Kunstautomat

Lately I have been working with ultrasound rang finders. I’m using the very inexpensive Devantech SRF02 (approx 14 €). This ranger has an I2C interface ideal for microprocessors such as the Arduino or the BASIC Stamp. If you want to connect it directly to a PC you will need some sort of interface available on a standard computer. I´m using the Devantech USB-to-I2C board. This board is tiny, priced at approx. 27 € and can interface up to 16 ultrasound rangers. I’m working in VB.net (VS2005) and had to do some code-twisting to get it to work. You can download my srf02.vb module as a ZIP-file. Just add this module to your VS2005 project and call the function like this:
sonarping(comport As String, sf02_address As Byte)
The function returns the distance in centimeters as an integer. The default address of the SRF02 is &HE0.
Download the SRF02.vb module

Labels: devantech, download, freeware, programming, software, sonic ranger, srf02, VB, VS2005

The Processing book is finally out on MIT Press. It’s not the “missing manual” (the Processing website/community is much better for this). But last year I was asked to read and comment the manuscript, and even if I skipped the code (which I didn’t), the book was full with great ideas from some of the most talented people among the “creative code” folks. Sadly it is 50 dollars. But US dollars come quit cheap these days.

Labels: book, software

Last week I was doing a workshop at the Art Academy of Jutland. We need a simple way of controlling motors and toys from a remote webbrowser. We ran a server on an old inexpensive PC with a printerport, and I wrote a small commandline tool for switching pins on the port on and off. You can download this extremely simple program. The program is freeware and a small text file with instructions is included – but I don’t offer any support .

Labels: download, freeware, hardware, physical computing, software

Read this excellent - and short - guide by Golan Levin.
Computer Vision for Artists and Designers: Pedagogic Tools and Techniques for Novice Programmers

Labels: online text, physical computing, software