Technology

Technology

This expanding list will serve as a point of departure in finding appropriate materials for your work.

Please email with additions that may help others in the search for information and technology.

interfaces/programmable devices:

Cycling ’74 (developers of Max/MSP/Jitter software environment)

http://www.cycling74.com

Arduino (open-source protoboard)

Type A 3D printers for Fabrication of your works and ideas

Practical Max Lessons and code

Practical Max Utube

Jitter Cookbook and Andrew Benson

Jitter recipes

http://www.arduino.cc/

Sparkfun

http://www.sparkfun.com/

Microcenter Local

http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/columbus.aspx

ESCO Columbus local supplier on Indianola give you 5% -10% discount if you mention my class

http://esco-ohio.com/

Making Things (5v-USB, USB-5v)

http://www.makingthings.com/

MIDIsense kit (5v-Midi, Midi-5v)

http://www.ladyada.net/make/midisense/index.html

sensors/activators/electronics:

Digi-Key Corporation (difficult to search if you don’t know exactly what you want)

http://www.digikey.com/

The Electronic Goldmine (sensors and various robotics stuff)

http://www.goldmine-elec.com/

Mouser Electronics (all-around electronics stuff)

http://www.mouser.com/

Small Parts (like the title says, but a great resource)

http://www.smallparts.com/

McMaster-Carr (Ohio parts source for gears, couplings, etc…)

http://www.mcmaster.com/

audio:

Madisound Speaker Components (audio components)

http://www.madisound.com/

Parts Express (audio components)

http://www.partsexpress.com/index.cfm

Speaker Works (audio components)

http://www.speakerworks.com/

Sweetwater (pre-made, consumer level stuff)

http://www.sweetwater.com/

information:

Sensor Wiki (maintained by McGill University)

http://www.sensorwiki.org

Limor (wealth of info, plus several useful kits for purchase)

http://www.ladyada.net/

Laser Cutting Resources (thanks, Trademark Gunderson)

Here are some web apps and online generators that create plans/files ready for laser cutting.  A few of these I’ve known for years, but many more come from The Ultimate Guide To Laser-Cut Box Generators (Instructable by SparkItUp).  Note that most of these will output files in SVG format, a common vector-based file format readable by most software (including Adobe Illustrator) used for graphics, fabrication, and laser cutting.

Boxes

MakerCase.  My favorite for simple boxes.  Tell it your dimensions and out comes a box ready to laser cut.  There’s also ConnectionLab and MakeABox.io.

Festi Boxes.py web interface.  Many curved and fancy styles of boxes, trays, drawers, shelves, and more can be generated.  Haven’t used it yet but it looks very promising.

Joinery.  (Instructable here)  Very interesting online tool to generate joints of all kinds to edges – not just finger joints, but suitable joints for laser cut fabric, cardboard and paper…!  NOTE: This tool is designed for adding joints to existing non-jointed plans and shapes, not for building plans from scratch.

SparkItUp’s Guide lists additional box-building scripting languages and plugins for Inkscape for the adventurous power user.

Gears

GearGenerator.  Great tool for creating “involute spur gears“, i.e. gear wheels with interlocking teeth.

 General

SVG Nest.  Trying not to waste expensive acrylic/materials?  Use this tool to pack (“nest”) your pieces into the smallest area possible before laser cutting.

Wolfie’s SVG Puzzle Generator.  Generates jigsaw puzzles.