antoine.studio

Ilford XP2 - 4449

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0200

These photos were taken between November 2019 and February 2020, in Amsterdam, Brussels, Valencia and Barcelona. On a Ilford XP2 film.

About me

Fab Academy (2020)

I'm currently following the Fab Academy at Fab Lab Barcelona.

This intensive program is about designing and prototyping projects using digital fabrication tools and machine, such as: computer-controlled cutting, electronics, 3D scanning and printing, electronics design,computer-controlled machining, embedded programming, molding and casting, ne...

Final project: research

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

This article is a place for me to post ideas about my final project. It is not intended to be clear or readable. At least, not at the moment. I have compiled my notes and the elements that were used in the realisation of my final project on the page dedicated to it.

In short, I'm designing a device that listens to the electrical activity of plants and transforms it into a physical and meditative movement that we humans can observe and contemplate. I call it The Green Observatory.

The Green Osbservatory

Exter...

Sketches and first ideas

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0200

This page is where I collect some of my thoughts on my final project idea.

Listen to what the plants have to say

Plants communicate as we do. But it's hardly noticeable for us because we don't send and receive signals at the same speed as they do. This is why I would like to build a kind of machine that can help any plant to express its needs at a speed that we can actually perceive and understand. Or should I reformulate in a less human-centric way: a machine that can help humans understand what the plants have to say.

A machine that helps us understand plants

The machine I have in mind is able to get the data from a plant [temperature, light level, air quality,...

References and related projects

Fri, 01 May 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Concept

Elowan (MIT Media Lab) is a cybernetic lifeform, a plant in direct dialogue with a machine. Using its own internal electrical signals, the plant is interfaced with a robotic extension that drives it toward light.
Plantoid, an hybrid with actuators and electrical potential sensing for plant control.
the Plant SpykerBox, a device that records and visualizes the signals emitted by plants offering users the unique opportunity to peer into ...

Sensing the electrical activity of a plant

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

I selected two projects, related to mine, that listen to the electrical activity of plant in order to produce music (or at least sounds). They both are very useful for the understanding, design and fabrication of the sensing part of my project.

References

The first is Pulsum Plantae (Github project). This project amplifies the low voltage of a plant to make it readable, then converts it into an interactive installation that makes sounds. Leslie Garcia, Thiago Hersan, and Paloma López (the artists) have opened the sources of ...

Structure: design and fabrication

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0200

...

Principles and practices

Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Fab Academy

For the next six months (from January to June 2020), I will follow the Fab Academy at Fab Lab Barcelona. The Fab Academy is an intensive program to learn how to design and prototype projects using digital fabrication tools and machine, such as: computer-controlled cutting, electronics, 3D scanning and printing, electronics design,computer-controlled machining, embedded programming, molding and casting, networking and communications, mechanical design, interface and application programming and machine design.

I have a background in graphic & web design and web development and I love to imagine and build...

Project management

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0200

An important part of the Fab Academy, apart from learning digital fabrication techniques, consists of documenting everything we do in order to create a shared and open knowledge base between all students, and for everybody.

One of my goals for this academy is to use only open-source tools. I want to be able to see what is inside the tools I use, modify it in case of need and share with others the projects I do with the environment necessary for their functioning.

Practice shapes tools, tools shape practice

Open Source Publishing

...

My computer

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Few months ago, I decided to switch from the closed Apple ecosystem to the wonderful and open world of Linux. I'm running Elementary OS, a distribution based on Ubuntu, on a mid-2014 macbook pro. This machine isn't the more convenient to run a Linux distribution but I will keep using it as long as I can, even if I have some tiny hardware issues, simply because the more sustainable computer is the one I already have.

Text editor: VSCodium + NeoVim
Terminal: Terminato...

My documentation tool

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

My ideal documentation tool is as light as possible and requires very little energy to operate; is perfectly understandable and does the tasks I want it to do - nothing more; evolves with my needs; has no Javascript, no cookies, no trackers.

A sustainable website means ensuring support for older hardware, slower networks and improving the portability and archivability of the blog’s content.

Homebrewserver.club / Low-tech Magazine

The best way to meet these requirements and to fu...

Git cheatsheet

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Useful commands

Start a project from scratch: git init and then git remote add origin {repository-url}

Pull the last commits from the distant server: git pull

Add all the modifications to the stack: git add .

