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Whiteboard Clock
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- WestCoastJustin 12y agoPlease someone sell these! If you own a 3D printer, there is a model up on http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:248009 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:248009.
- jgrahamc 12y agoNo! Go build one. So much more satisfying than buying.
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- Springtime 12y agoA kit would be nice for those without the necessary expertise or access to a 3D printer.
- syrnick 12y agoJust curious, how much you'd pay for the 3d printed parts?
- Springtime 12y agoWith a kit containing all the required components, along with instructions perhaps something like $30, but I'm not sure the cost of such things.
- MarcScott 12y agoYou don't need a 3d printer. Access to a laser cutter will suffice.
- derekp7 12y agoNot sure if you meant this as a joke (a laser cutter is probably harder to come by than a 3d printer). But back in my day for things like this we simply used a jig saw to cut out parts from wood or plastic. Anything more complex would need several pieces cut out and glued together.
- lozf 12y ago> access to a 3D printer. Time to meet your local hackerspace perhaps?
- iamtew 12y agoAnd if you don't have a 3D printer you could perhaps use on nearby you via 3D Hubs, https://www.3dhubs.com/ https://www.3dhubs.com/
- ckluis 12y agoKickstart this and let me give you my money.
- sorahn 12y agoI just bought a new whiteboard, This looks like fun. http://i.imgur.com/0AtSlry.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0AtSlry.jpg
- mxfh 12y agoSo the inevitable next step is a full scale (powerpoint) presentation to vector stroke path exporter?
- jhonnycano 12y agoI can't help to feel this is a step near Harry Potter's Hogwarts via technology devices
- andars 12y agoHow do you go about setting up a custom device file like that (/dev/whiteboard)? Is it just writing a device driver?
- mxfh 12y agoI think you could just hook up an old pen plotter to your whiteboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_pwzqPk6Gg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_pwzqPk6Gg [EDIT] whatever it has been done before: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pen+plotter+whiteboard https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pen+plotter+whi... But this of mechanic is certainly unique and adds a lot of clumsy robot charm. Wonder how easily you could store human inputs with a kind of (reverse) Pantograph type device for reproduction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph
- agwa 12y agoThe author says the device is a USB modem. So, under Linux, the author could have simply written a udev rule to use the name "whiteboard" for that particular USB modem's device file.
- seryoiupfurds 12y agoAnd even under plain-Jane Unix, you can name a device file whatever you want.
- m-ou-se 12y agoIndeed. It's just a udev rule with: SYMLINK+="whiteboard
- zachrose 12y agoI'm also wondering why not skip all the protocols and put a clock on the robot? Either way, cool project!
- janfoeh 12y agoQuite lovely to see in action. Apparently I am so primitive that I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
- Artistry121 12y agoHow did you make this google doc work like this? Pretty cool usage of the medium.
- gknoy 12y agoIt seems like it's just a "published" google doc. I've made one that describes the process, if you are interested: http://goo.gl/Ykq88g http://goo.gl/Ykq88g
- delibes 12y agoThe cap isn't on the pen properly, so it'll dry out. Share prices of marker pen manufacturers are going to soar! :)
- nerdy 12y agoI missed the youtube video the first time around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QgeQAiSmM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QgeQAiSmM8 It's hilarious how while it's writing it looks like two small arms cupping the marker. Slap on a smiley-face sticker and you're ready to go to market.
- myth_buster 12y agoIt would be fun to see it write in your own handwriting. Also, I was thinking something like this [0]! :) [0]: https://wessonblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hitchhikers.jpg https://wessonblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hitchhikers.j...
- swamp40 12y agoIt's funny how even though it's a computer font converted to straight lines, it winds up looking very much like a real person's handwriting.
- at-fates-hands 12y ago>> It's hilarious how while it's writing it looks like two small arms cupping the marker. I was thinking the same thing. I envisioned a Muppet head and arms would do the trick.
- lifeformed 12y agoI love the way it writes, it has so much personality.
- prawn 12y agoYet if you watch the video, each time the "natural" looking numbers are almost identical. I liked the erasing style. Bit clumsy like a toddler.
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- traviswingo 12y agoIt actually writes like an actual human! Love it.
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- knicholes 12y agoThis reminds me of a "plotclock" that I built almost a year ago. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:248009 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:248009
- t413 12y agoThe writing on this one is much nicer! Add selective erase so only one character is (usually) ever erased and you've got yourself a very neat novelty clock.
- shogun21 12y agoI feel really bad for the little guy. It looks like he's incessantly unsatisfied with his work so he has to erase everything.
- m1aw 12y agoJust out of curiosity how is the ink usage, could it run for longer then a without replacing the pen or refiling the ink? EDIT: Just saw the super interesting comment bellow linking to a reddit thread where it calculates the theoretical values of ink usage.
- freshyill 12y agoI'm fascinated by this project, but I also find it kind of unsettling. I think the "arms" make it fall into the Uncanny Valley for me.
- arh68 12y agoAre these arms too human-like for you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcniyQYFU6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcniyQYFU6M
- egutman 12y agoCool! Although I wonder why not erase from the right and save ink?
- ptaipale 12y agoHmm, I might have enough Legos left to make an implementation of the mechanics with them?
