Thoughts on this as a product now that SD card seems possible : I could put “sprites” like the bechamel logo and some numbers in some location in memory. I could be able to save screen shots on the SD card with a button combo. Could there be a kind of database, which would be… Continue reading la béchamel part trois →

Update: I can output HDMI video now I can now program the FPGA with raspberry pi I have finalized the all-logic, two board version of the béchamel and just need a Mouser order to put together the final version. After this béchamel 1 experience I have concluded that running a video synth operation developing with… Continue reading la béchamel part deux →

For my first finished product for prepared instruments (preparedinstruments.com), the goal is to remake the hardware 7ch palimpsest.OS SRAM but with : a square keyboard grid interface like the PEW design (knobs and switches replaced with keys) an aluminium PCB substrate (with a single-sided board) ? a simpler amp in path with only one pot… Continue reading la béchamel →

I have an idea for a next “chapter” in my project : prepared computers or assemblages. Each computer would be a hodge-podge of different tech from different eras, but would each include some kind of I/O, memory, ALU, and display, cooling. I could return to the e-waste side of things, but still make circuits to… Continue reading Informatique préparée / Assemblages informatiques →

Making a simple FPGA video synth for PEW 2023 at Villette Makerz. It takes audio in and generates patterns based on the voltage threshold and the 9 keys being pressed. The code is here : https://github.com/merlinmarrs/iCE40HX-verilog-video-patterns This time the top interface side has only buttons and no electronics. I have a simplified VGA out and… Continue reading Paris Electronic Week Synth Workshop →

FPGA SRAM board   Shadertoy is the future of this project, so what am I doing ? This new board is a reprogrammable FPGA 2D pixel shader (aka fragment shader) which can control the color of pixels and know only of the coordinate of the pixel being drawn. Pixel shaders can also sample the values… Continue reading FPGA SRAM board →

I have a month to work on a 45 minute lecture on my work at the Technische Universität München. I will also be doing a lecture at TU Darmstadt in November. I would like to use this opportunity to try to bring my video experiments into focus and incorporate it into my previous time-lapse projects.… Continue reading Technische Universität München Lecture →

Heading towards a more reliable, deployable and software-leaning approach (but not so much about automated choreography as with previous atmega boards as augmented live playable machine for manual performances) to working with video now. I am also trying to be a bit more strategic and attempt to think ahead a little bit beyond the one… Continue reading FPGA synth →

Making things easier, simpler, more plug and play. **** Workshop Organize parts  Palimpsest.OS Get all channels working  Get raspberry pi VGA out working Test with raspberry pi VGA put  Fix VGA input/output (I know what the problem is at least :)! SPI SRAM Get recording as fast as possible  Try with 4MB FRAM ? New… Continue reading Choreographable video synth (PART III) →

Inspired by the history of mounting circuits on wood with screws and wire, evoking John Cage’s prepared pianos.  This iteration of the project is born of a few realizations : VGA is an analog signal, it’s not digital. The coolest effects are the simplest ones : XOR, HP and LP filters, comparators, etc. which can be… Continue reading Choreographable video synth (PART II) →

 This circuit is a next version from the video synth.  Some ideas from how this installation could look like : Messing around with my last synths, here are some circuits that I want to be able to reproduce with my new synth :     Here are some ideas of how the circuit could take… Continue reading Choreographable Video Synth →

  I want to continue messing around with magnetic media (audio cassette players/recorders, floppy disk drives, video camcorders) and try to get them recording and playing back video. Here is some inspiration : From the timeless Hardware Hacking manual. The suggestion is to use a high gain amplifier to hear the results of the tape… Continue reading Magnetic Media Video Synthesis →

This workshop with La Diagonale at UP Saclay is a simple circuit to begin playing with code and screen patterns.  Here is the github: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/spaghettini-video-synth Arduino Coding and Video Synthesis Workshop Lean to code in C with Arduino, solder and assemble a custom printed-circuit board made in the Fablab, and make your own algorithmically-generated video… Continue reading Video synth workshop →

