March 26
-Because when a can of compressed air leaks, covering the insanely cold liquid spraying out with your hands might be the first reaction, however, it’s also the wrong one.
My hand hurts. I think the skin is dead.

-Cast and airbrushed prosthetic for Angela’s thesis.

March 25
Programming
-Got the heart monitor programmed. Some problems with the reset to the sequencer, but that’s all cleared up now. Evened out the power, and used a different pin from the microchip.

-Sculpted and moulded the slit neck prosthetic for Angela’s thesis. It also hides a tube, so that blood will pump out of the neck.

March 22 -24
-Finished sculpting / moulding /casting the second mould for the second piece of plastic.
-2 days of sanding it down ahead to get it smooth, then I’ll vacuum form clear plastic over it. Fell behind schedual…
-Registered genpets.com

March 20
Finished text and layout for thesis paper. It’s a product catalogue for the genpets. I’ll have it up on this site for download as a PDF later; it still needs photos and misc graphics.

For the genpets project I printed 36 circuits, fully etched copper, all from my apartment.

March 15 -Circuit drilling
Drilled holes for all 36 circuits. Which was insane. The main overkill circuit had 96 holes (x19) =1824 /// The heart rate circuit had 32 (x19) =608

For a grand total of 2432 holes drilled. Glad I have a drill press.
(also modified my drill press so it has a light on it now)

March 10
Too busy to write in journal. Work work work work thesis. What I’ve done in the last 10 days
-Made 4 part silicon/plaster genpet creature mould
-Bought/received supplies: Servos, 300 ultra bright Led’s, Circuit Etching tank, Digital scale
-Printed circuits/ ironed/etched/ cut/drilled holes.
-Completed rough draft of thesis paper.

March 9 -Circuit etching
I needed a plank of wood or something similar to do my ironing for circuit boards. The iron on pattern
Melted my Macintosh ironing board. Apparently it just couldn’t take the heat.

Oh well. I have 2 more.

So what have I been up to?
Photoshop is for simple folk; I use my computer to make circuits!

This is Overkill. It’s the main circuit board that will go into every single Genpet package. Why is it titled overkill? Cuz it is. Out of lazyness, I chose to design one frelling beast of a circuit, rather than 5 different tailored versions.

It has pads for 3x TIP120’s, 4 servos, 4 LED’s, 1x PIC (microchip + support circuitry), and one AUX connector for my 2nd circuit that goes into the packaging. The second circuit simply has flashing leds for the heart monitor.

I’ve also been making slight progress on the packaging for the creatures, but it’s still not right.. not gonna go into production till I’m satisfied..

Apparently getting the new type of chip programmed and running wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Me and Rob spent the better part of an afternoon on it. Finally though it’s all good. We had to add some VERY specific code to the beginning of our programming and I finally got it. Microchip also shipped my samples form the Thailand warehouse and they arrived here in 1 day.

Also bought my Airbrush compressor today for painting the Thesis creatures. $96. small and portable.

Well everything's just upside down now!

I was all set to save money on PIC's by using 555 timers for the majority of my thesis circuits. (previous entry)

Background: Pic's are programmable microchips, they cost $8 and have cpu's, ram, rom I/o pins. You’ve seen other PDIP style packages (black rectangle shapes) around..(first picture). PIC’s generally use Oscillators to acquire their timing and clock cycles (second picture).

So what’s new?

The custom 555 circuit I mentioned last entry was gonna total $4 after capacitors etc which was half cost of my 16f84a chips, but yesterday I was reading about PIC’s for most of the day, and found the 16F628 !!! Rob mentioned it but hadn’t really gone into learning it yet. So I did.

Wowies!
It’s about $5 ($3 less than the 16F84a) and it has DOUBLE the code space 2k instead of 1k, as well as other features, but the kicker is it has a built in OSCILLATOR! That’s the clock that tells the chip how fast to run and what to do, it’s like the chips pulse. The clocks aren’t a big deal, but it eats up 2 pins as well as costing an extra $1 (multiply by 18 for thesis)

So do I build a multi-piece circuit with difficult to design timings with 555's and hardware programming just to save $1?

BUT WAIT! There’s more! If you order now, we'll throw the PIC in for FREE! Operators are standing by!

Yes, Microchip.com is sending me FREE samples! About $50 worth! So the cost of using a PIC is… 5cents for the socket!
So do I wrestle with capacitors and resistors to get the right delay? Or do I simply program "pause 8000" for my 8 second delay I want… hmmm tough choice.

