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40 total results found

Laser Cutter

Digital Fabrication Lab

We have a Trotec Speedy 400 which can cut, engraved or etched paper, card, wood and plastic designs.

laser cutter
guide

3D Printing

Digital Fabrication Lab

We have 3D printers that use the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) / Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) process similar to a hot glue gun.

guide

Adding a Processing Library

Dark Lab How To Guides

Processing libraries allow us to use code other people have written within the Processing environment -- these can be really useful when experimenting with more complex projects, and can save a lot of rewriting code. There are some 'core' processing libraries ...

guide
PEMbroider
processing

Software Defined Radio

Dark Lab How To Guides

The CCI has a small number of Adafruit RTL-SDR software defined radios. These can be used to tune into AM and FM radio bands (like a normal radio), but also to decode other kinds of data sent over radio. If you're a mac user, Adafruit has a useful guide to us...

sdr
guide

Using the Brother Innov-is V3 Embroidery Machine

Textiles Area Digital Embroidery

To use this machine, you must have had an induction from one of the technical staff. This guide is to serve as a resource for students who have already had this induction, as a reminder of setup steps and as a troubleshooting guide. Overview The Brother Innovi...

guide
sewing
textiles
Brother Innov-is
CAD
embroidery

How to install Arduino libraries

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

Arduino libraries are collections of code that are designed to provide additional, reusable functionality or to simplify using external electronic modules. Libraries typically come with examples of how to use them. The library developer usually provides online...

libraries
arduino
guide

Powering an Arduino

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

Here is some resources about powering Arduino or other electronic projects: General How to power an Arduino How to power a project What adapter? Portable / Battery powered For portable projects some info on battery usage. http://www.instructables.com/...

power
components
guide

Using an MPR121 capacitive touch sensor

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

The MPR121 is a tiny microchip formerly manufactured by NXP, now under Resurgent Semiconductor, it is a tiny surface mount device that provides 12 capacitive touch electrodes through an I2C interface. What is capacitive touch? Capacitive touch the the technolo...

mpr121
components
guide
pcap
sensors
touch
capacitive

Making sounds with a piezo

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

'Piezo' normally refers to an electrical component which can be used to make sound, however more broadly a piezo is a component that is susceptible to the two-way piezoelectric effect where pressing or squeezing the piezo element can create a small voltage, an...

electronics
pcomp
components
guide

Using a Sparkfun Sound Detector

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

The Sound Detector is a board made by Sparkfun electronics that provides a way to detect ambient sound levels. There are three connections on the board: Audio - This is the raw audio from the microphone. Envelope - This is a analog value representing the vo...

electronics
sensors
music
sound
pcomp
guide

How to connect a push button or switch

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

Buttons and switches are a way of opening and closing a circuit, i.e. making and breaking a connection as one of the most rudimentary forms of sensor you can use with an Arduino. There are dozens of different types of switches and buttons, but at their most ba...

components
pcomp
electronics
sensors
guide

Using a HC-SR04 distance sensor

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

The HC-SR04 is a ultrasonic distance sensor, it uses ultrasound to send out a ping and measure how long the sound takes to come back, exactly like bats use to fly in the dark. The sensor works between 2-400cm however if the ping sound is reflected away from th...

electronics
pcomp
components
sensors
guide

Connecting a Potentiometer

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

A potentiometer (often abbreviated to pot) is an electronic component with three connections, the main purpose of the pot is to create a variable voltage as an input to a circuit, for example controlling how loud your speakers should be. Inside a potentiomete...

sensors
components
pcomp
electronics
guide

How to connect a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

An LDR or Light Dependent Resistor is a component which restricts how much power can flow through a circuit based on how much or little light hits the sensitive part on the top. Wiring To use a Light Dependent Resistor, we have to use it in combination with a...

components
guide
sensors
pcomp
electronics

How to use a rotary encoder

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

A rotary encoder is a device used to measure the rotation of something, similar to a rotary potentiometer but not limited to how many rotations can be made, a common example of a rotary encoder is the volume dial on a car radio, which can be turned infinitely ...

sensors
pcomp
electronics
guide
components

Using the serial monitor and serial logger

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

Serial communication is a type of communication between two devices, normally between a computer and a microcontroller (such as an Arduino), between computers, or between Arduinos. Serial communication can be over physical cables between two Arduinos, or via a...

guide
arduino
pcomp
electronics

Using Arduino Leonardo to send USB MIDI data

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

One of the secrets of Arduino Leonardo is the in-built USB MIDI support. This is really useful for sending data from Arduino to applications like MadMapper, Max and Ableton Live. In order use this you'll need to follow the guide on How to install libraries to ...

arduino
sound
midi
music
pcomp
electronics
guide

How to revive a broken Arduino using a Mac

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

These are instructions for doing this on a mac -- there are a few extra steps which might be a lot less hassle to do on windows but I haven't tried. If you're a student reading this, chances are you don't have an Atmel-ICE programmer to hand: if you're having...

guide

Stepper motor with TB6000 Microstep driver

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

We have the 42BYGHM809 Stepper motors with the TB6600 Stepper motor microstep driver to the Arduino using the BasicStepperDriver.h library. Connect the stepper and driver as shown: Download and install the driver to arduino from here. (If you need help, c...

guide

Mini 360 Degree Continuous Servo Code

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

Continuous servos have a different structure to them than regular servos. A regular servo simply goes to t degree angle to tell it, where as continuous servos of course keep going around, so we must program them slightly differently, like so: // Include the se...

guide

How to build your own flex sensor

Physical Computing Lab How To Guides

You will need: Velostat Copper tape Foam Soldering kit Silicon wire (thin threaded wire is also fine) Tape of some sort Arduino wiring: Arduino code: /* Simple code to light up an LED based on resistance sensor Matt Jarvis - Creative Computing Inst...

guide

How do I borrow a laptop?

IT & Computing IT How To Guides

We operate a laptop locker system that issues Apple MacBook Pro 13" (Intel and M1 Pro) laptops out for 10 hours at a time (about the length of the day), the laptops can be used anywhere on the site they were issued and provides access to all the software you n...

laptop
mac
guide
computer