Coactlab

Drink! Coaster Set - White Felt - Large - buy custom personalized products from Ponoko

2009-08-03T21:22:00.001-07:00

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Drink! - A grammatically correct coaster set with pronouns to distinguish whose drink is whose. This is a set of 4 coasters made of White Wool Felt with a series of pronouns laser etched with Scho...

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DIY Timelapse Mirror

2009-02-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

I was working on a bunch of time-lapse videos and needed a view of my desk in order to capture what I was working on. I had done some research and seen some pretty awesome examples of ways to capture making in action.

This is one that I really liked, I plan on building on of these eventually.

I found this "Craft cam" on the Creative Synthesis Blog which is an awesome place for anything new, nerdy, and internety. "At distancelab last week I saw Elena Corchero’s Handmade" -leo

This idea is pretty sweet, I really like the hand free approach to being able to document yourself as you work, but for time-lapse I'll need something a little more steady.

This is another solution that I found that provides a nice hands free way to record your work. A head mounted camera is great for recording Instructables or other how-to's. Make Magazine featured this article on building this camera and mount.

Once again this was a great idea and a wonderful projects, but it didn't meet my requirements in terms of a steady mount for my time-lapse.

I had a few pieces of mirrored acrylic from TAP Plastics in SF and my trusty heat gun. I set out to bend a couple different angles and play with the design.
This is the design I ended up with, I'm using a iMac so I need a way to mount it to the top of the computer and have the other face at a downward to capture the desk below.

I use Quake Hold! for pretty much everything, so I used a little to mount it to the top of the computer.

Here's is nice little vanity test shot with the mirror in place and the image up on the screen.

...and finally, a time-lapse video to show off the finished product.

DIY Time Lapse Mirror for iSight iMacs from Robert Edwards on Vimeo.

Flickr notes + Del.icio.us mp3 player = Goldenness

2008-10-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

What you are seeing above is a Flickr Image where I have made an audio note that you can click on to listen to!

I had seen a project called Audiosticker.com by Tangible media group and Creative synthesis @ MIT that was similar, but you had to open the audio player in another window and wasn't very seamless. I wanted a solution I could use on my own blog, with my own embedded images, and my own notes.

This is the solution I came up with. I plan on rolling it all together to truly make it seamless, but this DIY article is all you get for now.

Step one:

I uploaded a mp3 to my Wordpress blog and created a href link inside the note on Flickr.

Step Two:

Use this bookmarklet from Yuan.cc when you are on the Flickr photo you want to embed.

I found a php script that would allow you to embed your Flickr images with the notes on a remote site.
Yuan.cc is a web site with lots of web experiments. This is where I found my solution. He even had a nice little bookmarklet that gives you the code to copy and paste your embedded image with your notes! Just drag that link to your bookmark bar and click when you are on the flickr photo page you want to embed.

Step Three:

Create a new blog post, or page with the code from above.

Step Four:

You will also need to add the a bit of javascript from del.icio.us in order to play the mp3 directly on your site.

This is the code to add to your page (you can add it inside the post):

There you have it, now go out there and voice annotate your images!

DIY Front Bike Rack

2008-09-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

I needed a front rack for my bike. The standard rear rack no longer fit on the back (I don't have any eyelets) so I decided to take it and modify it for the front!

Here we have a fairly standard rear bike rack. We need to bent the front half out of the way in
order to fit on the front of the bike.

I bent the metal with my knee. You could use a vise, its probably a lot easier.

It should look something like this–>

The next thing I needed was to construct a mount for the top. I went to Home Depot and bought some Aluminum bar stock. Then I hand bent the bar into shape:

Next I mounted the bar stock to the rack, and then to the stem of the bicycle.

This is the mount that I used. I was from a motorcycle bar end mirror.

I would suggest using

something a little easier to find.

This could be an option in order to hang them from your handlebars instead of the stem. Mc Master Catalog Page #1474

The skewer for the bike is now going to go through the rack and wheel.

That's All Folks, not much to it. Now go on out there and enjoy the rack!

2008-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

DIY Magnetic Potholders from Robert Edwards on Vimeo.
Take your run of the mill pot holders along with some super stong magnets and a little hot glue to hold it all together.

