Shadow effects
Written by viola on November 28th, 2008
Hello Leds!
Written by viola on October 4th, 2008
Using TLC5940 with a power supply (12v transformer+ LM7805), and, 70 LEDs
The simulation of the lighting effect
Written by viola on September 29th, 2008| These two weeks, I have been focusing on creating the lighting effects for Resonant Wave. I use twenty six LEDs. Each of them represents a key on a computer keyboard. The Texas Instrument 4950 allows me to increase output pins from the Arduino board. I will study how to use a power supply for this in the following week, since my flower-like sculptures have hundreds of LEDs |
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| The lighting effects include four steps. In the beginning, a light will brighten up far from the dancer’s position. It attracts her to come close to it. The according to the dancer’s location, a bright light will start to fallow her. After a while, groups of lights will follow her movements. At the end, she will create a light pattern according to her trail. Also, the brightness of the light is according to the sound she makes. |
| I used MaxMsp to control the time, the computer keyboard, and sound analysis. I used Arduino to control the light. And use Seiral.read to make Maxmsp and Ardino able to communicate with each other. |
Hello, the prototype of the bracelet!!
Written by viola on September 19th, 2008| “Little by little!!” My flamenco teacher always says this to me. This is principle can be used in almost everything.
1) This is first step. How to use an audio amplifier to send a signal??? I used LM386, a low voltage power amplifier. Thanks Liubo! |
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| 2) After making sure everthing was ok, I soldered the circuit on a board.:) I learned during my internship. Thanks Ayah! |
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| 3) I did a little more programming testing with Arduino. Making sure that the lighting effect will be as I expected! |
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| 4) Then I used the same trick that I worte about it before. Tada!! Yes, the wire wrap tool and wrap to connect the LEDs with the cute Lily Pad. (Lily Pad! What a good invetion!!) |
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| 5) Almost there, but how can I power it? I used the DL2032 3v button battery in the beginning. However, sadly the current is not strong enough. After testing with several kinds of batteries, PANASONIC CR2450 is the winner!! |
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6) haha… It is sitll not the end but today I will teach everyone a saying, which comes from Zhou Dunyi, a philosopher of the Song Dynasty of China. In his famous articl, LOVE LOTUS SAYING, he said “ .” It describes why the lotus is so beautiful. The reason is that although the lotus was grown in silt, it is not impure but elegant. This is like the story of my desk and my flower-like bracelet. |
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If you cannot upload the programming to Lily Pad, …
Written by viola on September 12th, 2008| Sometimes a very simple thing can make people crazy. Last night I suffered this kind of pain. I swear that I followed the instruction from Leah Buechley’s website.
” Press the reset switch on your LilyPad then Quickly click on the Upload button in the software.” (I also test my ATmega 168 Arduino board with the same process and it worked.) The only thing I didn’t do was: “See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooing#upload” |
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| This morning I am as obstinate as usual and decide to give my pad the last try. This is what I read and it help: “However, on some computers, you may need to press the reset button on the board after you hit the upload button in the Arduino environment. Try different intervals of time between the two, up to 10 seconds or more.
“ When I had a chance to perform with my friends, I always enjoyed making us pretty!! This is my last performance in Taiwan. |
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| Tada!! I made butterfly necklaces. |
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| Now, I plan to make an interactive bracelet for my Resonant Wave performance. |
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| Coming soon: the bracelet!! |
From 0 to 150
Written by viola on September 6th, 2008| Yes, I know simple is good. However, my complex brain always bring me to another direction. The photo was taken on Feb 14th. At the time, my ceiling was kind of empty. |
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| After making flower-like sculptures the whole summer time. |
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| Tada!! There are at least 150 flower-like pieces on the ceiling now. |
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| It’s not the end. There will be LEDs inside. |
If you don’t like Solder…
Written by viola on August 18th, 2008 |
There are a lot of LEDs. What if you don’t like to solder them, but you must use all of them??? |
| Don’t worry my teacher, Peter teaches me a very good way!! | |
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You will need pliers, a knife, a manual wire wrap tool, a bundle of wire wrap, heat gun (image from left to right), and heat shrink tubing.
