Classes/2010/VIS147A
Contents
- 1 Introduction=
- 1.1 Instructors
- 1.2 Platform
- 1.3 Grading
- 1.4 Books
- 1.5 Lab Safety
- 1.6 Curriculum
- 1.6.1 Week 1 - Introduction
- 1.6.2 Week 2 - Voltage, Current, Resistance
- 1.6.3 Week 3 - Switches, Logic, Loops
- 1.6.4 Week 4 - Sensors, Semiconductors
- 1.6.5 Week 5 - Midterms
- 1.6.6 Week 6 - POSTPONED
- 1.6.7 Week 7 - Microcontrollers, Digital Input/Output
- 1.6.8 Week 8 - Analog Input/Output, PWM
- 1.6.9 Week 9 - Interfacing with the computer, higher level sensors
- 1.6.10 Week 10 - Summary, discussion, wind-down.
- 1.6.11 Final Project
- 1.7 Resources
- 1.8 Student Pages
Introduction=
147A. Electronic Technologies for Art I (4)
Develop artworks and installations that utilize digital electronics. Techniques in digital electronic construction and computer interfacing for interactive control of sound, lighting, and electromechanics. Construction of devices that responsively adapt artworks to conditions involving viewer participation, space activation, machine intelligence. Purchase of components kit required.
Instructors
Robert Twomey
rtwomey@ucsd.edu
- my work: http://roberttwomey.com
- experimental game lab: http://experimentalgamelab.net
- CRCA: http://crca.ucsd.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 3-4pm, Atkinson Hall Rm 1601 (CRCA research neighborhood)
Tim Schwartz
tcschwar@ucsd.edu
Section: Wed 10-11:50
Office Hours: wed 12 - 1
Stephanie Lie
sflie@ucsd.edu
Section: Tues 9-10:50, 11-12:50
Office Hours: Wed 2-3, VAF 271
Platform

Grading
Overall grade:
- Assignments 50%
- Midterm Project 20%
- Final Project 30%
Assignments are graded on completion. If I assign something during lecture or if you do not finish a lab activity, that item will be due by the next section (one week later). If you finish on time, you will get 100% credit.
Attendance is mandatory. Each absence (from lecture or section) is a 1/2 letter grade deduction off your final grade. Three absences is a failing grade.
Projects are graded on :
- 33.3% - concept/proposal
- 33.3% - effort
- 33.3% - realization/documentation
Readings will familiarize you with material covered in lecture.
Books
They should both be at the bookstore, though other sources may be cheaper.
- Scherz, Paul. Practical Electronics for Inventors, 2nd Ed. 2006. amazon
- Banzi, Massimo. Getting Started with Arduino. 2008 amazon
Additional reference:
- Igoe, Tom. Making Things Talk. free online through roger
Lab Safety
BE CAREFUL. IF YOU DON'T KNOW, ASK.
- http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/shock.html
- http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_3/4.html
Curriculum
Week 1 - Introduction
- Lecture:
- Grading/rules
- Goals
- Art
- Homework 1:
- part 1 - Create a page for yourself on the wiki, adding it to this list [Classes/2010/VIS147A#Student_Pages]. On your personal page, put your name and one paragraph describing your interests in art generally and your interests in electronics and art specifically. Questions to get started: Why are you an art/ICAM major? Are you an art major? Why are you taking this class in particular? Do you have any previous experience with electronics?
- part 2 - Field Research. If it plugs in, has buttons, has a switch, toasts bread, emits light, it probably runs on electricity. We are surrounded by electronic devices. This presents an opportunity. Conceivably, with the right hardware, you can interface with or control any electronic device. Exploring your local environment (your neighborhood, walmart) make a list of electrical devices, and document the 5 most interesting in this regard--things you would like to control. Avoid the dorm room problem--i.e. do not photograph things in your dorm room, apartment, at the price center, etc., unless you have good reason to do so. Dorm room art looks like dorm rooms and thus enters the world severely handicapped. Don't do it!!! Document means photograph, video, or draw. Post images of these five things to the wiki page you made in part 1. If you are feeling extra creative, briefly describe how you would use each item.
- Lab 1: Power Supply, Multimeter, Breadboard
Week 2 - Voltage, Current, Resistance
- Reading for class: Scherz p 1-28, 49-62.
- Ohm's Law video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mHLvtGjum4
- Lecture: Voltage, Current, Resistance
- Homework 2:
- Lab 2: Voltage, Current, Resistance
Week 3 - Switches, Logic, Loops
- Reference:
- types of switches and Scherz p 304.
- logic gates and their symbols and Scherz p 639.
- logic gates can be made of DNA, pneumatic devices, CMOS [1]
- boolean logic
- Claude Shannon - founder of information theory (in 1948), but also ... wrote the most important master's thesis of the century?
- Claude Shannon. A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits. Master's Thesis, MIT. 1940.
- Victor Shestakov. [2]
- relays and Scherz p 306-9.