DIY Coffee Cup Bike Speaker

2008-01-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

DIY Coffee Cup Bike Speaker from Robert Edwards on Vimeo.

I started out with a plastic travel mug. I happened to have a portable speaker for a iPod that fit perfectly.

I used a piece of silicone from another project to help to tighten up the fit.
Other than that, this was a super simple project.

Time Lapse Kelvin Prototyping

2008-01-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Google Talk Status to Twitter

2008-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: @plastictiger has an updated method for using your Google Talk status to post to twitter. Check it out here: Google Talk Status to Twitter

I had this idea in the back of my mind about making it easier to post to twitter.com Quite a few of my friends post some pretty hilarious status messages on Gtalk so I thought there must be an easier way to get from Gtalk status to Twitter.

The old way was to add the Twitter bot as your friend and IM the bot when you wanted to post something to twitter. My way automatically posts your Gtalk status to twitter at specific intervals.

I used some code examples for Twitterbook, (a facebook app) posted by Stuart Robertson @ Designmeme.com and the code he used by Gareth Rushgrove @ Morethanseven.net on posting to twitter using PHP.

The final piece of the puzzle is completed by Jabberland, a wonderful spanish site that allows you to serve up your Jabber status in a numbers of ways mostly for creating a widget on your website that displays your status. We add the jabberland bot to our friends list and use the code on the site to create a plaintext response for our Jabber Status.

Basically we use PHP to curl GET the plaintext file and then curl POST to Twitter's API

Step 1)
Setup account @ Jabberland to post your Jabber status as plaintext

Your JID is your gtalk login such as: example@gmail.com
Status message
Choose the output format:
1. Plain format. Output the status message like you enter it in your favorite client.
2. JavaScript format, the best way to insert it in your web page.
Copy the url and paste save it for the php file in the next step.

Step 2)
Add the bot@jabberland.com to your contacts list. This is mandatory if you want to maintain up to date your information.

Step 3)
Download my modified PHP script and upload to your webserver.

Make sure to modify the file with your settings, and then change the file extension to .php

Step 4)
Setup your cron tab to execute your PHP code on a regular basis.
Here are some instruction on setting up a crontab with Dreamhost

Set 5)
Enjoy the ease of updating your Twitter Status using Gtalk

DIY Bike Handlebars

2007-12-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

We took some old dropbars and turned them into some nice bullhorn bars. Also, we used some steel conduit to bend some shapes of our own.

First we taped a line across the bars like so

The we cut the bottom section of the bars off with a hacksaw.

Looks pretty straight

Attach some brakes and we're done with this one.

We also use some steel conduit to make our own bars:

Here's the pipe bender

and again

Finally, some results!

In order to use any of these bars I need to use a aluminum can to shim the bars to the right size. But they work great!

Lamps for sale on Etsy.com

2007-11-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

I added a few new kits to my Etsy store
I also have my Kelvin Slider prototypes up for sale.

These come complete with LED lighting engine with temperature slider and dimming slider. There is more info at the store. Remember this are one-off prototypes to enjoy with reverence.

Bent Acrylic Lamp w/ Birch Veneer

2007-10-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

First I started out with a few prototypes, here are a few renderering:

I went to the TAP plastics to ask about fabrication. They told me that they
couldn't do bends that were smooth and gradual; and what I was asking would
take about 2 hours @ $85/hr so...

I bought a piece of scrap acrylic (6"x 32") from the cut bin for about $5,

Then I went next store and bought a Band It birch veneer from Discount Builder's Supply for $19

I head home and began this:
First I used a heat gun to bend the acrylic into the shape you see. I didn't take
much heat in order to get it soft.

The veneer I bought already had a paper backer with heat activated glue. All it
took was an iron (with a piece of foil to protect it) and a lot of pressure to get it
to stick to acrylic.

After that, I slapped on an Ikea LED strip light and took some vanity shots.

This is the form for a project that I am working on that will involve a recycled PETG panel and some high powered LED light engines with color selectable light temperature, on the cheap and analog no less. They have light output that can compete with 50w Halogen bulbs. So stay tuned for more.

P.S. Mouser.com order is coming Friday with parts!

DIY IKEA Hack | Magazine Rack

2007-10-04T09:36:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of design ideas I had for storing magazines.

