Robot Knife Fight: development days 5/23, 5/24

This Wednesday and Thursday 7pm – 10pm we will have the 2 test arenas, and 4 test robots bouncing around at i3Detroit.  If you want to play with some arduino or python code or just want to checkout the balloon based carnage stop by either evening.

Also, a big thank you to the folks at the Detroit Night Market and all who helped decorate the RKF truck.  Especially Kristine for her photos and machine inspired decorations.

The next event Robot Knife Fight will be sparring at is the annual Detroitnet pink slip party June 21st at Woody’s in Royal Oak.  It is a networking event for IT professionals and recruiters.  See you there.

Rule of Acquisition #141: Only Fools Pay Retail.

At the Hamvention fleamarket, Dustin got an amazing price on a Handheld Products 3800r barcode scanner, probably because the cable wasn’t included. The connector on the bottom of the scanner is a nonstandard 10p10c (aka RJ50), so most folks wouldn’t just be able to make one, but buying a $57 cable for a $1 scanner seemed silly. Further frustrating the situation is that Handheld (acquired by Honeywell) is pretty tight-lipped about certain info. The pinout for the RS232 cable (p/n 42206300) was easy enough to find, but the innards of the USB cable (p/n 42206161 or 42206203) proved elusive.

Luckily for Dustin’s iTrackMine habit, i3′s electronics lab had a set of 10p10c crimpers and a box of connectors (and a resourceful mentor geek), waiting to solve just such a problem. After building a little 10p10c breakout cable and a USB breakout cable, some breadboard jumper wires made it relatively straightforward to investigate every permutation until the device enumerated. (Note that ‘straightforward’ does not equate to ‘quick’.)

For the purpose of saving some hapless future scanner technician some time, the pinout is as follows:

Two construction tips:

First, it’s difficult to position the wires in a modular connector if you’re not using every position. Stuffing the unused ones with little stubs of wire made it easy to guide the relevant wires into position.

Second, modular connectors can be reinforced by flooding the back with hot-melt glue. (This works very well on cat-5 patch cords.) Since this build used a flexible, thin USB cable in a giant 10p10c connector, the glue is the only reason it didn’t fall right out.

What a Tool!

After moving back to Michigan nearly eleven years ago, my father-in-law introduced me to the fun of going to auctions.    In particular, we like to go to auctions that have lots of tools and machinery, which, in Southeast Michigan, are plentiful.  As a result, we’ve bought our share of what are known as box lots, which are literally boxes full of things that really aren’t worth trying to sell individually–miscellaneous fasteners, hand tools, fishing reel parts, lead weights, and left-threaded bipolar frobulators.  My father-in-law is so devoted to auctions, he’ll sometimes bid on these things just to keep the sale moving.  Most of the time, the items are fairly mundane, but occasionally we get something that is either beautiful, mysterious, or sometimes both!  Rather than keep them secreted away until someone buys them at my estate auction, I’m going to share them (virtually) here in what I hope will be an irregular series.  In each installment, I (or others–guest tools are welcome!) will share a couple of tools that are either aesthetically pleasing examples of bygone industrial design or non-obvious in their purpose and/or use.  The goals are to share the beauty of these tools, have some fun, and maybe learn something too.

To kick it off, I’m sharing a couple of recent finds.  First off: goggles.  The goggles shown here are fairly uncomfortable (and they could use a good cleaning), but I love them because they’re just so wonderfully archaic!  The aluminum frames and glass lenses suggest a manufacture date in the 1940′s, but that’s just a guess.  The levers on the sides appear to allow the lenses to be removed for replacement (or cleaning), though I haven’t been able to get them to move; there is a bit of corrosion on them and I’m afraid I’ll break them if I push them too hard.  The leather strap on the bridge allows for a bit of adjustment; the buckle is thoughtfully placed so that it is facing outward, rather than pressing against the bridge of the nose.  The padding around the eyes is some kind of plastic or rubber which may have been pliable at some point but is now rather brittle.  The cheap staples that hold the pads on is a little incongruous with the overall quality of the goggles, making me wonder if perhaps they’re an after-market mod.  Given that the lenses are glass (and seemingly not impact-resistant), I’m guessing that these were probably meant to be used for welding.  What do you think?

My other recent find is less showy, but it makes up for it with a bit of mystery.  The “5 Minute Vulcanizer” clearly has something to do with rubber, but I don’t know how it might have been used.  Perhaps it was used for patching the sidewalls of tires that appeared on cars like the Model T?  Or, perhaps its rustiness is fooling me into thinking it’s older than it really is.  Please register your educated opinions, observations and wild guesses in the comments!  And, if you want a larger picture, click on either photo to see it in its full 4000 x 3000 resolution.

Until next time….

Maker Faire Detroit Planning Meeting This Friday

This Friday, May 11th, at 7:30pm, we will be having some guests from The Henry Ford museum over at i3 Detroit to answer questions about exhibiting a project or volunteering at Maker Faire. Please come with ideas and questions you might want to get answered about our favorite event of the year!

This event is open to the public, so we expect plenty of other makers in the area to attend. What a great chance to meet new makers!

Note: Parking in front of the building is likely to fill up, so please consult this map for overflow areas.

Also note: Open Shop Friday will be taking place as usual, with the caveat that loud tools shouldn’t be used until the meeting wraps up, perhaps 9:00-ish.

TechShop Grand Opening & People Mover Design Challenge

Hans, Micho, Kristine, and Belvedere next to the Puppy Powered, Steampunk Chariot!

TechShop Detroit held their Grand Opening Celebration this weekend on May 5–6, 2012.

For their People Mover Design Challenge, they generously offered use of their makerspace, classes, and the help of their very knowledgeable staff to a joint i3 Detroit / District VII team composed of Kristine Diven, Micho Detronik, and Hans Chen.

Working out of all three spaces—i3 Detroit, District VII, and TechShop Detroit—they created a puppy-powered, steampunk chariot that wowed the judges and won first place!

President Matt Oehrlein was also invited to speak at the panel “Putting the D in DIY”.

A big thank you to TechShop and all its Detroit and out-of-state staff for their amazing hospitality, generosity, and making us such an important part of their opening!