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Category:Blog

Upgrading Robie The Robot.

Posted on April 21, 2020by duckmanCategories:Blog, Projects, Uncategorized

Part one, in a journey to upgrade an old robot. This classic 80’s robot This robot was also known as: Tandy Robie, Radio Shack Robie, Robie the Robot, Talking Robie, RS 4061, Robocom 1000, Robie Parlant, and Robocom Robot (Super).

Tagged3D-PrintingArduinoElectronicsraspberry_piRobotvintage

Parametric VESA Mount Fixer.

Posted on April 20, 2020by duckmanCategories:Blog, Projects

Recently I encountered a monitor that used a different mount despite being only a few digits of in model number. The monitor needed to live with the other, so I created an OpenSCAD mount to convert lower mount VESA, to central mount VESA.

Tagged3D-PrintingCADMonitorsOpenSCADVESA

What is the difference between a laser that will cut metals and one that won’t?

Posted on January 26, 2018by duckmanCategories:Blog, Uncategorized
duck-knight

A friend who recently acquired a CO2 laser cutter for his school recently sent me a message. “What is the difference between a laser that will cut metals and one that won’t?”. I thought this is a good question, as the answer will help with understanding how to work with many materials.

TaggedCAMEdcucationalLaser_CutterManufacturingMetal-work

Making a Train Set: Part 1 – Design and Woodwork.

Posted on August 3, 2017Updated on January 5, 2022by duckmanCategories:Blog, Projects

Recently I have been building a train set, I will blog the progress, in six parts, highlighting how I get certain things done.

TaggedCADCAMLaser_CutterTrainsWoodwork

Surface Preparation and Finger Prints. How bad are they?

Posted on January 24, 2017by duckmanCategories:Blog

In preparing a surface for paint / glue / thermal paste / soldering / whatever, there is one thing to remember. A normal finger print is of similar thickness to cling wrap (0.01mm). A thick (eg post pizza) print, where the ridges are no longer visible, is closer to the thickness of a sheet of paper (0.1mm).

Rule of thumb. If you would you would not be happy with this kind of material on the surface of whatever you are coating, remove your finger prints.

TaggedEdcucationalElectronicsFinger PrintsGlueIndustryPCBSolderWoodwork

[UPDATE] Comprehensive Arduino Flash Memory via PROGMEM

Posted on February 11, 2016by duckmanCategories:Arduino, Blog, Programming

[Updated for arduino v1.6] This post is a huge set of PROGMEM examples (done as unit tests) which you can freely copy and paste into your work.

The readership level is set at those who are already familiar with the arduino PROGMEM documentation here and the use of the F() macro and __FlashStringHelper*

Its designed as a reference to save you the “lets see how to make this work” time and communicate common pitfalls. Search for the method you need to use, and see it running in working tested code

TaggedArduinoProgmemSample Code

35 Strange Alternatives for the Word “Return”.

Posted on December 10, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog

“Return” (based in latin) [re =back, tornare = to turn]. ie to turn back.
Scopeturn [scope = examine] so: “on closer inspection, you can have it back”. Read on for more…

TaggedArchaeolinguisticsHumorLinguistics

ASCII-Art Arduino Pinouts

Posted on November 16, 2015by duckmanCategories:Arduino, Blog, Uncategorized

Managing arduino projects can be a nightmare because its hard to keep track of your hardware setup in your code comments. To enable easy documentation of pin assignments, I created a couple of ASCII art arduino pin-outs.

These come complete with ports, PWM and coms all marked. Simply paste as a comment into your code and marvel at your new found organisation.

TaggedArduinoEdcucationalGraphicsprogramming

RGB Bias Lighting with Arduino (Part 1)

Posted on November 9, 2015by duckmanCategories:Arduino, Blog, Programming, Projects, Uncategorized

We are setting up an arduino with a WS2811 LED strip to do RGB based bias lighting effects.

