Drawing and Animation for Live Performance – on Stage, on the Street and on the Net.

Tagtool

Sam’s Latest

Posted on July 21st, 2009 | By maki | Category: DIY Tagtools

Sam Thongrong from Chicago has been busy with some DIY Tagtools. Number one features an RGB LED glowing in the currently selected color, as we first saw in Fred Paulino’s and Lucas Mafra’s Gambiological Tagtool.

And Number two sets the record for the smallest Tagtool – 2.5 x 1.75 inches. Instead of using an Arduino, he made his own stripped-down version of it. Here’s his build log, detailing all the steps of the construction process.

Sam's Tagtool Thumb

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7 Comments

  1. gnu says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 1:41 am

    Nice ones!

    Did you change the order of the sliders? And the button above?

    How is the handling this way?

  2. Sam Thongrong says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 6:21 am

    Thanks, gnu.
    You have an excellent eye!
    I compared my wiring connection with the tagtool latest schematic, and the wiring is the opposite!

    The 10k resistor is connected between Fade potentiometer(Slider 6) and button.
    And the 5V. is connected between the Arduino 5V. pin and Color Slider(Slider 1).

    The order of my sliders go counter clockwise from top left down – Color, Saturation(White), Brightness(Black), and from bottom right up – Transparent, Width, and Fade.

    The board lay nicely in the hand, I comfortablely use my thumb to control the Color, White, and Black wheels, and the button (just like using the thumb on the game controller on the gamepad).
    My first thumbwheel TagTool had the button on the bottom of the board. And it is not quiet convenient to move the thumb from the Color thumbwheel (that is mostly used!) to press the button. So I moved the button to the top of the board, (shown in the photo above).

    I use my index to hold the TagTool and place the Tagtool in my hand. A little inconvenient at first to use the middle and ring finger to control the Width and Transparent thumbwheels, but it took me a little to to familiarize those finger.

    I am thinking to put it in the case or something, so my hand would not touch the circuit on the back. I will post as soon as I come I have it done. Any suggestion?

    sam

  3. flex says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 am

    i suggest boxing it with acryl glass on the back, cheap and easy to handle.

  4. lucas mafra says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    i liked the ergonomy of it !! really nice beautiful simplicity. greetz from brazil!!!! =D

  5. lucas mafra says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    just completing my post, i have a suggestion, maybe an elastic, or some way to make it stay on your hand without having to grab to hold it. know what I mean !? cheers! =D

  6. gnu says:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 2:42 am

    a rubber-tagtool :)
    when it slips to the ground, it just makes “dooooing”, and here it is again.

  7. Sam Thongrong says:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 5:58 am

    Hi all,
    Thanks for the comments, and ideas.

    I like flex’s idea of the acrylic backing.

    lucas, greeting back to you from Chicago. And your idea is not bad either. May be I could attach the tagtool to the motocyclist’s glove(the one that covered only half of the finger) with the velco thinky, so it is removable. How’s that sound?

    gnu, a rubber-tagtool?? What’s a challenge??

    sam

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