Raspberry Pi Urban Agriculture TweetBot Monitoring System

We're using an Anitech IR 160 USB webcam. 

March 5, 2015 -- Helios Labs We're building an automated urban agricultural project, with at least one garden on the rooftop, and an indoor LED-lit project similar to our already successful indoor aquaponics system (recently just moved).

The project will include a means to monitor and even control it online using Twitter among other applications. It will include the following features:

1. TweetBot to automatically tweet pictures of the garden several times a day.
2. TweetBot to automatically tweet water level and soil moisture data at least once a day.
3. The ability to water plants and feed fish remotely.
4. The ability to take pictures on command remotely.

For now, we have the TweetBot automatically uploading pictures of the system several times a day. Here's how we did it. If you make it through this tutorial, you'll be able to add on other features. To make this TweetBot, we've used a Raspberry Pi B+ (RPi).

Making a TweetBot tweet pictures of the garden several times a day.

1. Setting up Raspberry Pi: We downloaded the Rasbian .zip file found on Raspberry Pi's official website, unzipped it, and used Win32 Disk Imager to put it on our mini SD card. We placed the SD card into our Raspberry Pi B+ and followed the instructions in setting up the desktop. Raspberry Pi's official website has a help section full of links showing you the absolute basics, in case you get stuck.

Follow this guide to help you download an OS and put it on your SD card for installing on your RPi.

We also did some practice using the terminal and even setting up a way to wirelessly control it using a laptop within the same network (same room using the same WiFi connection). A good tutorial showing these steps can be found here.

Arduino 3D Printed Fish Feeder V.2

January 27, 2015 -- HeliosLabs Version 2 of our auto-fish feeder is finally printed out and the files are now available online. It isn't perfect but it will be a good starting point for others. It is designed specifically to hang from a planter over a fish tank in an aquaponics system. In the future we might design a mounting system for a regular fish tank. If you want to use this now for a fish tank, you are free to modify and repost the files. In fact, we encourage it!

V.2 two being assembled with an Arduino Uno board visible in the electronics compartment just about the servo spacer which holds the servo in place when the cover is finally closed. The "arms" are attached to the back cover using a t-slot. Because this model was printed on a MakerBot using low resolution, the arms fit in very tight and required a little careful forcing. Once in place they will stay in place.

You can find the .stl files on MakerBot's Thingiverse here. For SketchUp users (this model was made in SketchUp) you can find an exploded view here in the 3D Warehouse, and a layout version you can use to export the files to .stl for printing. 

Putting Comet 67P into SketchUp

December 6, 2014 The European Space Agency (ESA) has recently put two 3D formats online of comet 67P currently under observation by the Rosetta spacecraft (see also ESA's Rosetta mission page). The formats are .wrl and .obj, neither of which can be imported into SketchUp 8.

Stl files can also not normally be imported into SketchUp 8 unless you have the proper plugin. There was a tutorial on this published a while back so if you would like to import/export .stl files, check it out. In addition to importing ESA's 67P model, .stl files are useful for 3D printing.

With the plugin you can bring in .stl files, but how do you convert ESA's .obj file into an .stl file? I found an online converter that does just that. An online 3D file converter found at Greentoken.com allowed me to take ESA's .obj file and convert it into an .stl file in 3 easy steps. I was then able to import it into SketchUp 8 and then used the "Make Faces" plugin to cover the wire mesh.

The results are far from perfect but I do basically have comet 67P in SketchUp 8 on my desktop ready to explore.  I thought it might be interesting to print this out and make a Christmas tree ornament out of it but there are some problems with the model that would need to be resolved first.

Follow Helios Labs on Twitter @HeliosLabs or find us on Facebook here. 

Technical Illustration :: Stingray Tank

DesignTutorial :: Technical illustrations are both interesting and informative. There are also many different kinds. A basic and more subtle version that is very easy to do using SketchUp involves taking a Vray clay render, and combining it with an x-ray view exported from SketchUp. Meshing these together can be done a number of ways in GIMP or Photoshop, and involve changing the opacity of your layers, and perhaps even apply a gradient opacity mask to give a transition from solid to more transparent.

Below is how the tank (uploaded onto SketchUp's 3D Warehouse here) looked after it was done being modeled and had some basic materials applied.

 

Next, go to Global Switches in Vray, and choose override materials. This will give you what is called a "clay render" as seen below. 

