thesprucegoose

I have been using Max/MSP for a little while but I am just now getting into Physical Computing using Max/MSP. I was wondering...

1) Could anyone point me to any articles/websites/books about the basics of physical computing w/ Max?

2) What project board/chip do you suggest?

3) I want to do a project where several contact mics, a camera, and geophone/temperature sensors are giving data to Max and three standard clip lights react to the data, does this sound doable?

4) What are my options for dimming? (MIDI? hack a dimmer? don't need one at all?) [my goal is to put RGB gels over the three clip lights and control the brightness to create any color I want]

intro-to-physical-computing-w-maxmsp-help

During grad studies at CalArts I had the pleasure/honor of witnessing Brian Crabtree at work on prototypes for his monome device.

He basically prototyped on a BasicStamp at first and then graduated to pic-chips for the final larger matrix-version.

Of course, that's all I really know since I was only able to work easily on a BasicStamp and never really got to the point of understanding pic chips(I'm more a software person).

you can probably get good deals on basic-stamp development boards from digikey.com

everyone seems to agree that pic chips are the most extendable in case you ever create something that you might want to do a product run of.

But basic stamp is also pretty versatile. Only 16 ins and outs, though(last i checked).

You could also check out the MakeControllerKit from here:

Dimmers should be easy with pics and BasicStamps since there are variable control options for potentiometers, etc. (Hook up a pot or slider to for variable-resistance over a light, etc.)

That's all I could tell you, though. I'm really not well-versed in the area, just am really curious about it.

During grad studies at CalArts I had the pleasure/honor of witnessing Brian Crabtree at work on prototypes for his monome device.
http://monome.org/
He basically prototyped on a BasicStamp at first and then graduated to pic-chips for the final larger matrix-version.
Of course, that's all I really know since I was only able to work easily on a BasicStamp and never really got to the point of understanding pic chips(I'm more a software person).
Basic Stamp is here:
http://www.parallax.com/
you can probably get good deals on basic-stamp development boards from digikey.com

and pic chips are here:
www.microchip.com

everyone seems to agree that pic chips are the most extendable in case you ever create something that you might want to do a product run of.
But basic stamp is also pretty versatile. Only 16 ins and outs, though(last i checked).
You could also check out the MakeControllerKit from here:
https://cycling74.com/products/hardware

FWIW, if you are interested in buiding your own interfaces and electronics, you will be well served by looking into Arduino or Make Controller Kit. Both are pretty affordable and have a great community with support and advice available, and interface readily with Max. For low-level chip solutions, I would strongly recommend using AVR instead of PIC - there is a GCC compiler (free), the programmers are cheap, and the toolchain is available for OS X (also free).

Hello,
FWIW, if you are interested in buiding your own interfaces and electronics, you will be well served by looking into Arduino or Make Controller Kit.  Both are pretty affordable and have a great community with support and advice available, and interface readily with Max.  For low-level chip solutions, I would strongly recommend using AVR instead of PIC - there is a GCC compiler (free), the programmers are cheap, and the toolchain is available for OS X (also free). 

Yes, it's true, PIC programmers are definitely more expensive. I'll have to check out more Arduino stuff, I/O seems limited, though? or can you chain them easily?

while looking into it, though, i found this, seems like a nice place to start:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorials.php

anyone else have tutorial/book suggestions?

while looking into it, though, i found this, seems like a nice place to start:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorials.php

anyone else have tutorial/book suggestions?


i think that tom igoe's Making Things Talk book is pretty much the 

> Yes, it's true, PIC programmers are definitely more expensive. I'll 

> have to check out more Arduino stuff, I/O seems limited, though? or 

> while looking into it, though, i found this, seems like a nice place 

> anyone else have tutorial/book suggestions?

i think that tom igoe's Making Things Talk book is pretty much the  
bible of this stuff at this point.

>
> Yes, it's true, PIC programmers are definitely more expensive. I'll  
> have to check out more Arduino stuff, I/O seems limited, though? or  
> can you chain them easily?
>
> while looking into it, though, i found this, seems like a nice place  
> to start:
> http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorials.php
>
> anyone else have tutorial/book suggestions?


As far as book suggestions go you might try 'Physical Computing' by Dan O'sullivan and Tom Igoe (that is, if you haven't already!)

While it's not entirely Max-focused (more on micro controllers and their applications/programming), it does have some useful bits and pieces and is generally good as an introduction to and in-depth study of the sort of projects you're outlining.

As far as book suggestions go you might try 'Physical Computing' by Dan O'sullivan and Tom Igoe (that is, if you haven't already!) 

I am going to try to get in touch with Brian Crabtree, being that we are both based in Philadelphia.

I will make sure I pick up the two Tom Igoe books.

At 4:43 AM -0600 9/14/08, Nick Snyder wrote:

>2) What project board/chip do you suggest?

If you want to avoid having to programming a micro on your first 

>3) I want to do a project where several contact mics,

Use Cyclops, SoftVNS or one of the other camera input solutions.

> are giving data to Max and three standard clip lights react to the 

>4) What are my options for dimming? (MIDI? hack a dimmer? don't need 

>one at all?) [my goal is to put RGB gels over the three clip lights 

>and control the brightness to create any color I want]

Buy an AC dimmer. MediaMation sells one. Making one is very difficult.

At 4:43 AM -0600 9/14/08, Nick Snyder wrote:
>2) What project board/chip do you suggest?

If you want to avoid having to programming a micro on your first 
project, check out MidiTron (http://miditron.com).

>  are giving data to Max and three standard clip lights react to the 
>data, does this sound doable?
>
>4) What are my options for dimming? (MIDI? hack a dimmer? don't need 
>one at all?) [my goal is to put RGB gels over the three clip lights 
>and control the brightness to create any color I want]

Intro to Physical Computing w/ Max/MSP; help.