Author Archives: paulwallich

Failing to fail

Posted on February 6, 2020 by paulwallich

I’ve been working on and off with Blinkinlabs’ BlinkyTape and pixels, which means also with their nice little app PatternPaint, which lets you create little light shows to download to their LED strands without all the annoying number-fiddling that is … Continue reading →

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Lasercar Lives!

Posted on February 1, 2020 by paulwallich

I know it’s not much, but the new version is ready for coding. It knows how far it is from obstacles (in front), it steers, it goes forward and backward. And it does it all in python. Code and current … Continue reading →

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In praise of useless information

Posted on December 13, 2019 by paulwallich

About a year ago, back when we were still doing laser night at Local64, C did a nice backlit laser-cut sign for me to put in the door downstairs, using a font that wasn’t properly speaking a stencil but still … Continue reading →

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Let There Be Light

Posted on December 4, 2019 by paulwallich

I remixed an old openscad christmas tree design to include space for a coin cell and an LED. Coincidentally I have a bunch of green LEDs lying around — their light gets through the plastic a lot better than the … Continue reading →

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Coming soon: Lasercar

Posted on October 19, 2019 by paulwallich

It takes a 21st century laser to return motorized widgets to the medieval era. I’m redesigning my basic robot car for the Glowforge — partly for convenience, partly just because I can. The laser cutter is way faster than a … Continue reading →

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Maker Faire day 2

Posted on September 28, 2019 by paulwallich

Huzzah! Today we were inside and had decent wifi. Bill started right up and connected with no problem, and we spent the day cutting and engraving for curious onlookers. The exhaust went out one of the Coach Barn’s venerable windows, … Continue reading →

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Glowforge at Champlain mini maker faire

Posted on September 27, 2019 by paulwallich

Today was “education day” at CMF, which meant hundreds of kids coming up and asking about the laser cutter in the courtyard of the barn. (Oh, and that tent in the background with all the kids, that’s Ben Matchstick and … Continue reading →

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Unexpected Consequences of my Crowdfunding Addiction

Posted on September 23, 2019 by paulwallich

only to discover that “available” didn’t mean “stable” Continue reading →

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CircuitPython for early hardware exploration

Posted on April 3, 2019 by paulwallich

I’d expected the software side of using CircuitPython chips to go more easily than coding in Arduino, but what I hadn’t really expected was for the hardware side to go more smoothly as well. It’s early yet, and most of … Continue reading →

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The short happy life of a Popup Makerspace

Posted on February 20, 2019 by paulwallich

We’re out of empty offices at Local 64, so it’s time to pack up the laser cutter, the 3D printer and all the other toys. if you build it, it turns out most people are too busy to come. Six … Continue reading →

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