Building a Computer Controlled Loom

[@martydee4452]

When he started working on this he was clean shaved

[@retrotechjournal]

lol

[@BurkenProductions]

Yeah he needs to shave again. Could use it to feed the loom.

[@Designsecrets]

hahahahaha

[@MySanjeeta]

How long it took and what is the cost

[@sirmitchellconnor5300]

He still is. He simply made his beard in the loom

[@rusticagenerica]

Dear GOD. You understood the machine. Built it. Filmed the process. Edited a video. And did some damn stop motion. HOLY FUCKING SHIT

[@retrotechjournal]

lol. It is true that this project in particular was so complex that I didn't know for sure if I'd be able to get it working. 100's of moving parts is always a danger sign! I didn't even show the iOS app I wrote to drive the loom. lol. Then again I spent a year and a half making it. I'm always amazed that many KZbinrs can put out videos every week. So I can give the illusion of competence though throwing more time at the problem. ;]

[@Leron...]

A channel where a person randomly attempts a large undertaking on a whim and showcases the triumphs and pitfalls of the long process in concise, well put-together videos that only show up a couple times each year like an unexpected gift!? Instant subscribe!

[@retrotechjournal]

Great! Welcome. I'm so pleased you found my videos! Thank you for the nice comment.

[@youbutrt1707]

A lot of KZbin makers just get things to a barely functional state, but this is a work of art as well as of engineering. I like your personality too, you seem like the kind of person who tries to find joy in everything. Great video.

[@retrotechjournal]

🙏 I do find joy in making/learning/problem solving. I’m glad you liked it!

[@jrhusney]

This is the best solo project I've seen in _ages_. I'm humbled by the number of skills you've mastered: mechanics, industruail design, CAD, several fabrication technologies, embedded programming. And all open source to boot! I am humbled! #subscribed

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I love dabbling in all flavors of making. Classic Jack of all trades, but master of non. I actually write mobile apps professionally, and I totally failed to include any footage of the weaving app in the video. lol. Oops.

[@mmmlinux]

Thanks for stopping by my jacquard machine booth at Opensauce. It was great to see you!

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes! It was fun talking to you about your loom. I love going around and chatting with folks about their projects and yours is clearly close to my heart. ;]

[@dominiquemichaud7945]

I'm a textile designer and your loom is awesome! The video is also skillfully made, so it'a a treat to watch!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you liked it! I learned a little bit about textiles doing this project, and a lot about video making. What sorts of tools do you use for textile design? Is there iteration/prototyping of a design? I'm various curious how that works. What is a common size run for a textile? What range of TPI do you design for? God I have so many questions! I've poked around a little looking at open source weaving things like TexGen but really I have no clue how people take a textile from idea to reality. I just wrote the software for the loom to take in images I design in photoshop.

[@retrotechjournal]

@@dominiquemichaud7945 Wow thank you so much for all that information! I appreciate you taking the time. I will definitely check out some of the links/software/books. It's great to hear from someone doing this professionally.

[@retrotechjournal]

After reading some, I think that I want to do a design using the Polychrome Taquete technique. I definitely wanted to try something that wasn't using a tabby so that looks like a good option. I'm not sure how I feel about the less interesting uniform almost plain weave look, but it would lend itself well to come programatic design ideas. We will have to see what happens.

[@dominiquemichaud7945]

@@retrotechjournal Good idea! Taquete is a great way to limit the length of floats. For the "less interesting" parts, you can use another structure, like satin or twill. For that, you will need to use one layer in Photoshop for each weave. I define beforehand each structure as a motif(pattern?) in Phososhop, and bind it after to the layer. Satin will hide the picks for a smoother colour, while twill will add texture. Have fun!

[@amosp9411]

This dude looks dangerously smart.. I like it!

[@mythlover20]

Yeah, there's a reason that real jacquard looms were - and modern machine looms are - the size of an entire room. I'm really excited to see how you figure out thread tension and density if you decide to keep going. This was such a cool project. I hope you continue it. :)

[@retrotechjournal]

I do think that a lot of Jacquard loom attempts over-focus on the raising and lowering of the threads part and entirely ignore/underestimate how important all the other parts of a loom are. Like you said things like tension/proper beating of each pick/even advancement, etc.

[@75blackviking]

Industrial engineer here. I'm floored. Project is badass. Video editing is badass. Very impressive.

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you liked it! What flavor of Industrial Engineer?

[@75blackviking]

@@retrotechjournal a little of everything really. Controls, electrical, mechanical, process. My team and I build custom manufacturing equipment for med device and food/beverage. I was really impressed with your ingenuity and resourcefulness. I'm going to subscribe.

[@retrotechjournal]

@@75blackviking Neat, sounds nice and cross-discipline-y. Welcome aboard!

