The Jigsolve now talks on IRC through chat.twitch.tv. Hooray!
I’m struggling to get the raspberry pi camera to stream to Twitch. Once that’s done hardware integration will be complete. Everything from there will be marketing and software tweaking (like flood protection).
https://www.twitch.tv/jigsolve/
Congratulations to Instagram user DavoDD_ for being the first person to drive the Jigsolve robot through Twitch.
Special thanks to Twitch Developers Canary and BarryCarlyon for help with broadcasting software setup.
Apparently the solution is to stream the pi cam to the LAN, watch the feed with VLC, and then use OBS to screen scrape the image and send it to Twitch. The lag is awful – 2 seconds or more! – but it works. Maybe Twitch Dev or raspi experts can tell me how to shorten that delay. please please pretty please
Second challenge, the pump is not letting go just like my ex even though I run it in reverse. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong there, it’s probably a software mistake.
The jigsolve robot works!
This morning I tested movements against software limits, the picking, the placing, all through the irc bot. I then spent three hours trying to configure my (&/#*\+~€{! Routers to let the camera video out to the internet.
Above is a quick vid I shot just before I started the testing.
The networking issue is actually moot and I should let it go. I need to integrate the twitch API and get the Kickstarter video done. Once the machine moves to its temp home wherever it’s running for the duration of the game I’ll have all new networking …fun.
Wow! Writing a log on my phone is painful. Seriously, hackaday, get your shit together.
Like these posts? Tell your friends about marginallyclever.com. Selling electronic parts keeps me building weird stuff like this. Thanks!
I fought a hell of a long time with my DIY Prusa i3. Nothing sticks to any bed, and I blame the nozzle. I’ve ordered two new Prusa i3s from Prusa himself, so fingers crossed that’ll go better.
While we wait for delivery I’ve been using the Tinkerine printer at the Vancouver Hack Space to print parts from my design.
and I’ve attached the Raspberry Pi B to the side of the X-Carve collet. I’ve also modelled a place to attach the air pump.
The Pi camera talks to the pi which Wifi’s back to the PC 3 feet away. The PC runs a Java IRC bot which listens to user commands and then translates them into GRBL, the firmware running on the X-Carve.
Either the PC or the Pi will upload the camera image to the internet – I’m not sure which yet, but Pi would be more straightforward. I wonder about bandwidth. There is a separate special PCB that runs the stepper driver to rotate pieces when they are picked up and turn on the air pump. This PCB could not be connected to the X-Carve directly with ease. I could reuse some of the extra connections on the back of the X-Carve (coolant system?) but that makes me uncomfortable.
At some point this robot has got to start paying for itself. I considered banner ads on the video feed, corporate sponsors, and a few other options. All of them seemed like a lot of long term work. I want to turn this on, scatter the jigsaw pieces, and then walk away. So instead I’m taking a page from http://reddit.com/r/place and http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ to sell off the squares under the jigsolve. There are 75×75 1cm squares, and I’m thinking $2 each is very fair. 300dpi print covering the whole table should be 118 pixels on each side of each square (300*10/25.4). Plenty for all kinds of messages or fun pics! Plans are already being drawn up for a short kickstarter video to promo this project.
I’m heading out right now to pick up the last mounting hardware for the air pump. If it fits then tomorrow I rewire all the components and try to get through the unit tests. Maybe even an integration test! God laughs at the plans of mortal men.