Do a commit with a description: git commit -m "message"

Push the commit(s) on the distant server: git push

Discard the changes on uncommited files: git checkout .

Create a new branch: git branch {new-branch}

Merge the current branch ...

Other tools

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Video compression

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -b 1000000 compressed-video.mp4 or ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -b 1000000 -t 10 compressed-video.mp4 where -t 10 is the duration (10 sec.)

Imagemagick recipes

Imagemagick can resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves. Via the terminal.

Rotate mogrify -rotate 180 *.jpg

...

Computer-aided design

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

A tour of open-source softwares for computer-aided design, in order to discover and learn some of the tools that I will use to design my future projects.

GIMP

GIMP is a raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, converting between different image formats, free-form drawing, …

$ sudo apt-get install gimp

Even if I only used GIMP to draw a quick moodboard for my project, I directly had a good feeling with it, the software seems robust and well designed. There's a huge online community behind it, which makes finding tips and tricks super easy.

File: Basics of lasercutting

Security

Because the lasercutter is fun and easy to use, it's also easy to forget that it can be dangerous. Here are some basic rules that accompany the use of the machine:

Do not leave the machine unattended
Cut only materials that you know are safe (no chromium, no carbon, no PVC, no PVP...

Geodesic dome

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

A geodesic dome is a structure based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy loads for their size.

Design

I wanted to build a geodesic dome made up of two triangular faces and a joint. But because the structure of a geodesic dome is mainly made up of sticks instead of faces, finding documentation was not as easy as expected. Finally,

The most common password ever

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

According to this page, the most common password ever is … 123456. It's so basic and evident I wanted to stick it on my laptop to send the subtle message to the people around me that their password is maybe not the best.

And you, is this one of your passwords?

Vinyl cutter

The vinyl cutter we have at Fab Lab Barcelona is a Roland CAMM-1 Servo GX-24.

Work area: 584 x 24998mm
Cutting speed: up to 500mm/s
Cuttin...

Electronics production

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

It's the 4th week of the Fab Academy, we're now exploring the process of electronics production: How to make a in-circuit programmer from a printed circuit board (PCB) and several electronic components, a programmer in wich I will send code to pilot my future electronic projects.

...

Testing the compact milling machine

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

The goal of this group assignment is for us to know the potential gaps between our traces, or how thin the traces could be. Since the machines were always occupied and the booking system at Fab Lab Barcelona was not really effective, our class couldn't have a chance to do many group tests. In the end, we were able to finish only 1 group test with the participation of the whole class.

We used the Roland MonoFab SRM-20 machine to mill a test file.

Detailed specs of the machine:

Work area: 203 x 152 x 60mm
Loadable workpiece weight: 2kg
Operating speed: 6mm/min - 1,800mm/min
Spindle speed: 3,000 – 7,000rpm
Input Format : RML-1
Mat...

Making an in-circuit programmer

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

In-system programming (ISP), also called in-circuit serial programming (ICSP), is the ability of some programmable logic devices, microcontrollers, and other embedded devices to be programmed while installed in a complete system, rather than requiring the chip to be programmed prior to installing it into the system.

In-circuit programming, Wikipedia.

FTDI & UPDI

I decided to make an FTDI USB-FT230XS-serial. I have to admit that my choice isn't clear at this point. I could have chosen to make another model of prog...

3D scanning and printing

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

3D printing is not as simple as pressing the print button and waiting for the model to be printed. It is crucial to know how to prepare a 3D model, how the printer works and what are its limits, and how to balance printing time with print quality. This week, I'm going to test a printer, scan and print something.

...

Printing a test file

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

For this week's group assignement, I teamed up with Tue and David. We picked a test file from Thingiverse in order to test different features of one of the 3D printers we have in Fab Lab Barcelona, the Creality3D CR-10 S5 3D.

This file allows us to test these features:

<...

Oloid shape

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

I'm exploring different types of shapes that could eventually be interesting regarding my final project. One of these is the oloid.

An oloid is a three-dimensional curved geometric object that was discovered by Paul Schatz in 1929. It is the convex hull of a skeletal frame made by placing two linked congruent circles in perpendicular planes, so that the center of each circle lies on the edge of the other circle. The distance between the circle centers equals the radius of the circles. One third of each circle's perimeter lies inside the convex hull, so the same shape may be also formed as the convex hull of the two remaining circular arcs each spanning an angle of 4π/3.

Meshroom is one of them. It is an open source photogrammetry software.

