Earth is the Hackerspaces Planet

Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2012

2012-05-16T10:52:23+00:00

Von Freitag den 18.Mai bis bis Sonntag den 20.Mai 2012 findet das
Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend auf der [raum]station c-base statt.

Es haben sich einige sehr interessante Projekte angekündigt, z.B. freifunk auf smartphones, freifunk an der Küste, Neues und Aktuelles zu openWRT und unseren Protokollen. Reto Mantz wird uns über die aktuelle Rechtsprechung und Störerhaftung aufklären, und es wird darüber nachgedacht werden, wie freifunk als p2p-nodes für social-mesh-networks funktionieren kann.

Alle Infos zu dem Event findest du hier –> https://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2012

Good Morning 1983

2012-05-16T02:04:51+00:00

Lockpicking Reborn :)

2012-05-15T16:23:28+00:00

Back due to popular demand, Lockpicking Group shall reform to meet on a bi-weekly basis starting from Tuesday 22nd May 2012 from 7:30pm.

I will kick it all off with my presentation on lockpicking, going through the different types of tools and locks. Then after we will take out the box of locks and get our hands dirty, and (hopefully) pick some locks.

Beginners welcome, locks and tools are supplied.

One Eighth of DomeStar

2012-05-15T13:23:29+00:00

Pictured here, one eighth of the RGB LEDs and an emulator used in the DomeStar project, featured at this weekend’s Interactive Show.

Tickets are just $20, and your bar tab is on us! Proceeds help keep NYC Resistor going strong.

Project Remake

2012-05-14T23:14:33+00:00

It’s Monday, May 14th, 2012 and that means we’re just about to hit the deadline to submit something to Project Remake!

MAKE Magazine and Schick Xtreme 3 launched a contest to see how you can turn what would normally be waste into something useful or beautiful. They’ll be giving away five MakerBot Replicators. Oh, I guess there is also a 2012 Nissan LEAF™ and a trip to World Maker Faire New York, but honestly I was most interested in the MakerBot, as the CupCake we have at Milwaukee Makerspace is a little wobbly, and it would be awesome to get a Replicator for people to use.

I entered over a month ago, and now that it’s down to the wire, all the totally awesome entries are flowing in. Looking through the gallery I keep saying to myself “Whoa! That’s an awesome idea!” and then I think I have no chance…

But honestly, it’s been fun just watching all the new entries, and by continually bugging the other members, we’ve now got 6 projects that came from Milwaukee Makerspace, and that’s pretty cool. We actually take a lot of pride in the amount of scrounging and re-use we do at the space, so even if none of us win, we’ll just keep remaking things anyway, because it’s what we do, and we have fun doing it.

Space Shuttle Enterprise demating at JFK

2012-05-14T22:43:56+00:00

This weekend several Resistor members worked together with The Last Shuttle Project and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to install a time lapse camera near Hangar 12 at JFK to record the demating operation of the Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV101) from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Read on for commentary about the all night operation on the airport ramp.

The camera was a Sony DSLR with a timelapse-controller.com trigger and a large battery pack.

To ensure that it didn’t move during the next twenty four hours, we bolted it to the ground with the help of United Space Alliance workers and a large hammer drill..

Starting at 22:00 they rolled the SCA 747 from the hangar to the ramp.

Since it wasn’t under slung load yet, we were able to get close enough to read the gauges on the 747. You can see the quad engine readout for the flight engineer.

The teams from United Space Alliance and NASA attached the mobile Mate-Demate Device sling to the attachment points on the orbiter.

Extra wide panorama of OV101, the SCA and the MDD.

The sling has a Hydra-Set load moving attachment that was read by a team member with a spotting scope. It uses hydrostatic pressure to adjust the height of the sling in 0.025 mm, allowing the team to install or remove bolts without having to use the coarse adjustments of the cranes.

NASA operates under a waiver from OSHA to let the crew work on the Orbiter even when it is a slung load. These team members are removing the last bolts from the rear ball and socket joints (called “the salad bowl”) in preparation for the hoist.

Finally free from the SCA — the forward a-frame is no longer connected.

A real-time video of the push back. Everything is done very slowly and under precise control.

There was quite a bit of water in the aerodynamic tail cone from its exposed position over the past two weeks. It poured out once the shuttle was free from the SCA.

A custom flat bed low-boy trailer was brought in and the Enterprise lowered onto it. This took longer than expected since the orbiter rides on the SCA with a fairly high angle of attack, but the trailer was built to hold it level. This cause the aft bolts to not line up and required a few hours of on-site engineering to stack lumber under the front attachment point to restore the correct angle. So, yes, the Space Shuttle Enterprise is now up on blocks.

At sunrise the Enterprise was finally pushed back into Hangar 12 and we were able to pack up our gear to go home.

The SCA has one more flight to deliver Endeavour, and then it will be decommissioned.

It has flown quite a few ferry flights during its thirty year history.

The time lapse video of the entire demate and towing operation compresses the twenty hours into one minute. This was shown on NASA TV and provided TV stations, and the Smithsonian will be mixing it into an exhibit as part of the Last Shuttle Project.

More Enterprise photos from Bill Ward

More Enterprise photos from Guy Dickinson

More Enterprise photos from Trammell Hudson

Frankie Flood

2012-05-12T15:00:57+00:00

As mentioned in a previous post, we got to meet with Frankie Flood at the Kenilworth Open Studios recently, and being such an enthusiastic maker, it’s hard to convey his work through just text and images. Well, you’re in luck because I happened across this video of him talking about his pizza cutters. (And yeah, I am a UWM alumnus.)

Beginners’ Crochet Classes

2012-05-12T14:01:46+00:00

Want to learn how to crochet?

A granny square in progress

There will be two beginners’ classes run during May, one from 7pm on Thursday 24th and the other on Saturday 26th from 2pm. Both classes will be identical and will run for two hours, so feel free to pick whichever date suits you better.

During the class you will learn the basics, how to hold the hook and yarn, how to do chain stitch, how to do double and treble stitches. By the end of the class you should be well on your way to starting your first granny square.

The class will cost €5 for non-members and is free for members. There will be an optional cost for materials of €5 for which you will get a ball of yarn and an appropriate sized hook.

If you would like to bring your own materials, I would suggest you bring a ball of plain double-knit yarn and a 5.0mm hook. The people in the yarn shop will be able to help you. Yarn and hooks can be bought from a number of shops, including This Is Knit in the Powerscourt Centre, Springwools in Walkinstown, Stitch in Beaumont, and the Bernina Sewing Shop on Parnell St. Staff in all shops are helpful, so ask for help choosing yarn.

Up to five people can register for each class using the form below. If you require materials, please state so in the comment box, along with your chosen date.

[contact-form-7]

Spring is for Learning!

2012-05-11T23:28:59+00:00

Me oh my, it sure is nice out. Better get inside and do some learning! Come on down to NYCR for CLASSES!

Intro to JavaScript on May 12: Dominate the web with one of the web’s dominant languages. Javascript!!!

Introduction to Electronics on May 26: Harness the endless power of the ELECTRON! Really, how can you resist this.

Paper Engineering on May 26: Go beyond simple popup designs and learn secret techniques from the professionals. Also, crazy fun.

Arduino Basics on May 3 and again on June 23: Let’s get you rolling with some embedded microcontrollers. Start making intelligent objects with the powerful yet simple to use Arduino!

Intro to WordPress Workshop June 24: WordPress is a how good blogs are made. Sign up!