[@srtghfnbfg]

Damn, this is my first video from your channel, but I've never seen an engineer so entertaining and with amazing skill, build quality, patience, video editing all the while making it such a joy to watch. You got yourself an instant sub!

[@retrotechjournal]

Welcome! I'm pleased you found/like my channel.

[@russotragik]

The grandpa every kid deserves!

[@vestofholding]

Not only is this a great project, but your filmmaking skills are fantastic!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! Hopefully I've been improving over time. I'm glad you liked it.

[@matveyshishov]

That's the most stylish builder channel I've seen. When searching for how these machines worked, I didn't expect to enjoy the presentation.

[@retrotechjournal]

Oh thanks! Well of course, commercial machines do the lifting of the threads at crazy speeds, and with a very different mechanism. Still this loom does show the basic concepts of raising and lowering some pattern of threads and then passing a shuttle though. This particular mechanism with the cams is kind of nuts/not very fast. It was simply the result of me tying to solve the thread lifting problem with only 2 motors. Still I hope you did learn some useful bits of info and it sounds like you enjoyed it, so I'm going to declare that a win. :]

[@junebug9320]

Huge props for open sourcing your designs!

[@DerSolinski]

WOW... I mean really WOW! It won't beat a Jacquard loom but this is the best semi automatic digital hand weaving loom I've seen so far. That was a mouth full lol... Anyway, well done.

[@retrotechjournal]

Oh thanks! It’s nice because it’s not huge and what it looses in full automation it makes up in total design freedom. (Any number/kind of warp threads/colors etc). Its main downfall is that it’s slow. I’m glad you liked it.

[@Monkeyonstrike]

So fascinating to watch! What a fun style of editing as well. :) Great job and keep up the awesome work!

[@bertspeggly4428]

I'm building a Jacquard Loom in Meccano so this got my attention. Very impressive and much beyond my tech abilities. I would have liked to have seen how quickly (or slowly) each change to the heddle positions happened. Quite a while I would think! Congratulations on a great build.

[@retrotechjournal]

You are exactly right that the loom heddle updates aren’t super fast and the wider the material the slower each pick is. For a narrow piece the weaving is sort of normal but that wide weaving at the end took close to a minute to update per pick. Which is a lot of waiting. That is the main disadvantage of this system. The more heddles the slower it goes. The main advantage is only 2 motors. The process could probably be sped up a little but never fast enough for high TPI weaving, etc. I do have an idea for a heddle position switching that would use a Y shaped track and a kind of “track switching” beak in the middle. However I haven’t tried building it as yet. Good luck with your Meccano build! Let me know how it turns out!

[@bertspeggly4428]

@@retrotechjournal I would love to see a video in real time of the heddles updating!

[@marcoricci55]

Wow, my friend! Congratulations to your work, a thousand times. I´m absolutely apalled and feeling like this was way beyond my comprehension. Some work you´ve acomplished. Keep om showing this kind of content for you are contributing to enrichen our lives, Cheers, my friend.

[@retrotechjournal]

Thank you for the nice comment!

[@Crimzonius]

Jacquard loom weaver here, this is an impressive build -- there's a lot going on in these machines and you have a good grasp of it, nevermind your other skills. Thanks for the video!

[@retrotechjournal]

Neat to hear from actual weavers. I’ve never used an commercial Jacquard loom but the low end ones seem like they might be a maintenance nightmare. :)

[@Crimzonius]

@@retrotechjournal There's an art to them for sure! Never the same settings for any different cloth which can be a bit of a bugger, but I've always found them theraputic to work on... (Occassionally a hammer gets involved)

[@retrotechjournal]

@@Crimzonius 😆

[@hennesey5928]

This was a pleasure to watch. It’s crazy how people are so smart and can do things like this makes me want to push myself to learn more. Thanks for the great content 🙌

[@retrotechjournal]

Woot. I'm excited it makes you want to learn more. That's always the goal in the projects I do. I try to build things right on the edge of what I think I can do, and that forces me to learn/extend myself. I'm glad you liked it!

[@LandNfan]

Another great video! I admire your creativity. Fun fact: the founder of Toyota got his start designing high-speed automatic looms. My son works at the Toyota plant in Princeton, IN. They give public tours of the facility and in the lobby of the main building one of his fascinating looms is on display. If you are lucky, the tour guide will fire it up. Over 80 years old and still works like a fine Swiss watch.

[@retrotechjournal]

Amazing. I didn't know that about Toyota. I do know someone who runs an amazing vintage weaving company, and visiting her place was incredible. Large scary vintage machines firing wooden shuttles back and forth, etc. Really a treasure.

[@utkarshsingh1823]

wow, im surprised this doesn't have more attention. This is like Michael reeves, but wholesome keep up the good work!