I have two goals for this project: Finish the VGA video recorder board (with op amps, bias pots, bias for ADC) – DONE! Make a version of the vectorscope image modification series but with a raster system taking the following image as the input – DONE : 1. Finishing the VGA Video Sampler board For… Continue reading Memory Experiments (continued) →

  https://github.com/merlinmarrs/Video-Memory This project started with an ambitious board combining ADC, DAC and SRAM.    There were too many issues so I broke the board down into two parts: a memory board and a ADC/DAC board. This allowed me to isolate things and proceed in a step by step way. I discovered that the memory… Continue reading Memory Experiments →

  The github for this project : https://github.com/merlinmarrs/tournesol I’ve made the PCB for with the 74AC240 based on this design from http://www.smfr.org/robots/robot_images/dualsolarhead_schematic.png : Hoping that it works better than the 540 version with the solar midpoint. IT DOES! It is far more responsive and efficient and works with the solar panel! It has a funny… Continue reading Sunflower Array →

Another idea is to start with the actual solution (two small servos) and make it look better. It’s sturdy and already balanced. It just needs a hinge and a tilting arm: With a makeshift hinge and tilt arm: This would only require an Arduino mini pro and some super caps charged by a solar panel… Continue reading Dual Solar Tracking Part III →

Continuing the project of making a small solar tracking device. **** Idea to simplify the circuit drastically and make the 3D model a bit more robust and less fragile so it is far easier to assemble and won’t topple over (while hopefully maintaining some elegance…)  -Battery-powered (and possibly solar recharging through very simple circuit):  … Continue reading Dual Solar Tracking Part II →

Here is the final product:     After the relative success of the foam cutting machine, I would like to build a medium-sized robot arm which can actually be a useful tool in the lab and not just a toy. The main questions appear to be: how to increase the torque of the stepper motors?… Continue reading Robot Arm →

Here is the finished product:   And here is a quick video cutting foam:   Another video showing the stage testing:     Here are the files on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4428184 We’ll be harvesting parts from an old Ultimaker 2. The stuff we plan to use: Based on what we found, we plan on making two… Continue reading Medium-sized CNC Foam Cutter (with Léon Reboul) →

Based on Hackteria’s DIY Centrifuge (https://hackteria.org/wiki/Hacked_Hard-disc_Centrifuge) Controlling a Three-Phase DC Brushless motor (BLDC) of a Hard Drive primer: https://www.monolithicpower.com/pub/media/document/Brushless_DC_Motor_Fundamentals.pdf Similar to a stepper motor (except a BLDC is meant to run smoothly not in steps) but with three stators (if it’s an inrunner, an outrunner has the permanent magnets around the shaft):    At the… Continue reading DIY Centrifuge →

This project is based on Gaudi Lab’s OpenDrop (https://www.gaudi.ch/OpenDrop/) Here is the github for Fablab Digiscope’s iteration of the project: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/OpenDrop We don’t have high voltage MOSFETs so we are using relays instead. In parallel we will be sourcing the components to make the high voltage power supply using a boost converter that takes 12V… Continue reading EWOD (electro wetting on dialectric) →

This device is intended to be installed within the 3D printed forehead mount of a visor.  It’s being developed at this github: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/Fever-Meter The top board is a boost regulator taking the 2V from a pair of miniature backup batteries, and the bottom side is an attiny85 with I2C temperature sensor and indication led.  This project… Continue reading Fever monitor →

This contactless temperature sensor has a POV display for the temperature readout.  Here is the github: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/POV-fever-meter Here is what it looks like in a dark room with long exposure: The plan was to have the device spell out the message in reverse after displaying it normally to allow a certain frequency of waving the… Continue reading IR thermometer with POV display →

