I wanted to test the hall effect sensors I’d bought to see if they could be used for my idea of a rotary magnetic sequencer for the Modular Music Box.

There’s a link to the data sheet and a handy Hall_ Applications_Guide.PDF as well as some useful advice on the Sparkfun Hall Effect Sensor page and in the comments… and the Arduino:Playground provided a bit of code to test the sensor in action…

“You’ve got 3 pins from the front (the triangle edge). Left to right, power, ground, output.
Stick a 10k pull up between 5v and output. Then it’ll latch on/off depending on the poll you use.”

(more…)

The ‘Winder’ in the MMB has a ‘clock face’ of 12 orange LEDs in a circle used to give visual feedback on which way and how much to wind the key… as well as display the ‘winding down’ of the mechanism.

While I could have managed this by using an LED per digital output on the Arduino Duemilanove clone – I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to work with and learn more about LED drivers.

(more…)



I bought a small 3-4.5V DC motor to start testing for the rotary magnetic sequencer I’m planning as part of the Modular Music Box for the Analogue is the new Digital exhibition as part of AND Festival…

Todbot’s Bionic Arduino: Introduction to Microcontrollers with Arduino: Class 3 has a section on Controlling a Motor using a 1N4001 ‘kickback’ diode and TIP120 transistor to “control speed of motor with analogWrite() just like controlling brightness of LED” which I still need to try out.

Then there’s a fairly thorough post at Lucky Larry’s ARDUINO, MAINLY ARDUINO PROJECTS, TUTORIALS… AND A FEW OTHER THINGS blog – Control a DC motor with Arduino and L293D chip… but (sigh)… I think I’ll just buy a shield kit.
(more…)

One particular area of concern has been the design and construction of the eight ‘bell posts’… and with budget tightening and schedule contracting we were keen to make sure this was one aspect of the project that didn’t get squeezed too far. The bell posts are the main physical manifestation of PEAL – the sculptural and physical elements of the piece that the audience interact with ‘up close and personal’ – and so we want to make sure they have the design aesthetic and quality of build we’re aiming for with the project overall.

Nick and I approached several designers and fabricators through out mutual networks and have now engaged with Duncan Fitzsimons – a graduate of the MA. Industrial Design Engineering, Royal College of Art and a member of Vitamins design – a multi-disciplinary design collaborative based in London.

(more…)

Nick and I are trying out reQall “a voice-enabled memory aid that seamlessly integrates your mobile phone, email, text messaging and IM into a powerful organizer, reminder system and productivity assistant.”

I like the idea of a tool used for a specific project – and with reQall its easy to add notes, To-Dos and shopping list items via text, voice, email and IM – and share these with others – which seems ideal for a creative and collective project like PEAL – and a good way to document our development too.

What’s more you can publish your Reqall items through an RSS feed – here’s Lewis’s Reqall items for example.

Posting to the Monomatic blog via Flickr email…, originally uploaded by Monomatic-flickr.

Leeds City Museum – shot with my iPhone

This is a test to see how a rich text formatted email actually looks
on the Monomatic blog… and whether it’s possible to include photos
and add attachments – such as this audio recording of the bell ringing
practice session at St Peter’s Church made using Voice Notes on my
iPhone…

Conclusions:
Well the photo loads OK – bar the black border – which must be configurable in the Flickr settings (but which I actually quite like) – though (unsurprisingly) the Rich Text formatting in the email doesn’t translate and the audio file hasn’t materialised… but as a ‘quick and dirty’ way to post it could be useful.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The Monome is easy to communicate with and fast, and it’s really nice to have a computer interface that looks and feels right.

Made a 1 bit 8×8 webcam display out of it as a test. It’s quite fast too.