Tape Creations...
 

I might as well make a home for my tape creations here.

Here are my former posts on the subject.
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight

My latest is a bit more complicated. I added blinky lights. http://www.cellar.org/images/smilies/smile.gif

I got the circuit diagram from here, blew the dust off of my Electrical Engineering class equipment, and made several trips to Radio Shack. CAT5 cable conveniently has enough wires for a ground, 3 pairs of alternating blinkers, and one always-on light, so I put an ethernet socket in the project enclosure.

Here are the resulting electronics, with the enclosure open and closed.

At the bottom of the second photo above, you can see a Radio Shack Adaptaplug, and an indicator light. The light is green when the plug is attached correctly, red if it's in backwards. Adaptaplug, for some reason, decided not to design it in a way that prevents incorrect attachments.

Anyway, I soldered my LEDs to the other end of the ethernet cable, and wrapped it with tape. Then I started constructing a spiky ball around the end.

And here it is completed, with flash and without.

Oh wow! That is soooo cool! :)

Here's one that's not blinky, but it is lit, and is on a cool marble pillar.

Thanks!

Excellent, HM. Good photography too. :thumbsup:
The indicator light changes color with polarity? Cool.

Very cool.

Thanks!

Radio Shack helped a bit by selling an LED that changes color with polarity. http://www.cellar.org/images/newsmilies/whiteblack.gif

And, as it seems to be a question that cropped up every so often in the Art Gallery, here's how I color them:

OK, how did you get a streak of color on the outside of the pen barrel? Second marker of the same color? :confused:

It's on a strip of tape that I colored and then stuck on. ;)

I've got a new one with blinky lights that I'm very happy with. I'd like to make an animated GIF out of a short AVI I took with my digital camera. Any advice on good, reputable, shareware/freeware software to do so?

Too cool. It looks like a couple of the ones you gave as gifts were ornaments. This makes me think that, now since you have the technology to light up your sculptures, you need to make a string of christmas lights with these. Blinky ones would be so awesome. You could sell them, and give 10% to charity (aka The Cellar). I'll be the first to put my order in for 3 strings, on the house of course since this was my idea ... :)

I would buy one. :)

BTW, those are really cool.

That's been on my mind (Christmas lights, not selling) for a while. Unfortunately, I'd probably need to start now to get a decent string done by Christmas...

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but my process is a bit too slow for commercial applications. To have the time to make enough to sell, I'd have to quit my job, and if I quit my job, I'd have to charge a couple hundred dollars per piece - and sell a lot of em. Plus, I'd need many more seasons of TV shows on DVD to watch while working.

On a noncommercial note, one thing I want to try now is minimizing the electronics so they fit in a ball, and only the power cables come out, so I can string them together on thin wires instead of having a big ugly box for each ball, attached with a thick, inflexible ethernet cable.

You must get so high coloring those things, no wonder you keep making them.

Speaking of which, here are a few I haven't posted yet. Some of these are from the "gift" set, and others are older. It's several variations on the standard icosohedron.

And here's my newest one. This shows my prototype board and the resulting circuit, and then the circuitboard placed in the project box.

To assist in the accurate aiming of the LEDs, I placed each one on the face of a tape cube, and soldered on the wires of the ethernet cable which had been put through some heatshrink tubing.

I then constructed the tape ball around the cube, as usual.

Here it is in the dark.

And here is a movie of the blinking.

Here's some interesting shapes you might want to try your hand at, HM.

That is absolutely beautiful!!

I admire both your patience and ingenuity.

I like the buckyball.

:thankyou: Though I do sometimes wonder if it's patience or OCD...

What I always say to folks about mental illness ... it's not usually a problem unless it's keeping you from doing other stuff that you want to or need to.

I'm probably OK then...
:rollanim:

I'm not sure which thread to put this in so, as I'm now using flickr, I'll go ahead and put it in both!


My dad just finished making me a cool box to store my markers and tape in. Here it is, closed, empty, and full:

http://photos7.flickr.com/9354936_1176e256f0.jpg

http://photos5.flickr.com/9354937_c6c542d1f3.jpg

http://photos7.flickr.com/9354939_332b75c869.jpg

Extraordinary!!

That is SO awesome! What a great dad!

I really like the design. He did a great job.

