April 2013

General Stuff

Reactor Goggles Featured in Student Film

I was at Robo Day two weeks ago where I was approached by independent film maker, Rick Barcode to have a pair of my goggles used as a prop in one of his short movies. Now, normally I am an untrusting wretch who hordes her precious things away from any possible dangers, but lately my mantra has been “yes”, because cool things don’t happen if you keep saying no to people. That being said, I was still hesitant about lending my babies to someone I didn’t know all that well. So, I agreed to let him use them under the condition that I tag along while he filmed. I figured It’d be a good opportunity to learn something new. Besides, it wasn’t like I was going to get drugging and featured in a snuff film or anything…? It turned out that they were extremely cautious and respectful with my goggles….

General Stuff

Blinking Man

I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was ten, I’ve had surgery on my head recently… and this event involved consuming alcohol. That being said, going was a great bad idea! Luckily Krux had an extra working bike for me to use. Needless to say we had enough ‘blink’ between the two of us to decorate my ride. He even got me a shiny red helmet to protect my fragile brain… just incase. The route started at the Huntridge tavern down town which is riding distance from our usual Saturday meetup at the shop. We left just before sundown and joined the horde of people prepping in the parking lot. It didn’t take long to discover that the apparent theme was green due to it being 4-20, something that failed to occur to either of us. No one in our group really bought into the green paraphernalia trend though. We…

General Stuff

Robo Day

This past Saturday was Robo Day, an event at the Cheyenne campus of the local college where humans could come and acquaint themselves with their future dominators. Syn Shop was offered space at the event so myself and a few of the other robot enthusiasts brought our babies down to show to the world. My delta robots, Jeden, Sznurek, and Squanto made their debut as I demoed Jeden all day with an interactive GUI : Krux finished repairing Nomad the previous weekend and had him running with a new upgraded brain and power supply. In addition to the hulking beast on wheels we brought stationary, the little treaded rover that resembles Wall-E : I had the honor of sitting next to ‘Amber’, Mark’s lovely white delta robot… who as of that particular day could only move on a thrusting z-axis. Nathan had his cute spider-like hexapod crawling about while he…

Light Play

Delta Robot Completed : Jeden

My neon yellow filament came in the mail finally! So last Saturday I monopolized the 3D printer at SYN Shop and made six new florescent arms to replace the grey and nasty transparent ones on my delta prototype. I also recut the robot’s base using some 1/4 inch acrylic, complete with name, signature, and project title etched along the edges. With the prototype upgraded, Jeden is now the first official addition to Light Play… and he’s a looker : Having figured all that out… it’s time to do the next step: Make about a hundred more. Alas, I am here at the hackerspace hoarding the Replicator 2, this time during off hours so I don’t get the reputation of an equipment hog. So far I’ve printed another set of parts and assembled a second robot making use of some old donated servos. I’m testing it out now to see if…