- jumpstart your car with a relay. Yet Another Hack-A-Day It is probably a good website. As of press time, I see 276 arduino hacks including Arduino security with frickin’ laser, crop harverster, temp and electricity monitoring, and an hourglass.
- Lecture: Switches, Logic, Loops
- Homework 3: Proposal for Midterm Project: Switches
- Assignment: Build a circuit with a switch. Think creatively about the idea of a switch: you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) use a push button switch from your kit or the knife switch from lab. What could your switch turn on or off? What is a particularly interesting switch (or system) in the world that you would like interface with? What are examples of things that are switched on or off? Mechanical and physical solutions are welcome, although we are of course interested in electrical circuits. This is about the concept of a circuit and the idea of switch interrupting/altering flow--find something to respond to, and be creative in our proposal.
- Due next week in section:
- 1 paragraph describing
- 1 visualization of the aesthetic of the piece, how is it going to look?
- 1 diagram of the function of the piece, how is it going to work?
- Bring a printed copy to give to your TA for credit, and post it your personal page on the wiki, under "Midterm Project Proposal."
- We will discuss these at the beginning of lecture next week, this is just a first try to get some ideas going. You will be allowed/expected to change your idea before week 5, when the projects are due.
- Lab 3: Switches, Relays, etc
Week 4 - Sensors, Semiconductors
- Reference:
- Potentiometers: description, including how to calculate voltages with potentiometers.
- Photoresistors: [3] (moderately informative). adafruit industries brief thorough
- Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs): description, datasheet, manufacturer
- Thermistors: wikipedia
- A Parallel Image. [08_a_parallel_image/ website] catalog
- Transistors: [4]
- Tilt Sensors:
- Lady Ada on sensors more generally
- Diodes: [5]
- LEDs: [6]
- Lecture: Sensors, Semiconductors.
- Homework 4:
- Make your midterm project.
- Finish your lab.
- Lab 4: Sensors and semiconductors
Week 5 - Midterms
- Lecture: No Lecture! We are looking at midterm projects.
- Homework 5:
- For next week's lab, review these resources to get a sense of how to solder, you will be soldering all next lab period:
- sparkfun soldering tutorial
- 7 minute video on curiousinventor.com
- videos from NASA
- pdf tutorial from ladyada.net
- In class we will be building our microprocessor circuits, so be sure to bring your Arduino kit and necessary soldering supplies, as listed in the lab page below.
- For next week's lab, review these resources to get a sense of how to solder, you will be soldering all next lab period:
- Lab 5: Build your Arduino!
Week 6 - POSTPONED
I am sorry for the late notice, but...
NOTE: LECTURE IS CANCELED TONIGHT! In lieu of lecture, Steph will be in the electronics lab (VAF 106) from 5-6pm to give a workshop on soldering. If you want to bring your freeduino kit she can help give you finish putting it together.
Great work on your midterms last week, I was very impressed by the thought and effort that went into them!
FYI: Tim and I will be attending the opening of and the world is ours... at compactspace gallery in LA, from 6-9pm. [7] All are invited to attend.
Homework for next week: Read pages 1-42 of "Getting Started With Arduino" by Massimo Banzi. This introduces the Arduino microcontroller, a brief bit of what it does, and also describes your first basic activity with the Arduino, writing and uploading the basic LED blinking program.
NOTE: I will use "Arduino" and "Freeduino" interchangeably: they are nearly identical. The official Arduino is manufactured by one particular group in Italy, the Freeduino is one of many clones of the Arduino made by a company here in the US. Both use the same programming environment and have the same capabilities, so we don't really have to worry about the distinction.
Week 7 - Microcontrollers, Digital Input/Output
- Lecture 7: Introducing the microprocessor.
- Examples from Lecture:
- blink 3 in a row Blink_3inarow.pde (right-click to save-as)
- multiplexer Multiplexer.pde
- push-button multiplexer Multiplexer_w_pushbuton.pde
- rate-control knob multiplexer Multiplexer_w_rate_control.pde
- Examples from Lecture:
- Reference:
- about the Arduino http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardDuemilanove
- duino? http://www.freeduino.org/duino.html
- freeduino http://www.freeduino.org/about.html
- freeduino practical reference http://www.freeduino.org/index.html
- Homework 7:
- Familiarize yourself with the following from M.Banzi 'Getting Started With Arduino'. You will be doing much of this in lab next week:
- Blinking an LED. Banzi p 30-38.
- Use a Pushbutton To Control a LED. Banzi p 41-45.
- One circuit, a thousand behaviors. Bazi p. 45-52.
- Familiarize yourself with the following from M.Banzi 'Getting Started With Arduino'. You will be doing much of this in lab next week:
- Arduino in the news: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/robot-art
- OPTIONAL: Call for works One Button Objects deadline March 1.
- Lab 7: Digital Input/Output
Week 8 - Analog Input/Output, PWM
- Lecture 8:
- Banzi p 56-72.
- Analog Input
- Analog Output, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).
- Lab 8: analog input/output, PWM
- Homework 8: Proposals for final projects. Finish lab exercises.