Harnessing the terrifying power of the unknown for the most pedestrian purposes possible

2012-05-11T23:15:52+00:00

There’s a common misconception the NYCR is only for electrical experimentation, but nothing could be further from the truth. For example, take this, the latest in our series of ectoplasmic investigations.

analoges archiv

2012-05-11T18:49:10+00:00

werte mitreisende,

es ist soweit; das analoge archiv steht aufbereitet & (nahezu) chronologisch geordnet zur verwendung bereit. nicht nur für neumember eine unterhaltsame lektüre… & wer auch immer diskontinuitäten in der raum- & / oder zeit-einteilung entdeckt, fühle sich bitte frei, diese zu korrigieren.

die inhalte sind den ringen thematisch zugeordnet, als da wären:

core: OMV-protokolle
com: briefe, faxe, postkarten
cult: flyer & plakate
creactiv: storyboards
cience: manuals
carbon: gallery
clamp: timeline

die ordner, sammelmappen und was es da sonst noch gibt, haben ihren platz in einem eigens dafür gebauten regal gefunden, das sich in mobiler art & weise im bereich weltenbaulab / librarium frei positionieren lässt, wobei sich der reguläre standort als “am unteren ende der wendeltreppe” entpuppt hat; hier hat das archiv auch seine andockstation zur energieversorgung, die mittels eines einzigen schalters reguliert werden kann (an oder aus).

das regal an sich ist so aufgebaut, dass in der obersten ebene die sammelmappen, dvds, analogen logbücher, almanache & usb-sticks sowie in der oberen mittleren ebene die inzwischen acht ordner gelagert werden.

in der untersten ebene, die verschlossen ist, bewahrt der chronicle cervices nun das werkzeug auf, um das archiv problemlos & regelmäßig pflegen zu können.

am wichtigsten aber für euch alle, die ihr euren beitrag zu bewahrung, erfahrung, erweiterung & be-greifen der stations-historie beisteuern wollt, ist die archiv-in-box. die archiv-in-box ist der am allerleichtesten zugängliche bereich, weil offen. hier kann jeder alles das einwerfen, was er für stations-historien-relevant hält, wobei ich noch verstärkt auf der suche nach material im zeitraum von 2006 bis aktuell bin. wer also seminare, workshops oder was auch immer gegeben hat & darüber noch analoges material ganz eigennützig & privat bunkert, kann es in die archiv-in-box werfen, damit besagtes dem vorhandenen beigefügt & der allgemeinheit zugänglich gemacht werden kann.

außerdem wird an der außenseite des regals die gründertafel angebracht worden sein, damit unsere initiatoren, erbauer, schaffer, gründer nicht mehr als aliens der nerd verwiesen werden. mehr hierzu nach fertigstellung.

als letztes an dieser stelle bleibt mir noch, meinen unterstützern zu danken, ohne die es nicht so schön geworden wäre wie es nun ist, als da wären:

marvin für den bau des regal-gerüstes
tecdroid sowie keyboardsurfer, flloyd & dima für das plexiglas-sägen
riot für das kantenschleifen
cyrion für das licht einbauen
fnord für das gangbar machen des tackers

sollte ich jemanden vergessen haben, das archiv vergisst nicht, & in meinem herzen seid ihr alle sowieso

auf kontinuierliches anwachsen des archives

kela

Common Pitch

2012-05-11T18:18:56+00:00

Common Pitch Milwaukee is coming up! What is it? Here’s how they describe it:

We’re on the hunt for eight promising startups working hard to redefine business in America. The best candidates will represent products or services that improve on (or completely reinvent) an existing American industry, helping to make it more sustainable, more profitable, more community oriented, more ethical – and maybe even more fun.

Our own Tom G. (one of the founders of Milwaukee Makerspace) has an idea, and he wants in! Here’s the short video he put together for his application.

I think it’s a killer idea, because I’ve seen some of the stuff people at makerspaces come up with. Only a small portion of them get turned into products, probably because it’s not easy to do. Tom wants to make it easy to do. And hey, it may help kickstart American manufacturing and create some jobs in right here in Milwaukee. Win-Win!

Final Ephemerisle Planning Session: May 24th 8pm

2012-05-11T06:49:47+00:00

The Final Countdown! It’s a month from the event, and all plans are coming together(hopefully). There’s still time to jump in, start your own art project, plan a trip.

If a temporary island full of futurists, dreamers, and joy sounds like your thing, stop by our last planning session to see how. Join the discussion on the Facebook group or mailing list.

Crashspace members and friends are working on many projects, floating jellyfish, pirate themed vessels, microtalks, bringing sailboats, and much more.

Two projects you may be particularly interested in is The Sleeper Service, a platform construction project to give people without a boat a place to sleep and keep their stuff simply and cheaply, and a prototype barge, which will provide freight service and infrastructure(renewable electricity, tools, workspace on the water).

https://www.wepay.com/donations/the-sleeper-service

https://www.wepay.com/donations/ephemerisle-prototype-freight-vessels-and-power-service

Upcoming Pure Data Events

2012-05-10T02:05:15+00:00

Next week is pd-LAunch II – an annual week-long Pure Data confluence. We have multiple events planned!

What is Pure Data (Pd)? It’s a visual programming language, intended primarily for audio, video, and graphic processing. It uses objects connected by patch cables to create functionality, and thus Pd programming is frequently referred to as “patching”.

Pure Data is a free open source software which runs on just about any computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, plus many others) and can be used by anyone, regardless of programming experience, to create crazy sounds, musical instruments, video playback, and even control physical computing devices.

Created by Miller Puckette, who teaches computer music at UCSD and is the open source cousin of Max/MSP. You can download it at http://puredata.info/

Saturday, May 12 at 8 PM – Handmade Music – not *exactly* a Pure Data event, but there will be Pure Data performances.

We’ve got quite a lineup:

Jim Bumgardner’s chess music
Rachel Koukal’s Kaossilele
James McLaine – party favor ocarainas
Altitude Sickness – Bumptop - http://www.jamburglar.org/about.html
Joe Newlin - http://joenewlin.net/
Gary Raymond – ELMO - http://www.audiomobiles.com/
Timon Marmex – Rhythm Alpha Core

Open to the public, $5 recommended donation to CRASH Space

Sunday, May 13 from 12-5 PM – Patching Circle

Open and free to all (donations to support CRASHspace are encouraged) – come and bring your Pure Data, Max/MSP, or other noisy programming project to work on.

The pd-la Patching Circle is an informal gathering of anyone who is interested in patching languages (Pure Data, Max/MSP/Jitter, etc.). Beginners and experienced patchers welcome. Open to everyone – work on personal or professional projects, school work, or just patch quietly to yourself, in a room full of other people patching patches and helping other people patch.

Wednesday, May 16, 8-10 PM – Introduction To Pure Data

This is a free introduction to Pure Data for the absolute beginner.

And it’s FREE!

There are 15 seats – sign up in the store.

This class aims to get you over the “blank canvas” hump. Learn a basic set of objects to make an audio patch, and add some interface elements to make it controllable.

No experience or computer necessary. If you have a laptop, download Pd-extended from http://puredata.info/downloads/pd-extended - and install beforehand to patch along. We will be available to help install and troubleshoot before the class begins (starting at about 7 pm) if you want to arrive early.

In addition to the basics, you will receive some reference materials to help you continue learning. If you bring a 16 GB USB stick, we will have videos of Miller Puckette (creator of Pure Data), teaching a 20-class college level course on computer music based entirely on Pd. The videos are also available for download here.

Announcing New Security Group

2012-05-09T17:43:20+00:00

We’re starting a new group at Hive 76 called “Scheduled Sunday Security Sessions” (an homage to PJ Santoro’s Monthly Monday Microcontroller Madness). S4 will focus on computer and electronic security. We’ll have demos and presentations on security related topics, as well as group penetration testing challenges each month.

The first meeting will be on June 10th, at 6 PM.

See you there!

Local print company sponsors our 3D printer!

2012-05-09T10:36:48+00:00

We are very pleased to announce that local Galway City business Right Price Ink has pledged €400 to 091 Labs to go towards the construction of our new 3D Printer!! Names from left: Oisin Greaney, Padraic Harley, Ciaran McCool, Conor Hoary, Domhnall Walsh, Aaron Hastings, Michael O’Connor, Matthew Kolder, Derek Naughton (Right Price Ink), Alan [...]

Hackspace Open Day 2012

2012-05-08T11:22:34+00:00

Nottingham Hackspace is happy to announce the second annual Hackspace Open Day on Saturday, 26 May, from 11:00am – 6:00pm.

This free event is your opportunity to peek inside the Nottingham Hackspace and to see what amazing projects members have worked on within the space – everything from 3D printers and laser cutters to smoothie-making bicycles and film props!

We’ll also have people on hand to give tours, talk about membership, and to show you what you can do at a Hackspace. From knitting to soldering to colouring, it’s all available at the Nottingham Hackspace!