Photogrammetry is the art, science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena.

Photogrammetry, Wikipedia

Requ...

Electronics design

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

I knew almost nothing about electronics before following the Fab Academy.I had to learn and understand the very basics of a electronic circuit and its composents, but also of electricity and its flow.

To do so, I designed a pomodoro timer from scratch. I have learn a lot throughout the process and I have the feeling that this new knowledge will play a key role in what I will do for my personal project and afterwards.

...

Pomodoro timer

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0200

I use a pomodoro timer daily to help me manage my time and effort in the tasks I want to accomplish. For now, I'm using Pydoro, an open source pomodoro terminal timer written in Python but I would like to build mine and have it physically next to my laptop.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for 'tomato', after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student.

Multimeter
A useful resource to understand how to use a multimeter is this tutorial from Sparkfun. It covers all the basics we should know.

The selection knob allows to set the multimeter to read different things such as milliamps (mA) of current, voltage (V) and resistance (Ω). The different positions of a multimeter are there to adjust the scale, depending on the values you are measuring.
...

Computer-controlled machining

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

...

CNC machine

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

For this week's assignement we have to characterise the CNC machine. This was done when we had the opportunity to return to the lab after the lockdown situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I had a chance to team up with my classmates Tue Ngo, Arman Naraji, David Prieto and Lynn Dika for this ...

Fab stool/bench/table

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

I wanted to have a stool/bench/table for my apartment, a kind of furniture that can be different things because of its dimensions. So I designed and fabricated it using the large CNC at Fab Lab Barcelona.

I designed it with parametric values. This process can be useful for everyone, to adapt the furnitures (or anything else) to their needs and the context in which it will be used.

Design

I first designed this project on paper and then in Freecad, my favorite open-source software for 3D modeling.

The stool/bench/table consists of a seat, two legs and a stretcher.

Electronics design week. It's now time to program it. I'm going to write the piece of code that will light my LEDs as time goes by and find a way to send it to the ATtiny1614 chip. I'm going to focus on the latter: how to send a program (= program) a chip. Well, that was the plan.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, the coronavirus has hit Spain (and the whole world). We are now all in quarantine, with no access to the lab. I will have to work from home, with the equipment I already have, nothing more.

For this reason, I'm going to use a

Pomodoro code

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

How I want to use my pomodoro

Press the left button to start the timer
If it's running, press the left button to pause the timer
If it's paused, press the left button to resume the timer
If it's paused, press the right button to stop the timer
When it's running, the LEDs light up one by one until the time limit
When it's running and it's a work period, LEDs are red
When it's running and it's a break period, LEDs are green
When it's paused, all the LEDs are light up and blue

The code that does this

For this software I am using the Arduino framework. This framework, ...

How to read a datasheet

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Reading a datasheet isn't the easiest thing to do. It is full of technical details that often interfere with the actual data one can look after.

I'll now take a tour of the things that seem important to me when reading a datasheet. And for that, we'll have a look at the datasheet of the ATTiny1614 from Microship.

To easily navigation into a large PDF document, use the ctrl + f to open a search box and type the term you're looking for.

Configuration summary

The configuration summary is the section where one can have a quick look at what the chip can or cannot do. How many ...

Programming the ATtiny1614

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

The ATtiny1614 isn't yet supported by PlatformIO and therefore needs another method to be programmed. Fortunately, pyupdi is here! Pyupdi is a Python UPDI driver for programming the "new" tinyAVR and megaAVR devices.

Connectivity

Power comes from a USB cable via a FTDI connector. The data comes from the UPDI connector and goes through another FTDI connector.

Install

git clone https://github.com/mraardvark/pyupdi

pip install -r requirements.txt

Compile

The first thing to do is to compile the code with the Arduino IDE and then send it with pyupdi. To be able to comp...

Programming the ESP32 — Barduino

Sat, 21 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

We have been asked to assemble a Barduino few hours before the lab lockdown due to the coronavirus, in order to be able to experiment with it later at home.

Barduino 2.0 started as a project to have a ESP32 fabacademy compatible board to help the students develope their work on top of it. This board was designed by Eduardo Chamorro Martin with the help of Josep Marti and Oscar Gonzalez in Fab Lab Barcelona 2020.

Barduino 2.0, Gitlab

To use that board with PlatformIO, pio init a new project specifically for the ESP32 chip.

...