[@Avvylynne]

I was researching diy circular knitting machines and stumbled across this gem. I like so much about your work and editing!

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes, lots of interesting machine knitting projects out there. I’m glad you liked my loom video!

[@dalovering]

Wow, this is awesome! I love the fun edit too. Given the production, when I went to your channel I was expecting to see a long history of videos, definitely surprised to see this is the first one! Really great job!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I learned a LOT making that video. :] I'm almost done with another one. I have no idea how people do one video a week. That is crazy talk! Although I really should post smaller videos more often. That would let me learn more/try out wacky things, etc.

[@getdirecti0ns]

@@retrotechjournal I was also sad to find only two videos but I totally get it, the production process to make quality like you present is so taxing. Best wishes and I look forward to more content at any pace!

[@jgiuguigiugigiugugiuuig4050]

KZbin keeps suggesting these great, relatively small channells...always amazed by the quality a one man channel can put out.

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks!

[@joshuacoburn8140]

Really cool! Technical and intricate. You must be a pretty good armchair craftsman to build something so complex, and get it to actually work!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! My trick for doing really complicated projects is to give yourself a lot of little successes along the way. I went into this one thinking I'd never get the whole thing working but I'd learn a lot designing each of the little pieces. The lifting system/tension-ing system/the electronics/software/etc. Then if I ran out of steam I could stop and call it a success even if I didn't get to a fully cnc loom. This one just happened to make it further than I was expecting. :] I'm glad you liked it!

[@newsmansuper2925]

the production values and wide rangeing technical ability was out of this world

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks!

[@Ryan-cl1ti]

Came here after Bobs podcast! Great video love the humor. Build seemed very complex but hats off to you for finishing it!!

[@retrotechjournal]

When I heard Bob talking about me on the podcast I had to pull over! lol. So amazing! Yes when I realized the idea was 7 moving parts per thread I really thought it would never work. Then at low thread counts it was basically fine, so I kept pushing it. :] I'm glad you liked it!

[@Pentaguin]

I'm a Textile Engineering student from Bangladesh. I had a Fabric Manufacturing course this semester. I found this video so much interesting. ❤

[@retrotechjournal]

Neat! I learned a lot about woven fabric designs from this project. I'll never look at another piece of cloth the same again! Good luck with your classes.

[@RealLatinGeek]

I was very surprised to see this is the first video on your channel, the production was stellar! Looking forward to more projects, and maybe a look at those tools and equipment.

[@retrotechjournal]

Oh thanks! I still have a personal channel, but it was a weird mix of stuff for my family: My kids in school plays, 8mm conversions, etc. With only a tiny bit about my projects. Now that I've decided to put some effort into making videos about some of my projects I knew I really needed to make a channel about that specifically. I'm glad you liked it!

[@KevinFlores-rc1lq]

@@retrotechjournal would you consider doing a custom style of loom for a fee? I have an idea for one and either I'd like to have it built or maybe get some helpful tips for building it

[@kurtschaefer]

Sorry I don’t have time to do commissioned work like that but I’m happy to make suggestions/bat around design ideas.

[@KevinFlores-rc1lq]

@@kurtschaefer is there a good way to contact you where i can share pictures?

[@kurtschaefer]

@@KevinFlores-rc1lq You could post comments/image links to RetrotechJournal.com. I'd also be fine with exchanging email addresses/communicating that way, but I'm not sure how best to communicate that to you...

[@MarionMakarewicz]

This is a win in so many ways: software, hardware, circuit boards, narration, video editing, and a great project. Thanks for this.

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you liked it! Yes, a lot of weird different skills went into this one. I'm still learning so much about making videos, so I now cringe at some of the parts, but am proud of other bits. I guess that means I'm improving. I've done a lot of complicated projects before, but this is the first one to have filled an entire notebook.

[@Aristocob]

Nice video, project and outcome, thanks for sharing! Scott

[@Pearlflower1]

It a miracle that this weaver still that small ! I’m know nothing about machine but look at this I very impressed at how much engineering it take , and filming too ! Just woah 🤯

[@retrotechjournal]

It is nice that it's quite compact and folds up. That makes is easy to transport/store, etc.

[@unrepentantgeek]

Oh my goodness what an absolutely delightful video! Thanks for documenting and sharing your project with us, especially open sourcing it. I may have to make one myself!