- MarcScott 12y agoWe made on of these at my school - kid's thought it was incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClEEPBDfA0Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClEEPBDfA0Y We want to make ones that sit vertically on our actual whiteboards and run off more permanent power-supplies.
- phogster 12y agoHere's an analysis of how often you would have to change the marker on a similar clock: https://pay.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/2vky0v/request_how_often_would_you_have_to_change_the/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/2vky0v/requ...
- asd 12y agoThe next step: Enhance design so clock can change its own marker.
- TaylorAlexander 12y agoOr feed the marker's liquid reservoir from a larger tank.
- theOnliest 12y agoOr use a chalkboard.
- jagger27 12y agoOr some gears and a battery.
- guelo 12y agoChalk would still run out and need to be replaced. Some kind of sand drawing would be more of an infinite "ink".
- TaylorAlexander 12y agoHilariously, a good way to do this with infinite "ink" would be to draw the letters on a touch screen with a stylus.
- acmecorps 12y agoOr, just use one of the children's magnetic drawing board? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Doodle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Doodle
- gxs 12y agoLet's say someone wanted to learn how to do this. Not just follow a step by step guide, but actually learn how to do this. Where would you find a good resource?
- joshu 12y agoYou would need to control a pair of servos. Arduino is the easy way. Some trigonometry to convert x-y positions to the two arm angles. The connectors to the pen are linkages. I am currently building a whiteboard plotter myself, though a much larger scale. Feel free to send me questions and I can send you pointers on where to research next.
- hugs 12y agoThere are three parts to learn -- the electronics (handled by an Arduino and a few servos), the mechanics (for this design, it's not too complicated -- you could make do with popsicle sticks and some screws if you had to), and the software. The tricky bit with the software is the math. The arms, when free to spin around their centers, can be considered circles. You'd want to learn the geometry of circles and, specifically, how to find the intersection of two circles. The joints on the arms are where the circles meet. I'm working a new version of my mobile testing robot that looks very similar to this clock. Haven't posted the code, yet, but I did have to go back and re-learn some trig and circle geometry to make the simulator. http://youtu.be/qRzrm4zx82g http://youtu.be/qRzrm4zx82g
- siglesias 12y agoUsing a home presence API (like Nest's), this thing could also abstain from updating the time until you were home or in the same room as it. That could dramatically reduce wear and tear.
- fit2rule 12y agoDuh. Why this is cool: White-board clocks are among the oldest things on "the Internet".
- voltagex_ 12y agoGot a link to another one?
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- cmsmith 12y agoIt's a bit disappointing that they went to the trouble of building a radio into it and didn't just connect it to the NIST atomic clock radio time signal WWVB.
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- hofstee 12y agoI feel like I've seen this video many years ago...
- cflyingdutchman 12y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html "The worst thing to post or upvote is something that's intensely but shallowly interesting: gossip about famous people, funny or cute pictures or videos, partisan political articles, etc. If you let that sort of thing onto a news site, it will push aside the deeply interesting stuff, which tends to be quieter."
- nerdy 12y agoWhile it has cute aspects it's also a very cheap, elegant solution to automation on a whiteboard which most people probably think of as out of reach. It's somebody's project, not a cat video.
- cflyingdutchman 12y agoIt's a very cool/fun project and definitely not a cat video. I do believe that it's relatively "shallowly interesting" and I haven't read any comments yet that would indicate to me otherwise. I take the 550+ up-votes it's gotten as a sign that the value (for me at least) of the hacker news filter is slowly degrading.
- gammarator 12y agoSincere answer: I look and this and think: how did they do that? Do I know how to do that? Could I do parts of it "better"? Knowing this is possible, are there cooler things I could do with it? If you're willing to think about it for a little while, there's much beyond shallow interest. Snarky answer: Would you consider toy railroads relevant to hackers? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club
- Killswitch 12y agoSomeone hacked together something and is sharing it. It's exactly what HACKER News is about. Heaven forbid someone do something relevant to the site and share it. Lets get some more X rewritten in y lines of JavaScript posts instead.
- mtb2718 12y agoMy take on this concept from undergrad [1]. It's a bit less refined but a lot more powerful, using an industrial robot. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAqbQsY-sY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAqbQsY-sY
- itschaffey 12y agoThis is brilliant - how would you go about learning to build this? Are there any good resources online?
- svckr 12y agoSorry for asking this stupid question, but what program is that waveform screenshot from? I've been looking for a GTKWave alternative for some time now …
- aceperry 12y ago"But I had to add some tape, as it wasn't strong enough to keep itself in place properly" I hope it was duct tape, otherwise it may not last for too long. Funny project, done in a cool way, and a great hack.
- kriro 12y agoA cool next step (especially for classrooms) would be giving the robot "eyes" and letting it get the time from a physical clock in the room via image recognition. Could eventually be extended to scetch outlines of objects/people :D
- jsilence 12y agoSomehow reminds me of Hektor, the grafitti robot: http://juerglehni.com/works/hektor/ http://juerglehni.com/works/hektor/
- kwhitefoot 12y agoHow about using and Etch a Sketch then it would not need to be supplied with ink.