What else did I do? Well I played with my motor shipment yesterday of course! It’s what I need that circuit to control.
And my Gear motors are AMAZING! Everything I could have EVER hoped for!!
Not only are they geared, but they have a built in circuit. When you send them a short + signal, they spin 1 full rotation exactly and then stop! And they do it in about 1-2 seconds (slow and nice) (in comparison to a normal motor that simply spins insanely fast non stop).

These will be the basis for the chest breathing mechanism of the animatronics in each.

I cut some more corners on thesis last night, couldn't sleep, just thinking and worked on it (only happens when I have to wake up for 7:30) ..., it caught my attention,... why are 18 things ALL moving. That would look like a circus. Very busy. Too busy. And I’m never about busy. I’m about subtle. People know that. Thus, you see the problem.

So I will make only 5 genpets move, and 12 will be 'sleeping' with only there chests rising up and down. They’re still animatronic I guess, but far easier than my original vision. But it makes more sense. So Hei, cool. I’m all for better yet simpler.

Beyond making things easier, it also cuts down costs. While there’s still at least 1 gear motor in each sleeper, I don’t need a microchip to do such a simple action. I can make a custom circuit based on a 555 timer IC. The cost of chip goes from $7 -> $1 for 12 of the packages. Not to mention servos etc I would have used on those packages. This will allow me to focus more on the quality of a few.

What else? Less programming! That’s 12 chips I don’t need to program! I was already beginning to sweat about that one, as they all needed different programs (200 lines of code x 12 + hours and hours getting the timing right for that code).

What else? All-Electronics ran out of the gear motors I need. I only have 10 right now. Not all 30. 4 years they’ve had them, and they happen to be out now. And where else do you find a discontinued obscure Gearmotor out of Mac floppy drives? People seem to want an arm and a leg for old floppies and I’m not paying $17 for a friggin motor. (all-electronics replied to my email to say they’re not getting any more in).

Also, I’m rather happy with discoveries into frost FX and other SFX materials (thanks to Nigel for pointing me to Van Dykes Taxidermy). I’ll be making 2 faulty units and these materials will make them look amazing. One will look to have frosted up, another goo-a-fied (tis a real word, frell you). Frost FX is expensive, but so are servos and microchips. So the package costs the same in the end.

Acetate.
I need to make quick stencils for lights embedded in the packages, I was using electrical tape or double sided printing, but then it hit me. Overheads! They’re not perfect, but they do well enough, and they’re a HELL of a lot faster! And I can make glowing text etc,.. opens up things a bit. $20 for laser printer ones was sucky, but, my inkjet ones suck.

A prototype design of the Genpet is on my desk…. Starring up at me.
Whether I like it or not, I don’t know. It’s cute, but too baby like.
I’ve hit a lot of problems with these. Hollywood really screwed me over. Anything not mammalian generally looks alien. Reptile features? Alien. Tentacles or flippers? Alien. It sorta limits me into making something that doesn’t look all that genetically altered. And whatever I sculpt has to fit in a package. I’m feelin the burn. (note : burn refers to sculptures block, no exercize beyond going to the couch to play Halo2 has been accomplished).

LED Madness! Blue Led’s are usually $3 each. I found a place, that when bought at 100, they’re 30cents each!!!! Little difference there.
So my fresh checkers will use 2-4 blue Leds each (total at about 60). I’m also considering placing a heart rate monitor in each pack. It’s extra cost and work, but I really like how the one in the prototype package looks.

Glass eyes? $5 a pair…. With my edited design, only 5 will require glass eyes.. so it’s not a matter of cost,. I’m just deciding, is it right to buy eyes? Or do I need to make them? (I can use sculpy + gloss)
I’m anal about issues like that. Every other artist out there cuts corners, and pays people to make things for them, so where does that line lie? It’s a small thing,… but still… there are certain things that differentiate me from every other asshole out there that simply staples moss to the wall…

So I’ve been working everyday, from when I wake up, till I go to bed (and I bring my sketchbook to bed with me) and it’s beginning to pay off I think. I still lack final plastics designs and the genpets, but I’m getting close…

And---- I’m officially the electronics studio Monitor for Wednesdays. So if you need someone to explain a Transistor to you, stop by the lab, I’ll be there and I’ll do my best to confuse you even more.

Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness, I need to calculate What creates my own madness/ And I'm addicted to your punishment
I feel irrational / So confrontational
I never look back cause I don't even want to
And I don't need to

I have wanted to add LCD screens to my thesis project, but didn’t think I would find any for a good price.