You're next going to want to go into "Styles" in SketchUp and change to a "hidden lines" template and under "edit," click on the x-ray option under "face." This will give you a a look at the inside and backfaces of your model, mimicking a technical illustration.

SketchUp + Vray Animation :: SpaceX Dragon

DESIGN :: In order to expand your skill set as a designer of products, interiors, architecture and more, eventually you will have to tackle animation. A properly done animation can greatly enhance your ability to communicate your design.

There are many different approaches to producing animations, and the approach you take depends on the tools you have available to you. In terms of rendering, I generally use Vray, though I do have Kerkythea as a backup and for experimentation.

Over the weekend I produced several animations - one using the Proper Animation plugin together with the free, open source rendering software, Kerkythea, and 3 using standard scene transitions inside of SketchUp along with Vray. Additionally, you can just export scene transitions directly from SketchUp and splice them together in a video editing program, which are included in the test animation.

The video below is the tutorial I used, showing the proper settings that worked with my version of Sketchup (8 Pro) and Vray. The most important steps are that you check Global Switches in your Vray options window, "Batch Render," and under Output, check "Animation," as well as designate where Vray will save finished frames to. Under View>Animation>Settings, you should also enable scene transitions, set an appropriate transition time in seconds (the tutorial used 3 seconds, I used 8), and ensure that "Scene Delay" is set to zero. Other tutorials will have you change a host of options, and these may work in certain instances, but not on my computer. 

SketchUp 8 + STL Files for 3D Printing

Galata Tower STL in SU8

EDUtutorial :: I have an older version of SketchUp 8, but I really wanted to try the new .stl plugin announced on SketchUp's official blog.

STL files are what you would use in 3D printing, and so having the ability to import STL files into SketchUp, or convert models you've made in SketchUp into STL files, allows you to add SketchUp into your 3D printing workflow. 

If you have the latest version of SketchUp 8, all you have to do is follow the easy instructions on SketchUp's blog to install the new plugin. You simply go to Window>Preferences>Extensions and then click on Install Extensions... Then you navigate to where you downloaded your .rbz file and go on from there.

Since I have an older version of SketchUp 8, I have no such button called Install Extensions. So what I did instead was what you normally do with all ruby scripts -- drop them right into SketchUp's plugin folder manually.



Here's the steps...

1. I opened up my Plugins folder by going to Program Files>Google>Google SketchUp8>Plugins.
2.  Then alongside that folder, I opened up the folder I downloaded the .zip file for the STL plugin into (download here).
3. You should have a .zip folder titled, sketchup-stl-master. Inside it should be a normal folder also titled sketchup-stl-master. Inside that you will have 2 folders and several other files. The one you want to open is src (images below). 
4. Take the folder and .rb file you see in there and drag it over into your Plugin in folder you already opened. 
5. After this, simply start up SketchUp, check under file to see if you have STL options included, and begin enjoying your new STL plugin. 

Wuzhen River Village Animation (Converting .flv to MP3 with VLC)

designTUTORIALS :: This started out as a project to develop a logo yet to be finished. The idea of building a quick model to capture exactly the scene wanted for the logo quickly evolved into a chance to practice SketchUp animation and video editing. The subject was Wuzhen, a Chinese river village near Shanghai.

The buildings, bridges, stairs, and other main features were modeled from scratch while the pagoda, boats, 2D oak,  2D pine trees, and 2D people were imported from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse.

The music was "菊花台 Ju Hua Tai - Raffles Alumni Chinese Orchestra," taken from a live performance on YouTube.

Everything from still images to animation and music were spliced together in Windows Movie Maker.

I have lots of music on my hard drive, but for this particular animation I wanted to use some Chinese orchestra music. Since I usually listen to this music on YouTube and have no need to download it, how could I take a video of a live performance and use the audio only in Movie Maker? There is a way to do it with VLC, and below (click "Read More") is an excellent video that explains exactly how.

RENDERING WINTER SCENES

designTUTORIALS :: A reoccurring favorite stop of mine is the website of Alex Hogrefe, a designer who shares many incredibly useful tutorials for designers seeking to hone their skills with many of the subtle tricks needed to get that professional look. Getting in the holiday spirits, Alex shares his workflow for achieving wintery scenes - check out the rest of the tutorial on his site here....

Source :: Alex Hogrefe