Cheery Louisiana!

Computer out again!

Went to turn on my computer and it showed the blue-screen-of-death (bsod). It's being fixed now, but hopefully it won't take two weeks like last time.

Cheers (or not...lol)
Greg

Cardboard Automata Instructions

As posted before, here is the link to the activity we are completing. Many thanks to the folks at the Exploratorium for their assistance!

There are a few modifications we made when compared to the document at the link.

Objective
Create a cardboard "machine" from evveryday objects.

Project Materials
Cardboard box(es) (size doesn't matter)
Masking tape
Nail
Flexible drinking straws
Thick foam board
Corrugated plastic
Skewers (3 - 5)
Hot glue guns and appropriate glue sticks
Nuts of various sizes (diameter of hole is 1/4 inch)
Washers of various sizes (diameter of hole is 1/4 inch)
Template for circle
Heavy Duty Scissors
Sandpaper

Decorative Materials
Pipe cleaners
Crepe paper
Construction Paper
Pom poms
Glitter Glue
Popsicle Sticks (aka craft sticks)
Feathers
Colored Markers/Crayons/Pencils/Pens
Styrofoam cups/balls
Etc

Procedure
1. Cut the flaps off the box
2. Cut the box in half so that you have two frames
3. Cut triangles out of the flaps and tape them into each corner of the frame for support
a. Triangles made out of corrugated plastic provided better support than the cardboard
4. The document hyperlinked above contains a set of motions that one can choose from. The first time we did this, the students choose either the "Round and Round" or "Up and Down" motions. The next time around, the students chose two motions to reproduce. However, they could NOT choose either "Round and Round" or "Up and Down." Most of the listed motions consists of two cams (similar to a gear) with horizontal cam (aka the cam follower) positioned atop a vertical cam (aka the main cam)
5. After examining the different motions, construct the necessary cams. The cams were made out of corrugated plastic rather than foam board.
6. Make main axle
a. Push the skewer through one side of the box, into the main cam, and out of the other side of the box. Tip: Use a nail or a pen tip to help create the necessary holes in the box and cam.
b. Optional: Cut off the pointed end of the skewer
7. Attach a handle
a. Cut a small rectangle from the cardboard flap and glue it edgewise to either end of the skewer you just inserted into the box.
b. Glue a second piece of a skewer stick to the opposite edge of the rectangle to complete the handle.
8. Add the cam follower
a. Use a nail to poke a hole in the top of the frame. Ideally, you want the hole to be over the area above your main cam.
b. Insert a segment of the drinking star and glue the drinking straw into place.
c. Insert your second skewer through the drinking straw.
d. Insert the cam follower on the end of the skewer "hanging" over the main cam.
9. Test out your motion. Adjust the cams until you get the motion you want.
Tip: Adding a washer/nut to the cam follower for extra weight may help.
10. Once you are satisfied with the motion, glue the cam follower unto its skewer
11. If your main cam and main axle move out of place, cut out a small piece of the Foam board and glue it to the end of the AXLE!
12. Decorate your automata!

Adjustments

• As mentioned before, it's better to use the corrugated plastic to make support triangles. Also, I found it helpful to place the triangles in the corners situated diagonally across and on the opposite side of the frame as opposed to putting triangles all on the same side of the frame
• In some cases, the box would be larger than what I needed. In such a situation, I wound up making my own box by cutting out a section and taping the box together. The box would become a bit skewed, but it got the job done. In cases where the box was longer than the skewer, students
  
• During the prototyping phase, I actually created my own box with the flaps. I cut slits into the flaps and pieced them together. It worked out quite nicely for me and the "box" looked cool in my opinion. Others weren't so quick to agree...lol. I'll see if I can post pictures.
  
• Corrugated plastic served best for making the material to make the cams out of. The thick foam board (nor cardboard) don't have the necessary friction. When prototyping, I used sand paper on the edges/face of my cams to help create the friction. Sometimes it works
• The side-to-side motion is troublesome!!! I eventually was able to create such a motion, but it required pivotal thinking (get it, pivot...ha...OK bad pun, but still, give me some credit). In the end, I wound up using the flexible piece of the flex-straws to create a pivot point. Then I tried gluing the straw into place (it didn't work). What did work is I used the pipe cleaner and threaded it through the straw piece and wrapped it around the skewer, then glued it. Oh...and you CAN'T have a straw going through the hole for the axle for your cam follower!

Ways in which to improve/insight
Despite trying out several materials, it was challenging to find the right combination to creating the cams. It wasn't so much as making them, as trying to get the cams to work correctly. The hyperlinked document suggests making the cams out of thick foam board, but for me, the foam board had too much slippage when I turned the handle, even when I sanded the edges of the main cam and the contact face of the cam follower. I'll have to find something that works.

Personal Thoughts
A very fun and creative project. A concern I have is cutting out the pieces on the corrugated plastic. It is not easy, even with heavy duty scissors or an X-acto knife. I also tried using a box cutter.
I really enjoyed this. As at the Exploratorium, I'd like to incorporate this project as part of a workshop or have it be used as part of our repertoire of hands-on activities.

