Princess Bubblegum Cosplay!

On the weekend I attended Supanova Brisbane and on the Saturday I did my first proper cosplay :D I'd done steampunk before but not a cosplay. I dressed as Princess Bubblegum, in her lab coat obviously. I'd been looking for something reasonably simple mainly because I can't sew to save my life and I left it quite late to get started, about a month and a half before the expo.

The Princess Bubblegum look I replicated

The trickiest pieces were the wig and crown. The wig I got reasonably cheap ($30ish) on eBay, it wasn't really the colour I had wanted but it still worked well as it was pink and knee length. The crown I made from craft foam which was an exciting adventure in glue. It wasn't perfect but I don't think anyone else would really notice the imperfections. I got a basic circle skirt from eBay for $15, searching for belly dancing skirts often reveals a wealth of basic swishy skirts for all sorts of purposes. I also got the lab coat from ebay, I got the cheapest one (I think it was $20) that looked like it had some shape to it as PB's coat is quite flattering and I didn't want to be lost in a coat that looked like a sack. I did need to pin the back of the coat with a bobby pin or two to get the proper shape and the wig hid it rather well though it did get a little caught at one point :/

I decided I didn't want to make my skin pink like PB as most of the guides I found said that the pink would get everywhere and I thought it would be a bit disastrous with a white lab coat. I used some random pinky purple eyeshadow I had lying around (it has no brand on it all) to my entire upper eye area to help soften the harshness of my eyebrows and some Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds Liquid in lilac for the lips (left over from my year 10 leavers dinner I think, which means it is at about 10 years old… gross…).

The finished product

Close up of makeup in more natural light (with bonus crazy eyes)

The wig itself was actually quite heavy and I had to cover my head in bobby pins to stop it sliding backwards every two seconds. I found the crown helped it stay on quite a lot, and it very helpfully hid my hairline when the wig did slip back a bit. 

The main issue I had at the expo was heat, it was a 32 degree day in Brisbane and the exhibition halls were like giant ovens and while I was aware the lab coat might make me a bit warm (but protect me from the sun) I didn't realise that the wig would be the main factor in overheating me. I did only spend half the day in costume because I don't handle heat well but it was still lots of fun. Lots of people took photos with me (particularly kids in Finn costumes ^.^) and two people said I was the best PB there (it's quite a popular cosplay) so I think that means I get to claim some kind of victory :D

The wig did get rather tangled, it got caught on the pens in my pocket a lot and it was a breezy day and I kept standing in front of the giant fans in the exhibition hall so it got whipped around quite a bit. I got a bottle of detangler (the kind you use when you're a kid) from the supermarket and spent two hours brushing it back to its former glory. I normally have really short hair because I can't stand having to brush my hair for more than about ten seconds so it was super frustrating and sometimes the wig would fall off the hook I had it on and onto the brush and I'd say a lot of swear words. 

After two hours of brushing, almost finished

The detangler I used, I think the strawberry scent really adds to the wig 

Next time I use this cosplay I think I'll try a cooler clime, maybe Sydney Supanova in June. I also really wanted to make a Science the rat for my pocket but I really really suck at sewing so my attempt was a huge flop, I might have another go and see if I can learn from my mistakes :)

IOIO Weather Station Magic

I've been building the software for a weather station to be used by a local high school to monitor their science classes' garden patch. This weather station is run using an Android phone (a HTC Wildfire) for control and data upload and a IOIO board to receive the data from the sensors. The sensors that I have running at the moment are wind direction, wind speed, humidity, temperature and barometric pressure. As I get each sensor debugged I'll be posting about it, which will be thrilling for everyone involved. Until then you can look at this very sexy picture of the system.

 

 

Phwoar!

Installing Adrenalin Cyanogenmod 7 on a Huawei U3800

There were a few guides that I found but none of them worked exactly right for the U3800 so I had to piece them together. Here is what I did for those out there who are having similar issues :)
Note - this is for Windows I couldn’t get my Mac to recognise that the U3800 was plugged in :(

Step 1 - root the device
Plug the U3800 to the computer via USB, run the support software (there’s 4 options; modem, sync, file transfer and something else, you want to run sync) this will install the proper drivers.
Enable USB debugging on the device and open command prompt and cd to your Android SDK “platform-tools” folder (type “cd ” and then the location of platform-tools). From here we can use ADB (Android Debug Bridge). So first check your device is active, type “adb devices” this should say a device called “?” this appears to be a problem with Huawei phones where they don’t communicate their serial number or something but it’s not an issue as long as you only have 1 development device plugged in. If it doesn’t list any device then you might need to redo the drivers or you have the SD card mounted as a device (just eject it and unplug and replug the U3800). If it is listed as offline then make sure USB debugging is enabled and then unplug and replug, if that doesn’t fix it restart the U3800.
Once this is all working we can install z4root download the .apk to somewhere in your file system then in command prompt type “adb install ” and then the location of the .apk. This will install the z4root app on the phone, once adb returns a success find z4root in the U3800’s app page, run it and I used a permanent root. This will root the device and then reboot it.

Step 2 - installing an alternate recovery
I used the Clockwork Mod Recovery for Huawei Ascend, store this in your file system. You will also need fastboot (the .zip file contains lots of different things but at the root there should be a fastboot.exe) copy fastboot into your platform-tools folder.
Switch off the U3800 then turn it back on while holding the volume down and red dot buttons. This boots the phone into fastboot mode, it will freeze before it displays the shiny android logo. While in fastboot mode, in command prompt type “fastboot flash recovery ” and then the location of the clockwork mod .img. Once this says success, type “fastboot reboot”.

Step 3 - installing cyanogenmod 7
Download Adrenaline and store the .zip on the U3800’s SD card (mount for file transfer and copy it over), once this is stored then we need to reboot into recovery mode.
Turn off the U3800 then switch it back on holding down the volume up and green dot buttons (you can let go once the shiny android logo appears) a list of options will then appear, select install .zip from sdcard, then select the adrenaline .zip follow any prompts (I can’t remember there being any after this point though) then once it’s done (takes a minute or two) choose reboot into recovery. Once it’s back, select advanced, and then fix permissions (takes a minute or two) then select reboot. This will then reboot into Gingerbread :D
Mission complete! If you have any questions I’ll try to help but I can’t make any promises as I’m still new at this :)