PlatformIO

Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

PlatformIO is a cross-platform, cross-architecture and multiple framework tool for embedded programming. It replaces Arduino IDE and offers a lot more subtilities and flexibility to write organized code for micro-controllers.

I use PlatformIO as a replacement for Arduino IDE because it allows me to use the text editor I want (I use Neovim, an hyperextensible Vim-based text editor) and because it integrates librairies of more than 700 differents boards, including the ones I use. It also has a unified debugger and a static code analyze which seems super useful for large scale projects.

Initialization

Because Plat...

Arduino IDE

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

One can also use Arduino IDE to load a piece of code into a device. It works perfectly well even if this solution is more basic and doesn't allow a lot of fine tuning. Because this software is well maintained and massively used, it makes it a very good tool for quickly prototyping without detours.

Download Arduino IDE and install it on you computer
Find and install the Circuit Playground library with the built-in Boards Manager
Verify the code
Upload the code

...

Input devices

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Let's play with sensors.

Part of this assignment is also covered on my final project's page.

The Green Observatory: Input

...

Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

The ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 provides 2Cm to 400cm of non-contact measurement functionality with a ranging accuracy that can reach up to 3mm. Here is its datasheet. This sensor has 4 pins that we have to connect to our dev board.

5V supply
Trigger Pulse Input
Echo Pulse Output
GND

I'm using an Arduino UNO to use this sensor because it needs a voltage of 5V. Unfortunately, the Barduino and its ESP32 only has a voltage of 3.3V.

Connection

The connection is quite simple, the VCC goes to the 5V,...

Thermistor

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Or how to measure temperature using a resistor.

To measure the temperature, we need to measure the resistance. However, a microcontroller does not have a resistance-meter built in. Instead, it only has a voltage reader known as a analog-digital-converter. So what we have to do is convert the resistance into a voltage, and we will do that by adding another resistor and connecting them in series. Now you just measure the voltage in the middle, as the resistance changes, the voltage changes too, according to the simple voltage-divider equation. We just need to keep one resistor fixed
Analog Voltage Reading Method, Adafruit

Moisture level sensor

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Water is a conductive element, and the more water there is in the soil the more electricity can flow through it. So, in order to measure the soil moisture level, we can integrate it into an electrical circuit and measure the voltage. The more voltage in the circuit, the more water there is in the soil.

To represent it, I built a small system that lights a green LED when the soil is wet and a red LED when it's dry.

Connection

5V from the Arduino UNO to the soil

A0 (anaolog) from the Arduino UNO to the soil

A0 (analog) from the Arduino UNO to the GND (analog) through a 10kΩ resistor

11 (digital) to the red LED through a 220Ω resistor

12 (digital) to t...

Sensing plants activity

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0200

In the frame of my Fab Academy final project, I'm exploring how to sense the electrical activity of plants.

I covered this topic on a different article.

Sensing plants activity
...

Applications and implications

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0200

About my final project

For this weeks's assignement, we were asked to answer a series of questions about our final project. I don't really know where I'm going with my project but I guess that's the point of this week: write some very practical facts and see where my main idea goes, and how far I can define it. Let's do that.

What will it do?

I would like to design and fabricate an object that helps us, humans, to listen to plants in order to better understand them and therefore respect them more.

I've found two majors ways of listening to plants:

Detect their electrical activity and deduce what their reactions are related to.

Using the data from their environment and deduce if th...

Output devices

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

This week's assignement is about output devices: we are learning how to make various motors work, what are their mechanisms and principles, when and why use a specific one instead of another.

I'm going to lend a hand to Maud Bausier, my partner, who is building an incubator to grow mycelium or any fermented food (tempeh, sriracha, etc.). I think we could have enough material to finish a prototype at home (covid-19 restrictions).

The main challenges for the moment concern electronics, which consists of: a thermistor (to know the temperature inside the incubator), a Peltier (to heat it), a fan (to cool it), an LCD screen (to know what's going on) and two push buttons to set the desired temperature in...

Prototyping an incubator

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0200

As I said, my partner is building an incubator to help us grow mycellium (and other fermented food) and she asked me an hand to help her with the electronic part. In this context, I will prototype an incubator by using the devices I already have. I will do it by following the spiral methodology: a first round with the basic features, and then other ones with additional options.

Update 2020-11

I have started a new project dedicated to the incubator and the sub-projects it brings. Everything is documented under incubator-v0-1.html.

