From hackaday.com: http://hackaday.com/2011/06/10/autodesk-enters-the-hobby-market/
This is pretty old, but better late than never. Autodesk, which makes the industrial and professional CAD software AutoCAD, has released a CAD software for hobbiests. Autdodesk 123D is free and similar to Google Sketchup in some ways, but seems to be more professional. It is geared towards people with CNC machines or 3D printers, as well as anybody who wants the design benefits of CAD for their home projects. I hope to download it sometime and try it out. It is likely good practice for real world use.
Showing posts with label interesting finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interesting finds. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2011
Collin's Lab and Make: Presents
On Make: Magazine's Youtube channel there are a lot of great videos and video series. Two of these series are by Collin Cunningham, who explains electronics topics and shows elementary projects. They are very helpful and cover a lot of good ideas.
Collin's Lab
Make: Presents
Some of my favorites:
A way to get analog signals from digital processing
Hacking into a guitar pedal and changing the sound
The origin of the breadboard
The LED
Collin's Lab
Make: Presents
Some of my favorites:
A way to get analog signals from digital processing
Hacking into a guitar pedal and changing the sound
The origin of the breadboard
The LED
Monday, June 27, 2011
Article about power grid changes, might affect clock speeds
This article says that the regulations on the nation's power grid will be loosened in terms of the accuracy of it's "rate of current/frequency." I suppose it means the 60Hz frequency at which the AC current switches. They will try this for one year, and the idea is that it will cost less, be easier to be more reliable, and possibly not as unnecessary.
However, they will try to see if this affects clocks that are powered and regulated by the grid, i.e. that you plug into a wall outlet. I didn't know this, but these types of clocks (apparently) rely on the regular frequency of AC current to regulate time. I found that interesting; I thought they would all be regulated by crystal chips or something electronic like that. So at the end of the year, the clocks may run up to 20 minutes fast. Officials are going to see if this actually happens in massive amounts or if it doesn't really matter.
Personally, I think that over a year's time we wouldn't notice. We would just adjust the time of the clock every so often. But, with the maximum estimation of 20 minutes off, and assuming you would adjust the clock if it was off by 2 minutes, you'd adjust the clock 10 times a year. That's almost once a month, so maybe that would be bothersome.
However, they will try to see if this affects clocks that are powered and regulated by the grid, i.e. that you plug into a wall outlet. I didn't know this, but these types of clocks (apparently) rely on the regular frequency of AC current to regulate time. I found that interesting; I thought they would all be regulated by crystal chips or something electronic like that. So at the end of the year, the clocks may run up to 20 minutes fast. Officials are going to see if this actually happens in massive amounts or if it doesn't really matter.
Personally, I think that over a year's time we wouldn't notice. We would just adjust the time of the clock every so often. But, with the maximum estimation of 20 minutes off, and assuming you would adjust the clock if it was off by 2 minutes, you'd adjust the clock 10 times a year. That's almost once a month, so maybe that would be bothersome.
(Click to view read larger)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wired science visualizations
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/science-visualizations-gallery/
Some very interesting science videos and pictures. These are from the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge and are Wired's top 10 picks. My favorite is the colliding galaxies video.
Some very interesting science videos and pictures. These are from the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge and are Wired's top 10 picks. My favorite is the colliding galaxies video.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Posting Decline, Google's Autonomous Cars
Sorry that I haven't been posting lately, for anyone who reads this. I've been quite busy, but this Christmas break I'll be sure to post some more. I'm still following websites and writing down interesting ideas and day-to-day finds.
As a quick thing to post, here's the link for an article on Google's autonomous cars. This has been around for a while now and has become quite well known, so I don't think I'll make a real post about it. But it's still something good to know. If you want more, search for it and you'll find lots of articles and interviews.
http://www.botjunkie.com/2010/10/12/googles-autonomous-car-takes-to-the-streets/
As a quick thing to post, here's the link for an article on Google's autonomous cars. This has been around for a while now and has become quite well known, so I don't think I'll make a real post about it. But it's still something good to know. If you want more, search for it and you'll find lots of articles and interviews.
http://www.botjunkie.com/2010/10/12/googles-autonomous-car-takes-to-the-streets/
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Dad sends video camera into space
Found on wired.com: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/10/geeky-dad-sends-video-camera-into-the-stratosphere/
A "Geeky Dad" sent a video camera into space with a weather balloon. Amazing video of what it recorded and how they did it.
A "Geeky Dad" sent a video camera into space with a weather balloon. Amazing video of what it recorded and how they did it.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Designing without a computer in the '60s
Found on Makezine.com: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/how-to_design_something_without_a_c.html
An interesting video on how things were designed without computers, 3D modeling, or rapid prototyping. This is example is from the '60s on a decanter design project.
Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.
An interesting video on how things were designed without computers, 3D modeling, or rapid prototyping. This is example is from the '60s on a decanter design project.
Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.
Fastest helicopter in the world
Found on IEEE Spectrum: http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/the-fastest-helicopter-on-earth/
If you try to get a helicopter to go fast, the blades start to mess with the lift of the helicopter. On a moving helicopter, when the blades swing around forwards, they experience faster air than when they swing backwards. It's like throwing a baseball on a moving car. If you throw forwards, the baseball will go faster and experience all that wind hitting it; if you throw backwards, it's moving more with the wind and experiences less. This becomes dramatic as the helicopter moves faster and the blades move even faster to get it to do so. Quote from article: "[when the helicopter is moving] 300 km/h, the wind on the advancing side would reach 1100 km/h, while the wind on the opposite side would be 500 km/h." There comes a point where the helicopter can't balance this difference in lift and can't go faster.