I really like my heat gun. It’s very handy. It’s made by PRO-IRODA INDUSTRIES, INC and the model number is MJ-600. |
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First, cut a length of wire and put it into the middle of the blue wire wrap tool. You need to use your right thumb and press down the wire, which comes out from the hole.
Then you can either use your left hand, or use pliers to pull out the wire. |
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After you strip the wire, you then insert it into the bottom of the tool. There is a very small hole near the edge. |
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There is a bigger hole in the bottom of the tool where you can insert one lead pin.
Now, it twisting time!! Hold your LED and turn the tool clockwise 8-10 times. Your LED and wire will have a very strong connection. |
| For more info, please see | |
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Of course, it will be great to use heart shrink. 
How many have I made now? It’s around 250!!! |
Rotating Effect Control of Resonant Wave I
Written by viola on April 2nd, 2008The Motor and Light Connector
| My floor will control the rotating effect of my ceiling sculpture. However, before designing my pad, how I can make my light rotate without twisting its wires is a big problem. After discussing with my cousin, a professional machine designer, PC_Wang , he designed the motor and light connector for me. Itconsists of two bearings, carbon brush, and a gear motor. It allows my LED sculpture to rotate without the problems of twisting wires. The image below is sample. |
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| After solving the crucial problem, I am working on my floor pad. The principle of how my floor pad works is pretty similar to the DDR (Dancing Dace Revolution) dancing pad. There will be a form between tow conductor layers. There are several holes on the very thin form. When people step on it, the conducting part will influence the result on the screen. The following images showsa DDR dancing pad which is taken apart. |
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| Based on the same principle, I will make a floor pad which has the same function. It will allow the dancer to control the rotating effects of my sculptures. The flowing videos shows my teacher and I testing the floor pad. |
| In the video, different parts of the pad can control the different lights on the screen |
| Get the Flash Player to see this player. |
Hello, LED Driver
Written by viola on March 24th, 2008These days I am testing the LED driver. The first video is using 5940 LED driver chip. The code and circuit for this was developed thanks to Peter. Please visit Peter’s blog. There is a very clear description.
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| Test 1: Using LED driver chip with 16 LEDs |
| Get the Flash Player to see this player. |
| Test 2: Using LED driver chip with more LEDs |
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| note: |
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Flamenco and Me
Written by viola on February 26th, 2008
| Last Thursday, there was a studio opening of the Digital Art department of Pratt in Dumbo. Mrs. Walentas the studio’s donator, asked me why I chose flamenco in my thesis. I answered her with a lot of reasons. In the end, she looked at her husband ,Mr. David Walentas, and said “she is so serious. She is cute isn’t she?” |
| Why flamenco? This is a really good question. |
| I start to get involved in flamenco in 2003. One day, a very good friend of mine asked me to go to flamenco class with her. I was attracted by the name of the dance so I went to the class with no hesitation. We fell in love with the dance very soon. Especially when we had chances to perform in public, we were like sparrows that eagerly transform themselves to canaries. |
| After I came to America, I felt that I should concentrate on my studies. I forget Flamenco but I still missed it a lot. Last summer, I felt that I was ready to handle both things. I went to Fazil studio and start to learn flamenco with Viola.In fact, the new learning experiences excite me. In my first class, Viola taught me clapping hands, At the time, I was wondering why we needed to practice the rhythm. After a while, I notice that the hand clapping and foot stamping skills are two main important basics of flamenco. They help the dancers to seize time. A good flamenco dancer also should be a good clapper. When they are dancing, their bodies become danceable metronomes. They create various loud sounds and pose in powerfully expressive postures to touch the audience. |
| That is why I chose flamenco. I would like to augment its beauty with technology. |
| Dance with Viola Get the Flash Player to see this player. |