• Progress

    Martijn • 04/16/2018 at 09:55 • 0 comments

    It's been a long while since i updated this project, but it is still alive. Last weekend I showed my cube on its base at my favorite coffee bar during an event.

    For this event I put some real effort into getting the motor drive to work. It's on a separate board with a similar program tracker/sequencer. I didn't have enough time to get a nice synchronization, but I think I can get a rudimentary system working with a bit of Tx-Rx between the 2 controller boards.

    Here are two short videos I made during the event.

    I hope I can now finally get the last bit of work on my build video done. I was having a long stretch of creator block on it

  • Keeping the watchdog alive

    Martijn • 05/22/2016 at 22:21 • 0 comments

    I didn't realize it was this long since my last update,

    And it's almost been a year since I started working on a stand for the cube. My plan for the arts festival was to have a rotating cube, but that didn't work out. And the construction was too makeshift to troubleshoot, so I decided to redesign the gear assembly. But 'stuff' and 'things' kept coming up (like the stuff in my workshop 'project') and it was difficult to take up this project again because I didn't have a clear idea about how to continue.

    Now I finally have, and I've got a big part of the construction work done. I also picked up the work on the video so things are happening again. This project has been nagging me all this time, and having to make parts for it was blocking other things I want to do, like giving my lathe some tlc.

  • Just a quick update

    Martijn • 09/18/2015 at 01:11 • 0 comments

    It's been a while, just a quick update for now.

    The build up to the the arts festival was quite hectic but the festival was fun to do. The weather was wonderful and reactions very positive.

    Unfortunately I had to decide at the last moment not to use the rotating platform. Making all the parts for the construction took a bit longer than I hoped. I had very little time left the evening before the festival to write some code to make the cube spin. I got the motor running, but the mechanics were to noisy. I think it's solvable with a new bushing somewhere and use a more suitable stepper-driver (which I now have).

    But I've been too busy doing other stuff and/or didn't feel like working on the cube for a while.

    Things I want to do (in this order):

    1. Finally finish first video (it's been a year already since I started this project)
    2. Fix the cube. someone knocked it over during the festival. One of the corners broke and I think I have to replace one panel.
    3. Fix mechanics and program
    4. Make new video

    Here's a small clip from the build log to keep you happy for a while ;-)

  • Very busy

    Martijn • 06/13/2015 at 23:26 • 0 comments

    I signed up for the arts festival which is held next month, which is quite exciting. I have never done anything like that, and even never been to one. And there is a lot of stuff to do.

    I'm designing a nice stand with rotating platform for the cube. The design for the stand is almost ready, I only have to work out some details. And with a bit of luck I can use the machines in the wood workshop in the building where I work, but they are very busy. I already asked but I'm still waiting for a decision.

    I have a basic plan for the mechanics but it needs some work. I was thinking about making my own pulleys for a timing belt, but I decided to use gears instead. I ordered gears for a 1,28:1 (32/25) and a 3:1 (42/13) ratio, which should make it easier to take a 200 step/revolution stepper motor and add it to the sequencer for light effects/patterns. (the sequencer uses 256 intervals per step and with the ratios I can make nice turns with 2^n steps).

    I received the slip rings I ordered on ebay. I need one to transfer power to the rotating cube. So I need to work out my design for a hollow axle which fits my slip ring and gear and is supported by bearings.

    I have a few stepper controllers, The reprap electronics V1.x L297+L298 combo, some v2.x A3982 ones and some a4983 stepsticks too. Haven't figured out yet which is easiest to use, have to check when I decide which motor I use.

    And I also need to find some sort of partytent to darken an area, because the festival is held in day-time, and the cube's optical effect doesn't work in bright light.


  • Status update

    Martijn • 05/08/2015 at 23:04 • 0 comments

    I've made some progress

    - Rewrote a part of the sequencer code:

    • It now has proper precalculation of PWM values
    • Added an extra effect.
    • Found a previously unknown issue to put on a known issues list.

    - Did some documenting:

    • Commented new code
    • Tidied up the schematics and PCB design in KiCad
    • Made some fancy flowcharts

    - Finally managed to convert my videos to fixed frame rate, and started editing in Blender.

    • Made a selection of footage to show
    • adding titles, wipes, and comments but need to work on the text timing a bit
    • made a script to automate some laborious actions in the editing process, and of course this cost me more time then doing the stuff I wanted to do by hand, but the script will be useful in the future ;)

    There are two more things to mention:

    - I thought up some nice addition to the cube. I think it is possible to put the cube on a rotating platform and get some nice special effects with the existing ones. I won't do this yet, at the moment the video is on top of my list, and I sort of had plans for some other projects. But:

    - An arts festival which is held in my neighbourhood placed an open call for artist, makers and the like to send in projects. I have never done this sort of thing thing before, but I decided to send a mail with a bit of video, to see if they think the cube is something to show at the festival. The theme is Amazement, so they might be interested. And this would of course be an excellent excuse to make a rotating platform

  • Progress bar: |[][][][][][][][]] | 84%

    Martijn • 04/17/2015 at 01:48 • 0 comments

    (Tbh the % isn't based on real measurable progress, but it is 2*42 )

    First of all, thanks for the follows and skulls! As you can see from my profile I'm very new to hackaday.io. I've been busy doing stuff and things the last few days, so I haven't looked into what goes where yet, but here is an status report for the Infinity cube project.

    The hardware: The cube, its base and the electronics are finished.

    The firmware: The executable part of the firmware is finished (feature and bug complete).

    The firmware: The data part (which is stored in the program space of the uC) is partly finished:

    - I need to write a few demo programs to show the cubes abilities

    The documentation: under way, here is a list of things to do:

    - The code is commented

    - The schematics and board design files need to be tidied up a bit .

    I'm still not sure if, how, where and under what license I will share/publish these.

    - I made videos of the construction progress for a build log/how-to video, but the video footage quality wasn't what I'd hoped. The footage (+/- 110 clips of varying length (and variable frame rate unfortunately) need to be converted to a file format which I can easily use in a video-editing program. I want to use Blenders VSE. which afaik needs fixed frame rate input. Unfortunately I'm having problems with transcoding, I get errors for a large part of the videos when I try to fix the frame rates.

    - I need to make some more videos, showing and explaining the workings of the cube and the firmware

    - for the above I need to figure out what I want to show, and how

    - I need to edit all the footage into one clip, get some feedback and maybe re-edit a bit. write some more project info and publish it.

    Before I found this site (the .io part) I was busy sorting out the mess of project files which were strew around on my harddrives. If I sort that out before I finish the project I can have a more comprehensive profile, which i think is a good thing to have at that time.

    I hadn't written the list above down yet, so that's already some more progress :) but that's it for now.


    You guys decided to follow this project just based on a picture, I was wondering what you would like to know about this project, maybe you can drop me a hint?