Ever since we came across this amazing technique for laser cutting hinges we’ve been thinking about what we could do with it. Our initial result is a slightly modified version of our Project Box for Arduino (ADBO), with the bolt rounded corners replaced by lovely plywood arcs. We’re really excited about what’s possible with this technique and will experment further. However if you’d like to make one of these boxes please find the various required files below:

Want to Make Your Own:
On thingiverse (thingiverse.com)
Parts Outline (dxf)
Mechanical Reference (pdf)
More Files and Formats (thingiverse.com)

At the heart of oomlout lie a lot of spreadsheets. We’re not proud of this fact, but we have decided to start embracing it. When agressivly spreadsheet’ing it’s often neccesary to have many sheets open at once. Having outgrown dual monitors we searched for a solution. Finding nothing easily purchasable we decided to build our own dual monitor stand.

Want to make your own:

On Thingiverse(thingiverse.com)
Parts Outlines(dxf)
More Files and Formats(directory)

We spend a lot of time around oomlout HQ shopping online. Recently we’ve taken quite a shining to 360 degree product photos and wanted some of our own. So we fired up the laser cutter and made ourselves a stepper motor controlled lazy susan.

The early results are promising .:example:.

Want to Make Your Own:

    On Thinigverse(html)
    Mechanical Reference(pdf)
    Parts Outlines(pdf)
    More Files and Formats(directory)

Tired of our projects getting finished and being nothing more than a mush of wires we decided to design ourselves a box. After many iterations we’ve settled on one that requires just over an A4 (letter) sheet worth of acrylic and four nuts and bolts to assemble.

A few of it’s finer points:
    simple (five unique pieces and four nuts & bolts)
    accesible (all wiring can be done with walls removed)
    and expandable (make your own custom face plates)

If you’d like to build your own:

Parts:

Files:

Recently we’ve been struggling to manage our wire collection, fed up with the tangled mess it had become we decided to put some work into addressing it.

The result a solution that’s:
    simple (two unique pieces)
    expandable (easy to bolt together)
    and fun (we like the curly shaft catcher)

If you’d like to build your own:

Parts:(single bay)

Files:

It’s no secret that around oomlout HQ we’re huge fans of the open source Arduino microcontroller. The pre-made Duemilanove board is an amazing prototyping platform, but sometimes its fun to make something for yourself. What follows is a guide on how to take a breadboard and pile of components and turn it into your very own Arduino compatible machine.

All the steps below are summarized in a fun printable guide down-loadable (here)

(shameless plug)
We also sell a kit with all the parts (a breadboard, printed layout sheet, and printed guide) so you can get making right away.
(in the UK Breadboard Arduino Compatible Kit (BBAC))

The Parts

An Arduino compatible is super easy to make just over a dozen different components

The Layout Sheet and Putting Together

To make component placement easy we’ve drawn up a breadboard layout sheet. Simply print it out, lay it over your breadboard, and start placing components. (or if you’d like a step by step guide download the “Assembly Guide” for Lego style instructions).

Breadboard Layout Sheet (pdf) – (here)

Assembly Guide (pdf) – (here)

Programming

This is a slightly complicated step. Because we do not have any USB-serial circutry on our breadboard additional hardware is required. But do not fret you have a choice of two options, either using a spare Arduino Duemilanove board, or an FTDI USB-Serial cable.

option 1 - Using an Arduino Duemilanove Board

For this option we will use the USB circutry (and reset capacitor) present on every Duemilanove board.

Step 1 – Remove the ATMega168 Chip

Delicately pop the large chip out of its socket.

Step 2 - Connect the appropriate wires

Using jumper wires, (there are notes on the layout sheet)

• connect digital pin 0 to digital pin 0
• connect digital pin 1 to digital pin 1
• connect the reset pin to the reset pin
• connect 5V to the red rail (5V)
• connect gnd to the blue rail (gnd)

Step 3 – Program your BBAC

You’re done open up the Arduino IDE and program your BBAC the same way you did your Duemilanove board

option 2 - Using an FTDI USB-Serial Cable

This option will use an FTDI USB-Serial cable (In the UK (here) (farnell). In the US they can be found here(adafruit))

Step 1 – Plug the cable in

Plug the 6 pin female header on the end of the FTDI cable onto the 6 pin header on your BBAC (match the colors of the wires to those of the markings on the sheet)

Step 2 - Program

Next open the Arduino IDE, and program your BBAC normally. Well almost normally, you’ll need to press the reset button before uploading each sketch.