Developed by Fablab Digiscope. A board to sense the temperature and illumination, and act as an interface, inside a disinfection device: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/anti-viral-dispositif/ A main board and secondary board to control a disinfection chamber based on this tutorial: http://www.needlab.org/face-masks-disinfection-device Here is the BOM: Standard components: 7 segment display x2 595 Shift Register x2 LED x 2 Photocell… Continue reading Dispositif Désinfection →

  This is the stepper motor driver design we are hoping to use to control a syringe. Here is the PDF describing the assembly: etapes fab venti v2 And here is the github repo: https://github.com/merlinmarrs/FabVenti   This is the syringe pumping prototype I developed. It uses 8020, a NEMA stepper with built in threaded rod,… Continue reading Syringe pump mechanism + electronics →

The goal of this primer is to introduce people to mini DIY solar energy applications. New solar product I just found out about:                    

Here are some videos of the current prototypes:         I want to focus this project on the design of the 2 axis rotation mechanism. The electronics and code side has already been explored and I can’t offer anything new here as a designer. (I’ll abstract the sensing and radio side of thing… Continue reading Fab 15 Part VII →

I just destroyed a circuit I spent over a week preparing and I decided I would learn how to better protect my circuits. Reverse Polarity protection: A diode can be used to protect a circuit but it will drop 0.7V and will waste power. A shotky diode will only drop .3-.4V but it has the… Continue reading Circuit Protection + PCB Design Rules of Thumb →

Here is my first attempt at making a video of this all working: I would like the next version of the video to show:-starting charging from zero.-the burst of packets sent at the begining and how it finds a balance afterwards.   -the sky in the background so it’s easy to understand how the clouds effect… Continue reading Fab 15 Part VI →

For a change, this is a video of me working on the boards for this project:     Radios are working, I’m struggling with the best way to poll the joysticks. I think I need to use Pin Change Interrupts (Interrupts for pins other than those dedicated for interrupting). The other option is just to… Continue reading DIY Mini Drone →

Using the tool bin vis, which simply assigns a shade of grey for each byte in a file, it’s possible to represent the structure of pieces of a file. Check it out, these are found 3D files from various software programs:   Found a cool surprise when I uploaded a .BMP file, the bytes map… Continue reading Binary Visualizing →

  To “present my projects or any other insights on digital fabrication, education and architecture.” The context; “The class is the second part of an intensive course on 3d modelling and CNC milling to make an 1:1 architectural structure based on simple modules.” Here are some questions I could respond to: What are the seams,… Continue reading UPSI Lecture Prep →

In line with a series of low-power and energy harvesting devices I would like to make a simple Current Meter which can display the amount of energy being consumed by a given machine in our lab. I imagine the unit as a standalone thing which would use the power it harvests to power itself if… Continue reading Contactless Current Meter (IN PROGRESS) →

As part of a series of low-power and power harvesting devices (such as https://steemit.com/technology/@proteus-h/my-diy-passive-mini-radio-microwave-detector), I would like to make a hand-crankable or shakeable torch. I like these projects because they are not too complex, and they demonstrate very tangibly the energy that can be harvested in the environment. from https://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?p=shake-flashlight:   A Servo makes a… Continue reading hand-powered flashlight (IN PROGRESS) →

  This presentation serves to introduce non-designers to the culture of design. It proposes that design is like a trip, one that should take the designer outside of the “diameter of the obvious” (everything that can be imagined on day 1 and constitutes low-hanging fruit or cliche), to an unexpected place. Every design journey is… Continue reading Design Primer – Presentation for Digital Fabrication class at UP-Sud December 2019 →

  Karl and I are planning to work on other sides of the ocean on this project together. Karl will continue working on the overall collection and interaction of the modules, I’ll work on prototyping one module at a time. We hope to find a collection of modules that are cool and to see which… Continue reading Synthesizer →

This project uses the LTC3105 Solar Harvesting IC from Linear Technologies, an Atmega328P along with a Serial TTL camera and an SD mini card for saving the images. The plan is to create a waterproof casing for this device and then install it in a nearby forest and set it to take photographs when it… Continue reading Solar-Powered Autonomous Wildlife Photography →

We wanted to make an interactive Draw Bot which would make nice drawings near the entrance of the Fab Lab and invite guests to upload their own drawings too. I am working with our PhD candidate Nawel Khenak on this project. We downloaded most of the 3D parts from this kit on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:798076 But we… Continue reading Drawing Machine →

  This project has the goal of making the Fab Lab Digiscope location visible from the exterior of the building and meanwhile creating an a display that users can code themselves.   After testing with painting tape, it was clear that giant letters made from material would not be sufficient to make the Fablab visible… Continue reading Fablab RGB LED Sign →

How can non experts quickly get an idea of  the way in which our computers see our raster images? I have previously focused my energy on how vectors are internally represented because I had the impression that pixel-based rasters were always stored in a predictable top to bottom, left to right arrays in computer memory.… Continue reading Raster Image Compression/Interlacing/Encoding Index Representation (IN PROGRESS) →

Inspired by the various existing designs of PCB business cards, we were inspired to make a similar thing for Fablab Digiscope.So far there have been popular business card projects which have had LED patterns display, have miniature screens, Magic 8-ball prediction capabilities, act as MIDI controllers, others bring up a text file on a computer… Continue reading Solar Business Cards →

  I like to draw out my circuits and then color over the lines after I’ve soldered them or re-checked them. I really enjoyed this overview of electronics debugging made by MIT TA D. Elliott Williams: http://web.mit.edu/6.101/www/reference/TheArtofDebuggingCircuits.pdf Here is a summary of the main thinking as I see it: -Circuits cannot be wrong, if there is… Continue reading Debugging →

  (For the working code scroll all the way to the bottom!) I free-formed a simple RFM12B atmega168 temperature sensor circuit using a 3.7 lithium ion battery I would one day like to solar recharge. Behold!: Notes: DO for Data Out and DI for Data In, from the perspective of the RFM12B. I’m using a… Continue reading RF communication with the RFM12B module →

  A mockup of the first prototype showing the size and locations of key components and plugs. This project is inspired by the 8-bit computer of Ben Eater (https://eater.net/8bit/) along with the eccentric PCBs of electronics designers like Teennage Engineering and Bastl instruments. I would like to make a board that is didactic and pedagogical,… Continue reading I2C Demo Board Design →

Finally have something that works and is easy enough to assemble and work with.Here is the radio side: Here are the two sides of the sandwhich: And here is the assembled sandwhich: I also tried, in vain, to solder a few SMD components by hand. First the DRV8838 motor driver. It’s devilishly tiny and despite… Continue reading Fab15 part III →

Here is the REV.2 board.It’s far more compact, around 38mm x 38mm, and is stackable. The ICSP acts as a connector linking the top and bottom boards, with one extra pin for the Vout from the LTC3105 to the RF transciever. The idea is to use long pins which will pass through the board but… Continue reading Fab15 part II →

pHere is the video explaining the intention of the workshop: https://vimeo.com/336378467 New idea of using 0ohm jumpers to isolate sub sections of the circuit. This allowed me to test the RF side independent of the LTC3105 side which turned out to be very useful. Took about 5 or 6 passes on the lasercutter, 20 minutes… Continue reading Fab15 part I →

A series of boards and graphic aids to learn about electronics. The main idea here is that each kit teaching some basic principle of electronics, and that it makes the theory portion of electronics more hands on and fun. The kits themselves should be beautiful, so that the students want to keep them, and therefore… Continue reading Electronics 101 →

I am using this sensor in the following code:https://www.pololu.com/product/2127/resources // RFM69HCW Example Sketch // Send serial input characters from one RFM69 node to another // Based on RFM69 library sample code by Felix Rusu // http://LowPowerLab.com/contact // Modified for RFM69HCW by Mike Grusin, 4/16 // This sketch will show you the basics of using an… Continue reading Fab 15 part IV →

