Cakes N Cookies Froster (CNC

Froster tip
Originally uploaded by geekphysical

The Cakes N Cookies Froster (CNC) is an extension to an existing CNC machine. We bought cake decorating supplies and modified our CNC software to squirt cake frosting at the right time to make a happy Christmas decoration. The 'froster' is made from a decorating bottle for cake frosting, this is inside of a salad dressing shaker, which encases a stepper motor. The stepper motor drives a push plate to force out frosting. To prevent drip, the stepper motor is programmed to retract slightly between strokes (drawing). During strokes the push plate is continuously advanced at a slow speed set by a potentiometer.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hXYrbJSrU

Overall what happens is the CNC software reads a file that we've designed, in this case the word "xmas" (we apologize for the non-use of Christmas but the cookie is simply too small!) with a circle around it. This pattern is translated to movements (strokes) by the CNC software. Stepper motors on the CNC machine executes these movements, so the machine moves into position for each part of the pattern. At the same time, an additional stepper motor in the cake froster section pushes out frosting at appropriate intervals to make the pattern. The froster head is lifted between each stroke because we found that this makes a nicer pattern.

We encountered some frosting problems with this: it is not great for small cookies, since the frosting is so runny, either a stiffer frosting or a larger cookie might be better for a more precise design. Another, and more serious problem is what to do with the many cookies that were prototypes, and are now rather ugly, sugar covered rejects that we must somehow find a way to 'dispose' of. :)

Hope you have a happy Christmas! Next up...laser etched cookies... mmm toasty!

Razzle Dazzle - LED Suit

We've been sitting on this video for a couple weeks now, we had to wait until the suit was used before showing it off...but here it is! I call it Razzle Dazzle thinking of the song from Chicago,

Give 'em the old razzle dazzle
Razzle dazzle them
Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
and the reaction will be passionate...

This one definitely has lots of flash in it! We received the suit as a rush job, with rgb led rope already sewn in, our job was 'simply' to hook up all the endless ropes and make them ... dazzle! The legs, torso and head are controlled individually, and a controller at the arm allows the wearer to change between 7 different settings of colours and flashing levels.

To break it down there were: 4 groups of RGB LED strands each have 3 primary colours.

We used a small box to house an Arduino board which runs a program that cycles the colours and determines how it should light up. Twelve light levels are fed to the LEDs through six different programs including:

- Strobe with rate control
- Static colour and brightness
- Brightness cycle, looks like a wave going up and down the suit so you can control the speed.
- Random flicker

Enjoy the video!

Razzle Dazzle from Vanessa Carpenter on Vimeo.

Giant Death Laser!

A five year dream between friends: find, and run a giant laser. The first one died a horrible death, being over powered and sadly, no longer laser-ing. Today, arriving in 10 layers of bubble wrap and foam, was the new, shiny-er version, a giant laser bought off ebay, powered, and bringing delight to the boys and girls of GeekPhysical. See the movie here: Giant Death Laser

GeekPhysical Goes Nuclear

This past weekend we had a blast! Luckily, not nuclear. To explain the lapse in updates, we've been in Australia! For all of September and a bit of October. So here we are, back and in business, fresh off a weekend of whirlwind tours.

Copenhagen came alive for Culture night 2010, opening all its museums and galleries and shops to the public for exploration; we visited the beautiful Geological museum and the Post and Tele museum, both with fantastic exhibits. The Post and Tele museum had a brand new installation, much of which was interactive and yet nostalgic, great design and we had a great time. Next morning was a quick trip to Stockholm to visit Kirstine Roepstorff's installation, Silent Theatre (Stille Teater) at the Bonniers Art Gallery. It's a fabulous installation telling a story through a giant moving set of picture frames, each illuminated to tell a different part of the story. You can catch some of the movie here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMhsri8dcg. We've got the Swedish version up on Flickr.

We were also able to visit a very special event thanks to our friend, Anders Mellbratt - http://anders.mellbratt.se/ (great portfolio, be sure to check it out!) which was a visit to the underground parts of stockholm. Our highlights were visiting the Bahnof server center (a truly James Bond inspired office/server house) and the nuclear weapons plant of Stockholm - also impressive, and a bit scary! We were lucky enough to have time to dash into the great Vasa museum, home to one of the greatest Swedish warships ever built, which sadly sank a few minutes after its launch. Three hundred years later, they pulled up the ship, piece by piece and put it back together in the museum. The Vasa museum is one of the very best museums I've ever visited, with many installations both digital and not, that were spectacular at communicating and paying true homage to the great story of the Vasa. Check out some of the great photos on Flickr.

Sparkfun Visits Denmark!

Unfortunately, it was while GeekPhysical was off in Australia BUT - nonetheless, several members of the fantastic crew of Sparkfun electronics did get a chance to visit with illutron, Copenhagen Suborbitals, Labitat and 1Scale1 this past month!

Sparkfun discusses their trip here http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=447 where they say "Our goal for the trip to Copenhagen was to capture Kristian and Peter from Copenhagen Suborbitals for a photo shoot plus a video. Little did we know the trip would turn into so much more!"

Sparkfun onboard illutron, image from Sparkfun photographers

We're so glad you had a good trip Sparkfun - and thanks for coming to visit! Sparkfun got to tour the illutron barge and participate in a hacking/geeking/creating night onboard the barge and meet some of Denmark's fantastic nerds. Next up was a visit to Labitat, Copenhagen's hackerspace! They also made it across the pond to Sweden and met with David Cuartielles and the crew of 1Scale1. Finally, they met Peter and Kristian from Copenhagen Suborbitals and got to do their photoshoot!

It's wonderful being part of all these organizations and even better when our passion for geeking is a shared by people from around the world.

Thanks so much for making the trip - can't wait to meet up with you guys again!

See Sparkfun's Flickr stream here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkfun/4990509624/

Nuclear Devices

Dzl and Peter of illutron were working today on creating some nice Nuclear Devices! They aren't actually Nuclear, but rather large fire cannons for a rock festival called Copenhell. We're quite excited. In the video below you can see the ignitor system. The red canister in the photo is the gas canister, and a tube will go on top of that to funnel the fuel upwards until it reaches the ignitor and explodes. Good times!

Biometric Social Interaction @ Thoughtmade

Biometric Social Interaction @ Thoughtmade
Originally uploaded by geekphysical

GeekPhysical attended Thoughtmade, a gathering of creative innovators at a culture nightclub (Inkonst) in Malmo, Sweden. We presented ourselves, and our thoughts on pushing the amazing stuff going on in the Oresund region (Copenhagen & Malmo) out into the world and encouraged people to start exploring, tinkering, and making things! We had a fabulous time and are very happy to be part of such an important movement. www.thoughtmade.com