how I wired up a slide pot
Update: I’ve written a huge post on how to buy sliders/faders/slide potentiometers
As copiously stated, I have no formal training in electronics, and I’ve reached a mature enough age that I can no longer accept an electronic component as a black box, so when I come across a device and can figure out how to use it without being able to locate instructions, i feel like it’s only right to make a drawing of it and try to explain my hypothesis for how it works.
With that being said, here’s my best guess at how the 10k slide potentiometers (sliders / slide pot) works:
the 3 pin slide potentiometer (10k)
The obvious control at the top sets the resistance. The voltage in (V+) and ground (V-) pins run inline with each other, and the resistance value is read from the pin adjacent to the voltage in pin. I’m using an Arduino to read the value, and in my case, i actually needed an additional resistor in front of the voltage in pin to limit the incoming current. When i hooked the slider up directly to the arduino, it didn’t work very well, acting way more like it was a logarithmic curve potentiometer than the linear curve pot I thought it was. About 2 minutes later, it was blistering hot. Too hot to touch, actually! So, I quickly disconnected it from the arduino and added a 10k resistor in front of the voltage in, and then it started behaving much more reasonably. The values I was getting from the 10k slider were not what I was expecting, so I’ll have to dial back on the current resistor from 10k to maybe 1k and see if that helps get the values from the slide pot more inline with my expectations.
pure data patch for Rosco
Derek and I have been working hard on building some useful tools for beat sequencing using Rosco and Max/MSP. Poking around at Max/MSP made me realize how much I understand PureData, so I went back to PD and built a comprehensive “data-in” patch to receive the OSC messages from Rosco.
Click to preview what this patch does
Rosco version 2.0
Hey there, I’ve created a page for Rosco since I’ve revised it to version 2.0.
Rosco is an app that I’m working on that creates Open Sound Control (OSC) messages. It can generate them with or without taking data readings from an Arduino. Version 1 only had 6 sliders (one for each analog pin from the arduino), but now the new version includes being able to use 12 checkboxes (which correlate to pins 2-13 on an arduino). I’ve revved the app, the quartz composer file, and the arduino code to all show examples how to get it going. Check it out!
kinetic wave sculptures
This was too cool not to repost:
Rosco, version 1
So I’m tryin’ to learn Cocoa, and so I’ve been poking at an application that I’ve modified from the sample code for AMSerialPort from Harmless Cocoa. I know a little bit about the arduino, and I know a little bit about cocoa, so I poked and poked and poked, and from a well timed piece of help from my cocoa class instructor Malcolm Crawford, I finally got something fairly functional working. It’s called Rosco. All it does is take input from an arduino’s analog pins and transmit the values out to OSC through a cocoa app and out to a quartz composer composition. Nothing too fancy. I’m using it in conjunction with my Arduino Project Box, but really you could send any analog value from the arduino. It’s really such a hodge podge of code and hardware, it’s bordering on being silly. This really isn’t supposed to be useful just yet, but it was useful for me to learn more about cocoa programming. Maybe you might find it somewhat interesting. Here’s a diagram of what’s going on.
Click here to download it to try it out.
Works Auction 2008 result
my piece “exploration two” sold at auction for $225. 
Technorati Tags: art, sanjose, stevecooley, works, Works/San José, workssanjose
remembering how to paint, part 3
here’s the third and possibly last painting post for 2008. This is a tryptic. Each piece is 24″ square, for a total of 72″ x 24.
I’m not sure of the title yet. I… have some ideas. I also have a full timelapse movie in the works for this piece as well. So when I get that done and figure out the title, I’ll post ‘em up.
Technorati Tags: 2008, abstract, acrylic, art, painting, san jose, stevecooley
remembering how to paint, part 2
Here’s the second painting I’ll be showing at uproar ‘08. I’ve been working on this one all year, so it’s nice to finally figure it out and finish it up.
Ah, finally.
Technorati Tags: abstract, acrylic, art, painting, stevecooley
remembering how to paint
Since my son was born ~6 months ago, I’ve been trying to cram in as much of what I used to do before he was born into my nights after he goes down for the night. I’m glad there are outlets for getting your work shown in the south bay area like Heart of Chaos and Works/San Jose because their events are good motivators to get some artwork finished.
So, here’s a new piece:
I have a tryptic and another piece that I’m wrapping up for Uproar 08.. posting soon…
Technorati Tags: 2008, abstract, acrylic, painting, stevecooley