[@jen-meg]

Amazing!! 😆😆 It's sooo beautiful! You can work with PCBs, MCUs, 3-D printers, filming, editing, and can make textiles. Your video is a work of art! It's incredible to see first hand how people weave by hand on wooden looms which take many long days of work and here you go and automate the process. 😲

[@retrotechjournal]

It still took an afternoon to weave that Pikachu but it is true the crazy flexibility of being able to do any pattern you want is super fun. 🥰

[@EXAPHI]

The amount of time and effort this video must have taken to make is a lot, awesome content! Subscribed

[@retrotechjournal]

Woot! Welcome aboard! It's nice when people appreciate the time it takes to make these things. It's easy for people to say "Make more videos!" but if a video takes 6 months of evenings and weekend to do there's really no way to crank them out. (At least as a hobby)

[@EXAPHI]

Absolutely agree, there's a big different between churning out content for the sake of content because you need to please the algorithm and making a video that shows development of an idea or project over time. Your efforts are definitely appreciated! I may try to to tackle one of these myself now

[@retrotechjournal]

@@EXAPHI Go for it! I think you're entirely correct that it is freeing to not actually have to worry about trying to bend the arc of the algorithm.

[@CaHeoMapMap]

omg, youtube hide this gem for years!

[@retrotechjournal]

That's me. Hiding in plain sight. :) I'm glad you found me.

[@daedalus372]

From the moment you came on screen with your resplendant beard and cheery 'i hope this works attitude', i was subscribed. Edit: have now watched your whole film. Incredible project... but your filming style is great. You’ve put SO MUCH work into the filming - let alone the loom itself!!! The stop frame animation with the Lego guys(funky disc dance!), the quality of filming, even the little stop frame animated explanation of how a loom works was great. And also projecting onto yourself for the computer scenes made me laugh too. Even if it is a tiny trickle of content, I’m on board. Looking forward to more and checking out your blog.

[@retrotechjournal]

Awesome! I'm glad you liked it. It's nice that people have actually noticed/commented on the video itself. I put what could only be described as a stupid amount of time into it, and I wasn't sure if that was just going to be invisible to folks since people are used to watching so much highly produced video all the time. I really enjoyed learning about making videos, and getting to put in whatever silliness came to mind. It's great to hear that people can actually appreciate the amount of work that went into it. I guess since many of the folks here have taken a stab at making content it's a much more informed audience, which is really nice.

[@daedalus372]

@@retrotechjournal "I put what could only be described as a stupid amount of time into it" hahaha We can all see that, that's what's so amazing! Well, that and the fact the loom itself must've taken another unit of 'stupid amout of time'!!! but hat's off to you, all that time really paid off.

[@baconsledge]

Even with the automation, setting up a loom is a big job! Warp, weft, beater bars, shuttles, oh my!

[@retrotechjournal]

True enough, but at least with this kind of setup I don't have to worry about threading a zillion patterned heddels, the single peg warping system makes warping fairly easy. That and the large size/low count warp, makes the actual setup comparatively painless. :]

[@RubenDax]

Wow nice job! Serious dedication. Also, nice video work!

[@notscot6788]

Fine job. Nice multi-discipline effort and I applaud your breadth of skills and persistence. Plus, the video was fun to watch.

[@retrotechjournal]

The biggest movie magic was giving the impression my shop was tidy. ;]

[@noviceartisan]

Brilliant machine, absolutely love how well you've made it, and that you're open sourcing it

[@sixtysixstyx]

The loom is already an amazing feat of engineering but I wanna take a second to appreciate your video editing skills. You probably put a few hours just in stop motion alone!

[@retrotechjournal]

So true. Also this was my first big video, so I think only the scenes I made near the end (like the PCB montage) had decent edits. Learning as I go. I'm glad you liked it.

[@FigmentsMade]

This is fantastic! What a cool project and a neat video! And your system of clamps to hold the loom to the table is exactly something I would do. Subbed in anticipation of the next fabulous project and fun video, whenever that may be!

[@fayethefiend]

Normal looms are a pain in the A, but you stuck to an even more complex version. Respect to you.

[@HelenLeigh]

Amazing video! Super inspiring and really informative

[@retrotechjournal]

Great! I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for writing about it!

[@JJOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]

I just came across this video, and it looks like maybe the channel and website aren't really active now but I just wanted to say this is amazing and you're essentially the kind of person I aspire to be one day, if I can get smarter and learn this kind of stuff. Thank you for sharing this, and I will go through your other content soon!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm still active, but I do put more time into the videos than the blog these days. God when I think how easy a blog post is compared to a video I almost want to just go back to that. :] Still I'm excited to be getting folks enthused about making! It's a muscle, so just start and you'll get better at it over time.

[@gee5on1999]

that beard is amazing

[@DawnDavidson]

Can’t tell you how many of those potholders I made in my childhood! LOL. The polyester loops looked neater, but the cotton ones were much better for use as potholders. Loved your stop motion animations, especially the dance! LOL

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes. I made a bunch of those as a kid. With some weird bent wire hook. It was fun to get a set again and make one for the video. I think often they are peoples first/only exposure to weaving.

[@natewhite7973]

I was obsessed with looms as a child so you have no idea how excited I was to see this video pop up!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you found the video. I had a tiny plastic loom. I think we got it at a yard sale? My dad made me a bigger wooden one. (That was also very primitive) Plus I was always weaving plants/sticks together for fun. I'm glad you liked the video!

[@daydreamed]

I don’t know why I was recommended this but how glad I am for the recommendation. Great content and lovely editing

[@retrotechjournal]

Great that you found the channel!

[@kimonosnail5363]

You sir are a godfather of sweet creativity. Thank you sir for posting, I struggle and the way you display your invention helped me idealize the concept and mechanics so smoothly. I hope you are in good health and wish you well. Thank you

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you found the video, and that it was clear. I always hope to be both entertaining and educational, so it's good to hear that the ideas came across well. Have a happy new year!

[@kimonosnail5363]

@@retrotechjournal Oh my goodness! I never expected a creator's reply and especially one on short notice. I am a do-it-yourself enthusiast and was highly interested in a way to produce fabric in a fast paced manner. Your humor combined with quality visuals is such a delight for the brain to see and comprehend. I enjoy the stop motion Lego humor bits as well, they make intervals very memorable. Thank you so much for replying to my comment. I hope to see more of your channel and gain more knowledge. Thank you!!

[@chrischapman4863]

First time seeing your channel. Clicked out of curiosity and planned on skipping through because how interesting could a loom be? I am blown away, man! The determination and hard work this must have taken! The 3D print design, laser cutting, the stop motion animations, bro, you pasted and individually placed components on a custom board!!? Are you crazy!? No you are just that much of a legend! Please keep making videos! 100% Subscribed forever dude

[@retrotechjournal]

It is true that the loom was a year and a half of nights and weekend. Kind of crazy really. I do love taking on projects that I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to do. lol. That keeps me up to my eyeballs in problem solving. I’m glad you found my channel. Welcome!

[@whyisblue923taken]

That's a lot of knowledge from start to finish. It's awesome. I like how you get all the theoretical stuff figured out so accurately that you didn't need to stop it and rework the design three or four times like I've seen other people do with their projects.

[@retrotechjournal]

Well that still goes on but I try to keep the testing/verification at a small level. Like early prototypes before committing. Like I made a very simple version of the carriage just enough to learn I needed linear bearings vs plain bearings. Etc. I probably did 3 versions of the levers, etc but at a small scale the revisions are fast. Of course there’s always the danger of things that work ok in your prototype but fail at scale. Those are the worst. Lol

[@whyisblue923taken]

@@retrotechjournal Of course. It's always good to test your parts. I just see a lot of videos of people putting things together, not knowing why things don't work, taking the whole thing apart, testing individual parts, putting it together again, stopping it because it's doing something wrong, taking it apart again, changing the housing and the design, and putting it back again and hoping it works. For something with a lot of moving parts, software, and delicate assembly like this, it's more difficult to account for things that go wrong before they do, even checking the parts before they are assembled into a single machine. That's what's impressive to me.

[@retrotechjournal]

@@whyisblue923taken Yes, totally. I call that "integration testing hell" :] I did do some tricks like 3D printing little gaps in the cam spacer collars, so I could actually see where the cam was, and better diagnose jamming issues. Because "not being able to tell where the thing is or why it's jamming" was 100% going to happen. lol.

[@garrettsmith4574]

i didnt even finish the video, this is the first thing i've seen from your channel, but already one minute in and I have to subscribe. 10/10

[@garrettsmith4574]

Update for the end of the video: still in

[@retrotechjournal]

Awesome. I like how these comments were a bit like a dramatic story. I'm glad it turned out ok in the end. ;]

[@garrettsmith4574]

@@retrotechjournal haha me too! But it’s because at the end of this video you mention your post schedule is infrequent. Didn’t deter me at all

[@l8dawn]

I'm currently enrolled for Robotics Engineering and this kind of "huh, that would be cool" projects are exactly what I love to do!! Your process is a bit more spontaneous but I really appreciate the walkthrough of challenges and triumphs throughout the building of this :)

[@retrotechjournal]

Great! I do love robotics, such a wonderful blend of software/hardware/mechanics. I once TA'd a Robotic Arts Studio course at CMU and the enthusiasm/creativity/effort that the students brought to that course was magic! 🥰

[@valeriosalvo6567]

My dad would've loved this. You remind me a bit of him. Thanks! Thanks a lot.

[@retrotechjournal]

My dad was very into making films and then later video. He did stop motion titles for our 8mm home movies using construction paper letters on our garage door, etc. Later he switched video and did edits using 2 VCR's and put Zanfir on his Pan Flute as background music. lol. I always think of him when I'm editing. I know he would have loved to talk about how I made the videos/the edit, etc.

[@Vachan.Sharma]

your talent deserves more than 6.7K likes in 3yrs :( Awesome Amazing Job 🙏🏻 Thanks for sharing

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you liked it!

[@snoozlet]

Ok, this amount of views must be a crime. So much hard work in design, engineering, and video production. Thank you for everything!!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thank you for the nice comment! This video is very slowly creeping it's way to 100k views. Some time next year it'll make it. I tell myself "Not bad for my first video!" 😉

[@abdjahdoiahdoai]

Best KZbin video I randomly found in last something months! Nice!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you discovered it! I noticed a giant drop in views right after I got past my "I haven't posted in year" threshold. I don't think KZbin is showing my videos to much of anyone any more. lol. I really should finish my current video project, but life keeps having other higher priority things. Thanks for the nice comment!

[@abdjahdoiahdoai]

@ i think KZbin prioritizes people who post frequently and regularly, but yeah, I am trying to do a DIY knitting machine, preferably a computerized one like kniternate

[@retrotechjournal]

@@abdjahdoiahdoai Cool. That'll be a fun project. I just saw this project a few days ago and thought it was kind of fun kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZmzYpeQm9Can6csi=-HnIIbuM35JowrXg Lots of interesting projects going on in that space. Good luck!

[@ghostagent3552]

Gotta love your style for videos. You can just feel passion through it

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks. I just follow that passion around so I don’t really know what I’ll be building next. Lol. I’m glad you liked it.

[@stack.that.cheese]

That stop animation is next level! Your videos are fun to watch :) I'm very impressed with the loom, that's a TON of pieces

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes, that was an insane number of parts. So many rounds of 3D print!

[@C1OUS3R]

I never watch this kind of content so it never gets recommended to me and this came out of nowhere but I'm glad yt decided I should watch this bc this is amazing, you really deserve more attention man. Amazing work!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you clicked though. It's always extra fun to enjoy something you weren't expecting. Thanks for the nice comment.

[@georodin8785]

The production quality is crazy. Kudos mate

[@elliotth30]

First time I've ever seen your content. Blown away, the mix of stop frame, filming, lighting audio and a really great project is so rare - a really great video. Fully subscribed! :)

[@retrotechjournal]

Welcome aboard!

[@Remo2239]

Holy Crap! You are on a whole different level of Makers!! Amazingly complicated work and beautiful engineering skills! Please continue making!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! Don't worry I don't think I could stop making if I tried. I've been doing it my whole life. Mostly I've just been struggling to document any of it. Projects go much more slowly when you're trying to shoot video of it. I can only hope the pace picks up a bit as I get better at it. I used to think writing a blog post about a project was onerous. That was peanuts compared to KZbin. lol.

[@dastatiks6182]

Oohh man, you did an amazing job ! The video was really pleasant to watch, and the loom is really nice ! Thanks for sharing !

[@retrotechjournal]

My pleasure. I'm glad you liked it.

[@Kikker861]

Highly impressive. The baked surface mount components and the dreaded brick wall of design implications always remind me of my many many PCB prototypes. Wrong voltage here, broken component there.

[@retrotechjournal]

The design mostly went smoothly but then when I was trying to unify the motor and logic supplies into a single supply I cheaped out on the DC to DC conversion bits and got something that would work for a while, but then eventually some spike on power up would fry the whole thing. Which was horrible. Oops. Going for a $2 more part could have saved me two entire dead boards and a lot of wasted time.

[@Kikker861]

@@retrotechjournal That's one way to deal with it. I've usually solved that problem by putting a clamp/filter on the step down after diagnosis. Of course, that required a board revision and all of my money on the first stock of prototype boards just goes up in smoke. One way or another, a check will be signed.

[@blimolhm2790]

10/10 editing probably the best I've seen on KZbin ever

[@retrotechjournal]

Oh thanks!

[@Demivrge]

Dude puts in the effort of someone with 200x his sub count, I love it!

[@retrotechjournal]

2 Months ago I only had something like 8.5k subs. Things have really been taking off recently. I always put it the effort, because it's fun. Posting the video is almost an afterthought, although it's good way to mark the video as "totally and completely done stop messing with it" ;]

[@daverei1211]

Well done. I had thought of doing this with one of those 1970’s knitting machines- but using the machine as the base with all of it’s tolerances, etc.

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes, those machines already address many of the tolerances/zillion parts issues that I had to struggle with. I think they'd be a great start to some really neat projects.

[@daverei1211]

@@retrotechjournal I can see the effort that you’ve put into getting this to work. Most people don’t realise how hard tolerances are to get right. I tried to build out a simple candy sorting machine with my son - out of Perspex so we could see what was happening. With the variation of candy size and shapes it became close to impossible to get it to be reliable. So I can see the countless hours of effort.

[@retrotechjournal]

@@daverei1211 yes exactly. It’s easy to think things are going to be consistent but in the real world nothings consistent. Lol. The candy sorter is a great example for folks.

[@howlingwind1937]

I'm a weaver, and that's a pretty cute electric loom, spacers would help alleviate any jamming of the hook things, I think it's pretty neat I'd build one if I new more about the computer side of the electronics. Thanks for sharing.

[@retrotechjournal]

Oh thanks! Yes I'd say this is a pretty hard build. There's an iOS app and firmware. I did make it all open source, but the true is that weaving with it is fairly slow, so it's not super satisfying to use. I do have some ideas for how to make it much faster, but I've been working on other projects recently.

[@TheDailyMemesShow]

Whoever is the video editor, hats off, amazing! Nice video! 😁👍

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! It's just me. Hobbyist KZbinr. I'm glad you liked it. This was my first real attempt at full on video editing, and since the project itself took over a year I feel like some of the early shots are really bad but some of the sequences near the end show how much I'd progressed. I certainly learned more about video/audio production in that year than I did about weaving! lol. Thanks for chiming in with a positive comment, that means a lot.

[@TheDailyMemesShow]

@@retrotechjournal Awesome! You're very skilled at it 👍😀

[@Widderic]

He showed how the mechanism worked by using stop motion animation with a lego man as our guide. As a videographer for 20 years this was just astounding. Great job. Oh and the loom was cool too.

[@retrotechjournal]

Wow, that means a lot coming from a seasoned videographer. I hope some of the actual video shots are better in some of my later videos. This one was kind of my first real try at all that and some of the early shots still make me cringe. lol. 🙏 for the nice comment!

[@Widderic]

@@retrotechjournal I know what you mean when looking on your past work! Didn't know this was older, all of your videos are popping up for everyone, that's great!

[@retrotechjournal]

@@Widderic Yes. So crazy. A sudden change in algorithm performance. No clue why. One of my former coworkers just texted me because I came up on his feed organically. So crazy. 😀

[@Trupen]

Great project and awesome presentation of it :D

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks!

[@BenBrandt22]

Some serious challenges there, must have been fun. Nice work.

[@retrotechjournal]

*tips hat*

[@ripcdburnme]

Damn dude, I am really impressed at the circuit board you made, the enclosure you had, the entire loom, but mostly the quality of this video! All that stop motion animation must have taken forever, but a nice touch to help understand how everything worked. Bravo my friend.

[@retrotechjournal]

Thank you! Yes this one was particularly cross discipline, but of course the best projects are! :)

[@ants114]

Otherworldly, this is awesome, slow and steady always wins.

[@erdmannelchen8829]

It's incredible how old and at the same time, young you look.

[@retrotechjournal]

I never thought of myself as old until some of these comments here. I guess since my beard turned grey I look older. It just never occurred to me. Some commenters think I'm retired! lol. I guess that is the down side to having a lot of folks projecting onto you based on a video or two. *shrug*

[@MrMichaeldwatson]

Just popped up in my feed too! Strange the way it’s popping up now but very much enjoyed it!

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes. I have no idea why the algorithm has suddenly picked up my channel but suddenly folks are flooding in. I’m glad you liked it/found my channel.

[@54l68l65l20l47l61l6D]

Super underrated video. Respect

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[@thorstenstoehr]

I came here from the making it podcast and man i am so happy Bob recommended it. This video is just awesome and i hope there will be more soon. Please keep up the good work and keep filming it!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you liked it! I was so excited when I was listening to the Making It podcast and Bob mentioned me. It was like "OMG upside down world! This is awesome!" I'll certainly do more videos, but life is busy and complicated so it'll probably be a while.

[@KirKnits]

This is legit cool, I weave among other fiber arts and it is impressive to see the quality you were managing to get with this!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! I definitely caught the sewing/knitting/weaving/tatting/quilting bug from my mom. I’m kind of devastated that my kids are old enough to no longer want Halloween costumes. It was so fun to do pattern design/sewing projects for them every October.

[@deakbannok]

Your channel is underrated. I admire all your talents!

[@retrotechjournal]

Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@joshuastewart9604]

Thank you for taking the time to film and share. Great job. Look forward to your future projects.

[@michaelrosenblatt6055]

Wow, this is amazing! I’m teaching a weaving loom class to our kids and their friends in our garage during COVID while schools are closed, and we’re going to watch this as a modern example of weaving.

[@retrotechjournal]

Great! I'm glad you liked the video. Awesome that you're doing some extra teaching during COVID. I think knowing a bit more about weaving really makes people look at all the cloth around them differently. My dad build me a super simple loom when I out grew pot holder weaving and the process really stuck with me.

[@rahulj9]

That was legendary. It is quite awesome that you made the entire process open-source, but i am sure its going to take me atleast 10 years to figure it out😂

[@retrotechjournal]

Yes sadly there’s a huge difference between a messy pile of my design iteration and nice clean followable build instructions. Lol. The code is at least decent. If I do another rev I’ll do it in Fusion 360 and then the design will at least be more followable. Building something like is in Illustrator was madness. 😝

[@Chris-wp8po]

So long as he doesn't get it caught in the loom. Awesome video, glad I watched it.

[@retrotechjournal]

😆

[@checkedoutchris]

ANOTHER freaking amazing video by you. I get scared even looking at all those threads on looms. Let alone trying to automate some kind of pattern. I tip my hat to you sir. Again: I can't wait to see more of what comes out of your creative mind. Great job! :)

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks, I think anyone with sense feels uneasy about a project with 100's of moving parts. That's got to be one of the most complicated things I've ever built, and I kind of assumed it would never work. lol.

[@MrTowaltowel]

dude.. ur channel is way underrated

[@retrotechjournal]

Thanks! I think I just don't make enough content to actually rate. If I could put out a video every week I'd probably have more subscribers but that is not something I can do considering how long it takes me to make one of these things. :) I'm glad you like it.

[@dankay9202]

Good stuff man! This is the first of your videos I've seen, please post more!

[@retrotechjournal]

I'm glad you found me. I am working on another video. My family is going to be out of town next week, so I'm hoping I'll buckle down and work on it while they're away. I'd meant to work on it this long weekend, but instead I've been designing a brass tubing cutting rig. *sigh* 😄

[@lephtovermeet]

Holy crap this is amazing. It's well made and edited, it does go into the details of how it's made, this is great!

[@timohess3909]

This video is incredibly high quality, making this video he spend even longer than making the machine .

[@retrotechjournal]

That is certainly true of most of the builds on my channel, not this one though. That loom took a LOT of time. A year and a half.

[@bovea46]

You deserve more recognition, your work is engineering art at it's finest.

[@retrotechjournal]

Thank you, you're very kind. Weirdly I've gotten more recognition in the last 2 months than in the previous 3 years, so that's kind of amazing. I just like doing it because it's fun. The sudden recognition is kind of making me feel a little weird actually.

[@randomocitycats]

I can’t believe it!! You’re the best dad ever

[@Falney]

If you wanted to revisit this at somepoint. Look up a knitting machine mechanism. It uses a matrix that allows you to have repeatable patterns using only 8-16 servos. With some of the more complex knitting machines, when combined with a PC, you can address all needles rather than doing a repeat of 8,16 or even 24 needles. I am fairly convinced a system like it could be adapted to a loom.

[@retrotechjournal]

Interesting. Yes, I've though there aught to be some ways of taking a "many actuator bank" and mechanically muxing it to control many more lines. (At the cost of overall speed) I think if I were to revisit the loom I think the main goal would be more speed without getting too expensive/complicated. I've had a few ideas along those lines, but so far nothing compelling enough to do another build. Checking out knitting machine mechanisms sounds like a great place to look for inspiration.

[@Falney]

@@retrotechjournal it's definitely worth looking up an in depth description on the mechanism, but the abridged version is that they use a matrix of gates that open/close to allow the needle to move forwards or backwards. If they are blocked, the needles are pushed down by the carriage so they are bypassed. You could use the gates to enable the reeds from lifting, then use a spring to lift them. That way if they are blocked, the spring can deform instead of breaking. It is an idea I toyed with then decided it is probably a project way above my skill level because the matrix aspect confuses me.

[@anon_y_mousse]

I've done some knitting, but never any complex patterns. This is pretty cool. I'd very much like to try making one of these.

[@retrotechjournal]

Knitting is awesome. I’ve done a small amount of dance cabling but keeping track of the pattern as I go is a bit higher engagement than I have time for these days. Although I’ve released all the designs this is not a very easy thing to build or operate. When I designed it I didn’t know parametric cad so I mostly made it in Illustrator which makes it pretty hard to modify or reproduce. Now that I know Fusion 360 I’ve been considering going for a redesign but it would be a lot of effort in an area I’ve already spent years working on so it seems unlikely my level of interest will reach some sort of ignition point on a V2.

[@SempiternamentePisa]

I'm impressed! You have an iron will... Congratulations! Well done!

[@elltonwilliamsen]

Ditto to all the praise above, fantastic work! And I like your Bob and Louis doodle too lol

[@retrotechjournal]

Wow, I can't believe you noticed that. lol. The kids and I used to draw stuff with those "you get crayons with a kids meal" but we'd draw all kinds of crazy things, and the kids were asking for Bob's Burgers characters so that was me doing some sketches while they were watching the show. Mostly to improve my Bob. lol. God that feels like forever ago. My youngest outgrew kids meals quite a while ago. That sketch certainly predates the loom project. I'm glad you liked the video!