This event is free and open to the public for all ages.

Nottinghack speak to Sydney Padua

2012-05-08T08:42:37+00:00

Kate Bolin told me she waited through ALL the credits of “Clash of the Titans” (the recent one) to see her favourite webcomic artist’s name on the big screen. With a cult following in the Hackspace movement if you’ve not read Sydney Padua’s fantastic 2D Goggles you are missing a treat. We were delighted to hear that Sydney is working on a print edition of “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage” which might be available as soon as the year 2013! Nottinghack dropped Syndey an email with a few questions…

In the unlikely event that anyone reading this hasn’t heard of 2D Goggles can you tell us a little about it?

2Dgoggles is a webcomic (and soon a book!) that concerns Victorian mathematicians Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, in pocket universe where they build a giant computer and fight crime, clients, street musicians, and each other. I do a ton of research for it and I am the world’s leading expert on Charles Babbage’s hair. Come for the comic, stay for the footnotes!

Did you know that your work has been reproduced at London Hackspace? Could you tell us a little about what you think of the Hackspace movement?

Yes the mural looks awesome! I love the idea of hackspaces, it’s a great resource for those of us deprived of sheds. I can’t wait to get up to Nottingham, which I intend to do at the first available opportunity- not only are you located near the resting place of Ada Lovelace, I understand you have both beer and lathes.

We’re very excited to hear about you going into print in a year or so, you must be thrilled?

Oh, very thrilled! And also kind of daunted! When I started the comic it was literally a joke.. then it became a kind of an obsession.. but I never set out to do a graphic novel. Pantheon is a terribly distinguished publisher with a list of graphic novel luminaries, so both a huge honour and a lot to live up to.

What’s your dream gadget?

Oooh, let me think..something to make decisions for me! A Magic Eight Ball (do you have those here?), containing a supercomputer that could generate accurate projections of the future and tell me what to do.

What kind of things do you think Babbage and Lovelace would be making if they were hackspace members today?

Heh.. Babbage would have to be making the next thing that nobody could understand what it was. I think it would be too advanced for my puny brain! Lovelace would be making it even more baffling, but I think on the side she’d be making flying machines.

What’s worse – bad street musicians or bad poetry?

Bad music AND bad poetry– maybe I should have Lovelace and Babbage join forces against musicals!

What question do you wish you’d been asked?

Uuummm.. Sydney, do you happen to know what Ada Lovelace’s toothpaste consisted of?

Could you answer that question?

Why YES! Yes I do! Buy the book to find out what!

Look out for Sydney Padua’s Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage in print next year in the meantime try 2D Goggles

I’ll teach your mom – Ruby Programming Workshop – Mother’s Day, May 13th, 12 o’clock

2012-05-08T03:36:00+00:00

Interested in learning Ruby or just learning how to program? Come to the Baltimore Node and we’ll do a quick overview of the language, get some pizza from Joe^2 to go, and spend the rest of the time learning the language at your own pace. You’ll be able to ask any questions you want and get some personal help getting started. We can also provide some common problems and exercises if you need some guidance. At the end, we’ll see if there’s any interest in starting a regular study group for one of the many free online programming classes: http://www.udacity.com/

Experienced programmers are welcome to join to work on their own projects and help others out when needed.

If you’re coming, try to install Ruby on your laptop in advance, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Questions? Email jasondenney@gmail

The More You Node!

Vintage Computer Festival East 8.0

2012-05-08T01:50:52+00:00

This weekend a bunch of NYCR members went to the Vintage Computer Festival East (8.0), held at the InfoAge / MARCH computer history museum in Wall, NJ. Read on for more photos from the musuem.

Daniel Kottke, Apple employee #12, gave a keynote about the history of developing the early Apples in Job’s garage through the initial Mac design.

One of the highlights was a functional wire-wrapped DEC PDP-11.

Connected to it was the original terminal, the VT05, as well as VT-102 and VT-220 terminals.

Homebrew computers were in abundance. Here are some hackers hacking away on an unknown system, surrounded by a TI Silent 700, a SWTP 6800 and a PERCOM floppy drive.

There were Apple II’s and many clones were on exhibit at the show.

Inside the MARCH exhibits at the museum were such notables as an original Apple 1. Note the lock on the custom case — a working model recently sold at auction for $213k, so they don’t want this one to go missing!

Frank O’Brien has an exhibit on the Apollo Guidance Computer to go along with his excellent book.

In the punch-card era room is a Univac 1540 tape drive, with dual tape decks. It was also considered a “mobile computer”, in that it could fit inside a trailer or submarine.

And in the warehouse are such treasures as an Amdahl 4705, but the museum lacks the funds to restore and exhibit them. You can donate to MARCH on their website to help bring some of this historical artifacts back to life.

There are some more photos of the museum and exhibits from our trip. You might also enjoy these photos of our restoration of an IBM 129 data data recorder — MARCH provided NOS ribbons so that we can read the printouts.

And finally, one of our purchases at the consignment booth at the show claims “No user servicable parts”. We’ll see about that in a later post…

The FIBIAC lives!

2012-05-08T01:15:17+00:00

Behold the FIBIAC! Its loud! It computes! It uses actual punch cards! Come to our party and see it in action!

Stop motion Build Blacksmith forge

2012-05-07T23:45:23+00:00

Today we made a blacksmith forge that worked quite well after looking at a few other designs and working with what we found around the space we where able to build a blacksmith forge.

Fan is from an old oil burner
Running fuel is just normal coal but there are better options.

Check out video and photos for more details or leave a comment down below.

Ready for the Derby Mini Maker Faire?

2012-05-07T08:46:43+00:00

The crew at the Derby Silk Mill have been working around the clock to get the Derby Mini Maker Faire organised. It’s going to be pretty cool too. The Faire will be 11am – 4pm on Sunday 3rd June.

There will be a load of makers from all over the UK as well as other Hackspaces such as HacMAN, London Hackspace and Build Brighton and there. Saturday 2nd June will be a Makers Only day with opportunities to collaborate and work on project without the public being in the way!

Nottinghack regular Martin Raynsford will be running a table about his 365 Laser cutting project and Jake Howe will be exhibiting some of his excellent Instructables and Steam Punk props.

Tim Hunkin will be giving a talk about his excellent Under the Pier Show too! There will be a lot going on. See you there!

Thingiverse: Anatomic Human Foot

2012-05-06T19:12:45+00:00

Freesider's are evermore professional printistas of sorts. As our sprints are ramping up, there seems to be a growing interest in "organic modeling". Things often found in nature fall into this category for CAD artists.

Here is a recent Thingiverse upload, which was made from some very simple modeling techniques in Newtek's Lighwave 3D application. A little goes a very long way, indeed.

per Thingiverse.com:

There are 26 proper bones in the human foot; 28 if you consider the sesamoids of the 1st metatarsal phalangeal joint complex. That's over 25% of your body's total musculo-skeletal anatomy, hitting the ground every time you go for a walk or run! Quite impressive, really.

Read More:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot
learnbones.com/foot-bones-anatomy

This anatomic foot model was designed in Newtek's Lightwave 3D, as part of the podcast @ YouTube.com/DrGlassDPM

Anatomic study models can be quite expensive, search.anatomywarehouse.com/search?keywords=foot&x=0&y=0 so I wanted to share my printable version with the Thingiverse crowd and give a big shout out to Freeside Atlanta's Hackerspace!

Instructions
I've included the individual bones with a straightforward naming convention. These parts will be replaced, as I continue to add more detail and such; for now, enjoy!

Additionally, there are FootBones.stl and FootSkin.stl, for those of you Duel Extruding.

