Well I’m back on track now and today I took the plunge and put my code out there on GitHub.  You can see it if you’d like at http://github.com/chrisgilmerproj/MakerCafe.  I’d intended to submit my code in the form of a python package, but I only got partway to that goal today.  I’ve got to finish attaching the appropriate license information and to add some management commands for the buildout, but I can get that done later this week.

My next goal following the packaging of MakerCafe is to put up a real website with documentation and examples for others to see and use.  I currently host a working copy of a MakerCafe website at http://www.makercafe.com for people to see.  I intend to move that over to http://www.makercafe.org and to use the .com address as a platform for hosting makercafe sites for the public.  That’s probably a far reaching goal, but I see myself getting there in a couple months.

All-in-all I’m pretty pleased.  The transition from my personal svn repository to git hasn’t been hard at all.  And I look forward to inviting other developers to help out on my project.

One of the best projects I had the chance to work on at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory this last year was a small driving remote for their robot ATHLETE.  I thought I’d write up a little post about what I did, why I thought it was cool, and to thank the people involved.

Back in November of 2009 I started working with a couple friends to build a small kit for the iRobot Roomba.  At the same time I happened to see a lecture at JPL by Dr. Jeff Norris and was inspired to use a gaming controller for my work at home.  My friends and I chose the Wii Nunchuk as the interface device and began work on a wireless remote system.  Our hope was to build a kit that someone could purchase, build and then easily snap the parts to their Roomba and Nunchuk and be off and running the device around their living room.

My friends and I got through most of the hard work for the system by March when I happened to be at another lecture with Dr. Norris.  After the talk I decided to say thanks by way of telling him how he inspired me to use a gaming controller to drive my Roomba.  To my surprise and delight he asked that I show him a demo--in fact, he and his team been looking for an alternative for driving their robot ATHLETE short distances during testing and my solution might be what they were after.

That night I spent a couple hours building a small breadboard demo using the Nunchuk, a couple arduinos, xbees, and some LEDs.  I brought it in the next day to show it off, just pleased as punch to show what I’d done.  Uncharacteristically, the demo went off without a hitch.  Later that week Dr. Norris got me a charge number for the project for 40 hours of work and $1K in hardware costs.

What I ended up building was a scaled back version of my original controller.  The ground ops team needed an interface between the Wii Nunchuk and the hand held computer they’d use during testing and some Java code they could use to read the output.  That was easy enough and I got to work on it.

For the hardware I selected products I could get directly from my favorite supplier SparkFun: an Arduino pro mini 328, an FTDI breakout board,  some right-angle break away headers, and a small project enclosure.  I also needed a miniB USB cable to connect it to the computer, not to mention the Wii Nunchuk.

For the software I was lucky to find a great resource in Tod Kurt and his blog on the “WiiChuck”.  When prototyping my home project I’d actually purchased his I2C WiiChuck Adapter from SparkFun.  Then I reworked his open-source code to make additions for my own WiiChuck Arduino Library.  I used this library in the Nunchuk code for the adapter.  I absolutely couldn’t have done the project without the head start his work gave me.

The project finally came together in the summer.  It probably took so long because we all worked other missions full time, but we were happy to see it complete.  It was also done just in time for summer testing and I got a great video of the guys using my device out on the Arroyo near JPL:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz024ENb3ks

If you look closely you can see the driver with the device.  He’s at the beginning of the film on the left.

I also got some great pictures of the device itself that you can see in my Flickr Stream “Driving ATHLETE”.

My device and ATHLETE were also featured in the San Gabrial Valley Tribune in August.  You can see Julie with the WiiChuck device in several of the photos they took.

I forgot to mention that when May rolled around I attended the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.  In the afternoon I actually stopped by the tent with all the kits and spotted both Nathan Seidle and Tod Kurt!  I went over and talked to both of them, told them about the project, and basically gushed about how much I owed both of them for their work.  It was a proud moment for me.

I’ve also got to thank several key people that got this project done.  First, Mike and Will, the two guys I worked with in my original project.  I also want to thank Dr. Norris for giving me the opportunity to do the project and my mentor Dr. Desai for encouraging me.  Finally, the ground ops team for ATHLETE, David and Lucy, were just fantastic and I couldn’t have worked with a better team to get things done.