:thankyou:

Yeah, it's pretty cool. He's been making boxes for everyone in the family, and I adapted his design for the stuff I was going to put in it.

I must say, and I never say this to a guy, nice box. :blush:
Design, wood and craftsmanship are all first rate.

Hmmm http://www.cellar.org/images/newsmilies/eyebrow.gif

Thanks...?

Seriously, xoB, are you implying that you have said that to a gal?

"Hey, baby, nice box!"

:rolleyes:

Buckyball
 

Ask and ye shall receive:

Click for more sizes
http://photos5.flickr.com/9725203_26059b07ab.jpg

It's the Buckyball, very cool indeed, HM! Nice work! :thumb:

Absolutely. But be forewarned, if you don't have her clothes off before you say it, you won't get them off. :headshake

Happy Monkey - Amazing, as usual. I love the color/texture.

I can't do anything other than gape in awe.

Wow.

I'm making another of the 700-triangle models. I've got a quick how-to posted.

http://static.flickr.com/27/44901330_b2cd0fa473.jpg

Is this to go along with the fall season of crap TV? :biggrin:

Could be, could be...

When you fold each first triangle in a strip, do you just approximate the correct angle by eye? Or measure it somehow? It looks like the rest of the triangle folds in a strip just follow along after that first angle is established.

How do you do the alternating colors? Do you color each adjacent one individually, or do you set up some sort of "mass production" coloring like the blue and yellow coloring at the top of the image?

Umm... I just noticed you can click on the picture for the tutorial on flickr. Nevermind.

I haven't been working as hard as I could, but here's where I am so far. All 700 triangles are there. All that needs to be done is the final five joints, a few final wrappings, and a final coat of marker.

(As glatt mentions, click the picture for the tutorial/larger image. On that page, click "ALL SIZES" for larger versions.)

http://static.flickr.com/34/64386196_f1a06275c5.jpg

You have outdone yourself.

Whoa Dude! Five joints and you'll never finish that sucker. :rasta:

I knew there was a reason it's taken me two months to get from the last picture to this one...

http://static.flickr.com/36/78171496_7d2e8d75e8.jpg

It was finished a while ago, but I just got around to putting it on Flickr.

Every Christmas I make a few more ornaments for the tree. I made six this year; here are three. The others are hard to photograph, I'll try again later.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/77841374/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/9/77841374_274babfe1d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Gold" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/77842219/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/42/77842219_a6e0743cac.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Green" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/78169957/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/38/78169957_2bf4b56fd7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Red" /></a>

Beautiful! I'm having trouble with the scale, how big are those last three? :mg:

The distance from one point on a triangle to the center of the opposite side is the width of the tape I used. For the last three, I used 3/4 inch tape, and for the big one I used 1/2 inch tape. So the little ones are about an inch and a half.

Let's go to the circus!
 

Nothing complicated. I just found some goofy materials...

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/122306851/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/38/122306851_e5519f81ec.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Geometry Circus" /></a>

Jeez, the black and white one is great camo, it really confuses the shape. You should submit that to the Pentagon. :D

Dear Pentagon:

You know all that cash you spend on camo? You should just go to the "Tape for Teenage Girls" section of Office Depot!

HTH, HAND
A Patriot.

Still think these are cool. New additions are neat variations. The zebra one is kind of an optical illusion. OOoooh, make a zebra shaped one with the zebra tape!!! I tried to do this a long time ago, but got too frustrated. So, I'll just enjoy yours. Any new ones on the tree this year?

Scroll up. ;)

Hrm. I never got around to putting up pictures of the other three, and now it's too late; they're in my parents' attic. Maybe next year. They're not all that great anyway - just plain icosahedrons like the circus ones, but filled with snarls of metallic thread. I was hoping for interesting reflections and such, and it kinda worked, but not really.

:smack: I did, and noted 2005 in the post date...thinking that was last Christmas, so of course wanted to know about this year, being 2006. What a dope.

And I work with neurotoxins. Scary.

:mg: Those cubes and ornaments are great! I didn't expect to see such wonderfulness. :)


I just started writing poetry again but I am not ready to show it off yet. :blush:

I must work on displaying some of the other art/craft I dabble into.


Let's see. hummm

Thanks! Please do post any art you do.