Otherwise, I'd be impressed to see some of the techniques towards printing this and having a clean separation from support material. This (and deriviatives thereof) will hopefully rival things like: molded study models search.anatomywarehouse.com/search?keywords=foot&x=0&y=0

-Nick

Towelday 25.5.2012 – 20:42h

2012-05-05T22:51:58+00:00

Hilfe die Touris kommen!
Kaum ist es auf unserem Planeten ein paar Grad wärmer geworden, laufen sie wieder planlos trotz Reiseführer durch die Straßen und verstopfen unsere Lieblingskneipen. Die meisten können sich nichtmal ein Shuttle-Ticket leisten und reisen per Anhalter: Aliens
Irgendwo müssen sie gelesen haben, dass es hier üblich ist, auf Schritt und Tritt einen Donnergurgler aus dem Späti in der Hand zu haben, in großen Gruppen auf Leihrädern die Strasssen unsichter zu machen oder einen quietschenden zero-G-Koffer hinter sich herzuziehen.
Die Kampagne “Earth doesn’t love You” wollen wir allerdings nicht unterstützen, sondern laden alle trampenden Aliens zu uns auf die Station ein, um gemeinsam den Towelday zu feiern.
Zentrales Element wird auch dieses Jahr wieder der space-drinc-contest sein, zu dem Ihr hiermit alle herzlich eingeladen seid.

REGELWERK SPACE-DRINC-CONTEST

Es handelt sich einen Cocktail-Wettbwerb bei dem drincs aus fremden Galaxien vorgestellt werden. Jeder Teilnehmer hat dazu maximal 10 Minuten Zeit.

Die Drincs werden nach den standardisierten Gesichtspunkten bewertet:

- Geschichte (Glaubwürdigkeit und Originalität)
- Verwendung eines Handtuchs (bei Herstellung oder Konsum)
- Aussehen
- Geschmack

Die Rezepte müssen unter einer Creative Commons oder Fair Use-Lizenz stehen.
Die Jury setzt sich wie gewohnt aus den Teilnehmern zusammen.

Loccpiccnicc 17.5.2012 ab 14h

2012-05-05T22:45:40+00:00

Die Sportfreunde der Sperrtechnik treffen sich zum traditionellen Grillen.

Das inzwischen 8. Lockpicknick der Sportgruppe Berlin in Folge (c-lang: Loccpiccnic) findet am 17.05.12 wieder ab 14.00h (Himmelfahrts-/”Vater”tag) – mittlerweile zum 4. Mal seit 2008 – direkt an der Spree auf der Hausterrasse des Vereinsgeländes der c-base statt.
http://wiki.ssdev.org/wiki/Lockpicknick_Berlin

Wir freuen uns auf Vereinsmitglieder und deren Angehörige, Lockpicker, Sperrsportler, Hacker und cbase-member, Freunde der Sportgruppe Berlin, KOKSA – User und eingeladene externe Gäste. Erkennbar Lockpicking-interessierte Anfänger oder Passanten können sich ebenfalls von unserem Angebot angesprochen fühlen und sich von erfahrenen Lockpickern die ersten sperrsportlichen Schritte anschaulich erklären lassen.

Build a TV-B-Gone

2012-05-05T12:01:30+00:00

The TV-B-Gone was created by uber hacker Mitch Altman. It is designed to send the ‘off’ code to the vast majority of TVs from a distance of up to 30m. The idea was taken and turned into an open design by Adafruit Industries. This kit has been improved to give much better range and switch off more TVs.

With this device you can create your own small amount of mayhem, switching off TVs which have been left on or are advertising pointless things.

This workshop will be a guided soldering session to build and includes a full kit of parts and a professional circuit board. Its a pretty simple kit so is great for beginner soldering.The workshop will be on Tuesday 8th May from 7:30pm. The cost is £12. Bring 3 x AAA batteries (rechargables best) if you want to use it on your way home.

A link to more circuit information and the instructions on the wiki is here.

It is also a nice introduction to the world of small microcontrollers and I can explain the process of programming micrcontrollers (not via a bootloader, like the Arduino).

The Milwaukee Makerspace Makership

2012-05-04T13:43:42+00:00

Milwaukee Makerspace is proud to be a part of Milwaukee and to provide a shared workspace where people can explore their passions in making and exploring things, whether it be art, technology, electronics, alternative energy, or rapid prototyping and fabrication. Our members are eager to share their skills and equipment with others, and we recognize that we learn better when we learn together, so we’re introducing a “makership” program, which will allow a local maker to become a full member though a sponsorship from the group.

For our first Makership, which will take place during the summer months, we’d like to offer the opportunity exclusively to college students. You’ll see that one of the eligibility requirements is that the applicant must be a student currently enrolled in an accredited post-secondary institution. (Don’t worry, we do plan to open this up to everyone, student or not, in the future.)

If you’re interested in joining us and gaining access to our space, our tools and our community, come up with a killer idea and apply today!

Find out more at: http://milwaukeemakerspace.org/makership

A Simple Aux Input For iPod Speaker Systems

2012-05-04T03:58:35+00:00

The first generation of Bose SoundDocks did not feature an aux input jack, they are only compatible with the 30 pin connector of iPods and iPhones. Lately, my music player of choice is my Droid Razr, which has 60+ Gb of music on it, even more in the cloud, and no 30 pin connector. I decided to add an auxiliary input to my SoundDock in the easiest and quickest way possible. I made an adapter cable using half of a $6 iPod extension cable, half of a $1 3.5mm headphone cable, and two necessary resistors. I can plug this adapter cable directly into any unmodified SoundDock, or any other amplified speaker system that has a 30 pin connector.

It turns out that the SoundDock is smart, and will only power on when it senses 3.3VDC on pin 18 of its input connector. Luckily, it also outputs 12VDC on pin 19 to recharge the attached iPod’s battery. To trick the SoundDock into turning on with no iPod attached, I made a voltage divider by soldering a 20 Kohm resistor between the wires connected to pins 18 and 19, and a 4.7 Kohm resistor between the wires connected to pins 18 and 1. The voltage between pins 18 and 1 was measured to be ~3VDC, which isn’t 3.3VDC, but is sufficient to power up the SoundDock. I soldered the three pins of the 3.5mm headphone jack to the 30 pin connector’s wires as follows: Ground to pin 1, right audio to pin 3 and left audio to pin 4. I used 1206 surface mount resistors because they measure only 3.2mm by 1.6mm, a size which fits conveniently under the shrink wrap joining the two cables. The most time consuming part of this two hour project was identifying which color wires were connected to pins 1,3,4,18 & 19, and determining if the pin on the left of the photo was #1 or #30.

From Vendy to Pig Button

2012-05-04T00:37:54+00:00

We got a great little email on Sunday asking if our Vendy was available for public dispensing. There happened to be a pile of us here hacking on Sunday afternoon, so Nicole dropped by, fed $15 into Machine Uno and get herself a teensy board. On Thursday, Shanshan came round to Craft Night and we got to see what they made:

They didn’t get any action shots of the teensy . Nice Arduino though.

Job for an Electronic Engineer in Sligo

2012-05-03T15:52:53+00:00

Howdy all, We were asked if we could post this up on the site and we didn’t see a problem with it! There is position available in Sligo for a Graduate Electronic Engineer. If interested, take a look on http://www.webrecruitjobs.ie/site/viewvacancies.cfm?ID=313770 for more details. Happy job-hunting!

No Frolics Parade?!?!

2012-05-03T13:47:42+00:00

Last year, the Milwaukee Makerspace participated in the South Shore Frolics Parade with a giant driving Arduino, a driving 10′ tall can of Old Milwaukee Makerspace beer and a fleet of power wheels racers. In short, it was a blast. I’ve lived in Bay View for the last 6 and a half years and a highlight every summer has been the Frolics Parade. For long-time Bay View Residents, the Parade has been a summer highlight for over 60 years. Being in the parade and producing such fun floats for it was more fun than i thought it would be and we immediately started scheming for the 2012 parade.

This year, it doesn’t look like we’ll have a Frolics Parade, though. For the last few years, a corporate sponsor has footed the considerable bill for the parade. They are unable to do that again this year and the Bay View Lions Club is left without the funds for a parade.

David and I, along with several other Bay View neighbors have been working with the Lions Club to see if we can scramble to raise the funds for the parade. $13,000 is needed for the city and county alone to cover the permit, closed parking meters, re-routed buses, police officers and cleanup. Yow! I wasn’t aware that there was such a high starting bid for a parade. On top of that, many bands and groups require payment to travel and participate in the parade.

We quickly pulled together a website, voice mail and twitter account and a bunch of fliers to try to get the word out. David talked to every business from the White House to Hamburger Mary’s on KK last Saturday and had a lot of interest. We need to head back this weekend to see if we can secure any commitments from those businesses.