I’m always going to remember this as one of the best projects I ever did for JPL and I hope I get another opportunity like it in the future.

What I found was encouraging but not quite what I’d wanted.  I think a hacker space is great if you can get down to the space a couple times a week and if the resources provided fit your needs.  But I don’t really live near any hacker space that I can get to easily after work.  I also don’t do enough hardware intensive projects to warrant paying the membership fee for tools I may rarely use.  I need a place where I can casually connect with people that want to work with me on a specific project or who can provide access to a tool I might need for just a weekend.

Then in January, with all these thoughts running through my head, I headed out for coffee with my girlfriend.  Standing in line I remember thinking how I wish there as a coffee shop filled with makers, people I could sit down with and bounce ideas off of.  And I wish that one of those people would offer me an hour on their laser cutter or CNC so I could make whatever unique part I wanted for my latest project.  That’s when I thought of the MakerCafe and decided I needed to build what I wanted instead of looking for it.

MakerCafe is a social networking website for people that want to collaboratively build projects and share tools and other resources.  I want it to be a place where you can meet other people locally or across the country to start working on a project.  Then, if you need a specific tool or part, you can turn to the community for help.  Maybe you need to cut something out of plexiglass and there’s a guy in the city who will do it for you.  Maybe you need a sewing machine or a serger and don’t own one, but the lady down the street would be happy to teach you how.  I want to help build a community of people that make things together and give them the tools to do it.

Now I’ve been working on MakerCafe for about two months.  I’m mostly doing the work on my own but I hope to get more help soon.  I’ve already made some huge progress on the site and I hope by the middle of the summer I’ll be able to launch a beta to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t.  As I work on it I’ve decided I need to post my ideas and look for feedback.  This site isn’t a secret and I want it to be useful for others.  I’m even looking for help with building it.  So keep looking back here for more updates and I’ll keep working hard to get the site up and running.

I have recently been involved in a love affair with Django.  It’s robust, responsive, and allows me to quickly build things that integrate with existing python scripts that I have floating around.  The problem was that I’m used to doing my development with an actual MySQL database on hand, not the sqllite3 that comes preinstalled with python.  Solution? Install a MAMP Server stack on my laptop so I could develop like I would deploy.

Deploying a MAMP Server and serving up Django websites provided a number of challenges.  Thankfully most of the resources I needed were online and could be handled by MacPorts.  After a day and a half of hard work I’ve managed to do it and document the results in two pages on my wiki:

• Building a MAMP Server
• Integrating Django with Apache and mod_wsgi

I thought I’d write all of my experience up in one place so that others could use the same information in the future.  The only thing I wasn’t able to figure out was how to serve up multiple Django websites on my computer, though that’s not terribly important to me at this juncture.

I’m excited that I’m going to get a chance to do my work using Django.  I’m even confident that my project might take my project and deploy it for the project and maybe the lab to use.  I guess we’ll see.  I’ve got a lot of work ahead but I think I’ll manage to get it done in time.

The MakerBot has been making the rounds and popping up in the news for the last year.  I heard about it a month or so ago and this month it was featured in both Make Magazine and Wired!  That’s a pretty sure way to go mainstream with this DIY project.  It sounds like they’ve even ramped up production, making hundreds of these to ship each month to people like me who can’t wait to build them and print things out.

I’ll confess that my interest isn’t just in 3D printing.  I’ve have limited skills in 3D rendering and even less when it comes to the art of design.  My strength, however, is in improving the design.  I’ve already read through their wiki and the forum set up for the MakerBot.  What I’ve learned is that you get better builds if you can modify the printing area so that it warms up.  You can also get tighter control on what you build if you include digital magnetic encoders on the motor.  I’d even want to put up an LCD display so I could get real-time feedback from the machine.  That of course got me thinking about modifying the electronics to work directly with an Arduino Mega.  And of course, how about connecting it directly to the internet?  The possibilities are endless.

Of course this MakerBot Madness that I’ve fallen into isn’t new.  Lots of people currently share this same feeling across the world.  I just feel I’ve got to be a part of it.  I’m going to start saving my pennies now.  Maybe I can buy a MakerBot in batch 12 or 13.  By then I’ll have practiced making 3D parts more and have a place prepared to put it.

Keep an eye out here on my blog.  I expect some cool things are coming down the pipe and you won’t want to miss it!