My fourth descent into ADD

The last episode of LA Picker, a webseries I scored, will be released tomorrow. Below, you can listen to / download the theme song:

You can watch the whole series here:

Here’s a non-music related post. I got a google cardboard kit last night and it’s very cool. I see a lot of potential for it — finally I can play with a cheap version of the Oculus Rift. The google demo is fun, and the immersive ‘Sisters’ game is terrifying and fun. Seeing google’s chrome experiments for cardboard to use a mobile web browser for VR blew me away.

Tonight, I whipped up a quick hack for viewing an STL file, common for 3D printing, with google cardboard using three.js:
http://browserdj.com/stlviewer/

It comes with a wedding cake-topper STL file my wife and I designed.

On desktop, you will see the model spinning. On mobile or in cardboard, you will just see white initially – it relies on your phone’s orientation, so you’ll need to find the model — it may be behind you.

It uses Jaanga’s Cardboard demo:
https://github.com/jaanga/cookbook/tree/gh-pages/cardboard/

The github source is here:
https://github.com/jordan314/Cardboard-STL-Viewer

Geeks and Beats is a themed bar night for makers in Los Angeles. In September we had a wild time at our wearable tech meetup. I DJed as Jordan B with guest DJ Magronic, with VJs Cupcake and ADub doing fashion-themed visuals. We had a lot of great folks from Crash Space, LA Makerspace, and Disorient show up wearing their wearable tech, which included wifi-synced light-up jackets and scarves.

Our next event is on Thursday, October 24th 2013, and the theme is ROBOTS. Start working on your robots to show-and-tell at this event, or come dressed as one for the theme. I will be DJing again and VJs Cupcake and ADub will present robotic visuals. I’ll bring my Raspberry Jolt bot to let people shoot each other with nerf darts.

Details:
http://www.facebook.com/events/221612911295759/
Thursday, October 24th 2013
Karma Lounge
3954 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Free

The crime-fighting nerf-gun robot

Meet Raspberry Jolt, my mini nerf-dart-shooting robot with WIFI control and remote video recording. It’s powered by the first gen Romo by Romotive and a raspberry pi.

Parts list (linked to sources):

• Jolt gun by Nerf
• First-gen Romo by Romotive
• Raspberry Pi (Currently backordered but available on ebay)
• 16 GB SD Card with Raspbian
• Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver
• Adafruit Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi
• Futaba S-148 Servo (included in kit below)
• JOMAR Linear Servo Conversion Kit for Futaba Servo
• Raspberry Pi Case
• 4-AA 6V battery case
• Edimax EW-7811Un USB Nano Wifi Adapter
• High Quality 5200mAh External Battery Pack Power Bank Charger
• Female Jumper Wires
• Male Header

I used the Adafruit 16 Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver tutorial  with this circuit and Adafruit’s Python Library to hook up the servo to the Pi. After I had the circuit working on a breadboard I used the male header pins and female jumper wires to slim down the bot. Getting the Raspberry Pi to auto-connect to WIFI and run headless took some work; I used wpa_supplicant.conf to do it, and installed vncserver and SSH to control it remotely. I installed Avahi, which is the same as Apple’s Bonjour, so that I could always connect to the pi via http://raspberrypi.local once it boots and connects to the router. (However, once you have its IP address, shooting the dart is faster via IP address rather than by DNS lookup).

I modified Adafruit’s Servo_Example.py script to pull the servo back for 1 second and then return to front position. To access the Pi’s GPIO pins you need to be root, so I followed this tutorial to write and compaile a simple C script that could temporarily run commands as root. (I skipped the shell script part and just ran the python command from the C script). Finally I installed apache and PHP, and wrote a simple PHP script that calls the pulltrigger python script.

Mounting the servo to the trigger was the hardest part. My first two versions had the servo placed next to the trigger, but that was really hard to mount onto the round barrel of the gun. I also tried an all-lego chasis with reinforcement, but it was too heavy and bulky to mount onto the Romo.

raspberry jolt v2 mount – didn’t work

Then I realized that the servo would work best if it was behind the trigger, hanging off it like an Ewok choking a Storm Trooper. I used zip ties to connect it all (the Jolt has handy holes drilled into the trigger already), and then it was just a question of keeping them squished in a single plane together. The box from the USB battery case I bought worked fine for this, and was also transparent and light.