Members from the Milwaukee Makerspace have pledged $2,000 to kick things off, but we still have $20,000 to raise in almost no time. We’re giving it a week to follow up with Bay View businesses to see if we can arrange any commitments for funding.

If you love the Frolics Parade, ask your favorite Bay View Businesses if they are willing to help save the parade this year as you get a bite to eat, a cup of coffee, a haircut or a drink this week. If you have the means to make a significant donation yourself, please get in touch.

We’ve also thrown out a pretty cool incentive. For any group that donates $5,000, the Makerspace will build a float for you.

For donation and contact information for the parade, head over to the Save the Frolics Parade website at http://www.bayview-frolics-parade.com/.

Makers, assemble!

2012-05-03T12:41:05+00:00

Yeah. Having access to a laser cutter is pretty boss. I’m planning to wear this to the premiere of a certain movie this weekend. Four layers of acrylic; two diffuse, two opaque. 11 LEDs, 11 100 Ohm resistors, some phone cord, some solder, and a 9V battery. There’s no lack of great pages on Instructables about how to make your own.

Handmade Music

2012-05-02T19:44:15+00:00

Saturday, May 12th at 8 PM we’re doing another Handmade Music L.A.!

Handmade music is all about people making music with hand-made instruments (hardware or software). We will have performances with monomes, and Pd patches, and chess boards. And demonstrations of instruments people have made and that you can make yourself.

We’ll be getting started at 8 PM and running until late at CRASH Space, 10526 Venice Blvd., Culver City 90232.

Open to everyone, a $5 donation to CRASH Space is recommended.

If you’re interested in performing or demonstrating something musical that you’ve built (instruments, circuit bent toys, Pd/Max/MSP patches), e-mail theron.trowbridge@gmail.com with a description of what you do, pictures/videos, etc. and whether it’s more of a science fair project or a performance piece.

The Group (Photo!)

2012-05-02T15:59:22+00:00

Kudos to David (known to the group as a videographer and motorcycle enthusiast) who must have experience herding cats, because he managed to get a whole bunch of members to take a break from making and stand still long enough for a group photo.

I’m not sure which one should be the “official” group photo, so I’ve posted all three of them below. Let us know which one you like the best!

Option #3: “Serious”

Option #2: “Lighthearted”

Option #1: “Machete”

Note: Whichever photo gets chosen as the “official” Milwaukee Makerspace Group Photo will remain the “official” Milwaukee Makerspace Group Photo until we take a new “official” Milwaukee Makerspace Group Photo.

Note #2: This photo does not represent all of our members, just the people that were there on a Tuesday night after the weekly meeting. If you want to stop by and meet us, any Tuesday Night at 7pm would be a great time. Men, women, and robots are all welcome!

2600 Friday

2012-05-02T14:37:27+00:00

First of the month, That's this Friday. It's 2600 time! Meeting will be at the usual place the Game Lounge at 178 Main Street in Burlington Vermont from 5-8. It's on the third floor, so just keep going up. There will be signs to point the way.

Afterwards we will probably head over to Laboratory B! 1.5 blocks away for further hijinks!

5-8 is prime dinner time, Pizza can be grabbed from downstairs

May 2012 HAC:Manchester sessions

2012-05-02T13:06:06+00:00

Our Maker Sessions for May will be taking place at Madlab, 36-40 Edge Street, M4 1HN on

Wednesday 2nd May, 7pm - 11pm
Wednesday 9th May, 7pm - 11pm
Saturday 12th May, Noon - 7pm
Wednesday 23rd May, 7pm - 11pm
Wednesday 30th May, 7pm - 11pm

All our meetings are open access, and free to attend (though we might ask for a donation if we do your uni work for you!), so you don't have to ask, just turn up!

CRAFTernoon: Crash Your Gear

2012-05-02T13:00:18+00:00

On Saturday May 12th (2p-6p), the weekend before MakerFaire, you can come to CrashSpace to get custom CrashSpace gear. We’re talking hats, bags, shirts, pants, socks, and pretty much anything you are willing to bring to customize.

Did you catch that?

Bring something to share, customize, and DIY.

We hosted a CRASHirt CRAFTnoon in the past and it was CRASHirt CRAFTernoon CRAZYness !

We’ll provide:

silk screens
stencils
sewing machines and supplies
sharpies
finger paint
bleach
splatters
sharpies
tons of glow-in-the-dark and neon paint. I cannot wait until those photos start to surface
LEDs,
even some sparkle kits for the adventurous.

CRAFTERNOON?!? What is it anyhow? Cecily said it best on the crash list

“It can be a nice time to hang out, make crafty stuff, and discuss
making more crafty stuff. Don’t be afraid of the “softer” side of
making. Craft projects usually don’t bite, they just poke, tangle,
glue your fingers together, cover you in glitter…”

craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash craft crash

Chaperoned kids are welcome. The cost is free.

CRASHSpace is entirely membership/donation funded and relies on your support to keep the doors open. Donations are welcomed, helpful, and necessary. thx!

Stanford U Machine Learning Study Group

2012-05-02T02:28:36+00:00

Standford University is at it again with another round of free (as in beer) courses! This time they’re joined by the likes of Princeton, Penn, and the University of Michigan!

Why should you care? Well, Hive76 is forming a study group to help individuals tackle this incredible and challenging opportunity to be found within Standford’s Machine Learning course, of course! Our first meeting will be held tomorrow night during Open House Hours (7-11 PM)! If you are interested in taking this course, please take the time to register with Stanford at the link provided here.

As a place to get started, Mike S. of the Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco, has compiled an excellent list of resources for the study group that they have going on the left coast. Do consider joining their ML-specific mailing list!

Folks considering this course should be familiar with programming concepts and linear algebra, for sure! Recommended linear algebra lectures can be found here, and for your open source alternative to MATLAB, check out GNU’s Octave.

See you tomorrow!

Philly Tech Week Signature Gala

2012-05-01T20:39:30+00:00

We had an awesome time at the Philly Tech Week Signature Gala last week. While certainly any event with free booze is going to be a hit with us, it was surely all of the amazing people we got to meet. We had quite a few things on display and people were very interested in talking with us about our projects, how we got started, and even the very nature of hacking, DIY, and hackerspaces (To quote Adam Savage, “I reject your reality and substitute my own”).

Manning the table we had Jim Fisher, Chris Terrell, Dave Morfin, Chris Thompson, and me. Here is a video showing off our table and some of the things we had there.

Arduino/Soldering 101 this Saturday!

2012-05-01T06:07:25+00:00

Come build and program an Arduino with expert guidance. You’ll build your own Freeduino kit and program it. Even if you’ve never soldered anything in your life, you’ll come away with a working micro controller that you built.

Freesiders Hackers Collaborate in Medical / Surgical Research

2012-04-30T20:51:59+00:00

Published in the May issue of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery:

"A Novel Combination of Printed 3-Dimensional Anatomic Templates and Computer-assisted Surgical Simulation for Virtual Preoperative Planning in Charcot Foot Reconstruction."

This collaboration of specialties represents an undertaking by members of Freeside Atlanta, Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance, and The Podiatry Institute. Charcot foot reconstruction remains on of the most challenging procedures in foot and ankle surgery. These procedures are often lengthy procedures which can be riddled with complications.

With the help of Freeside Atlanta Members, institutional researchers used open source Osirix Image viewer and 3D Software such as Newtek's Lightwave or Blender to create simulated surgical reductions as well as 3D printed templates. Freeside Atlanta members assisted in providing 3D printing solutions and know-how to the project.

Experimental test prints were done on a Makerbot Thing-o-matic, and final templates were printed on a modified ZCORP z400. These templates were full scale replicas of the patient's boney anatomy, which were used in the laboratory for practice purposes. (see video below)

The surgical bone cuts were trialed in advance and the the Ilizarov fixation frame was constructed and modified prior to surgery. The combination of these two things saved the surgeons literally hours of work in the operating theater, ultimately lowering cost of care and risk of complications.

3D simulations were used for templating surgical approach on printed replicas.

Intra-operative execution of practiced surgical plan.

