THe Gosper Curve is a self-similar fractal that can be turned into a visually interesting, yet very difficult puzzle on the laser cutter. With all of the pieces the same color it is nearly impossible, but a bi-color version is a doable challenge. You can move the slices (in blue in the SVG file) around to vary the puzzle or change the difficulty; the current version has lots of very similar pieces to make it full of “garden paths” that require frequent back-tracking when the solution almost works.

More details are posted on trmm.net/Fractal_Puzzle and the design files are thing:2204078 on thingiverse.

This weekend I built a polargraph from random junk around NYCR. It’s amazing how much stuff we have available for projects, if you just take the time to dig through our thingsgiving bins. This one used NEMA17 stepper motors and pulleys, a surplus tinyg board and a dry-erase marker suspended from thread found in the fabric bin.

Originally the servo was going to lift the pen, but I ran out of time to integrate the servo with the tinyg system, so it just drags the pen between elements. The pen’s angle isn’t controlled, so sometimes it “gouges” the whiteboard and skips around. Hackish source code to generate the gcode and more details are at trmm.net/Polargraph.

Are you interested in making vector display art or playing retro arcade games on XY monitors? Then you will be excited to hear that NYC Resistor is having a class on interfacing with oscilloscopes, vector monitors and laser projectors. After soldering together the v.st 1 MHz DAC boards, we’ll explore how to write your own vector games or art pieces.

We’ll also show how to patch MAME to output the vectors to the USB port and how to convert the classic Vectrex game console to an XY monitor. Asteroids, Lunar Lander and Tempest look great on a real CRT vector display with real phosphors.

We’re also organizing a vector demo scene exhibition in NYC in January. This is your chance to display your glowing line art or video game and show off your retro-aesthetic skills. More details on this will be posted later.

Buy your class tickets (includes the v.st DAC board) and bring your laptop with your creative straight-line ideas to the space on 21 November!

NYC Resistor now has a Gopher site at gopher://gopher.nycresistor.com, although your web browser must be sufficiently standards compliant and/or hip to use it. One such browser is Lynx, shown here running on a Kaypro 2.