Sikorsky's X2 has been designed with two sets of rotors that spin in opposite directions, countering this problems. It has broken the record of 400 km/h at a speed of 435 km/h (248.5 mph and 270.3 mph respectively). (They still need to do a couple things with the record keeper organization to make it official).
If you want to read more, the article is quite long, has lots of details, and a bunch of history.
If you try to get a helicopter to go fast, the blades start to mess with the lift of the helicopter. On a moving helicopter, when the blades swing around forwards, they experience faster air than when they swing backwards. It's like throwing a baseball on a moving car. If you throw forwards, the baseball will go faster and experience all that wind hitting it; if you throw backwards, it's moving more with the wind and experiences less. This becomes dramatic as the helicopter moves faster and the blades move even faster to get it to do so. Quote from article: "[when the helicopter is moving] 300 km/h, the wind on the advancing side would reach 1100 km/h, while the wind on the opposite side would be 500 km/h." There comes a point where the helicopter can't balance this difference in lift and can't go faster.
Sikorsky's X2 has been designed with two sets of rotors that spin in opposite directions, countering this problems. It has broken the record of 400 km/h at a speed of 435 km/h (248.5 mph and 270.3 mph respectively). (They still need to do a couple things with the record keeper organization to make it official).
If you want to read more, the article is quite long, has lots of details, and a bunch of history.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Extruded origami text
Found on Make: Online: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/extruded_origami_text_pattern_gener.html
Make: has these Math Monday posts, which often talk about origami. This one talked about the work that some college students did on folding letters with paper. The letters are raised up like 3D walls. They wrote a short paper on it and made a web application for generating paper with the fold lines for whatever message you want.
If you think it's cool, it is. But be forewarned, to fold one of these things is not an easy task. Look at the paper you've got to fold for the above "Hello World" message. The red lines are "mountain folds" and the blue lines are "valley folds." Have fun.
As ambitious as this was, I decided I'd try to tackle it somehow. Starting with single letters is best because it gets you familiar with this type of folding and the different types of corners. I started with the capital L because it has only 2 types of corners: a right angle corner and two starting corners. In retrospect, starting with the letter i would have been better since there is only one kind of corner. I ended up cutting the paper apart into the different corners so that I could work on them separately. It was difficult to fold them when they are all on the same paper, much less learn how while I'm at it. Later I paper clipped it together and it turned out ok. I paper clipped it in case I wanted to take it apart for reference.
I found that the instructions for folding were incorrect. First of all, they described the lines as being "dark" and "light." Kind of annoying that they don't call them blue and red, but I guess they mean if you print it out black and white, the blue turns out darker. But after finishing my first L, it was extruded downwards instead of upwards. Unless you wanted upside down and mirrored text, the instructions were wrong. I folded the letter i twice to check this; once with the folding instructions reversed. Now I fold the letters like they should be: red is mountain folds, blue is valley folds.
Next I folded an L that wasn't cut up, then did it again to make it more accurate and look nicer. It turned out pretty well. Here's a picture of my current foldings progressively from left to right. The top left one is a single starting corner that I cut out for my first L.
Next I plan to do the capital letter T because it has the "T"-type corner in the top-middle. There is no such thing as a 4-way type corner, so that's all you need.
If you want to try doing this, I suggest doing what I did: start with simple single letters, and cut out individual corners to work out first. Other than that, just work with the paper and be patient as you try to make it work. It eventually comes to you. The first L took me about 2 hours, the last L took me about half an hour.
Make: has these Math Monday posts, which often talk about origami. This one talked about the work that some college students did on folding letters with paper. The letters are raised up like 3D walls. They wrote a short paper on it and made a web application for generating paper with the fold lines for whatever message you want.
If you think it's cool, it is. But be forewarned, to fold one of these things is not an easy task. Look at the paper you've got to fold for the above "Hello World" message. The red lines are "mountain folds" and the blue lines are "valley folds." Have fun.
As ambitious as this was, I decided I'd try to tackle it somehow. Starting with single letters is best because it gets you familiar with this type of folding and the different types of corners. I started with the capital L because it has only 2 types of corners: a right angle corner and two starting corners. In retrospect, starting with the letter i would have been better since there is only one kind of corner. I ended up cutting the paper apart into the different corners so that I could work on them separately. It was difficult to fold them when they are all on the same paper, much less learn how while I'm at it. Later I paper clipped it together and it turned out ok. I paper clipped it in case I wanted to take it apart for reference.
I found that the instructions for folding were incorrect. First of all, they described the lines as being "dark" and "light." Kind of annoying that they don't call them blue and red, but I guess they mean if you print it out black and white, the blue turns out darker. But after finishing my first L, it was extruded downwards instead of upwards. Unless you wanted upside down and mirrored text, the instructions were wrong. I folded the letter i twice to check this; once with the folding instructions reversed. Now I fold the letters like they should be: red is mountain folds, blue is valley folds.
Next I folded an L that wasn't cut up, then did it again to make it more accurate and look nicer. It turned out pretty well. Here's a picture of my current foldings progressively from left to right. The top left one is a single starting corner that I cut out for my first L.
Next I plan to do the capital letter T because it has the "T"-type corner in the top-middle. There is no such thing as a 4-way type corner, so that's all you need.
If you want to try doing this, I suggest doing what I did: start with simple single letters, and cut out individual corners to work out first. Other than that, just work with the paper and be patient as you try to make it work. It eventually comes to you. The first L took me about 2 hours, the last L took me about half an hour.
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