For the first one I simply looped a piece of 50 lbs invisible fishing line. Then hung it from two hooks like so:

For the second design, I used a curtain kit from IKEA called DIGNITET:

I secured the 5 anchor pieces in a zipzag pattern and pulled the wire and tightened it like so:

Thats' All!

Rob

DIY Ikea Hack Monitor Rack

2007-10-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

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www.coactlab.com
www.coactlab.com/daily

I had a wonderful IKEA shelf lying around the house with no use.
I decided to use the shelf along with some hooks to make myself a nice monitor rack for my LCDS.

Here are the parts I used:
A shelf track 2 Grundtal Hooks A Grundtal Shelf

The first configuration looked like this:
but the LCD would get in the way of the shelf and I needed a solution.

I was able to buy a cheap shelf bracket in order to hang the monitors down a little from the shelf

With something similar to this piece:

I was able to make this:

Here are some pictures of the final product:

Ikea Hack Coffee Table with Reccesesd Planter and LED Light

2007-09-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

Please click on my Google ads to help support http://www.coactlab.org http://www.coactlab.com/daily

I was working down at the Techshop in Menlo Park and wanted to make a table that I had been thinking about for quite a while. I didn't have time or the knowledge of suppliers in the area except one. IKEA! So I ran over a picked out a few pieces that let me prototype my idea in no time for a about $150 for a custom coffee table with recessed planter and LED light. Not bad!!

I modeled out a few of the parts that I used in SketchUp

Here is a list of the parts used:

PRONOMEN $56.00

BJURÖN $3.99

VIKA $7.50 / leg X 4 = $30

DIODER $49.99/ 4 pack

Step 1: Cutting hole for the planter box and attaching it

First I cut a square hole in the center of the countertop I Played ato fit the BJURON planter box.I recessed it about half way and secured it with Gorilla Glue and finishing staples.

Step 2: Attaching legs with screws

Then I attached each of the legs in the corners

Step 3: Deciding how to light the planter box

I played around with a bunch of different lighting options, here are a couple

Step 4: Enjoying the final design

Hacking Netflix Watch it now

2007-07-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

I came across this hack by playing around with the url of "Watch now". I found that if I offset the genre ID in the url such as: http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowGenre?genreId=2234 this Genre is one that is not found in the menu of Netflix, but within individual movies pages themselves. By simply off-setting the Genre ID I was able to find all sorts of Genres within Watch Now that I couldn't find elsewise. I moved over to the TV Networks link, which starts: http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetworks
I couldn't help but change the url one digit up or down from the ID # given, which in fact yielded some interesting results, such as:

http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1094 HBO
http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1089 Cartoon Network, etc.
http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1096 National Geographic
soon to be??
Here are some Genres I found...
http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1087 Kids' TV
or perhaps http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1100 Contemporary Jazz? movies? cool...
http://www.netflix.com/WatchNowTVNetwork?genreId=1272 Made for TV movies!!!

Play around with it, let me know what you find!!!!

Reblogging w/ Google Reader and Rad Geek's FeedWordPress

2007-05-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

I came across Rad Geek's FeedWordPress and knew that it was exactly what I was looking for. I use Google Reader to read my rss feeds and use del.icio.us for bookmarking.

Google Reader allows me to share my favorite blog post as a web page or an rss feed.Also del.icio.us bookmarks allows me to create a feed of my recent (or tagged) bookmarks.

I have a wordpress.org blog installed @ coactlab.com/daily and use Rad Geek's plug in to feed my blog with original blog post with images from those two rss feeds. I used to use the post to blog feature that was apart of del.icio.us but always hated that the images and such were lost from the blog post that I originally read. I had also tried out reBlog (from Stamen and eyebeam.org ) but the built-in reader never supported rss 2.0 with images.
Here are a few pics before and after:

If anyone is interested in a more detailed tutorial let me know and I'll whip something up. Go check it out in action @ coactlab.com/daily

-Rob

Stenciling T-shirts

2007-04-27T14:13:00.001-07:00

This is a tutorial on how to DIY a stenciled t-shirt with no bleed through around the edges. Nice and sharp lines on the shirt.

Arduino LED Dimming Example

2007-01-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

So I got my Arduino USB development board from Sparkfun the other day. I used a tutorial found here in the tutorial section.

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