Alpha One Labs » projects

Interactive Christmas Tree Using Twitter

mareiska — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:06:31 +0000

At our first global synchronous hackathon, we met artist and electronics aficionado, Alpay Kasal, who with Alpha One Labs founding member psytek, conceived of the idea of an interactive Christmas tree with ornaments that react to mentions of specific keywords on Twitter. The idea spawned from Alpay’s previous installation for GE Healthcare. After many hours of hard work and material shopping, Alpay found some golf display cases at The Container Store to house the 12 mil LED lights which blink when a designated word is tweeted. You can view the tree in person by visiting Alpha One Labs in Brooklyn or online, broadcasting live through ustream.

A netbook running Processing with the Twitter4J lib is used for performing searches of predetermined holiday words (listed below) while generating and smartly managing a queue of ornament blinks. Our in house microcontroller master, Robert, RDM654 contributed his uln2803a chips which helped with the refactoring of brigher incandesant bulbs. We’ll also be using 75HCT595sr shift registers for further refinement and efficiency.

Twitter search terms include: Christmas, Xmas, Santa, mistletoe, hackerspace, alphaonelabs, hack, opensource, snow, season, merry, peace, cheer, consumerism, joy, presents, greetings, arduino, jingle bells, happy new year, 2010, 2009, reprap, Brooklyn

Check out Alpay’s video displaying the tree in all of its glory:

If you’re around for our New Years Eve party you’ll be able to interact with the tree in person!

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Twin Mendel RepRap 3d Printers [Focused Project]

mareiska — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:14:54 +0000

What is a RepRap? One could simply answer that it is a 3D printer, but the philosophy behind this complex machine is more than the immediate function of its parts. Adrian Bowyer at Bath University, part of the founding RepRap team, explains the inspiration for the RepRap stems not from accomplishments in technology, but a phenomenon in nature: pollination.

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

A person with this machine can print out one for his friend and then this friend can print out more for his friends. We are the bees spreading the pollen to the flowers.

Our Queen bee, you might say, is a young man living in the heart of the Czech Republic. We have comissioned Jo Průša who has been melting some hot black ABS for our evil twins using a heated print bed.

We’ve enjoyed seeing the brown box in the corner of his room fill up with RepRap parts. Slowly, some parts taking nearly 48 hours to print, the machine reproduces itself and soon will be given a heart and brain in Brooklyn. Thanks Jo!.

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Beginner Arduino Class! Starts 19 Oct!

rmd6502 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:05:40 +0000

I will be teaching an introduction to the Arduino starting Monday 10/19 at 7:30PM. You will learn how to write simple sketches, the basics of electronics, and build a few fun projects. Register at http://arduino.eventbrite.com/ . We will have Arduinos available at the class. Bring a laptop if you have one! Classes are $30 with discounts available for students and early bird registration. Limited seating available, please register now.

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Stereo Bluetooth Goggles – By Fil (Our first completed project)

psytek — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:40:27 +0000

Last Tuesday we had our first meeting Fil came over and we discussed some things, had some beer and started some projects. I worked on getting the pegboard up in the back room and Fil worked on the goggles. Within no time Fil had already released a version 2 of the goggles. They are pretty neat. Here are some more shots of the goggles. Looking forward to our next completed project!

number of view: 645