Earth is the Hackerspaces Planet

Intro to Arduino with Justin Corwin

2013-02-10T16:58:19+00:00

Who: Everyone!
Where: Crashspace
How Much: $60
When: Feb 28th 8-10pm OR Mar 2nd 6-8pm
This event is by RSVP ONLY and always sells out. Click here to reserve your seat!

Intro to Arduino is a single two hour course to learn all the basics of how to set up, program, and wire up your arduino to anything.

A laptop and Arduino is all you need to interface with the real world.

Arduino comes with libraries to interface with hundreds of different electronic devices and gadgets. You can use it to connect physical things to everything from simple sensors to internet feeds, leave it running standalone or hook up to computers, other arduinos, custom radios, and much more.

What you need to bring

a laptop, along with a little imagination
The Arduino development kit on your laptop, which you can find here: http://arduino.cc

What you’ll get

Arduino
Cables
BreadBoard
Necessary Electronics components to get you started.

(These materials alone are a $50 dollar retail value!)

About the instructor
Justin Corwin is a co-founder of Crashspace, and a AI researcher. In his spare time he works on custom radio robot helicopter projects and boat designs He teaches biweekly classes

This event is by RSVP ONLY and always sells out. Click here to reserve your seat!

88nine Lazzored!

2013-02-10T16:36:35+00:00

I used the laser cutter to make a Raspberry Pi case, and rather than leave the front of it all boring, I added an 88nine Radio Milwaukee logo to it. (Since I had a project that involves a Raspberry Pi and 88nine, it seemed appropriate.)

I started with the original 88nine logo, which is brown and orange. I couldn’t find a nice hires version, but a quick web search turned up something that would work…

To start with, I converted the logo to black and white, since color wasn’t going to matter to the laser cutter…

I then separated the top bars (which are orange in the original logo) and dithered them to create a visual separation from the bottom part of the logo that was brown in the original.

Here’s a close-up of the dithering pattern. It’s extremely simple, but it worked. I’ve done a lot of work with halftones and dithering, and you can get extremely complex, but sometimes the simple things just work.

Here’s a close-up of the final piece of Baltic Birch plywood with the logo etched in it. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Time Lapse Bot on Watch

2013-02-10T13:27:06+00:00

With Milwaukee Makerspace still in a state of constant change, I thought that Time Lapse Bot might enjoy keeping an eye on things…

Time Lapse Bot consists of an old laptop running (an older version of) EvoCam to capture an image every X number of minutes or seconds.

The whole thing fits in a nice box that you can easily carry around and place on a table or other flat surface to capture images. You’ve probably seen Time Lapse Bot at various BarCamp events around Milwaukee.

Eventually carrying Time Lapse Bot around looking for something to set it on got tiresome, so I built a rolling base from an old office chair. We also upgraded the camera over time, starting originally with an old VHS camera with a USB adapter, then moving up to a MiniDV camera with FireWire, and now a Logitech C910 Webcam, which captures HD quality images. (We also recently added a gooseneck for easier camera positioning, and a bit of height, as you can see in the top photo.)

There’s a heap more info about Time Lapse Bot over on my web site… and if you remember the Red Lotus build from last summer, or the Grand Opening at Chase, yeah, those were done with Time Lapse Bot.

Game evening

2013-02-09T21:30:34+00:00

So hackers are computer nerds? Think again. We like to socialize, do creative things and build stuff. So what about games? Computer games do not always give that social aspect as with the classic board and card games.

So some fellow syn2catters met last Thursday for a game night.

The chosen game was Munchkin. An monster role playing game pressed into a card deck.

After explaining some rules we got into play and learned the rest on the way. Interestingly, the newcomers to this game all became elves, and one won the game even though some more experienced players were there.

This experience need a repetition so who’s in next time?

LVL1 Hosting Louisville’s Code for America Hackathon!

2013-02-09T20:04:46+00:00

On Saturday, February 23rd, LVL1 will be hosting the Code for America Hackathon! You can find more information, including details about how to sign up, at this page: http://www.louisvilleky.gov/economicdevelopment/News/2013/CityOffersCashPrizesforNewApps.htm Louisville has been selected as one of ten cities to receive a Code for America Fellowship. The Louisville fellows are looking at ways to improve the [...]

Engineers Week: Night of Ideas

2013-02-08T12:09:51+00:00

TOG will host a night of inspiring talks. Each speaker will only have 15 minutes to convey to you their passion and enthusiasm on a given subject, idea or project. With six talks on the night you will be introduced to a diverse range of subjects.