TaggedArduinoElectronicsprogrammingSample CodeWS2811

Elec-TRICK-s part 1 – “dual mono-speakers”

Posted on September 27, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog

Today, after an errant purchase, I am a little peeved at how certain companies deceive consumers with electrical smoke and mirrors. So I am creating the tag “Elec-TRICK-s” and going through devices that are tricking you into making a purchase.

TaggedElec-TRICK-s

Cheap and easy temperature controlled cabinet fan.

Posted on August 17, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Projects

Cabinet cooling hack. Because good entertainment units are still not heat dissipation savvy.

TaggedElectronicsWoodwork

I reckon my fan guard design is pretty damn neat. (Free Plans)

Posted on August 17, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Projects, Uncategorized

I needed some fan guards for my arcade machine and for a neat little entertainment centre hack. Playing around I made a fish-eye honey-comb screen that looked pretty good. The pattern has larger holes near the centre of the fan and smaller holes where it counts.

TaggedCADCAMDXFLaser_Cutter

10 simple things search engines could do to save my sanity

Posted on July 30, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Uncategorized

I have felt for a while that web searching is still an awkward thing from a Human Computer Interaction point of view. So I made a wish list of simple improvements that would literally turn my world upside-down.

TaggedDesignHCIList_ofObserving society

How to make coloured text in acrylic with spray paint.

Posted on July 24, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Educational, Uncategorized

Laser engraving text on acrylic / perspex does not create a lot of contrast. This leads to the subject of painting text on the acrylic. I have developed some useful methods of achieving this that I thought I would share.

TaggedCAMFontsLaser_CutterPaint

List of the best pages/software that empowers you to generate awesome procedural art.

Posted on June 30, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Uncategorized

  Firstly, you will find none of the “lets make homework cool” type stuff here. The Internet has become a much more stimulating place for maths, visualisation and generative images. This is in part driven by the death of those “java applets” as wonderful HTML5 based interactive maths content takes glorious hold. Trying to keep pace with …
Continue reading List of the best pages/software that empowers you to generate awesome procedural art.

TaggedArtFractalGraphicsList_of

The scientific breakthrough discovered by inserting tampons into peoples noses.

Posted on June 24, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Uncategorized

So your here because you just couldn’t resit the title… or you used some very odd search terms in Google. In any case, welcome to the article that gave me the most pause to write about so far. Background. !t was the 1960s (this decade is developing a bit of a reputation) and doctors were treating …
Continue reading The scientific breakthrough discovered by inserting tampons into peoples noses.

TaggedEmotionHuman_FaceMedicalNeuroscienceScience

What’s inside an integrated circuit? We broke one open and scanned it for you at 12,800DPI

Posted on June 24, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Educational

Because you always wondered what was inside. See if you can guess which IC it was? Useful image for teachers, overhead slides etc. NB: This is not always a good DIY or classroom activity. Be aware that some electrical components create a seriously hazardous dust when broken open. Rectifiers, Hi Power transistors, Older IC’s & IC’s with certain …
Continue reading What’s inside an integrated circuit? We broke one open and scanned it for you at 12,800DPI

TaggedEdcucationalElectronicsGraphicsHi-Res Scan

Neat maths trick with an orange. Bonus: the worst duck joke ever!

Posted on June 24, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Educational

Draw five dots anywhere on an orange with a white board marker.  There is a way to cut the orange exactly in half so that at least four of the dots are visible on one side.  Can you figure out how? Solution in this video.

TaggedBad humorHumorMathsOrangesPuzzleRubber Ducks

The worlds best rubber duck collections… because awesome is not just for giant robot dinosaurs.

Posted on June 21, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog

Welcome to the se-duck-tive world of duck collecting.

TaggedDucksList_ofRubber Ducks

Crossword Software (alpha)

Posted on June 20, 2015by duckmanCategories:Blog, Software, Uncategorized

Easy to use software to generate crossword puzzles.
This is still very much alpha software (totally unfinished). I appreciate anyone who wants to kick the tyres and let me know what they think.

TaggedCrosswordDictionaryLinguisticsPuzzleSoftware

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  • Parametric VESA Mount Fixer.
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  • Making a Train Set: Part 1 – Design and Woodwork.
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