Close

Build Instructions and Ramble

A project log for HandShake

Enabling communication through gesture

matt-oppenheimmatt oppenheim 08/24/2017 at 18:470 Comments

Build Instructions on github

I decided to put the build instructions and other documentation into an OpenOffice document. Why not put it all up on the Hackaday project instructions? Having the OpenOffice document allows me to put it up on my github site. Anybody else can then download it and modify it or take bits from it to help with their project or perhaps in modifying this project. I'll put a version of this onto the Hackaday project site, but you're best off going to the github site and downloading the latest version.

There was a bug on the Hackaday site which made it difficult to put up my build instructions. I found that I couldn't edit the instructions after the initial post. I had this bug verified by Hackaday. It is probably fixed by now.

Ramble

Is this project a hack? The build complexity is low compared with many other projects. The Hackaday site defines hacking as:

Hacking is an art form that uses something in a way in which it was not originally intended. This highly creative activity can be highly technical, simply clever, or both.

I am re-purposing an educational tool to be assistive technology, so I think it qualifies as a hack. What the reader doesn't see is my many, many failed approaches.  I spent some months writing code for the Microsoft Kinect, then the Leap Motion. Neither were suitable for my end user group. Then I made several iterations of proper kludges, lashing together Micropython boards, IMUs and XBees. These would undoubtedly qualify as 'hacks'. My final implementation (so far...) has the advantage of being simple. I've put the time and effort in that many more sophisticated projects on this site have, though the end product does not appear to reflect this as it is based on unmodified off the shelf boards. 

Getting from A to B, I visited most of the other letters in the alphabet.

Discussions