The SURE module is an LED matrix with a LED matrix controller built-in. A hand-wired board featuring an ATMEGA328 microcontroller, a DS-1307 battery chip with a button clock backup, and a 5v high-efficiency regulator drives the SURE module.
The JY-MCU 3208 also has the same matrix controller, but also includes an ATMEGA8 controller; no extra wiring is required except for a light sensor attached to a spare data input pin on the ATMEGA.
The JY-MCU 3208 currently sells for just over $12 at DealExtreme.com. It arrives with software that displays date and time using Chinese characters. Fortunately, the module includes a standard six-pin ISP connector that allows hobbyists to upload their own code using AVRISP mkII or other In-System Programmers. This version would not be possible without the replacement code provided by DrJones.
The ATMEGA8 does time-keeping using interrupts, and the program is uploaded to the module using the built-in ISP connector. This is a bare-bones design that does not have a voltage regulator, so you must be diligent in selecting a power adapter that delivers regulated 5v to the unit. I’ve blown a couple of the modules through inattention and stupidity.
My modifications to DrJones’ code include:
improved typography
auto brightness
re-assignment of the three control buttons
Only one hardware modification is required: for the auto brightness feature, connect one side of a CdS cell to 5v, and to the other side of the CdS cell make a direct connection to pin A0 of the ATMEGA8, and connect this point to ground through a 10k resistor. It’s a little tricky if you’re not used to surface-mount soldering; go here and here if you need some tips. If you don’t want to use the auto brightness, comment out lines 352-353 of file clockmtx004.c and recompile.
There are three small pushbuttons on the left side of the module which have been reassigned to provide the following functions, from top to bottom:
Hour adjust – each press adds one hour, hold press to accelerate
Minute adjust – each press adds one minute, hold press to accelerate
“Child-safe” toggle – press once to turn off expletives, press again to turn them on
You can download the code in an AVR Studio 4 package—which includes all the libraries and makefile, and a compiled hex file—here.
As an update to my earlier post on the SURE unit: my clock with the SURE module uses amber LEDS; these have been discontinued by the manufacturer however, and only red and green are currently available. I was able to snatch up the last six amber modules from a Swiss supplier in January 2013. The JY-MCU module is only available in red.
While in Foshan, I was asked to give a keynote presentation for a short symposium on “Critical Design.” Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby say that “Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life… Its opposite is affirmative design: design that reinforces the status quo.”I started with a historical perspective by leading my Chinese listeners into an overview of the Paris Uprising in 1968. I linked the start of the Cultural Revolution with the student-driven ferment in France, Poland and the United States at the same time. I introduced the Situationist International, Guy Debord and his book “The Society of the Spectacle”:
…In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation…
…The spectacle manifests itself as an enormous positivity, out of reach and beyond dispute. All it says is: “Everything that appears is good; whatever is good will appear.”…
…The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images…
Panel Discussion
I followed this with an introduction of Marshall McLuhan, who was active in Canada at this time, the launch of Adbusters in 1989, and Naomi Klein’s “No Logo” as examples of the beginnings of a critical discourse around the role of (mainly graphic) design in late 20th-century society. The rest of the talk was showing some examples from Dunne and Raby, Viktor Hertz, The Hypothetical Development Organization, Randy Sarafan, and, of course, my own efforts, including the Shy Dildo, Clock with Tics and Media Circus.
My point was this: it’s good to have clients and it’s good to have problems to solve, but designers should question societal norms from time to time. Sometimes it is necessary for a designer to take an opposing position, if for nothing else but to clear out the cobwebs of sycophantic thinking. Often, the most innovative design comes out of a process that is critical of current practices and presumptions.
After a short question-and-answer session with the audience, which included members of the Foshan Design Association in addition to students in the Art and Design school (and at least one very articulate Business School student), I was joined on a panel by several members of the design community, including Renato Franchini from Modena, Italy.
The afternoon of November 22, the ceramic (jewelry) College of Art and Design, and Foshan Design Enterprises Association jointly organized the exchange of design innovation. The General Assembly has invited Canada Nova Art and Design University (NSCAD University) the Design Branch President, Professor Michael LeBlanc entitled “Critical Design” keynote speech. Professor Michael invitation by the College of Science and Technology of Foshan ceramic (jewelry) College of Art and Design, and come to my school for industrial design students held a design workshop international educational exchange activities.
In exchange meeting, the Mr. Michael Professor and Italian designer Renato Franchini, ceramics (jewelry) Associate Dean of the School of Art and Design Professor Fan Jinsong, Foshan Design Enterprises Association, Mr. Liu Guangxiao the Foshan design corporate vice president of the Association Mr. Gao Zhanhui, Foshan design corporate vice president of the Association, Mr. Deng Ruihua together with Foshan local designers will my school teachers and students interact and communicate well.
