IZation Labs

Amal Graafstra, author of RFID Toys, has recently collaborating with Robotics Connection to create a brand new, incredibly powerful RFID reader! Here’s an excerpt from his website.

“Here’s the feature shortlist;

The following device has been unofficially dubbed the “Blasphemous Bible Box” by my roommate. It was built for my art class, in which we were instructed to create our own ‘box’ project. The limitations were few. The size and style of box did not matter. The concepts were to be approved by the professor, and it did not need to be comprehensible, ie, it could be extremely personal and secretive.

My project was built from a lightly modified inexpensive cigar box. From the outside it looks like a modern though simplistic black box, with a kind of hammered metal sheen.

The inside is lined with genuine leather, complete with a New Testament Bible. The Bible is stuck open to the book of Revelations. Specifically, the primary verses concerning the Mark of the Beast.

Hidden beneath the paper and leather is a bird’s nest of electrical wiring and components. Inside is an Arduino, six AA batteries wired in series, a five volt regulator, a servo motor, and an RFID reader.

This is an art project, you ask? Yep. Read on, there’s a video of it in action after the break.

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With the freedom of summer break coming to a close, I’m going to be taking some time off of work in a few days before classes start back up again so that I can

1. see my friends
2. work on my projects
3. enjoy what little free time I have left!

In light of this, I have decided to post some pictures of one of my newest miniature projects, which though not quite complete is still noteworthy. Yesterday one of my closest friends and I hung out all evening. We were acting our usual childish selves, watching action movies and cartoons, and finally we decided to finish off the night by building a miniaturized arc reactor look alike from the movie ‘Iron Man’.

Don’t miss out on the rest of the pictures, click here to read on!

Blender 2.49 has been released, and the updates look promising. Hit Blender.org for the details and download. Next stop, 2.5!

Expect an interesting post in the near future, as my most recent (and most expensive) project has nearly been completed!

Here’s a neat video that was posted a few days back on BlenderNation. It had ‘steampunk’ in it’s name, so of course I had to post it. Nice use of Blender!

Steampunk Mousetrap from Ben Dansie on Vimeo.

Personal Note: The Macbook Pro has been back in my possession since last Thursday. Unfortunately I was unable to have the repairs made AND maintain possession and security of my own data, as Apple has to have the old hard drive back. Upon emailing them, they assured me that data on hard drives are properly expunged before the drives are destroyed or refurbished, so I should have nothing to worry about. As long as I trust Apple. :/

–Lace

Today’s post is about a microcontroller called the Arduino Diecimila.

You may not be familiar with the term microcontroller. A microcontroller is basically a small, often times specialized computer. Some microcontrollers such as the Basic Stamp and Arduino are easily programmable and are great for prototyping and do it yourself projects, meaning that geeks and make-your-own X product kind of people jump all over them. I know, that doesn’t do it justice, but it will suffice for now.

The arduino is a neat little device. Unlike the Basic Stamp 2 or some other common microcontrollers, the Arduino can be purchased very cheaply ($35), and is usually already completely assembled. To get started with your own electronics projects, all you have to do is plug it into your usb port. Then you just download the free programming environment from the arduino website and you are ready to go.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s all open source?

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