Finished:
Friday, August 28, 2009
putting together the monome enclosure, day 1/2
Yippee!
Unwrapping:
The parts:
Faceplate & keys:
LEDs on:
Clamping the faceplate material to the top of the wall so that the inner wall can be glued exactly where it should be:
Side view drawing of this setup:
A wall with the inner piece glued to it:
Two walls pushed together, PVA squeezed out:
Cleaned corner:
Pushed together and made square using the midplate:
Clamping together using an elastic rope:
Drilling holes into midplate and half way through faceplate, clamped together and drilled to a limited depth:
Showing the faceplate and midplate 'sandwich':
Stain & Clear:
Unwrapping:
The parts:
Faceplate & keys:
LEDs on:
Clamping the faceplate material to the top of the wall so that the inner wall can be glued exactly where it should be:
Side view drawing of this setup:
A wall with the inner piece glued to it:
Two walls pushed together, PVA squeezed out:
Cleaned corner:
Pushed together and made square using the midplate:
Clamping together using an elastic rope:
Drilling holes into midplate and half way through faceplate, clamped together and drilled to a limited depth:
Showing the faceplate and midplate 'sandwich':
Stain & Clear:
Google Sketchup usability problem
A Google Sketchup component is an object that is the same among all instances (basically). Flipping a component instance breaks this natural rule. For example: here this is the same component twice, one is flipped:
From one side:
From the other side:
Both instances are the same way up (note slots), and the hole is on the same side. However, the flipped component has its holes on the other side.
In real life there is no way to turn or rotate two identical objects to match the images above. This is a usability issue because the mental model in the user's mind does not match the real behavior of Sketchup. Flip should not be an option for components.
Entire discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupissues/browse_thread/thread/831e79c9d3638356
From one side:
From the other side:
Both instances are the same way up (note slots), and the hole is on the same side. However, the flipped component has its holes on the other side.
In real life there is no way to turn or rotate two identical objects to match the images above. This is a usability issue because the mental model in the user's mind does not match the real behavior of Sketchup. Flip should not be an option for components.
Entire discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupissues/browse_thread/thread/831e79c9d3638356
Thursday, August 20, 2009
monome enclosure
Settled on a design.
Assembled:
Showing wooden walls and plastic bottom plate:
Parts, parallel projection:
Exploded:
The four pieces of material that are laser-cut and assembled to make up the enclosure:
Sent to the laser cutting service. From prior experience it should take two weeks to get to my door.
One concern is the upper outside corners. The official monome enclosure and many other products (e.g. the Apple mac mini) use a two dimensional rounded corner which is designed to prevent the user from hurting himself on a sharp point. With the limitation of laser cutting, rounded corners are hard to do.
Some possibilities:
Conclusion: 1 and 4 seem like the best options. Personally, I like the square edges; there's a certain appeal to the contrast between the rounded corners of the faceplate's buttons and the square corners of the enclosure. However, that's an analysis on the aesthetics and not on actual use, I will write an update when I receive and assemble the enclosure.
Other enclosures:
Assembled:
Showing wooden walls and plastic bottom plate:
Parts, parallel projection:
Exploded:
The four pieces of material that are laser-cut and assembled to make up the enclosure:
Sent to the laser cutting service. From prior experience it should take two weeks to get to my door.
One concern is the upper outside corners. The official monome enclosure and many other products (e.g. the Apple mac mini) use a two dimensional rounded corner which is designed to prevent the user from hurting himself on a sharp point. With the limitation of laser cutting, rounded corners are hard to do.
Some possibilities:
- The current design. Pros: inexpensive, simple, can round the corner using sandpaper, although this is a low quality solution. Cons: ouchies.
- A flat border on top of a sanded corner. Pros: no ouchies, high quality rounded corner when looking from the top. Cons: adds the cost of another piece of material, quality differneces between the rounded corners on top and below.
- Stack of plates. Cons: costs way too much.
- Combination of 1 and 2. Possibly the best option. Could even have the faceplate extend over the sides instead of a border piece. Pros: no ouchies, costs about the same as 1, high quality solution. Cons: having the top extend past the side means it's easier to lift the other side when resting your hand on the edge.
- Uses a small laser-cut insert to give an inner rounded corner to the walls. Pros: rounded corners. Cons: may show through when stained, low quality.
- Same as 3.
Conclusion: 1 and 4 seem like the best options. Personally, I like the square edges; there's a certain appeal to the contrast between the rounded corners of the faceplate's buttons and the square corners of the enclosure. However, that's an analysis on the aesthetics and not on actual use, I will write an update when I receive and assemble the enclosure.
Other enclosures:
Sunday, August 16, 2009
monome project log #1
Received a 40h kit, bought from a person on the monome forums who had assembled it already. The design of the monome website, although attractive at first, reveals itself to be a usability nightmare now that I am using it heavily to look for information.
One of the diodes wasn't connected to the PCB on one end, the symptom was the key press wasn't registering and upon inspection the diode was working and the right way around. Adding a little bit of solder to connect the end fixed it.
LEDs were too bright, reduced the brightness to 10% using /osc/howto from http://wiki.monome.org/view/AppMaxMspBasePatches
Measuring the PCBs for a custom enclosure+faceplate. The schematics:
* http://wiki.monome.org/Attachment/monome40h_plate.pdf
* http://monome.org/here/monome40h_grid_layout.png
* http://monome.org/here/monome40h_thrulogic_layout.png
seem to be slightly different from my measurements. Asking for feedback on the official monome faceplate's depth and personal preferences at http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=5522 Will prototype with cardboard before getting one made with real materials. Creating a sketchup model with measurements.
Considering different styles of enclosures, but planning to use a laser cutting service, so the enclosure is limited to a form made from interconnected flat pieces.
One of the diodes wasn't connected to the PCB on one end, the symptom was the key press wasn't registering and upon inspection the diode was working and the right way around. Adding a little bit of solder to connect the end fixed it.
LEDs were too bright, reduced the brightness to 10% using /osc/howto from http://wiki.monome.org/view/AppMaxMspBasePatches
Measuring the PCBs for a custom enclosure+faceplate. The schematics:
* http://wiki.monome.org/Attachment/monome40h_plate.pdf
* http://monome.org/here/monome40h_grid_layout.png
* http://monome.org/here/monome40h_thrulogic_layout.png
seem to be slightly different from my measurements. Asking for feedback on the official monome faceplate's depth and personal preferences at http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=5522 Will prototype with cardboard before getting one made with real materials. Creating a sketchup model with measurements.
Considering different styles of enclosures, but planning to use a laser cutting service, so the enclosure is limited to a form made from interconnected flat pieces.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)