Jack Kern http://www.jackkern.com One engineer's project-log, thoughts and ideas. Fri, 11 May 2012 23:11:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Processing: Generating packing labels from a text file http://www.jackkern.com/2012/05/processing-generating-packing-labels-from-a-text-file/ http://www.jackkern.com/2012/05/processing-generating-packing-labels-from-a-text-file/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 22:47:52 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=748

With my recent move I’ve had to sort and pack a lot of my personal items, tools and materials. Trying to stay organized when the process takes a while can be a pain — sounds like a task for a sharpie and some index cards! Alas, I thought it would be fun to use Processing’s PDF rendering capabilities to generate my own packing labels! Probably didn’t save myself any time, but it was a fun exercise and I think it is a good example of why programming is something more people should check out.

It worked out really nicely, much easier than using something like PDFLib with php, and maybe even still a bit faster for me than using MS Word or Open Office.

I’ve hosted the code up on github in a gist as it’s not very much code. It only requires a single text file saved in the sketch folder named “moving_labels.txt” and the labeling format is specified in the script, and attached as an additional file on the gist.

Hosted on GitHub:
https://gist.github.com/2662880

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2012/05/processing-generating-packing-labels-from-a-text-file/feed/ Make: Aluminum foundry http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/make-aluminum-foundry/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/make-aluminum-foundry/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:47:00 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/make-aluminum-foundry/ Always seeking cheaper ways to source materials to cut with the CNC, I came across some tutorials on building a charcoal fired aluminum foundry.

Some external resources if you want to try your hand at it!

Be extra careful if you decide to embark on this project!

Here are some photo’s of our progress:
IMG_20110917_172848 IMG_20110917_172836 IMG_20110917_172828 IMG_20110917_172806 IMG_20110917_154207 IMG_20110917_152650 IMG_20110917_152128 IMG_20110917_143914 IMG_20110917_143857 IMG_20110917_143534 IMG_20110917_143525 IMG_20110917_143050 IMG_20110917_143029 IMG_20110917_135252 IMG_20110917_134953 IMG_20110917_134840 IMG_20110917_134827 IMG_20110917_134813

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/make-aluminum-foundry/feed/ Make: The big swing http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/the-big-swing/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/the-big-swing/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:19:21 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=667 This summer (2011), we built this giant swing in our backyard — it’s over 20 feet tall and swings out over the hill behind the workshop. Total cost was under $40, but we had the pressure treated beam and some of the hardware lying around, we just had to buy the cable and some extra 5 1/2″ lag bolts. Definitely is lots of fun and great for taking a breather between coding-sessions to meditate.

backyard swing construction 01 backyard swing construction 02 backyard swing construction 03 backyard swing construction 04 backyard swing construction 05 backyard swing construction 06 backyard swing construction 07 backyard swing construction 08 backyard swing construction 09 backyard swing hardware reference

My friends Colin, Brian and Joey can all be spotted in the shots — until I get their photo’s I’m nowhere to be found ;)

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/the-big-swing/feed/ Work in Progress – Building a brushless axial stepper motor http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/work-in-progress-building-a-brushless-axial-stepper-motor/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/work-in-progress-building-a-brushless-axial-stepper-motor/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:58:00 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/work-in-progress-building-a-brushless-axial-stepper-motor/ Here we’re cutting the stator plates that will hold our coils, and showing off the coil winding jig on the variable speed drill press.

wpid-IMG_20110917_220907.jpg wpid-IMG_20110918_003617.jpg wpid-IMG_20110918_003608.jpg wpid-IMG_20110918_003540.jpg wpid-IMG_20110918_003528.jpg wpid-IMG_20110918_003515.jpg ]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/work-in-progress-building-a-brushless-axial-stepper-motor/feed/ Sketchbook: Mechanical Systems http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-mechanical-systems/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-mechanical-systems/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:47:34 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=649 mechanical_big_pulley mechanical_cnc_concept mechanical_fluid_dispenser mechanical_motion mechanical_motor mechanical_motor_concept mechanical_processor mechanical_turntable ]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-mechanical-systems/feed/ Sketchbook: Abstract http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-abstract/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-abstract/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:28:13 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=643 abstract_01 abstract_02 abstract_03 ]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-abstract/feed/ Sketchbook: Polyscape http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-polyscape/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-polyscape/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:20:16 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=640 Faces everywhere

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-polyscape/feed/ Sketchbook: Skew http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-skew/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-skew/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:16:15 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=636 Distorted geometries

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/sketchbook-skew/feed/ Sketchbook: Square Bot http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/square-bot/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/square-bot/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:04:11 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=627 A boxy robot

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/09/square-bot/feed/ Arduino: Serial2Parallel Library http://www.jackkern.com/2011/02/serial2parallel-library/ http://www.jackkern.com/2011/02/serial2parallel-library/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:41:59 +0000 Jack W Kern http://www.jackkern.com/?p=597 The Serial2Parellel library was developed to work with shift registers like the 8-Bit Serial-In/Parallel-Out Shift Register from TI. It makes it easy to set the state of all the bits on one to four chips chained together then push all that data out through a data pin on the Arduino. This library has no other dependencies and is very lightweight. It’s free software, if you use it please just leave me a comment I’d love to hear about your project!

Serial2Parallel Library Interface

Source Code:

The source code is available at:
https://github.com/ElectricJack/Serial2Parallel

Download:

Serial2Parallel.zip

To use it download the zip and extract it’s contents into the folder:
[ArdinoSketchbook]/libraries/Serial2Parallel/

Then just #include “Serial2Parallel.h” in your sketch and you’re good to go!
Check out the example for further assistance!

]]> http://www.jackkern.com/2011/02/serial2parallel-library/feed/