you help me with an Genetic / Learning Algorithm?”
Hmmm, 90% of people who ask for that don’t really know what they want and are just picking up a buzz word. Do you really want a light switch that makes a light turn on only some of the time? The other 10% could start here but will have to do a lot of learning on their own anyway 🙂
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“Electromagnets?”
Yup, you can build them yourself start here
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“How do I do some Data Logging / Connected objects / Remote Sensing?”
Ok you need to decide if you want to collect temporal data or spatial data? Is it something that can use your laptop or does it need to be a stand alone device? Using a laptop connected to an Arduino is an easy way to collect data that varies over time such as light level or temperature. If you want to pipe that over the internet have a look at Pachube.
Interfacing with a GPS is also possible but not so straight forward have a look at the GPS Arduino Shield
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“How do I use Muscle Wire / Memory Wire?”
This is a unique type of wire that contracts when electricity is passed through it. Unfortunately it is actually very weak and brittle. Some info here. They sell some here http://www.technologysupplies.co.uk/