Cardboard Computer Components
Youtube Direktcard, danke Niklas!
Niklas schreibt mir: „Ein Plotter aus Pappe! Nicht mehr und nicht weniger. Habe ich letzte Woche gebaut, als ich einen Karton/Computer Workshop an der HfG in Offenbach geleitet habe. Hier der Link zum Cardboard Plotter und hier der Link zu den Studentenarbeiten. Da sind auch echt abgefahrene Sachen dabei, wie das NAND gate oder das racing Game.“
This plotter is made entirely out of cardboard, welding rod, rubber bands, adhesive tape and super glue. The digital memory is a little book with plenty of different drawing codes, which are written down as coordinates. In this video I’m entering the first code, which makes the plotter draw “hello world”.
Hier noch der Clip zu den Studentenarbeiten aus dem Cardboard Computer Workshop an der HfG Offenbach, mit Logicgates, analogen Arcade-Maschinen oder Lochkartenlesern aus Pappe. Sehr tolle Arbeiten, schönes Projekt!
Masterclock: The core part of any digital computer is a clock which synchronizes all logic processes and communications. Tilmann Aechtner built this beautiful time piece. It uses rolls of adhesive tape as weight. On a connected barrel display, you can watch the mechanism counting.
Mr. NAND: Carolin Liebl and Lisa Hopf were interested in fundamental digital logic: Over several design iterations, they managed to build a very clever and well working NAND gate. It compares two binary inputs and calculates one binary output. Several of those mechanical gates in combination can be used to build a complete computer! Although a working computer out of cardboard would probably become a bit large. […]
Arbeit („Labor“): A cardboard computer is not much worth without an appropriate data storage device. Philipp Medrala was fascinated by punch card technology and decided to build his own crank operated punch card reader!
Robe Goldberg Pancake-omatic
Youtube Direkteggs, via Gizmo
Eine Pfannkuchen-Rube-Goldberg-Maschine namens „Pancake-omatic“.
The Pancake-omatic took a team of four design engineers more than 200 hours to construct and a further 100 to test. The device which will go on display at the Design Museum later this month, uses a wide selection of household objects including an old-style gramophone and an electric whisk and features a luxury nest throne for the hen to lay her egg in – we think it’s the best invention to eat the most delicious pancakes!
Lego Axle Sorter AS-L40A-Machine
Neue Lego-Maschine von Akiyuky, eine AS-L40A Maschine, die „Achsen“ sortiert: レゴ シャフト選別機 AS-L40A をつくりました.
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Incredible Lego-Machine 2012
Unbelievable Lego-Machine
Pinball Porn
Youtube Direktpinball, via Laughing Squid
Totally had me at the Twilight Zone-Machine with Robby the Robot.
Lego Mold-A-Rama makes Clown Minifigs
Youtube Direktlego, via Make
Lego-Making-Machine made from Lego makes Minifig-Clowns. Lego is complete now and can be bricked.
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Lego-making Machine made from Lego
Victorian Calculator from 1784
Toller oller Rechner aus dem Jahr 1784 von Johann Helfrich Müller aus meinem Geburtsort Darmstadt. Der Mann war vor allem Architekt und Stadtplaner und hat unter anderem den alten Darmstädter Marktplatz gestaltet, über den ich jahrelang gelatscht bin, weil ich vor drölftausend Jahren dort mal in ‘nem Plattenladen gearbeitet hatte. Vintage, doh!
Dark Roasted Blend hat noch mehr alte Rechner und History-Computer.com hat mehr Infos zu dem Teil, Snip:
After about three months of designing, in June, 1782, the project was ready and Müller gave the drawings to a clockmaker in Darmstadt, with the order to make the machine in metal. The work was taken over by a pair of journeymen in the same trade and on the 20th of June 1784, the machine was ready. On 24th of June, 1784, the 14-digit calculator (see the upper image) was demonstrated in the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, which appointed him as a correspondent.
Müller’s calculating machine is very similar to the machine of Hahn and was based on the Stepped Drum of Leibniz, but it is larger (285 mm diameter, 95 mm height, weight 15.4 kg). It was in the form of a round box with a handle placed centrally and the number wheels concentrically arranged around the handle. It could calculate with 14 figures and its number and gear wheels could be altered to enable it to operate with non-decimal number systems.
Incredible Lego Machine 2012
Vor mehr als einem Jahr hatte ich ‘ne ziemlich fiese Lego-Maschine von Akiyuki aus Japan, seitdem hat der Mann ordentlich weitergebaut und ein 2012er Video online gestellt: レゴ GBC 二年間のまとめ. Still pretty insane.
Engine Rebuild-Timelapse
Youtube Direktengine, via Petapixel
Tolles Timelapse-Video von einem zerlegten und neu zusammengebauten Motor. Sogar für mich als Autoverachter superspannend.
The Midnight Archive: Vintage Machines Collection
Ronni Thomas hat mir grade die neue Folge seiner Midnight Archives geschickt, diesmal geht’s die um die ollen Maschinen von Tim Mullen, der mehrere alte Röntgenapparate und vintage Radios und solches Zeug zuhause rumstehen hat. Ronni schreibt mir: „New Episode – this time around we explore the amazing collection of Tim Mullen – Collector of Old Machines – his place was a paradise for machines doomed to extinction – and also pretty much the set of every mad scientist movie from 1920-1955“.