The bot actually has two separate WIFI connections and 4 battery sources. The USB battery powers the Raspberry Pi, and the 4 AA battery pack powers the servo circuit. (Adafruit recommends separate power sources because servos are noisy and might damage your Pi.) The Pi and servo are actually totally separate from the Romo, and are just mounted on its back. The Romo has its own battery, and uses an iPhone (which also has its own battery) to control movement (via analog headphone out) out and sends video back to the app. Romo has a Desktop and iPad version of its control app, and then I can control my pull-trigger script from any web browser. (Technically you could control the app with just an iPad by switching between the Romo app and Mobile Safari, but I found using a separate iPhone was smoother).

This was my first robot and it was a lot of fun to make. The Romo has aux ports that you could use, however that signal wouldn’t be able to drive a servo. A simpler circuit would just be to use an Ardrino to convert the aux signal from the Romo into a PWM signal for the servo, but I had a Raspberry Pi and understood it better. Plus I like the idea of having a headless weaponized webserver that can move on its own.

If you call me and I don’t answer, you will now be greeted by Morgan Freeman (Click to Play):

Morgan Freeman Greeting

Yes, that’s really him! He generously donated his voice for the Autism Speaks “Sound Off” charity campaign.

With my Tim Robbins Jamming and Crazy Shawshank Redemption Tree posts, I think my Shawshank blogging trifecta is now complete.

I was once again honored to be part of the music team for Cloud Atlas, the new Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski film that comes out Friday. I worked as a music arranger and programmer for composers Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, and Tom Tykwer.

The soundtrack is possibly their finest work yet, in my opinion, and currently has an average review of five stars on iTunes. When Tykwer, Heil and Klimek work together, they take an unusual approach of composing and recording a score before shooting even begins. It was amazing to watch the journey the soundtrack took from its initial rich themes from the first recordings, to the edits and additional composition once the movie was shot and being edited, to the final orchestrations and final recording sessions once the picture was locked. As the six stories were edited together in different groupings and timings, so was it necessary for the music to be rearranged and recomposed. The three of them composed much more material than you hear on screen.

I have always been a fan of the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, and the hurdles they had to jump through and sacrifices they had to take for this film were enormous. After no studio would invest the full budget, they invented a new model of global financing, gathering many smaller investors as well as investing in the film themselves and waiving their directing fees. Jittery financiers would pull out because of the risks involved and the project was in jeopardy several times. Halle Berry broke her foot and they had to shoot with two crews simultaneously. No one knew how to advertise the film or what category to put it in. Despite all of this, they have handled the release deftly, and everyone involved with the film is in love with it, including myself.

I also have to congratulate Lana Wachowski, who is beautiful inside and out, and who bravely stepped out of her veil of privacy to promote this movie and create this art. I have read nothing but positive press about her and I’m thrilled that journalists are using the right pronouns and finally being respectful to her and transgendered people, even pointing out the relation between her self expression and fitting themes in the movie. It’s amazing how much our political climate has changed – six years ago there was nothing but negative rumors and exposés about her. When you gather confidence and proudly and shine the light of authenticity back at the poison, it scatters. I heard Lana was aware how important visibility is to other young transgendered filmmakers and artists and that that was part of her motivation. I’m thankful to her for winning the respect of her cast and crew just by being so bright and authentic, and for being such a brilliant role model for so many people. (I’m also thankful to Eddie Izzard and several others.)

I’m very excited for Cloud Atlas’s premiere this week. You can buy the soundtrack online at the links below:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/cloud-atlas-original-motion/id565671999

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Original-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B009JCL58G/

“I Do”, a feature written and starring David Ross and directed by Glenn Gaylord, is premiering July 18th at 8:30 pm at Outfest at the Ford Amphitheater. It is an extremely well-produced, beautifully shot and well-written drama with themes about gay marriage and immigration rights that is getting great reviews. I scored the film with Gabriel Mounsey, under the guidance of Johnny Klimek, and we had the privilege of mixing at Skywalker Sound which was a real treat. Tickets are available here: http://www.outfest.org/tixSYS/2012/xslguide/eventnote.php?notepg=1&EventNumber=3541

“Genderfreak” is a short also premiering at Outfest that I scored with director Rebecca Louisell. It has a punk-rock soundtrack, and is showing July 20th at 9:45 and 10:00pm as part of the Girl’s Shorts program. Tickets are available here:
http://www.outfest.org/tixSYS/2012/filmguide/Title/GG

I’m very excited for both events!

I have been busy as part of the team that composes the soundtrack for NBC’s critically-acclaimed “Awake.” It has been a joy working on the show for composers Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil for series executive producer Kyle Killen. I love the show and hope it gets a second season. Below is a scene I received a co-write on: