Hello,

I'm an artist working on a project in Glasgow (UK) - I'm looking for a kind hearted PD expert to help me programme a simple piece of code to control an installation I am working on. If you're interested - please get in touch!

Thanks,

Ellie

www.ellieharrison.com

Hi Ellie,
I am living in Glasgow at the moment, and even though I'm far from a pd expert I have some experience with it and with other modular software. Maybe you can tell me a bit what you are looking for and then I can see if I am able to help you or not.

Regards,
Akis

Btw, are you talking about developing externals in C instead of patches? Cause for that I'm working on it but I could do with a little help myself!

Cheers,
Akis

Hi Akis,

Thanks for your posting (and to everyone else's postings!)

Sorry for taking a while to reply - I have been away, but now I am back in lovely, sunny Glasgow!

The project I am working on is to create a piece of software (using PD if possible) which will control a mains switch in the 'real world'. I want the software to be able to scan an RSS newsfeed looking for a specific combination of words in the headlines. Then when these words appear to switch the main switch in the 'real world' and activate the installation.

Not sure what you mean about patches I'm afraid as I actually don't know much about PD myself. But I would be interested in finding out whether the sort of thing I am describing above would be possible? Any ideas or suggestions would be gratefully received!

Many thanks,
Ellie

Well I suppose if you manage to feed the rss data into pd somehow, to scan the results and find what you're looking for won't be that hard. I can't think of a way to get the rss feed in at the moment but possibly saving them automatically to a text file (using some external app) and then getting pd to read them periodically will do the trick. I'll have a quick look when I got some time.
People, any other ideas?

About the second part, sounds like there should be an interesting leap from our digital space to the real-world one.. what kind of switch is it? Do you think it can be easily connected and controlled by a pc?

Hello,

Thanks for your response! I am working at the School of Art in Glasgow at the moment. They have switches in store, which apparently connect to the PC via USB and can be connected to a circuit which can switch on a mains circuit. I will try to find out more about the switches today, to post to the forum. In the meantime if anyone has any further suggestions!? Many thanks,

Ellie

Hello, A little bit more info...

the switch that I have is an 'arduino' board, which connects to the PC via USB. I am using this in a relay to switch on my Mains circuit.

Thanks! Ellie

Hi Ellie,
I had a quick look yesterday and the rss reader part seems to be working (and when it catches a word it sends a mighty bang!) I'll manage to test it better after a couple of days and then I'll send you something.

BUT!

I assume that you are running linux???
(for the rss to text converter)

Arduino! I've heard of these modular beasties, I've never came across one but it shouldn't be too hard to get it running...

Akis

Hello, wow you are a genius!
I don't have Linux actually, I will talk to someone about getting hold of an old PC to install it on. Is it not possible to run it on Windows. Sorry for being so stupid in these matters.

I found this info about the board online...
http://www.arduino.cc/

Thanks for your help again!

Ellie

The board I have is the:
Arduino Extreme v2

There is a little picture of it on this page:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Boards

thanks! Ellie