    This circuit (found here: http://solarbotics.net/library/circuits/se_t1_1381.html) works with a MCP112 voltage supervisor to save up solar energy until it is significantly large to make turn a motor. With a small solar panel charging a large capacitor, it is possible to make something move even on an overcast day! The circuit works by charging the capacitor… Continue reading The 1381 Solar Engine →

  Elliot Williams’ Make: AVR Programming was helpful for this code. Don’t forget to plug Rx to Tx and Tx to Rx! This is the only protocol I know of where this reversal is important. I am using the Attiny2313 because it is, as far as I know, the only chip in the Attiny family… Continue reading USART →

 In this code I am using an Attiny 84 to produce different frequencies for a piezo buzzer (PB2). The Attiny ADC works a little differently than the Atmega. Essentially, you provide a value for the OCR0A and it will count up to that value and send a high to PB2 when it does. Then it… Continue reading Timers →

  Serial Peripheral Interface requires more wires than I2C, four instead of two, but is easier to implement. The CS line tells the slave that it has been selected, the clock line provides the timing and the MOSI (Master Out Slave In) and MISO (Master In Slave Out) lines each carry one way messages. Unlike… Continue reading Serial Peripheral Interface – SPI →

  I have put my Attiny84 into Powerdown Mode while it waits for a supercapacitor to charge up. Once the solar charging circuit goes low, it turns on an LED until it runs out of juice. With a florescent lamp (not ideal) 10 cm away from a 33x36mm 6.7V panel it took about an hour… Continue reading Sleep Mode + Nocturnal Solar Circuits →

 This code will blink an LED while listening for a button press. Not amazingly impressive but difficult to do with Arduino and the delay() function (while the delay macro is executing the microchip is kind of useless and can’t be listening to the state of a button). Be sure to debounce your button in hardware… Continue reading Interrupts →

  I2C (a.k.a. TWI, 2 Wire Interface) is a communication protocol that can allow your “master” microcontroller to speak to up 120+ “slave” devices. The protocol requires only two wires, one for data (SDA) and the other for the clock (SCL). Each device is connected to the same two wires but each also has a… Continue reading Understanding I2C →

  Want to write a value so that you can access it if the microchip loses power and restarts? Write it to EEPROM! The Attiny 24/44/84 family have 128/256/512 Bytes of In-System Programmable EEPROM, so it’s not enormous… The avr/eeprom.h code is from avr-libc, a Standard C library for AVR-GCC. Here’s a link to the… Continue reading EEPROM →

  Following on from the single axis solar tracker I built recently I would like to make a dual axis solar tracker – but with a twist: I would like one axis to be a set of tank treads. This way one can eventually imagine an autonomous solar powered robot which tracks the sun and… Continue reading Dual Solar Tracking →

Microchips exist at a different time scale from humans, their electronics “hearts” can beat millions of times a second – think of them as extremely hyperactive brains. Microchip pins can either “listen” (take input) or send voltage signals (output).When in input mode, a microchip pin can detect the state of a button (button pushed, or… Continue reading Button Debouncing →

  This circuit is from page 19 of Forrest M. Mimm’s Engineer’s Mini-Notebook : 555 TImer IC Circuits. I am using only a 0.1uF capacitor and don’t have any of the buttons shown in this circuit. This circuit is from page 259 of Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands on Lab course by Thomas… Continue reading 555 signal generator + LM358 op amp + recycled 8ohm speaker →

If you have a brand spanking new Attiny84 you’ll need to change the fuses in order to get the timing right. In AVR Studio you can change fuses in the Device Programming Window: #define F_CPU 8000000 // I also disable the CLKDIV8 fuse // #include <avr/io.h> #include <util/delay.h> // because I’m using _delay_ms() // int… Continue reading Attiny Blink →

Being able to read values other than 0 or 1 can come in handy! Here I am using the Attiny84 along with a 10K potentiometer. The two ends of the potentiometer are attached to GND and VCC and the middle pin is going to PA1 (ADC1). I have PA0, the ADC reference voltage pin I… Continue reading Analog Read →