Application of Ilizarov External Fixation Construct

The Abstract reads as:

Charcot foot syndrome (Charcot neuroarthropathy affecting the foot), particularly in its latter stages, may pose a significant technical challenge to the surgeon. Because of the lack of anatomic consistency, preoperative planning with virtual and physical models of the foot could improve the chances of achieving a predictable intraoperative result. In this report, we describe the use of a novel, inexpensive, 3-dimensional template printing technique that can provide, with just a normal printer, multiple "copies" of the foot to be repaired. Although we depict this method as it pertains to repair of the Charcot foot, it could also be used to plan and practice, or revise, 3-dimensional surgical manipulations of other complex foot deformities.

Copyright © 2012 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Red Bull Soapbox Derby

2012-04-30T07:54:57+00:00

OH look! A package! I wonder who it is from?

Maybe it is something about the Soapbox race?

Looks like it

Oh Man! Red Bull and a note card saying "thanks but no thanks."

Don't they know I prefer diet?!?

Spring 2012 Gallery Night

2012-04-29T15:54:04+00:00

Kevin’s Noise Box (Photo by Pete Prodoehl).

On Friday April 20th, 2012, several members of the Milwaukee Makerspace participated in the Spring Gallery Night event hosted at BucketWorks and put on in collaboration with ArtWorks for Milwaukee. Several hundred people came through the space to check out works from both groups. ArtWorks also had a nice write-up of the night from their point of view. We love getting our crazy work out in front of people.

So, gentle Reader, I present to you an inventory of our Makers and Their Works:

Kevin Bastyr
- The Mahoganator – A noise box encased in a lovely Mahogany shell.
- The Cacophonator – A noise box encased in a lovely welded metal shell.
- Cast bronze tree-trunk table.
- Angle grinder table from the One Tool Competition.
Adam Cohen
- Functional MagneTag prototype! Gallery night patrons were invited to run through the space playing MagneTag.
Jason Gessner
- Step – A step sequencer controlled by a Dance Dance Revolution Controller, Processing and Logic Pro.
Matt Neesley
- CNC Architectural Relief Sculptures.
Pete Prodoehl
- The Arc-O-Matic! A one-armed, 2 servo-enabled drawing robot.
- Wooden Knuckles and Wooden Nickels.
- Other crafty 3D printed replacement parts and creations.
Vishal Rana
- Laser Harp and Propane Tank Drum
Shane Thielen
- The Eye Wooden Block Sculpture
- Laser Printed Periodic Table of the Elements.

Check out Pete’s Time Lapse Bot footage of the event. I’m seen messing around with my laptop a lot until I settled on a sound set I liked for the Step.

In addition, the folks from the newly-forming Spring City Launchpad makerspace in Waukesha were there to get the word out.

And if that wasn’t enough, Jason H. had 2 of Pete’s Drawbots collaborating at the Art Milwaukee Wedding after party!

Big thanks to Tim @ Bucketworks and the folks at ArtWorks for sharing the space with us and inviting us to the festivities!

More photos of the night shot by Brant are available on Flickr.

The Amazing Milwaukee Ping-Pong Balls

2012-04-29T14:05:51+00:00

Adam B. is a fellow here at Milwaukee Makerspace, and the guy behind The Amazing Milwaukee Race. He asked for some help using the Egg-Bot, and I stepped up to help him out.

Part of the race this year involved playing ping-pong, but why would you use plain old ping-pong balls when you’ve got an Egg-Bot!?

Here’s the end result: a big pile of “The Amazing Milwaukee Race” ping-pong balls.

So the next time someone asks what you can do at Milwaukee Makerspace, let them know that you can easily custom print a whole bunch of ping-pong balls. (Note: we also do other things.)

Crashtography Group First Meeting!

2012-04-29T04:33:57+00:00

Howdy Folks.

Alot of us here at crashspace do things. From building robots to brewing Kombuchas we’ve got it covered. And the one thing that we all do to get out the word is taking pictures (and sending them to the intertubes). Everyone’s handled a camera (now that smartphones are ubiquitous) but did you know there’s basic techniques that can make your photos 100% better overnight ?(with no pre-soaking required)

So bring your camera and head on over to crash on Wednesday may 2nd at 8pm. We’re going to meetup to go over everyone’s skill level and see what people would like to do with photography. I’ll be teaching a basics class for all skill levels in the coming month, and we’ll preview that at the meeting.

Other topics include
- Tilt Shift Lenses and perhaps making your own
- Intervalometer photography
- rail/carriage systems for panning shots.
- Photo Editing software
- ect.

So if any of that sounds interesting, stop by the space on wednesday!

PCB with Lasered Paint Resist and Fast Sponge Etching

2012-04-29T03:26:47+00:00

TomG shows how he etches PCB boards using paint, a 25W laser cutter, Muratic Acid, 30% H2O2 and a sponge. Much frothing ensues.

The technique is a neat one, given the presence of a laser cutter, because it can take you from copper clad to etched board in a pretty quick amount of time.

One note, the Muratic Acid is actually from a pool supply store, not Home Depot. It is, of course, dangerous. Wear safety goggles, use gloves, use in a well ventilated area. (The acid smells like a punch to the nose, don’t inhale it)

Security Series: Wireless Security Workshop (again)

2012-04-27T11:26:03+00:00

Next Saturday I am going to re-run my Wireless Security Workshop. Last time I had 16 attendees all busy hacking away at the different wireless access points I set up.

This is a hands on workshop. It is aimed at beginners and you will be following along with what I do on my screen on the projector.

I will cover:
* What wireless is
* Different security settings
* The insecurities of each
* Live demo’s of Open Wireless, WEP, WPA.
* Discussion of WPS

The duration of the class will be 4 hours with a small break in the middle. For the class you will be required to bring your own laptop with either airtools installed, a virtual machine with Backtrack running, or booting into Backtrack via USB/DVD.

This will be the final security course that I run free of charge. In future I will charge a fee that will go towards the running of TOG.

Date: 28th April 2012
Time: 1pm – 5pm
Seats are limited to 16

SOLD OUT – Please add yourself to the waiting list and I will let you know this evening if a place becomes free

[contact-form-7]

Ableton LIVE, Präsentation der Abschlussarbyten

2012-04-27T10:12:00+00:00

Am Freitag, den 27.4.2012 findet eine kleine Präsentation der TeilnehmerInnen des ersten Ableton Complete-Kurses statt. Die Workshop-TeilnerhmerInnen führen live einen ihrer Songs auf, den sie im Laufe des 4-monatigen Kurses erarbeitet haben!

Um 21.00 Uhr startet der Abend mit einer kurzen Einführung in das Programm Ableton Live. Anschließend sind dann die TeilnehmerInnen zu hören. Mit dabei sind: Jennie Zimmermann, Raphaello Szmanda, Sabine Edler, Sebastian Partzsch und Thomas Falk.
Danach wird es eventuell noch die eine oder andere Demo des beliebten Programms “Traktor” geben –> Various Artists

The sound of progress….

2012-04-27T00:35:02+00:00

Well, work is continuing on my electromechanical computer project. I now have a sort-of-working prototype of my clunky punch-card reader. Hopefully something will be working in time for the interactive show this year =) Enjoy!

Holography Workshop

2012-04-25T16:25:38+00:00

3D is all the rage in Hollywood, so now here is your chance to make your own 3D hologram! With new materials, it is easier than ever to make a hologram, and instructor Thomas Edwards will show you how. Participants will make at least one hologram (possibly two if lucky), and will also assemble a hologram display holder complete with AC-powered laser to take home to show off your work.

On Thursday, May 10, starting at 8PM, we’ll quickly review holography theory, then we will get to making holograms! We’ll run two hologram making systems, and each exposure takes about 5 minutes. With these new materials, development occurs during exposure, and requires no wet chemicals.

While some people are making holograms, others will be assembling hologram holders. Everyone will get two attempts to make a hologram to ensure everyone goes home with at least one working one. One attempt will be the red matchbox car (as seen if the GIF animation), and your second attempt can be something you bring from home, but it needs to be small (fit within a 2 inch cube) and preferably reflect red light well (not black, blue, green, but perhaps silver, white, red). The holograms themselves are 2×3 inches.

