MultiTouch Blog

blog move

rbedi100 — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:03:58 +0000

Hi!

I forgot to post this a while ago, so I’ll do it now: i’m now blogging at

http://rbedi.net/touch

I’ll deactivate this address soon…just leaving it up so people can see the new address.

-rishi

Webcam Disassembly & Modification

rbedi100 — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:18:47 +0000

So I finally diassembled my Logitech webcam. Their naming drives me nuts, so I’ll just post pics and leave it to all of you to see if its the same as your’s

As you can see in the pic of the two hemispheres, I had to use a screwdriver (tiny flathead one) to snap the plastic band holding the two hemispheres together. Then, there were two bars connecting the two hemispheres at opposite sides, and I used big wire-cutters to break it. The plastic casing fell off at this point and I was left with the circuit board attached to the lens and the button at the top.

I got the lens and its casing apart from the circuit board very easily, 2 little screws. Here’s the painful part: getting the glued IR filter off of the lens. I used an Exacto knife (thanks Taha) to scrape at the glass for 20 minutes…makes a horrible sound, but works pretty well. Once a good bit of the glass has been scraped off, you can get a screwdriver in there to pry the rest up – it first goes up vertically, and then it can be pulled out if you dig at it.

Progress Update

rbedi100 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:48:09 +0000

So…went to Lowe’s (again) and got some MDF – medium density fibreboard. My plywood had warped, and I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about h0w the box was turning out. Great guy at Lowe’s, cut my wood perfectly and now it just has to be screwed on.

LCD monitor is a massive pain; there are these little tabs that I’m apparently supposed to pull out to detach the metal frame from the matrix, no luck. Screwdrivers are to be avoided as they could easily puncture the underlying ribbon cable.

Just a quick update; not too much action as I’m occupied with other projects.

LCD Disassembly pics! Finally!

rbedi100 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:25:17 +0000

So I’ve finally gotten around to taking some pictures of my disassembled LCD monitor. Removing the plastic case took forever…every little plastic snap had to be removed. Needless to say I was quite relieved when I plugged it in after removing the case and it still worked

I have a problem though…I’ve removed the case and such, but I’m not sure where to go from here. There are various ribbon cables attached to a large central box in the middle as you can see in my pics, but what do I remove? There are screws holding down that central box that I removed, but I was still unable to pull the box out. I think its secured to a side steel panel, also in my pics. Where do I disconnect the ribbon cables from?

I’ve gotten it to a stage where I can see the guts, but I don’t know what to do with them.

Anyways, hope you enjoy and make use of the pics…once someone helps me out with what to do from here I’ll put up the final pics of disassembly.

~rbedi100

Back after a while…

rbedi100 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:03:22 +0000

Hi guys…
Haven’t posted in a while…heard people were actually looking at this so I figured I should post an update. I’ve partially disassembled my Acer AL1916W monitor, and I’m taking pics that should be up very shortly. I’ve nearly finished constructing my table’s body – legs and walls are done; just the top part that will hold the monitor itself to go.

I’ve planned out my monitor-holding design, so that’s good to go. I’m doing some other MT stuff right now – namely playing around with editing a book to help people get started with multitouch. Using InDesign CS4…trying to find my way around.

Just wanted to throw up a quick update

MT Update – Table Body

rbedi100 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:14:53 +0000

I was able to go to Lowe’s today – picked up all the wood I need to build my table’s body. I don’t have a very good saw, so I just used the cutting center there. The guy who helped me out was great – he suggested I just go with regular plywood and 2x4s – not to pay more for MDF or something like that. I took my sketchup model printouts with lots of measurements, and I got done pretty fast. Four legs, four ‘legs’ for the base, four panels for the side, and a top and a bottom. I used 1/2″ thick wood, and 2″ square legs. Feel free to leave a comment here if you want the sketchup model I used – or just look through the several that I attached in the previous post through rapidshare.

For the top, rather than build a frame with 4 pieces, he suggested I use a jigsaw to cut the middle portion out, so I picked up a cheap $25 jigsaw, along with the necessary blades. I got it all picked out and cut in less than an hour, so I’m pretty proud of myself, having done no more than very small wood working projects before

Planning to build this week, with pictures! Then I can disassemble my LCD…

Update

rbedi100 — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:26:38 +0000

Haven’t posted in a couple of weeks…lots of action on the multitouch front, and not.

My monitor came in the mail. I started to disassemble it – just unscrewed a couple of screws and started to pry off the casing. I was talking to someone [Bridger Maxwell] about the monitor disassembly, and he told me that it was a good idea to have your table and monitor mount 100% ready when you disassemble, so you can plant the monitor in its spot and never touch it again – the more you move it, the more likely you are to get dead lines/pixels, or break it.

So, I’ve been making sketchup models of what my box is going to look like – I’m going with a wooden frame, covered with MDF. One of my friends gave me a great idea regarding how to mount the LCD: . That’s a very rough sketch, but you get the idea – I was going to use a dremel, etc., but this is so much simpler – the bottom piece would obviously be much smaller than the pic, of course.

I’ve done a bunch of sketchup models, for the various possibilities – 3/4″ thick wood, 1/2″ thick wood, with a lower frame, without a lower frame…here are all of them, from rapidshare [[UPDATE: NEW LINKS]]:

http://rapidshare.com/files/187847759/final_34.skp.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/187847760/final_34_will.skp.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/187847761/final_drawing.skp.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/187847762/will_s_idea.skp.html

It’s winter break right now, so I’m hoping I get a chance to go to Home Depot/Lowe’s and pick up some wood. Itching to take my monitor apart

Getting a monitor!

rbedi100 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:10:04 +0000

Just won a monitor off of eBay! Yay!

Its the Acer AL1916W (19″) – nice discount, too. Much thanks to Bridger Maxwell for recommendation (http://multitouch.fieryferret.com). Can’t wait for it to come so I can RIP IT APART!

Yes! Will definitely post full disassembly pics when it comes in the mail.

Any advice on taking apart LCDs would be welcome and much appreciated (so I don’t kill it…)!

Thanks!

Argh…FFC Issues

rbedi100 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Well…I was just getting ready to take apart my Sony SDM-S81 18″ LCD monitor and I was just making one last internet search for potential problems. I found problems all right…apparently one circuit board is connected with no ribbon cable at all – just the connectors directly attached.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26823

I can’t solder that small (read: can’t solder for my life) , and anyways its probably not worth it for an old half-working monitor. I plan to take it apart anyways, to get a feel for ripping apart expensive electronic devices Looking for a new monitor…preferably less that $150. Used is fine…just need to find something. Pics of no-good LCD soon…hopefully.

Diagramming Setup – Hardware

rbedi100 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:03:44 +0000

I’ve been piecing together parts and the overall building of the table in my mind for the last week or two, and I’ve been collecting some of the low-budget materials. As I mentioned earlier, I have an 18″ LCD (Sony SDM-S81) that is in (sort of) working condition. I still need to work out the details of the body and FTIR frame, so, to help me think through some of that, I quickly drew up a multi-faceted diagram by hand…not particularly neat or well-organized, but I scanned it in anyway. It includes very rough sketches of how things will be laid out in the table, and also parts+suppliers I need. Quite detailed…click on pic to zoom in.

Feedback on my plan is much appreciated and needed! Thanks!

Attached here as JPEG and PDF…(not sure why I need multiple file formats…but here they are anyways)

mtdraft10001