[Noisebridge-discuss] Muralizer meeting notes

[Josh Myer]

Hey all,

The great thing about noisebridge: you announce a cool idea, set up a
meeting, and get a dozen people signed up to help you make it happen.
And not just any people: smart, interested, and generally awesome
people.

Thanks to the awesome people who came out to tonight's muralizer
meeting.  We made a lot of progress, and have achieved organization!

This will probably be the last muralizer email to the
noisebridge-discuss list for a while.  If you'd like to follow the
project, we've got a shiny new mailing list set up on google groups:

    http://groups.google.com/group/muralizer-discuss

Feel free to join up if you want to follow along on our progress.  For
now, here's what I've got from tonight.

-=-=-

We had a really well-attended meeting tonight: 9 people in the end,
and a lot of enthusiasm for the project.  We had a great discussion
about the idea of the project, and where we all would like to take it,
and, in the end, divided up into a few teams to break down the task
into tractable components.

The goal is to build something fairly quickly, and see how it goes.
The ideal is a kit that people can put together reasonably cheaply,
plug in to a common computer using standard software (for artists: an
Apple running Illustrator...) and plot line art on the wall.  There
were lots of other inspiring ideas mentioned (an etch-a-sketch
interface, computer vision for gestural painting, a Logo device, etc),
but, for now, we'll keep it simple.

The current design is a chain that takes in an SVG file, turns it into
G-Code straight line segments, sends that over to the arduino, which
then does stepper motor control to implement those straight lines.
We'll have a pen caddy that holds a pen, with a little plunger to lift
it off the wall.

The implementation details are mostly up in the air.  We have broken
things down into components, and have teams working on each of them.

The first component is the SVG -> G-Code translator.  Leif found an
Inkscape plugin that does this for us, we think.  If that pans out,
we're probably good enough for now.

The next piece is the serial controller, which has two pieces: a host
program that runs on a PC/Mac/whatever and communicates over serial to
the arduino.  This is the core plumbing that gets the G-Code
instructions from our SVG translator down to the thing talking to the
motors, but should be mostly straightforward to implement.  Matt,
Peter, and Daniela are on this one, and I'm hoping we'll have
something roughed-in by next week.

Once the G-Code is on the arduino, we need to actually spin some
motors.  We also need to decide what motor controller to use, and what
motors to hang off them.  Jonathan Moore has some kit we might borrow,
and we have several recommendations for controllers, motors, etc, from
Leo and Jonathan Foote.  This is the largest component team, made up
of Leo, Peter, Jonathan, David, and Daniela.  It's also the most open
(and hardest) problem, so we should get started on it in earnest soon.

The motors are, of course, shuttling around a pen.  On a caddy, with
wires, and hooks and pulleys and... this gets complicated.  Since it's
all so interrelated, we broke out the physical assembly into its own
component.  People on this include Miloh, Jonathan, and Leo, and I'm
hoping to throw Shannon and Rachel in here somehow, since they were
interested in helping out, and this component is likely to be complex.
It would be good to consult with Leif some, as well, as he's thought
about this problem more than most of us, so he might have more insight
to share.


We'll all be reconvening next Monday at 7PM to sync up.  It would be
great if the subcomponent teams could meet up once before then to try
and make some progress before then.  Things it would be great to have
next meeting:

Translator: the inkscape thing should be basically done already (yay!)

Interface Driver: This seems like a Saturday afternoon's coding to get
going, then an evening to smooth out.  It would be greath to have the
rough version done on Monday, to show around, and let us spin up on
motors development, no pun intended.

Motor Controller: Is it possible to have the controller and motors
picked out next Monday, if not in our grubby little mitts to play
with?  How much money will that take?  Let's assume a 5#/2.5kg
shuttle on a door that's no bigger than 6'x9' (2x3m).

Physical Assembly: It would be great to have some design options for
the overall assembly: where to put the motors, what kinds of line to
use, how to lift the pen, etc.

I'll get code hosting set up somewhere tomorrow night, and try to
coordinate subteam meetings as best I can.

Thanks again to everyone who came out: we're going to build something
really great, and hopefully make the world a more beautiful place (I
couldn't resist, sorry.  How often do you get to say that and really
mean it?).
-- 
Josh Myer   650.248.3796
  josh at joshisanerd.com