Happy Birthday Me

I got some nuts as well

Had a splendid birthday today. Started with breakfast in bed plus presents and cards. I’ve been after a “Seagull” lens for a while. And now I’ve got one. I had a nice morning fiddling with code, lunch out and then headed to see The Odyssey movie. It. Was. Awesome. Proper film making on a huge scale. We saw it on a “normal” screen and it looked very good. I’d love to see it on a larger one, or better yet on Imax film. If you are wondering whether it is worth the trip, take the advice I saw at the end of one of the reviews I read. “Find the biggest screen you can and go and see it”.

Custard Cream Camera at the Hardware Meetup

The camera will make line drawings too

We had a nice Hardware Meetup today. I took the Custard Cream Camera along and turned a few folk into Lego. I’ll have it at the next meetup, maybe by then I’ll have made the printer work reliably.

Having a screw loose

On the top you can see the Raspberry Pi that controls everything. Underneath is the printer battery holder and the Raspberry Pi HQ camera module.

Every now and then at emf someone would ask me if the nut, bolt or washer they’d found on the floor was from the Custard Cream Camera. It usually was. I’d got everything nice and tight when I built the camera, but the jostling must have worked things loose. Also, I think that PLA (the filament type that I used) tends to deform when compressed, which loosened things. I’m going to have to add some locking nuts and maybe some varnish to hold the parts of the case together.

EMF Day 5

We were up bright and early to pack up and get on the road. Time taken to pack the bags and get everything together: 20 minutes. Time taken to get folding table back into its bag: 20 minutes.

It has been an amazing event. Best one ever by a considerable margin. The weather helped, as did the huge range of talks and installation, but the best bit for me was the people. Everyone was interesting and interested. There were lots of things I would have love to have gone along to, but I’d have needed several of me to get the most out of the time here. The good news is that a lot of the presentations will find their way onto YouTube so I can take a look at them later.

Huge thanks to everyone who made it possible.

EMF Day 4

Waking up with the Custard Cream Camera

Today is the last day of EMF. Which is sad. I spent the morning learning about Canbus and the afternoon I went to sessions about the Tildagon badge design and PAL TV amongst other things. Then, in the golden hour just after sunset I took the Custard Cream Camera for a walk and grabbed a bunch of pictures, printed them and handed them out. When the outside light failed I took the camera into the Null Sector nightclub and tried to make it work with the available light there. Which was great fun. Thanks to all my patient subjects.

Sometimes the camera heard “turn into Logo” rather than “turn into lego”

We also went along to the closing ceremony, where all the volunteers took to the stage. There were so many that there was concern that stage wouldn’t support them all. Hundreds of people gave up their time to make this amazing non-profit event. The best news came right at the end, when they told us they were planning for emf in 2028. I’ll be there, with whatever the Custard Cream Camera has turned into by then.

EMF Day 3

The Otter Plotter

The thing about EMF is that in amongst all the silly things (see above) they also have a whole bunch of serious things (see below).

Virus Talk

Alongside daft creations we had proper hard science and some deep discussions. It is also wonderful to see artists and engineers working together to make the most amazing installations. I’ve never seen so many at an emf before.

I went to a super session about photography which started from first principles and taught me a few things I’d never thought properly about. I was then lucky enough to have a chat with the presenter, try to take their picture with the Custard Cream Camera and totally fail because the LCD panel was impossible to see. Oh well. This is just a super fun place to be. In the evening they had a showing of the movie Apollo 13 using a proper 35mm projector.

This is the projector at the end of the show. That big reel on the left was full of film at the start. Just the sound of the projector firing up and the look of the film were great. And we got the full sound treatment too as they were using the DTS theatre soundtrack. Awesome.

EMF Day 2

I still remembered “plugh”

We found our way into the arcade tent where they had a teletype running the Colossal Caverns adventure game. It was super nostalgic to press the keys, hear the clunk and see the printed output.

The bar seemed as good a place as any to upgrade the conference badge. For 2026 there is a new badge face and sensor board which much improves the control switches and looks really snazzy. The badge runs apps from the festival App store. I’ve added one called Custard Cream which you can run to view pictures taken by the custard cream camera.

The Custard Cream Camera is working well

They’ve done this rather cunning thing with the Null Sector nightclub this year. They’ve pointed all the speakers away from the camp rather than towards it. This means that it is a lot quieter in bed at night, although I didn’t seem to have any trouble getting to sleep as it turned out.

EMF Day 1

We got up bright and early today and headed off down the motorway to Electromagnetic Field. The motorways were mostly clear, the weather was mostly very warm. Just the temperatures for carrying tents, groundsheets and Custard Cream Cameras around. Once we had the tent up and everything in place we went out for a walk and to take some pictures. Then we repaired to the Lounge to take a look at what we had, and fiddle with it a bit.

EMF has this rather nice sign. I asked the Custard Cream Camera to put it on the moon.