Up next: Sound Automata!

Greg

What a day...

Today the students for the Imagineers tried to finish up their blogging from the first project (the Scribbling Machines) but no one could connect to the Internet. This is a major bump in the road because we need to catch up to the blogging aspect of this project, Scribbling Machines, as well as from the Cardboard Automata. This situation puts us in a bind because I fear the students will "forget" some of the information and procedures that took place when constructing their Scribbling Machine, despite the example I provided. We'll see. We'll have to use Wednesday to complete the blogs.

While printing up some instructions for the students, the main printer I used kept tearing up my original documents as it scanned them. Weird. I "asked" the printer to make 24 copies but it spewed forth several dozens. Even more weired

Also, today, we had a "Come to Jesus" meeting, i.e., Cathy, Ashleigh, and I sat the students down and had a discussion with them. The students are truly great to work with but there has been too much goofing off and playing around and not enough focus on the task at hand. While we do understand that this project is outside of the normal classroom setting, and that most of the students know each other outside of the project, the inattentiveness has to cease in order for us to smoothly move along.

That's all,
Greg

What happened to my cardboard automata?

During the prototyping phase, I created several cardboard automata. I found out today one of them was gifted to a visitor. Although it was put up along with the others the students had created, due to lack of storage space, they were placed in a location whereby visitors could see them. While I was away last week, a young visitor beheld one of my cardboard automata, and asked if he could have it, to which one of our newer staff personnel complied.:-(

Greg

Greg: Cardboard Automata

Greg: Cardboard Automata

Cardboard Automata

Today we are going to start on creating cardboard automata. I hope I have all the necessary tools, but if not, we can improvise (creativity is a major part of this project).

Greg

Scribbling Machines Instructions

Although we have a similar project in place at Sci-Port, I used the following document for a resource as well (click here)

Objective
Using ordinary materials and simple motors, create a machine that draws a picture on its own.

Materials
Markers (thin or thick)
Brads (i.e., paper fasteners)
Produce Basket
DC Motor (from Radio Shack)
Wires
Wire strippers
Hot Glue Guns
Hot glue sticks
Masking Tape
Etc.

Procedure
1. Using a combination of glue/tape, I attached 3 markers to the basket and made sure it would stand on its own.
2. Attached wires to the leads of the motor and mounted the motor on top of the basket.
3. Attached the ends of the wires to the battery for a test run.
4. Placed brads on the device to make a switch
a. One wire leads from motor lead to one side of the battery
b. One wire goes from other motor lead to a brad.
c. One wire goes from other brad to battery.
d. Connect brads with a third wire. This third wire acts as a switch.
5. Placed a glue stick on the axle of the motor. Once the motor ran, it would spin the glue stick which caused the device to jitter/wobble/shake.
6. Uncap the markers, and let the device draw!

Adjustments
- Originally used tape to mount each component. Then, we came back and used hot glue. However, there are a few things to watch out for with hot glue.
a. You cannot put the tip of the hot glue gun against the battery. This may cause the battery to short out.
b. Sometimes attaching the wires to the hot glue didn't work as well because when drying, the wire would lift up and prevent a secure connection.
- Had to move parts around to keep balance.
- When making the complex scribbling machine, one had to account for the structure of the object. It helped out if one drew out a preliminary design, which I did, but unfortunately can't seem to locate presently.

Ways in which to improve/Insight
- Don't put glue on the axle of the motor!
- Have to be delicate with attaching wires to the motor leads.

Personal thoughts (KEEP IT CLEAN!!!!)
Blah, blah, blah...

On my way to completion

OK...I think I'm arranging the final pieces together for the "Not Just Another Brick in the Wall" project as far as the vlog, blog, facebook, and web profile goes. It was more challenging than I had expected because I had to create new accounts for Google and Yahoo. While that was easy enough, the blog, vlog and facebook account kept denying my attempts to create accounts because: a) I already have accounts with those social networks and so my information kept being pulled up instead of the information from the Google/Yahoo accounts, and b) the name of our project is coined from a famous Pinky Floyd song, so there were multiple variations I had to develop. Hopefully, everything will run smoothly.

Trying out something

This is a video I took with my phone during the launch of STS-119.

Background

I think it's cool that I have to have a blog as part of this project I'm working on. I am going to learn the ins and outs of how to start and maintain a blog. In between visitors today, I took the time to see about customizing my blog. My main concern is the RSS feed. I started it but it's already acting crazy. I received an error message that said I need to do a, b, c, etc, and still after following the instructions, the feed is not working. I wonder if its Vista (lol). Wish me luck.

Messing with Greg's Blog

We're tyring to figure out the best blog service to use for a work project. :)

Hello World

I'm simply testing this out and seeing if I actually can start a blog. If I can do it, anyone can. Yes, I know "Hello World" is usually reserved for computer programmers, but still...it's a blog!