Foshan University’s School of Art and Design invited me to do a seven-day workshop with their 4th-year Industrial Design class last November. I made some friends, learned much, and it was a lot of fun. I was assisted by Prof. Jack Fan and Instructor Phoebe Guo, who alternated acting as advisors and interpreters. I should note here that all Chinese universities require entering students to have some level of English proficiency: arts and sciences generally have a high requirement, but Art Design students in China are not expected to have as high a level of English proficiency. However, there is a lot that can be communicated with drawing, and as long as I had a pencil (or stylus and iPad), I could make myself understood, and my students could do the same for me.
I had six classes in the studio with the students:
Thursday Nov. 15: Introduction class with Prof. Jack Fan Friday Nov. 16: “Make Your Classroom” with Phoebe Guo Monday Nov. 19: Studio work and class review with Jack Fan Tuesday Nov. 20: Studio work and class review with Phoebe Guo Wednesday Nov. 21: Studio work and class review, with Jack Fan, Shelly Luo and Li Yueqiong Thursday Nov. 22: Critical Design Symposium—no studio class Friday Nov. 23: Student presentations of their work with Jack Fan, Phoebe Guo and Shelly Luo
I’m reviewing work, with LI Yueqiong and Shelly Luo looking on.
The theme of the workshop was to explore how to get electricity from a wall outlet to an appliance. Although most of the design submissions centred around power bars and extension cords, I urged them to pursue their curiosity and think about new or alternative materials and approaches.
We started things with a discussion of the question: how do we use the electricity that comes to our homes and offices as alternating current, 120 or 220 volts?
We then looked at:
different world standards of plugs and sockets, including two- and three-prong devices
the difference between alternating and direct current
the nature of conductors and insulators and general safety issues
the problem of a limited number of electrical sockets and an expanding number of electrical devices
Jack Fan (right) acting as interpreter.
This last point is where I disclosed my project (to be discussed in a later post), which attempts to address the problem of small transformer crowding on power bars. When I had proposed the workshop, I was hoping to interest a local consumer electrical device manufacturer in developing my idea, which would have resulted in a working (electrically working, that is) prototype. Unfortunately, there were no takers, so Jack proposed that we ask another instructor, Shelly Luo, to help me model a design in Solidworks and then render it out in 3D. The result will be two prototypes (minus the electrical connections) produced using a computer aided milling machine. There were many local agencies that do this for students for a very reasonable price, compared to North America. We didn’t have time to output the prototypes before I had to go, so we will wait until my next trip in March to pick it up. It could be shipped, but I’m in no rush.
Student Work
I’m presenting here the work of ten students who I felt had genuinely benefitted from the workshop and came up with some really interesting ideas and/or exceptional execution—given the short time frame. The students were asked to submit process books of their developmental work, including research material and drawings, along with final renderings in Solidworks or 3D Studio Max.
ZHINAN Liang, like many of the students in the class, were interested in pursuing the problem of socket crowding. He had several ideas, but ended up with a pentagon-shaped device that had sockets for the different plugs in common use in Asia.
ZHANG Yuchao is an excellent draughtsman, and had many good ideas. One idea that he presented mid-way through the workshop was for a charging station. I was very enthusiastic about this, because I had just seen a piece about ad-hoc phone charging stations in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. I think that his idea for an emergency charging station has real potential.
HUANG Keyu’s ring/cell power bar has five three-prong sockets. The sockets can be rotated about relative to each other by means of acrylic arms that hold the electrical wiring and also illuminate when source power is available. The power bar can be placed on the wall as an ornament. Some commercial potential here, I think.
TANG Jingheng’s idea is for a portable power bar in three sections that folds. I would have preferred to see the ability of the unit to fold neatly into a packet to save space, but only two sections do so at the moment.
LUN Huanyi had an interesting idea to allow the HOT, COLD and NEUTRAL sockets to move independently on rails behind the front of the module, making it possible to infinitely reconfigure the sockets and provide for several different styles of plug. The idea is good and I’d like to see more work to develop it further.
GUAN Mingan was full of ideas and much time was spent winnowing through the ideas to concentrate on just one. I encouraged him to think beyond practicality and consider something more speculative: a robot-controlled power bar. This is a three-wheeled device that’s controlled by a small infrared remote.
FANG Cuihua had difficulty coming up with an idea but her concept of a portable power bar in a collapsable tube is nonetheless well-executed and has exceptional attention to detail.
GAN Chaoping, one of the students just returned from a visit to RMIT, also had several good ideas. The one he chose to develop he calls his “Multi-purpose platoon insert design”. This power bar has cube and diamond shaped modules that make connection to the mains power through a conductive bar that runs through the middle of each cube. The cubes can accommodate all styles of plug currently in use in China. Another excellent effort that has some commercial potential.
CHEN Benzhao’s idea was to dispense with the current socket styles and create a new standard that could fit into a plugboard of evenly-spaced sockets. Unfortunately his image doesn’t render the holes with uniform spacing.
GUAN Baoyu proposed a power bar based, I think, on a well-known Chinese story of the Han Dynasty warlord Cao Cao. Her “dislocation puzzle socket” conveys electricity to the sockets from the base; these puzzle sockets can be rotated at 90° increments.
