this is version one of my beatjazz gestural control interface. it is a 3 way wirelessly networked control interface for creating and manipulating sound. there is a headset, and two hand units, all adjustable.

the beatjazz control interface is not an "instrument" as much as it is an idea of personal interfacing. i created this as my interface to computers to express myself in a different way, owing to the neccesity to program everything myself. my personal version has not remained design stable since its first functional iteration. it is evolving along with the software and the biokinetic paradigm.

in this version, the headset has a pressure sensor that registers breath pressure and uses it to instantiate notes, and functions. it also has a lip sensor made from a force sensing resistor that allows for lip control in a manner similar to a sax player but with massively more potential for expression.

the hand units are exactly the same except that they are mirrored (i designed the left hand and inverted the design before printing.) there are four fsr mounting points on the keypad area for force sensing resistors. underneath the forefinger and the thumb on each hand, there are 5 way toggle switches that i use for mode selection (volume control, looper rec/dub, sustain and primary loop record) and the lower one is for octave selection. on the right hand the upper joytoggle is for transposition modes and for some upcoming concepts i am playing with ;-) while the lower joytoggle is for pre and post fx, muting and feedback.

an accelerometer on each hand determines x-y coordinate based on the plane positioning of the keypad of each hand. with the keypad level with the ground, x axis is left/right tilt and y axis is forward backward tilt, both from the wrist. these motions are used to control a grid of gestural parameters. the synths that i use are purpose built for this method of control, which i call gestural trajectory synthesis. (i will be uploading the patches very ooon.)

***This is not a printable design - it's a How-To that I thought appropriate for the users here***

Is your room and/or workshop currently composed of over 70% PLA/ABS, strewn about all willy-nilly? Do you take pleasure in indulging your OCD-ish organizational tendencies?

If you answered yes to either then you may like this cheapo 'Things Filing System' and accompanying spreadsheet template that you can use to search by keyword in order to find what you want, when you want it.

I.Q.B. (I-cube)
The ultimate toddler toy!

After shopping around for toys for our son, I was quite disappointed with the price/longevity/challenge of most toys.
There is some cool stuff out there, but most are utterly simplistic and quickly boring and way too expensive.
So I set out to create the coolest toddler toy ever ;-)

The basic idea is to create a fancy looking enclosure, add lots of buttons, dials, some LED's, a mic and speaker. Hook them up to a micro-controller and voila a reprogrammable toy.

I have been working on multiple aspects at the same time, but I thought it time to start sharing the first part:
The enclosure, a cube made from printed parts and Plexiglas.
While this is not the cheapest option, it will be quite modular during construction and finalizing.
And I expect the end-result to be quite sturdy and up to toddler abuse.
For me this also an excercise of working with Plexiglas again and I was ordering some anyway ;-)

I'll update the project as I move along.
Follow instructions at your own risk!
As always, if you don't know what you are doing, don't do it!

I was using 'Mendel Feed Spool' for a while.

thingiverse.com/derivative:8495

However, it was inconvenient when carrying by car.

I built 'Folding Spool Holder'.
However, since width is wide, this is somewhat regrettable...

This is a lotus or rose or what ever is most Awesome. I made this as a gift for someone so I went the extra mile and made some brass leafs colored green and Copper wire stems so oxidize them in a brown green tone. I went to TIG the copper to the stainless stalk but It was too small so I just brazed it. I ended up Threading the stem to use a 4/40 nylon acorn nut below the flower and a 4/40 acorn nut at the top to look real.

This is the PRotos 3D-Printer designed on the base of Mendel/Prusa to build up a more versatile printer wich is expandable for different applications.
It is available as a complete kit at: grrf.de/de/catalog/grrf-protos-3d-drucker-komplettbausatz

This is my design of a peristaltic pump or hose pump if you translate it directly from german.

I built this pump for reseach to gather basic hands-on knowledge of the inner workings.

If you have a MakerBot/3D Printer you can start right away. I built it in a few hours with common parts i had at hand.

Unfortunately you definitly NEED a very flexible silicone tubing, to get it really working. I did my first try with a short piece of tube i cut from our fish tank - this was definitely to hard for the ABS. unfortunately i was to eager to pump some water, so i did, but the contraption got too hot and broke.

The Pictures are from the rebuilt, but this time i'm waiting to get the silicone tube.

Currently there are no mounting holes for a motor. i used my electric screwdriver for testing. Gearmotor is planned, but i had to determine the required torque with this build.

It is printed in red PLA with a mendel reprap. The slices are 0.2 mm to gain the details needed for printing in original size.

For that I just resized it to the size of standard lego (exactly factor 0.5). Because of the miniaturisation I had to change the hole for the clamp of the hips. Also I slightly increased the size of the arms for a better fit to the hands.

I glued some nails into the arms and put them into the holes of the torso. Now you can also move the arms!

For a better fit to lego bricks I cut of two squares into the legs - now it can stand on lego :-)

The human powered internet cafe looks at the issues of renewable power generation and aims to educate users to the energy requirements of surfing the internet.

Users are asked to peddle the exercise bikes in order to turn a dynamo which would in turn power the computers. If users fail to peddle hard enough the computer monitors will begin to flicker encouraging them to peddle harder.

The thing would ideally be placed in public areas where all forms of society could view it and try it out for them selves, thus educating as many people as possible.

My Second design of a small geometric sculpture that explores the battle between cake and pie

This is a derivative of the filament spindle made by Erik on Thingiverse.

This is designed to operate along side the Makerbot rather then the RepRap. Because the Makerbot Cupcake CNC does not have the same structure that the RepRap does, the original design does not work. By attaching the stand we now have a standard spindle which works with any system.

Problems that still need to be addressed:
- Spindle spins so freely that the filament itself would probably unwind itself slowly. In the future i would like to add a screw that can be tightened which adds friction to the sides. Keeping the spindle from spinning 'too' freely.
- The Spindle is slightly underweight and with enough lateral force could topple. To address this issue simply attach something heavy to the base. Or add an additional acrylic piece perpendicular to the current stand to increase the base size.