Light Art Innards

This is the "back end" for one of my LED art pieces. Stripboard makes it fun and easy! Click the image for the wicked large version. Those are color-changing RGB LEDs, which run nicely off 3V (without a resistor!) I got the barrel jack connector, along with a nicely matching 9VDC regulated power adapter from SparkFun. Simple, no?

Seeking Volunteers for Blinkybug Workshop @ Maker Faire!

Photo Credit: Scott Beale

I'm organizing something I think will be a lot of fun to participate in. It's taking place at the upcoming Maker Faire (May 19-20 @ San Mateo Fairgrounds); it's going to be a "Build Your Own Blinkybug" workshop.

The workshop will be open to all attendees, and will be what it sounds like... a bunch of people making a bunch of blinkybugs! The way I see it, the process will be broken down into various steps and there will be "stations" where people can work on each step. I've run this workshop before in a big festival setting and this system works pretty well.

I need help manning these stations! Each step is pretty simple... a bit of soldering, attaching things with hot glue, demonstrating how to crimp a couple wires together, or helping people come up with creative variations on the bug design.

We'll be getting some support from the Make magazine folks, but I'm also assembling a core team of volunteers. There will be other crafty-type things going on in the area, who we may collaborate with as well. I don't envision that the workshop will be operating the entire time, so there should be plenty of time to check out the event.

This is a totally volunteer thing... but it would get you in free to the Faire ($20 adult / $15 student), and it would be a lot of fun. For those of you who went last year, you know how Wicked Awesome it is. If you didn't, it's hard to describe... but I think it's an amazing experience for anyone who appreciates the creative/techy/nerdy things in life.

If you think you might be interested, please contact me.

Antique Radio + iPod

I did this a while ago but thought I'd post it up here: this is a project where I converted an antique radio to an iPod amplifier. I ended up writing this up for Popular Science Magazine (November 2006: "Antique Geek Chic"). This actually pissed off a few people who felt I was destroying our American heritage. But the fact is (which wasn't made clear in print) that I preserved the original innards of the radio so that it could, if someone desired to do so so someday, be restored to its original form.

Random Icon Generator

Here's the latest thing I've made using those nifty color-changing LEDs. It's another wall-hanging piece, broken into a grid of pixels that cycle through various colors. One might imagine that it's continually outputting a series of randomly-generated low-resolution computer icons. But if you lay it down flat one could also imagine that it's a very small disco floor. You can get a vague sense of how it looks by watching this Flickr slideshow.

I use the same color changing LEDs to make these which I offer on etsy.

LED Art

I make these framed, color-shifting LED light art things. The colors and patterns slowly shift over time, and the frame is spaced away from the wall so that the piece projects a "corona" on the wall around the frame. Pics.

These are available on my etsy store.

Maker Faire

I'm planning on participating in the upcoming Maker Faire, where I'll be doing a "build your own blinkybug" workshop as well as displaying some variations of these. It takes place May 19 and 20, at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. Last year's event was pretty amazing... definitely worth checking out!

Dorkbot

I spoke briefly at dorkbot the other night, talking about these color-changing LEDs that I've been playing with lately. I've been using them to build these (for lack of a better term) "light art" pieces.

Here are some pics of the event.

Behold BlinkyBlog!

This is the inaugural post of the BlinkyBlog. I'll post here about the latest blinkybug news, various other projects, events, and assorted randomness that I may or may not be involved with.

As I'm just now starting the blog thing, thought I'd include some historical stuff:

• Blinkybugs on the Make Blog.
• An interview at the 2006 Maker Faire.
• Images tagged blinkybug(s) by myself and others, on Flickr.