Thursday, May 10 2012
7:30 PM – Hologram holder laser cutting, come by if you wish to watch
8:00 PM – Please arrive by 8PM so we can get going on time

Philly Tech Week – We’re Booked Solid

2012-04-24T13:58:50+00:00

Monday – MMMM Microcontroller Madness

Tuesday – DIY Music Night

Wednesday – Open House

Thursday – Game Night Featuring Tetris Arm Wrestling Tournament

Friday – PTW Gala demonstration (offsite)

Events at Hive76 Monday through Thursday start at 7pm and

ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Friday Gala Ticketing information available here.

4th Journal Club on Sunday 29.04.

2012-04-23T21:18:37+00:00

Another Journal club is coming up on Sunday the 29.04 19:00 in the c-base seminar room.
Last time we had papers about invasive species, inter vs intramolecular ring closure, Grignard reactions and algorithm handling contact maps for proteins.
I would be happy to see more new faces, so please come and present your papers! I can provide you with some, just ask.

The event is for people interested in sciences who have acquired a background exceeding common A-levels in one or more disciplines of either natural sciences or engineering. Whether the knowledge was acquire through university or private study is not important, however a certain level of knowledge is necessary to understand papers in the first place.

Open Craft Nights

2012-04-23T19:19:01+00:00

The first and third Monday of the month is the Hackspace Open Craft Night.

This biweekly bonanza gives you the opportunity to knit, sew, build, crochet, design, cook and play. Papercraft, textiles, woodworking, painting, anything goes at the Open Craft Night. Work on that jumper you always meant to finish, learn how to sew, or just glue glitter to paper to make yourself a funky new sign.

Donations of supplies always welcome, and if you’re in need of help, there might be someone who can help you as well.

It starts at 7, but feel free to come in and leave at any time – it’s an Open Craft Night for you!

3D printing in action.

2012-04-23T19:43:29+00:00

After seeing Joshua Oster-Morris with this little box I asked him to write a post for us on how it came it to being. Worth the read.

Dateline: San Francisco, May 10 2011: Google I/O 2011 opens up with much fanfare and I, a lowly “software guy”, sit down to listen to a couple of sessions on Google Web Toolkit. I have been using it to develop a motorcycle navigation website (http://www.dualsportmaps.com) and its always good to try to pick up a few new tricks of trade. These are mainly esoteric talks about development tools, but there is also one about a new API called RequestFactory that allows state aware communication between client and server characterized by its low bandwidth. They discuss how it might be handy to use as a protocol for communicating with Android devices. To that, my ears perk up and I make my best impersonation (imdogination) of Scooby-Doo. I have been doing a little Android development for personal projects, I have an extensive craft cocktail recipe book that I have compiled through pilgrimages to the best bars around the globe, and I have created an app so I can find them quickly on my phone. I found my options for sending data back and forth a little tedious (I was just creating my own one-off APIs). My interest was diverted from GWT and I segued to sessions on Android for the rest of the day.

The Android sessions were full of energy and free schwag. I have little twinges of jealousy as each session seems to close with a nifty new gizmo going into the hands of each spectator in the hall (I am streaming the sessions from my office in Atlanta so I get nothing). More talks about tool chains and performance mods followed until I see a session on the schedule about Open Android Accessory Development Kit (ADK). What is that pray tell? At this point, my day is shot and nothing else is going to get done anyway so I settle down to watch another session. ADK is an API for starting USB connections between small form factor USB Host microcontrollers and your Android phone or tablet. Phones in particular are unable to host a USB dialog. They are just client devices, meaning they need to plug into a Host device such as a computer which manages the state of the conversation. Google had taken the idea inside the IOIO (yo-yo), a PIC based USB Host controller for Android available at Sparkfun, and extended it to the Arduino platform. Really, the ADK is just an API and it can be implemented on any Host compatible platform, but Google’s official implementation uses the Atmega2560 (with Arduino bootloader) and the MAXIM 3421EE USB Host controller. They begin to show off some pretty cool tricks where they control some giant contrivances with their phones and tablets including a man sized marble labyrinth.
http://www2.pcmag.com/media/images/258238-labyrinth.jpg

At this moment I little bolt of lightning strikes inside my Scooby-Snack addled brain. Why don’t I make a mobile version of my website? I never considered it before because phones don’t work well with gloves and motorcyclists wear gloves. With this, I could make a remote control and put the phone in a waterproof case.

Fast forward 16 days and I’ve got a working version of the Android app (which is a fully functioning GPS device that uses OpenStreetMap vector data to render maps while offline) and I go about sourcing some hardware to create my first version of the remote. The Google board is very expensive ~$300, but in the intervening weeks a few more suppliers have entered the market place and I settle on the Freeduino USB Host board from moderndevice.com ~$70. It arrives a week or two later. About 6 hours after starting up the Arduino IDE for the very first time I’ve got a working prototype of my app remote control. Now, I haven’t used a soldering iron since 1991 when I was a freshman in college so this wasn’t easy for me, but I got it done. In fact, I used a gas powered thing to assemble the joystick shield kit I purchased from Sparkfun. I sent moderndevice.com a video of his new board in action and they posted it on their website. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmnhFc3-oAI

I learned a few things from this. First, working with Arduino hardware is easy, even for a guy who has never done any embedded programming before. Second, Android is pretty much straightforward Java programming so if you can do one, you can do the other. Thirdly, I need to waterproof this remote because it’s fricking cool! How the hell can I do that? The only thing I know how to make, other than software, is cocktails. A little research introduces me to a thing called a 3D printer and that a place called Freeside Atlanta has one. On a Tuesday, with a few roughly drawn 3D files in my pocket I ride down to check the place out. The people there generously let me print out a couple of parts after the meeting (thank you Panda) and I get my first taste of the frustration of building tangible things. Unlike debugging software the iterative process is stultifying and slow. That is another story though...

What I learned from the that first trip to Freeside was the I needed to shrink down my electronics, A LOT. While the Freeduino host board from moderndevice.com works great I can’t really use it for this because it is just too big to shrink into useful sized package.

After more research I decide to give the Arduino Pro Mini a try with a circuitsathome.com USB Host shield attached to it. It is much smaller than the first Arduino, about 1/6th the size.

The smaller size allows me much more freedom to box it up and place it conveniently on the motorcycle. I ultimately design the enclosure below using my new toy SolidWorks. It is just awesome! It’s very expensive, but it is also an amazing tool that takes all the guesswork out of part design.
I order the parts for this design and proceed to actually build one.
It looks pretty good but some crash testing tells the plastic I was using was not up to the task.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHl4iiPZfUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_CeNxcn8RU

So I come up with new a design and a new material.
This stuff is tough! Tougher than nails. I devised several tests to challenge it, but pretty much anything I hit it with broke. The assembly is a real bitch though! It’s taking me hours to assemble one of these bastards.

Plan three starts to hatch in my brain. This time with the help of a new friend and app customer I decide to build custom electronics. We agree on a 3 board design. I don’t know diddly about this electronics stuff but he teaches me how to read a schematic and working over the phone we actually succeed in designing and building new custom electronics which helps shrink everything down into a dainty little package. (I’ve since moved on to a milled aluminum enclosure which is boss)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fpvCJAIvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiWlCVZFWnM

For me, this is another epiphany. I no longer am limited to electronics I can buy at the store. I am only limited to what I can imagine and build. The latter list is WAY larger than the prior one so let me tell you, my world has gotten a lot more interesting since this epiphany.

After taking part in the design process of the new electronics for my remote control I decide to try my own hand at circuit design. I am able to download some very useful and inexpensive PCB design software called Eagle and get started right away. Essentially no barrier to entry (unlike SolidWorks).

The first board I decide to build is a throwback to the board in the second remote design, it is similar to the Arduino Pro Mini except it has an integrated USB Host in it. It’s a small and incredibly useful tool. In itself, it is not a product, but it is something that creative people could use to build products. I felt the need to redesign it for several reasons. First off, the cost of two products from different vendors each with their own shipping costs is rather high > $40. Second, because the MAX3421ee require 3.3V to operate and USB requires 5V to operate there is an inherent incompatibility that the one small sized option available in the marketplace did not handle. The obvious solution is to build an Arduino with a the MAX3421ee with both a 3.3V, and a 5V linear voltage regulator (LDO). USB has a rather specific requirement of supplying 500mA to a connected client so I needed to make sure I specced the 5V LDO at 500mA and design the board accordingly. It takes a lot of sifting though Digikey.com to find parts that will squeeze into the small board that I want to design. Learn TONS about everything reading the datasheets. Along the way I come up with a few ideas for the board as well.