Then I added a bit more cheese to the event…

…before turning one lucky person into Lego…

Then we headed back to the tent to get things ready for tomorrow. If you want to see these and many other pictures from the event you can go to: https://custardcream.cam/ Just hit the “See a random picture” link to, er, see a random picture.

MVP Awarded

Very pleased to discover that I nave been renewed as a Microsoft Most Valued Professional. That’s 24 years in the programme. Thanks very much. I’ve no idea what it is that I’ve done to deserve this, but I’ll strive to keep doing it.

Using AI to make Rubber Duck Frying Pan Cartoons

One of the reasons that I created the Custard Cream Camera was to make a device that had built in AI filters. I was inspired by Banamera to create something you could speak commands to. I’ve got it working now. Above is the first ever image processed result. It took a photograph of a large rubber duck in a frying pan and turned it into a cartoon of a large rubber duck in a frying pan.

This is going to go down well at EMF….

The Custard Cream Camera Lives!

The camera with a duck and a printed picture of the duck

Please don’t ask me why it is called the “Custard Cream Camera”. Just take a look at the box and use your imagination. Anyhoo, it is now mostly complete and working. I’ve no idea how reliable it is or what will happen when I throw it in a tent and then go round taking snaps of happy festival goes.

But we’ll find out later this week.

It has a user interface and everything

Printing Trees

I thought the support trees that you get when 3D printing looked too good to throw away….

This is how the centre box of the Custard Cream Camera case was printed. The amazing thing is that the camera hole and the camera supports (which you can see at the back of the picture) came out perfectly in spite of the way that the supports were printed as horizontal objects. This experience has cured me of any concerns about using support in prints. It really does just work. Very impressed.

Camping Purchases

Today I bought a sleeping bag liner and a portable pillow. The preparation for Electromagnetic Field is underway.

..and so to York

YOrk Minster looking good. YOu can photograph it from the outside for free.

Took a very old camera to York today. I think it still works.

the minster for very small people

Lunch out with birthday presents

I think this camera is a keeper.

Hoxe Airtag clones are good value with one Achilles Heel

Each tag is around 40mm across

We’ve used Apple Airtags to keep track of our stuff for ages. They work very well but they are a bit pricey. Hoxe Tracker Tags do the same job and you can get eight of them for the silly price of ten pounds (or sometimes even cheaper). On Apple you use them in exactly the same way. Add them to the Find My app and they pop up on your map and away you go. They contain a CR2032 battery which you’ll have to change every now and then. I can’t speak for how well they work on Android, but I’d expect them to be fine.

What’s not to love? Well, there is the way that they use a tiny little button (you can see it on the picture above) to control their reset behaviour. Hold the button down for a few seconds and the tag goes into “pairing mode” and waits for something to talk to it. Put a tag in your back pocket with a bunch of keys and then sit down and you might also activate the pair behaviour which stops the tag working. I must admit I’ve not had a problem with this myself. I pop the tags into bags where it is unlikely to happen. If I want to put one on a keyring I might make a little case which covers the button.

Phoenix II film

The images above (and the one from yesterday) were taken on Phoenix II film. It’s a very interesting film with a different coloured base and an evolving emulsion. I exposed the shots at the suggested film speed. I think they are a bit dark, so when I use my next roll I’ll add another stop or so. But I like the colours and the grain in the pictures.

Wheely Good Time at the Hardware Meetup

Here are some flowers in place of hardware meetup pictures

I’ve done it again. Taken a camera to the Hardware Meetup and totally failed to take any pictures. So there is no evidence that we had a great time (despite me bringing the wrong robot parts along). Nice to see new folks turning up and we did manage to get robot wheels fitted and turning, which is a great start.

Next time we will be adding a distance sensor so that the robot can move around without bashing into things.

Cheap Handles

I can make two camera handles with just one set

I’m making a big camera. In a big box. With a printer. It’s going to be quite heavy. And it will need a handle. I’ve managed to find these on Amazon. They are supposed to be used for underwater photography. You put a camera in the middle and some lights on the top. But they come to pieces to leave you with two handles and two fairly sturdy base plates, which are the bits I’m going to be using. I managed to get mine “nearly new” for the princely sum of fourteen pounds. If you are building anything that needs a handle, they are well worth a look.

Turning Black and White

I need to work on my focus

I’m getting back into black and white analogue photography. I think I’ve found the cheapest way to do it: process at home and use bulk rolls of film that you load into reusable cassettes. This drops the price significantly, although you do have to deal with films that tell fibs about their speed (I’m looking at you Fomapan 400) and leave you with very thin, underexposed negatives. Either that, or I got the developing time wrong.

Anyhoo, the results are always interesting and would be very difficult to replicate on a digital camera or phone.

Cameras and Coffee in Leeds

Cameras. And coffee

Went to Leeds today for the monthly Cameras and Coffee event. It was great fun. Next time we’ll plan to stick around a bit longer.