Incubator

openFrameworks to create an interactive audio and visual piece, a kind of experimental musical instrument that reacts to its environment.

Part of this assignment is also covered with the Incubator project.

Processing (Java / Javascript)

In art school, I had two years of digital art workshops. The main tool we used in this class was Processing. And it was so refreshing. Being able to produce an artistic installation with algorithms was something I was looking for. But it was also the rise of another movement: Internet culture. This quickly made me drop Processing for its javascript version, p5js and html/css, in order to create websites. It was not really good, Processing (p5js) is not so exciting when it is stuck in a browser. But the mix of graphic design and coding was definitely the right direction for me. I had th...

My first openFrameworks application

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0200

For my first openFrameworks application, I would like to get sensor data and convert it to an interactive visual and audio piece. I'm going to use the Circuit Playground Express and its multiple integrated sensors and buttons to help me quickly prototype my idea.

Installation

I first had to install openFrameworks on my machine. Speaking of my machine, I switched from Elementary OS to Manjaro two three weeks ago. I no longer depend on the Grow an audience
I think one of the characteristics of a good project is that it spreads by itself. Explaining your project to your peers will allow them, if they find it as interesting as you think it is, to spread it into their circle. This will indirectly expand your audience.

If your local audience isn't responsive to your project, find another place to talk about it. Internet is filled with tiny niches that could extend your message. Mastodon, for example, is a dec...
Networking and communications

Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 +0200

For this week's assignment, I will connect two ESP8266 / NodeMCU together on the WiFi network and exchange data between them.

Understanding the basics of networking and how communication between devices works will be highly beneficial for my final project.

I decided to keep it simple to have a working example easily reproducible, without project-specific elements that make the code more complex. Therefore, the interaction must be basic: press a button on one side and light a led on the other side.

Hardware

I'm using two 3D printing week? For this Molding & Casting week, I'm going to mold an oloid and to cast it in the variety of materials that we have here, in Fab Lab Barcelona.

Mold design

The molding and casting workflow consists of:

Milling a positive version of the desired object into a block of wax

Filling it with silicon to get a negative (and flexible) mold

Filling the previously made mold with another type of silicon or resin to get the final (and positive) object.

I'll use the oloid model I already did as a starting point.

Wildcard

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

For this week's assignement, we were asked to design and produce something with a digital fabrication process that is not covered by any other assignment.

I decided to present the fabrication of an inflatable part. This was documented as part of my final project. You can find its content on the page dedicated to it.

Making of the inflatable part

...

Machine design

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

For the Machine Design week at the Fab Academy, we were asked to make a machine of any type, but one that we could operate and automate. I teamed up with Benjamin Scott and we decided to go for a machine that plays Pong again itself. We call it the Pong Machine.

First of all, we had to find out how to make the machine we had in mind, which was not easy when we launched this project in June 2020, towards the official end of the Academy. A few months later, as the Covid-19 crisis subsides, we have a better understanding of the tools we have in the lab, how the mechanics work, what we have to produce by ourselves and what...

Making the field

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Mounting plate

I designed and laser-cut a mounting plate made of acrylic (10 mm) with the imprints of our elements (NEMA17 stepper motor and solenoid) in order to be able to fix our elements to the structure, and thus make it move when the stepper motor is actuated.

Solenoid holder

To fix the solenoid, which will then be used to push the ball forward, I designed an holder that we could screw onto our mounting plate.

Calibration
To calibrate, I run the stepper motor in one direction until it reaches an endstop, then I make it move in the other direction counting all the steps the motor takes until we reach the other endstop. Once we know how many steps separate the beginning from the end, we can place the motor in the middle and start the game.

The Green Observatory

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

The Green Observatory, my Fab Academy final project, is a device that listens to the electrical activity of plants and represents it with a physical and meditative movement that we, humans, can observe and contemplate.

I designed, fabricated, programmed and documented this project in Barcelona in 2020. I used open-source software only and so are all my design and fabrication files.

Presentation

Thanks

This project wouldn't have been possible without the precious help of my Fab Academy instructors,...

Electronics: Input

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction

An electronic board (low power, 5V) that receives signals from a plant via electrodes placed on its leaves and sends instructions to another board dedicated to the outputs (low power, 12 V). Calculations are performed by a ATmega 16-U2 microchip. The data can be read on a computer via USB.