The Tim Mullen Collection – This episode takes a look at the collection of NYC’s Tim Mullen, an engineer with a soft spot for Antique Machinery… His amazing apartment is LITTERED with Machines from before the turn of the century and onwards. The scope of it was pretty hard to capture on film but i hope we did a good job of it. X-Ray Machines, Vicotrian hospital devices, Old TVs and Radios, and my favorite – a funeral fan (complete with burning jesus lighting) are just a few of the many amazing items in this electirfying collection
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
The Midnight Archive: Webisodes about the strange Things
The Midnight Archive: Modern Day Mummys
Occult NYC Walking Tour
The Midnight Archive Ep.3: Making Men out of Mice – Anthropomorphic Taxidermy
The Midnight Archive Ep.4: The Automata
The Midnight Archive Ep.6: The Empire of Death
The Midnight Archive Episode 8: The Grand Guignol
The Midnight Archive: Dreams And Nightmares in Wax
The Midnight Archive about Les Diableries: Vintage Stereoscopic Pics from Hell
The Midnight Archive: History of the Ouija Board
Midnight Archive Season 2 – Trailer
Tech-Porn: CT Scanner unmasked
Ein CT-Scanner unter der Haube, whoa! Von Reddit:
The upper left corner has the actual X-Ray tube. The lower right is the imager – it’s what basically is the digital “film” for the CT scanner. The box in the upper right is probably the motor that makes the whole assembly rotate.
What does a CT scanner look like with its cover off? (via Deadcat Bounce)
Vintage Coin-operated Mortuary-Automaton
Das ist ein Automat einer Leichenhalle von circa 1900. Wenn man ‘ne Münze reinschmeisst, fangen die Angehörigen an zu weinen und die Forensiker beginnen, an den Toten herumzuschnibbeln. Geht für wahrscheinlich 5000 Dollar über den Auktionstisch. Grandios!
Lot 207
“St. Dennistoun Mortuary” Coin-Operated Automaton, attributed to Leonard Lee, c. 1900, the mahogany cabinet and glazed viewing area displays a Greek Revival mortuary building with double doors and grieving mourners out front, when a coin is inserted, doors open and the room is lighted revealing four morticians and four poor souls on embalming tables, the morticians move as if busily at work on their grisly task and mourners standing outside bob their heads as if sobbing in grief, ht. 30 1/2, wd. 24, dp. 17 1/4 in.Estimate $4,000-6,000
Brass coin plate stamped J. Dennison Leeds NO. 80
Art from interconnected Life-Supporting Machines
Revital Cohen hat einen Loop aus Salzwasser mit paar lebenserhaltenden Maschinen aufgebaut: The Immortal. Eine Herz-Lungen Maschine, ein Dialyse Gerät, einen Brutkasten, eine Beatmungsmaschine und ein Teil, von dem ich nicht weiß, wie man es übersetzt: die Intraoperative Cell Salvage Machine. Das Salzwasser fließt in einem Kreislauf durch die ganzen Maschinen und bildet das simulierte Blut einer künstlichen Lebensform. Nice!
A number of life-support machines are connected to each other, circulating liquids and air in attempt to mimic a biological structure. The Immortal investigates human dependence on electronics, the desire to make machines replicate organisms and our perception of anatomy as reflected by biomedical engineering.
A web of tubes and electric cords is interwoven in closed circuits through a Heart-Lung Machine, Dialysis Machine, an Infant Incubator, a Mechanical Ventilator and an Intraoperative Cell Salvage Machine. The organ replacement machines operate in orchestrated loops, keeping each other alive through circulation of electrical impulses, oxygen and artificial blood.
Salted water acts as blood replacement: throughout the artificial circulatory system minerals are added and filtered out again, the blood gets oxygenated via contact with the oxygen cycle, an ECG device monitors the system’s heartbeat. As the fluid pumps around the room in a meditative pulse, the sound of mechanical breath and slow humming of motors resonates in the body through a comforting yet disquieting soundscape.
Melvin, the traveling, blogging Rube Goldberg Machine
Vimeo Direktmelvin, via Notcot
Vor rund einem Jahr bloggte ich über Melvin, die bloggende Rube Goldberg Maschine. Die hat jetzt ‘nen kleinen Bruder, der rumreist, Bilder seiner Umgebung auf Facebook postet, Postkarten verschickt und seine Reise per GPS und Google Maps dokumentiert.
Melvin the Mini Machine uses a smartphone and bespoke code and software to determine its location, write messages and recognize the people around him. Like the other parts of the machine, most of it is purpose-built and other parts are adaptations of (open source) software.
The phone we use is a HTC Desire running Android 2.3.3 which was given to us by Blue Mango Interactive. We use an app custom built by Michael Schifferling that takes a picture and sends it to a webserver, where an image URL and GPS data are added to a MySQL database. Still with us? [...]
Once a picture is uploaded after it’s been processed, the data and the picture are published to Facebook and Twitter using the API from both platforms. Melvin’s travels page runs the Google Maps API with a custom layout. And last but not least, the GPS data link uploaded by the phone to the markers on the map is a custom jQuery script.
Vintage Arcade Machine Manuals
Vor einer Woche poppte in der Piratenbucht ein Torrent mit über einhundert Anleitungen für alte Arcade-Maschinen auf. Die Dinger sind vollgestopft mit detailierten Beschreibungen aller Platinen und Bauteile und wenn jemand mehr Talent für Elektronikkram hat, kann man sich damit so ein Teil locker selber bauen.
Ich hab’ die PDFs als JPGs ausgegeben und die (für mich) interessantesten Seiten bei Flickr hochgeladen, vor allem die Cover dieser alten Manuals, dazu noch haufenweise Riss- und Explosionszeichnungen der Geräte. Nach dem Klick ein paar davon, hier das Flickr-Set: Vintage Arcade Machine Manuals.