I was in futureshop buying a cordless phone (34.99 with caller id! ) and I saw something I’ve never seen before, the “Hip Gear, Screen Pad”. I never saw it here, but apparently it was a failed product in America. Basically it’s a game controller (3 versions, Xbox, Playstation, Gamecube) with a 2.6” colour screen built-in (built-in is a loose term, and so is the mounting job on this product). Overall right away I can see numerous reasons it failed, but none are important for me to go over here.
The important thing is instead of costing $149.99, it was going for 29.95! (I was shocked and couldn’t believe my eyes!! Right next to it they had another portable gaming screen for $219.99)

One persons junk is another persons GOLD. I must have starred at it for 20minutes, I just couldn’t believe it. I kept flipping it and peering through the plastic thinking it had to be PART of a full product, the mounting for a screen perhaps? Or, a complete misprint in price!) Everywhere else small TFT screens are $99+ and usually 7” of PURE crappiness!

This screen is 2.6”, but it’s crisp and sharp, I can read computer text on this tiny 2.6” screen! You can’t do that on one of the 7” ones!

What’s better? Hacking it was EASY! It took me all of 5minutes to rip apart and rewire to my TV. Priceless! Oh, it also has built in speakers. For $30 this is a complete steal!
I baught 4. 3 for me, 1 for my buddy Rob. (happy belated Xmas…) I want 2 for thesis, 1 for future use. It’ll take a few years before I see any other LCD screens for such a low price. And the odds they’ll be such high resolution is completely doubtful.

In the project I’ll use it as planned in the bordering store display surrounding the packages, but I will also embed a second into another Genpet package. At the moment I think they’ll both have the same video, but if I have time I’ll make them different. I want advertisings for these things playing on the screens, with happy kids and lots of flash.

I debated this for awhile, I want to keep my costs down, and I’m broke, but this is too good of a deal to pass up. Shiny blinky ALWAYS gets peoples attentions. Why cheap out if it’s going to make the piece so much better? I refuse.

Also found the motors I’ll be using. And sound proofing foam. And I’m cooler than you.

Sometimes the tool you need doesn’t exist yet. That’s why we have soldering irons and Beer* (*Brandejs.ca does not condone drinking liquor while welding or soldering, *snicker*).

Usher in a new tool I named the StamPIC. It’s a basic stamp, but it outputs to the pin configuration of a 16f84a PIC microcontoller. The circuit has a built in 5volt regulator ( the stamp has a regulator, but seeing as I paid $60, you can never be too careful, I’d rather my 75cent 7806 regulator get blown first) as well as a nifty on off switch! (version 2 will have a modded blue glow from underneath*)
* may be complete BS.
(Why use a regulator? Ahh the dirty little secrets of DC electronics. My 6volt adaptor actually outputs 11.3 VOLTS ! When I measure it with my voltmeter. Thus, regulating is key. This is normal. Go, ummm, standards and good labelling…)

The thing with Stamps is they’re nifty. They light up, and you can program them fast, they have built in power regulators, built in serial programming ports, etc. It’s one click, smoothness, but they’re $60 each! Not too useful unless you’re rich, or rip apart all your art pieces when done, neither option I like.

The PIC microchips are $6 each (+ $1 oscillator) but they’re annoying to program as they require a separate programming board (insert take out, check program, repeat 10 times, break leg off microchip, go buy another chip, waste time and money and so on. Not cool)

So what’s one to do? Can’t we have the best of both worlds?
>> Yes.
That’s what my circuit does!

The Basic Stamp outputs it’s signals to my special adaptor that funnels down to a cable with an 18pin IC socket on the end. It looks like a tiny PIC with a big ugly (dustin) cable coming out of it, and works in the exact same way.
The programming language is the same, so when all is tested and working, you only have to program the PIC once.

Hope that makes sense, but it’s hard to explain most of what I do now in simple terms, it’s becoming rather specialized and not all pretty pictures….
Damn art school tryin to learn me.

Circuitry is like Lego for big kids. You need a lot of knowledge on how and what every little bit does, but after that, you can just start putting things together to get a final beast, and that’s what began to finally happen this year thanks to Simone (my electronics teacher).

Beyond all my Microcontroller and microchip programming knowledge, ( THANK YOU ROB!! PS, Rob Sux) I finally get, Voltage dividers, bi-polar psu’s, Analog to digital conversion, servos, 4049’s, lm3915, 16f84a PIC microchips, 4017 sequencers, etc!!! The picture in my head as to how to program all these things is getting clearer, and whatever I can’t program or do with hardware I can do through software and PIC’s (microchips).

It’s interesting to look back to my animatronic bat from second year and know that I can replace that entire laptop set-up with a tiny little black microchip.