Research

I have previously researched and created a prototype of what could be an easy setup to (try) listen to the electrical activity of plants. I did this using an Arduino Uno and a 555 IC timer on a breadboard. You can read more on the page dedicated to this topic.

Introduction
An electronic board that receives signals from an input and controls an air fhigh using an air pump and four solenoids.

Note that this project is inspired by Programmable Air, I simplified it by using one pump instead of two. Once again, thanks to open-source :)

Key electronics components

Air pump

The air pump operates at 12V and has sufficient suction for my project. The only drawb...

Making of the inflatable part

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

An important part of my final project is the inflatable part, which will help us understand the electrical activity of plants. This part should produce organic movements that react to a flow of air.

So I have to produce a silicone part that has an air pocket inside that could be inflated and deflated by pushing and pulling a flow of air inside through two pipes (in and out).

Strategy

The strategy that Eduardo Chamorro (one of my instructors) and I came up with is to build a mold using a piece of laser-cut acrylic to cast a first layer of silicon and then redo another layer while inserting another piece of acrylic that will allow us to preserve an air pocket inside the cast silicon piece.

Design a structure that can be lasercutted

Making of the structure

Sun, 18 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0200

The structure was designed with Freecad and made to be milled with a CNC machine on a 9mm thick plywood panel. The upper disk supports the inflatable part and the lower disk supports the electronics. A 3D printed part ensures the desired angle of the structure.

Design

The keys, the parts that lock the structure, are not straight but have a small angle to be able to drive them into the other part.

Incubator v0.1

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Together with my partner Maud Bausier, we are making an incubator.

As vegans, tempeh (fermeted food in general) is an important part of our diet. It is full of proteins, macrobiotics and it is delicious.

We started producing our own tempeh when we lived in Amsterdam, where we had a small room dedicated to a boiler, ensuring a constant temperature all year round. But that changed when we moved to Barcelona, where the temperature in the flat is practically the same as the outside temperature, because the windows are almost always open, which involves temperature variations that prevent us from producing the tempeh we love.

That's why we are making an incubator, called Tempeh Machine,...

Electronics

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

The electronic part of the incubator must remain as simple as possible, to offer the possibility of being understood and modified by others. I don't want to lock the users in a device they don't understand.

It is built as an extra board that comes with a Barduino, allowing it to operate with two 12V outputs and one 5V input.

Components

Barduino

A Barduino, an ESP32 development board made in Barcelona, is used as the brain. This allows me to use a Wifi compatible board with a functional USB connection without having to do it (again) by myself. Moreover, it allows me to design a shield (something I've never done before) a...

Interface example

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

To make sure I understand how a web interface is made via an ESP32, I started with a very basic example. The only thing this minimal example will do is to light on and off the RGB LED connected to the Barduino (ESP32) through the incubator shield I designed via a web interface accessible from any browser (desktop and mobile).

Key elements

Librairies

Include the librairies: Arduino framework, AnalogWrite to manipulate analog output with the ESP32 and Wifi, the one that interests us here.

#include <Arduino.h> #include <analogWrite.h> #include <WiFi.h>

version 0.1 was not working as expected, I quickly moved on an another version, the 0.2. In this version, I redesigned the electronics and made a case for it, I made a small web interface to control and modify the temperature inside the incubator and finally did some tempeh!
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Electronics

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

This is the continuation of the electronics of the v0.1.

In the previous version I had some problems with the ESP32 pins I was using. The one I had chosen for the heating pad could not be used as an output and the one I had chosen for the DHT11 sensor could not read values for any reason. I found out which pins to use after a session of testing all the pins and whether or not they could meet my needs.

Also, during my tests, I realised that the DHT11 sensor doesn't really need 5V to work, even though I thought it would be better/safe to use it this way. This means that I can remove some components from the PCB (the level shifter that converted 3.3V to 5V), which simplified the PCB design.

A case for the electronics

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Now that the electronics is working, I need to protect it a little to avoid mishandling that could damage it. To do this, I will design a case which will then be printed in 3D.

Design

The main idea of this design is to have all the functions accessible while having a light reflection that communicates the state of the incubator (if it is heating up, or if it has reached the desired temperature, or if it is cooling down).

TODO: Add technical details

What must remain accessible

the USB port

Barrel jack

Reset button

Programmer switch

Terminals (3)

ESP32 antenna

Web interface

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

TODO: Everything :)
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Our first tempeh

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

TODO: Everything :)

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Cabinet

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0200

TODO: Document this part according to Maud's documentation
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Prototype of an indoor growing system

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0200

TODO: Document everyting

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Tempeh collection

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Collection of tempeh made with our incubator.