Week 9 - Interfacing with the computer, higher level sensors
- Lecture:
- serial communication
- networked objects
- Homework 9:
- Lab 9: serial communication
Week 10 - Summary, discussion, wind-down.
- Lecture:
- Homework 10: work on finals. get help
- For Next Week: finish final projects
Final Project
Assignment:
The final project is an open assignment similar to the midterm in that you need to identify and articulate an interest / something you want to make. This time, however, you need to use the Arduino for the project and both the code and the hardware will be considered in your grade. The Arduino presents you with new opportunities, to create:
- A networked object, which either takes data in off of the computer, or sends it out into the world. see Making Things Talk, Tom Igoe
- An object with multiple inputs, multiple outputs, or complex relationships between inputs and outputs.
- Some novel kind of interaction.
- Think of some of the sensors I have shown in class (and others I have mentioned): do you want to make a project with a 3 axis accelerometer, which is sensitive to position? Do you want to use a range finder? Do a little digging on the possibilities and think ahead on this, so you can order a sensor online if you need to.
If you are looking for inspiration, snoop around the Arduino playground http://www.arduino.cc/playground/, particularly the gallery of previous projects [8]. Also look on http://instructables.com, http://makezine.com, and many others. Google searches are good. Try a youtube search for arduino [9]. Or a Vimeo search [10]. There are tons of examples out there.
Format:
- Proposal, posted on your wiki page in a new Final Project section:
- Two paragraph written description of your idea.
- One (or more) diagrams of the function of your project.
- One (or more) illustration of the appearance of the project. You can include additional reference imagery that is relevant to your project. Whatever helps convey the idea you are going for.
- Realization / Presentation in class.
- For this project try to avoid showing us exposed breadboards. Solder things up. Hide your circuitry away cleverly. Wow us with your techno-wizardry.
- Documentation, posted on your wiki page in a new Final Project Documentation section:
- 5 images/videos of your project as completed. Take these as if they belong in your art portfolio (b.c. they do!)--i.e. try to take them with good lighting, against a white background, with no other distractions in frame. We do not want to see dorm room carpets. Good photographic documentation will focus on the art object and nothing else!
- Post the source code for your final project on the wiki. Comment it so your fellow classmates can understand what you have done. And be sure to put your name at the top!
Resources
Reference
- sensors
- motors
Other Similar Classes
- http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Intro/HomePage
- Microcontrollers and sensors http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/classes/microcontrollers/
- mechanical actuators http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/classes/robotics_mechanics/
WhereTo Get Parts
- digikey
- mouser
- mcmaster-carr
- small parts
Consumer Teardown
- iFixit - http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Canon-PowerShot-S500/1261/1
- iSuppli - [11]
Previous Final Projects
Main Board
Many different options. All share a common programming environment, common code, and a similar physical layout. The board we are using does not require an external USB adaptor, which means all we need to do to program (and power) it is to plug it into the computer with a USB cable.
Here are some of the variants:
- Arduino
- Arduino Duemilanove http://moderndevice.com/diecimila.shtml
- Freeduinos
- Bare Bones Freeduinos
- Bare Bones Board http://moderndevice.com/index.shtml
- Readlly Bare Bones Board http://moderndevice.com/RBBB_revB.shtml
- require external USB adapter
- Off-board Serial
- FTDI breakout board (with DTR reset) http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8772
Student Pages
Click "edit" on the right to add your own page below.
- RobertTwomey (demo)
- Steven Yuan
- Ryan Glasgow
- Christa Lee
- Carol Ahn
- Jet Antonio
- Tiffany Lee
- Erika Marie Go
- Kristen Zwicker
- Mike Teall
- Samantha Peterson
- Tung Mach
- Joeny Thipsidakhom
- KimBeswick
- Uyen Nguyen
- Javier Lee
- Ian Petrov
- Scott Jones
- Tanya Ukositkul
- Scott Chiu
- Christina Sanchez
- RaymondGee
- Ian Holaday
- SharonPtashek
- Melody Fu
- Huyen truong
- Simon Quiroz
- Tristan Newcomb
- Ning Chen
- Yuan Pan
- Priscilla Wan
- Angela Kim
- Eric Yun
- Jose Lopez
- Alex Barrera
- Pablo Carrillo
- Julian Santos III
How-To
Register to create a log-in in the upper right.
wiki-text of the form: [[Students/RobertTwomey | RobertTwomey]]
will come out looking like this: RobertTwomey, which is a link to your new personal page on the wiki. Click on it and begin editing away.
There is editing help here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet. Image uploading help is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images. Of course you can always view the source of my page (or any other page) to learn how to do things.
If your embedded photo is HUGE, try some of these tips:
-
[[Image:File.jpg]]
to use the full version of the file -
[[Image:File.png|200px|thumb|left|alt text]]
to use a 200 pixel wide rendition in a box in the left margin with 'alt text' as description -
[[Media:File.ogg]]
for directly linking to the file without displaying the file