I finally settle on this guy and have it built at seeedstudio.com who will build my boards for <$1.50 each, delivered from China when I order 10 (so it costs $14.90 total).
In anticipation of the PCB delivery I order all the parts in the bill of materials (BOM) from Digikey and wait for my new boards to arrive. When they finally do arrive, about 3 weeks from order to delivery for the cheap delivery option, I realize there is a problem The 5V LDO I have and the area on the PCB do not match. What have I done?! The large chip below is what I had and the small chip below is what I needed. It goes in that little spot at the bottom left of the board above.

Always ready to make lemonade from lemons I go about reading the datasheet of the larger LDO I ended up with. It seems strangely perfect from what I want to do with it. This fact is a little strange to me because it is so much larger and yet not over qualified for what I am doing. I begin to wonder how the chip I chose could actually do the same thing in such a smaller package. I read the smaller part’s datasheet again and realize I must have gotten confused along the way. It cannot do what I need (it claims to be able to in bold print but the fine print clarifies that it can only do so when the Sun is conjunct the Moon in the Seventh House). Somewhere during the part drawing process I started looking at the wrong datasheet and then drew the wrong part I guess. At least I ordered the correct one. No worries though, this board is exactly as useful as the 2 board combination I was replacing (without its 5V LDO) so its not a major loss. I am able to salvage these boards with a little glop of solder across all the pads on each side of that chip.

Now I head back to Eagle to fix my mistake and order another pile of boards that actually fit the LDOs I have. Another $15 spent. Another 3 weeks pass. And viola!

You wouldn’t think that I could squeeze the “giant” chip in the place of that tiny one on that already cramped board, but amazingly I was able to and the overall size did not change at all. This board works exactly as I wanted it to and I am quite pleased with it. I am in the process of putting together a bunch of cool little demos to show off all the things it can do (talking to Android, communicating over bluetooth, HID, GPS, SLR camera control) and then I will start a Kickstarter to see if enough other people are interested in having some of these to get a large batch made. I’ve got a vendor in China willing to build them for about $17 if I build 500. I requested a bid for 100 from an on shore outfit as well but it has not come in yet. If the price is right, I’ll be able to do the Kickstarter with a smaller threshold price.

I am not done of course. No sooner did I get this guy built did I start using it to work on a new design for a new product. I’ll save that story for another time, but I’ll leave you with a teaser of it...

Kenilworth Open Studios

2012-04-23T16:48:23+00:00

On Saturday April, 21st, 2012 a few of our members visited the UWM Kenilworth Open Studios, and got a look at some of the work produced by the Peck School of the Arts faculty and students.

My only complaint is that the event only lasted 3 hours!

Seriously, we could have spent twice that long seeing the work, the workspaces, the tools, and the people.

We had a great tie talking to Frankie Flood about his work, RepRaps, tools, the Makerspace, and just making in general. Check out his handverker blog for a great behind the scenes look at some of the things he’s working on.

There were plenty of other things of interest to our members, including printmaking, photography, screen printing, music, film, CNC machines and 3D printers… and a personal favorite… Cake!

If you missed it, put it on the calendar for 2013. They only open up like this once a year, and it’s definitely worth seeing.

And if you don’t feel like waiting that long, there’s some great Summer Workshops in Jewelry & Metalsmithing that at least a few of our members may be taking part in.

Magnetic Dip, Illustrated

2012-04-23T14:00:06+00:00

I was surprised at the absence of a concise illustration of magnetic dip available on the internet, so I cobbled together a short 3D animation using the excellent free software Blender. Magnetic dip is a very simple phenomenon but one which can quickly get confusing since it deals with 3-dimensional fields through space that can be difficult to visualize. The gist of it is that the Earth’s magnetic field lines are only parallel with the ground around the equator, and everywhere else the field lines actually dive downwards into the Earth by some angle, the steepest of which are found at the magnetic North and South poles. In the Philly area this angle is surprisingly steep, about 67 degrees below the horizontal — it’s actually more vertical than horizontal! This means that in areas far from the equator, tilting to the East or West will result in a compass error since the needle can align more closely with the magnetic field by deviating from the projection of the field lines onto the ground, which is what we normally think of as North. Tilt to the West in the Northern hemisphere, and the compass needle will tilt to the West as well.

It gets even more confusing when you are talking about traditional non-gyro-stabilized compasses, such as those normally found in small aircraft. The compass needle is usually weighted carefully such that it rests level with the ground under normal circumstances, but this means that when you accelerate in certain directions, that weight’s inertia keeps it lagging behind somewhat, resulting in yet more compass errors. These acceleration effects are not directly the result of magnetic dip, but they are partly the result of an incomplete attempt to deal with magnetic dip. Normally pilots are just taught to remember that this happens and vaguely what to do about it, but if you level out and stop accelerating the problem takes care of itself.

Blender allowed me to put this simple animation together in a very short time. It has a challenging learning curve, but it is a very powerful set of tools. Hopefully this animation will be useful to somebody out there other than me.

Onboard Firmware of the Human Brain

2012-04-22T17:55:35+00:00

Freesiders are continually tinkering with robotics and other such machinery. Many of these embedded processors and firmware are becoming open source and every-more diversified in the wake of the modern Maker movement.

One notable boost to the hackerspace arsenal is the Arduino (an like platforms). This offers designers an incredible power to devise not just individual devices but even the emergence of complex, integrated systems.

This evolutionary pace of modern technological systems may be significantly faster the biologic system development, but there may be a few well learned tricks yet to be mastered. It seems that studying how nature has managed to solve many development challenges will aid in designing robotics, where efficiently counts just as much.

One challenge, that is particularly interesting, is data processing. Artificial intelligence is labored with processing data and producing a meaningful and useful output. When considering the increase in sensory and input devices avaible to robot hackers, AI technology may not be able to simply apply Brute Force for all scenarios.

How does the human brain sort through data and minimize apophenia, in real time? It delegates.

This, unfortunately is not a perfected system but it is still, (currently), better than anything man has managed to hacked together. What's important to remember about these systems is that they are subject to some strange exploits, which we call "Illusions". Optical illusions are centuries old and have often uncovered the curiosity within us all.

A recent study in the science journal, "Perception" has illustrated this point well. In this, they illustrate the error of duplication. Some such duplications do not appear to throw off any red flags in the observer. However, try causing an irregularity to someone's face and it's a totally different story.

The human face is one of the most instant and profound "appliances" of human interaction. Humans have evolved a very acute sense of facial recognition, which plays a vital role in our day to day goings on.

The difference between a smile and a frown, could mean the difference between a successful mate and a fight to the death. Other mild variations in not so useful things don't trigger the same primal response. This assumptive processing center of the brain acts somewhat comparably to a natural checksum, operating autonomously in the subconsciousness like a daemon.

Often, Makers and Hackers share their knowledge and designs in a very "open" manner. Nature itself has many lessons to teach designers as well. A better understanding of these such integrated systems and their exploits may better help us to design technological systems which are both sophisticated and efficient.

-GlassDPM

Artikel im Cicero-Magazin

2012-04-22T12:51:37+00:00

Es gibt einen ausführlichen Artikel über die c-base im Cicero – Magazin für politische Kultur.
In der zweiseitigen Reportage “BERLINER HACKERSPACE – Wo die Weltraumpiraten wohnen” werden wir gleich mal zum “Heiligtum der Nerds” erhoben. Bitte anschnallen bei möglichen Realitätsschwankungsfeldern.

Intro to iOS Development for Programmers

2012-04-21T04:32:19+00:00

Come learn the basics of iPhone and iPad development! This 3-hour class will introduce you to the high-level concepts of the iOS SDK, the Objective-C language, the Xcode IDE including Interface Builder and the iOS build system, MVC using UIKit, Apple’s most common and useful frameworks, networking using web services, and much more! This class is offered April 28 and is taught by Resistor members Chris Beauvois and Jon Santiago.