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Terminal

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Notes about different tools I use in the terminal.
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Kitty terminal

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0200

configuration file .config/kitty/kitty.conf

open kitty terminal ctrl + 1

new window F5

change window left top right bottom (cursor)

resize window shift + cmd + r

open a new tab shift + cmd + t

go to next tab shift + cmd + ->

go to previous tab shift + cmd + <-

...

Vim

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

leader key ,

quit q

move h j k l

move line by line in a paragraph g + j k

visual mode v

normal mode esc

insert before the cursor i

insert after the cursor a

insert at the end of the line A

begin a new line below the cursor and insert o

begin a new line above the cursor and insert O

copy y

cut d

paste p

paste above P

replace r

undo u

redo ctrl + r

undo all changes on the line U

Music player

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

I would like to have an easy solution to listen to music on the go. My ideal player has an SD card that contains music folders, a 3.5 mm jack input, a removable battery, a black and white screen that shows a minimal interface, and it runs on open-source software.

I haven't found the one I am ready to always take with me, so I will try to make it myself. This article will contain my explorations on trying to do so.
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References

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Here is a collection of references on DIY music player, music related hardware or anything that could help me in my quest of making my music player.

Teensy Audio

Bela

Bluetooth audio receiver module used by Neauoire

TinyDFPlayer on Hackaday

Starting point
One project in particular caught my attention, found on The Earth Issue, it is called Foliair and it is a decorative frame that you can hang on your wall, but it is made of moss, so it purifies your place.

Learning by doing

As soon as I read this, I went to the nearest park to my apartment, Montjuïc Barcelona, and picked up moss where I could find it, in order to...

Rasberry Pi

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

...

Raspberry Pi Pico

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Documentation

Pico documentation

Pico MicroPython documentation

Installation

Install MicroPython

Install rshell pip3 install rshell (guide)

Install

Focus404 ↝ Alien Jazz

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

At the end of December 2020, I felt the need to create a musical project. One of my first. I went for several days, alone, to a yurt surrounded by llamas located in the south of Catalonia, Spain. I spent my days walking, cycling, practicing yoga and meditation. And my nights composing this album.

Alien Jazz is available on ...

antoine.studio

Ilford XP2 - 4449

Fab Academy (2020)

Final project: research

Introduction

Exter...

Sketches and first ideas

Listen to what the plants have to say

A machine that helps us understand plants

References and related projects

Concept

Sensing the electrical activity of a plant

Introduction

References

Structure: design and fabrication

Principles and practices

Fab Academy

Project management

My computer

My documentation tool

Git cheatsheet

Useful commands

Other tools

Video compression

Imagemagick recipes

Computer-aided design

GIMP

Security

Geodesic dome

Design

The most common password ever

Vinyl cutter

Electronics production

Testing the compact milling machine

Detailed specs of the machine:

Making an in-circuit programmer

FTDI & UPDI

3D scanning and printing

Printing a test file

Oloid shape

Requ...

Electronics design

Pomodoro timer

Computer-controlled machining

CNC machine

Introduction

Fab stool/bench/table

Design

Pomodoro code

How I want to use my pomodoro

The code that does this

How to read a datasheet

Configuration summary

Programming the ATtiny1614

Connectivity

Install

Compile

Programming the ESP32 — Barduino

PlatformIO

Initialization

Arduino IDE

Input devices

Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04

Connection

Thermistor

Moisture level sensor

Connection

Sensing plants activity

Applications and implications

About my final project

What will it do?

Output devices

Prototyping an incubator

Update 2020-11

openFrameworks to create an interactive audio and visual piece, a kind of experimental musical instrument that reacts to its environment. Part of this assignment is also covered with the Incubator project. Processing (Java / Javascript)

My first openFrameworks application

Installation

Networking and communications

Hardware

Mold design

openFrameworks to create an interactive audio and visual piece, a kind of experimental musical instrument that reacts to its environment.

Part of this assignment is also covered with the Incubator project.

Processing (Java / Javascript)

version 0.1 was not working as expected, I quickly moved on an another version, the 0.2. In this version, I redesigned the electronics and made a case for it, I made a small web interface to control and modify the temperature inside the incubator and finally did some tempeh!
...