What’s next…

Congrats if all has gone well you have yourself a fully functioning Arduino compatible on a breadboard. (if it hasn’t worked don’t fret send an e-mail to help@oomlout.com and we’ll try our very best to help you get it working).

Open Source

We like to be as open as we can be at oomlout, in keeping with this attitude all the design files (sketchup models, corel draw layouts, pdfs etc.) can be found at http://www.oomlout.com/BBAC/ (if you feel something is missing or would like a file in a different format drop as a message (info@oomlout.com) and we’ll try and help you out.)

Around oomlout HQ we have loads of Arduino projects on the go. Most are a long ways off from being completed, but a few are close. However before official completion is reached enclosures must be found. We have searched the internet,  scoured catalogs and walked every aisle at our local grocery store questing for the perfect box. Many good options were found however none of them were perfect. In dejection we looked around our office to realize we actually had everything we needed at our fingertips.

A template was drawn, printed onto cardstock, cut out, and folded to a box, at last the perfect enclosure.

If you’ve had a similar problem you’re just 4 short steps away from having it solved.

Step 1: Download and print the pattern

The pattern can be downloaded in either pdf or corel draw format. Next print it out on cardstock (210 gsm)

Step 2: Gather a few items

Along with the pattern you’ll need an exacto knife, ruler, and a couple of screws (3mm x 10mm screws and matching nuts (or imperial equivalent))

Step 3: Cut and fold

Cut along the solid lines and scour the dotted lines for folding (the back side of an exacto knife works well for this). Next fold up the sides and tuck in the locking tabs.

Step 4: Customize

A plain paper box with an Arduino inside can be rather underwhelming, but with such an easy to construct housing the possibilities are endless. Here’s a photo of a soon to be released diy LED matrix project.

The love for Twitter around the .:oomlout:. office is undeniable. We check it constantly, and as those of you who follow us know post to it far too often (or if you don’t follow us we’re @oomlout :) ).

We thought it appropriate to allow Twitter to be more than just an on monitor phenomena. To accomplish this we have combined an Arduino, Ethernet Shield and typewriter. We added a little bit of solder (we’re spoofing keystrokes) and some coding (available here) and what we have is a twitter monitoring machine.

It search’s for a term every 10 seconds (in our case ‘oomlout’ although ‘#haiku’ is good fun too). When a new tweet is posted it will proceed to whir to life and type it out (at the same time making us feel like we’re back in the 1970s).

(We hope to find time in the near future to properly document this as it was good fun, so stay tuned)

(A small video of it typing out a discovered #haiku)

(a small video of the tweeting to typing process (the minute long pause in the middle is Twitter latency, we sped it up a bit)

Today is a big day for oomlout, we’re celebrating 60 days using Google analytics. How to commemorate such an event? By turning an online graph into something more tangible.

Using a little acrylic base, our automatic wire cutter and some arduino code we have produced a little desktop graph. The length of each wire being proportional to each days page-views. A quick little fifteen minute job, definitely room for improvement, but it is nice to make the digital physical.

If you’d like to build your own you can pick up the files over on Thingiverse ( here )

A quick video of its assembly. (this is what happens inside your computer every time you make a graph in excel )

The chair is complete. What started this morning as as an idea and progressed through computer drawings, and scale models has this afternoon materialized into an honest to goodness chair.

The result is admittedly not a design classic, but what we have learned during its design and ultimate construction has been astounding. Just imagine the possibilities that develop if you can make as many mistakes as we did today, everyday. Each day ending with a product that is just a little bit better than yesterdays. We’re excited. We’ll leave it on one final point; the business mantra that Stuart has been repeating ad nauseam of late (and the rest of us are starting to subscribe to).

“The secret to success is being able to make mistakes faster” (Stuart McFarlan)

(in terms of attribution he’s currently claiming he came up with it but we’re pretty sure he’s lying, if you know where the proper credit lies drop us a line, Clement and I would love to burst this particular bubble)

The process:

(we did twitter the whole thing if you’d like to be kept up to speed on future challenges we undertake you can follow us there ( oomlout on Twitter ) )

1. The initial scale model – ( here )
2. The pieces being cut – ( here )
3. The pieces ready to assemble – ( here )
4. Everything being bolted together – ( here )
5. The finished product – ( here )

Care to make your own?
You can pick up all the necessary files over on Thingiverse ( here ). (like the rest of our work it is open source CC BY-SA )

The Future?

Stay tuned we’re not ready to tip our hat just yet but there are a few exciting developments in the works To make this possible for just about anybody. (you making your own chairs not us making them for you, that’s no fun)