Date: Thursday 28th February

Time: Doors from 18.30, Talks 19.15

Location: TOG

Cost: Free

Talks

Title: Technology and Inequality

Description: How advances in science and engineering may leave us with a much less equal society.

Speaker: John Looney

Title: “You Spin Me Right Round” - The Future of Biomedical Diagnostics

Description: Our research is focussed on developing a particular type of “lab on a chip” device; namely

centrifugal microfluidic devices. Microfluidics is the science and technology of fluid flows
on a miniature scale. Centrifugal microfluidic platforms differ in that they use the centrifugal
force, akin to the force experienced by someone when driving around a roundabout, to move
the sample liquid through a disk. The disk is typically the size of a CD/DVD and composed
of a cheap plastic material. This new area of microfluidics research has emerged as a highly
useful tool for disease detection, with many of the necessary steps in fluid analysis being
miniaturised and incorporated onto these lab-on-a-disc devices.

Speaker: Jennifer Gaughran and Mary O’Sullivan

Title: A Bridge Too Far or Very Close ?

Description: Bridge building competitions are they just a bit of fun or the greatest STEM education tool ever. The talk will serve as a review of our competition.

Speaker: Jeffrey Roe

More TBC

Our First Make-Along: Felting!

2013-02-08T00:41:35+00:00

felting needles

Resistor had it’s first crafting Make-Along recently. Our theme: Felting. We started with wool roving, which is wool that has been carded or combed in preparation for being spun. It looks a bit like cotton candy. Roving can be felted by agitating it, causing the individual fibers to knot together. One way to do this is to poke a bundle of roving repeatedly with a felting needle, which has tiny grooves that catch and pull at the fibers to tangle them. This is particularly effective for delicate work, and is a nice tool for creating small balls and creatures and for doing applique.

felted balls and creature

Another way to felt is to wet and rub the fibers. We made some felted soaps this way. We started with glycerin soap, wet it and wrapped roving around it, and then moistened it again with hot water to press the fibers onto the soap. After this the soap was dropped into a plastic bag and rubbed until frothy and matted. Then we rinsed them, and left them to dry. The result is a decorative, scrubby soap. Designs are created by felting onto the roving before wrapping it around the soap. Surprisingly the wetting and rubbing procedure doesn’t distort the design.

felted soap

Felting can also be a creative way to repair clothes. One of our felters at the Make-Along brought a sweater with a hole in it, and felted on a flower on as a patch.

At our next Make-Along we’ll be working with paper. We’ll have patterns, ideas, and some supplies, but you can also bring your own projects and supplies. Here’s a little inspiration.

ILUG AGM & Talks

2013-02-07T21:22:57+00:00

The Irish Linux User Group (ILUG) will have their AGM in TOG on Sunday 24th from 3pm. The format of the event will be a number of interesting talks followed by a short AGM. The event is open to anyone and free. And for those who are new to or completely inexperienced in Linux: Be not afraid! The event is open to all.

Join their mailing list to get involved!

You might also be interested in our One Small Step: Open-Source Night

Talks

Karl Jeacle : Eircom’s FTTC/FTTH.

Frank Duignan: Embedded software development using stm32 boards in Linux.

More TBC.

Bucketworks Community Newsletter: When Short February's Done

2013-02-07T18:17:39+00:00

Catch the full newsletter here

Bucketworks February Events

Aerial Silks - Meetup
Tuesdays, 4:15pm - 6:15pm 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Thursdays, 4:15pm - 6:15pm & 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Fridays, 11:00am - 1:00pm
Contact info@milwaukeecommunitycircus.org to register or for further information.

SCA Sparring Group - Gallery
Warmup Yoga, Drills, Sparring
Thursdays, 7:00pm - 9:00pm

2/9 - Basement LAN - Commons
12:00pm - 12:00am

2/10 - Ruby 201 - Commons
10:00am - 6:00pm

2/18 - Ruby Users Group - Commons
7:00pm - 9:00pm

2/19 - WordPress Meetup - Commons
7:00pm - 9:00pm

2/21 - Web414 - Commons
7:00pm - 9:00pm

2/27 - Members Meeting
7:00pm - 9:00pm

Community Events

2/8 - interACT - Plankinton Arcade at Grand Ave
7:00pm - 10:00pm

2/8 - "Made in Milwaukee" (FluxDesign) Viewing Party - Mikey's
9:00pm - 11:00pm

2/9 - Idle No More Milwaukee Potluck/Community Discussion - All Peoples Urban Greenhouse Project
2:00pm - 4:30pm

2/13 - Ex Fabula Story Slam "It's a Date" - Stonefly Brewing Company
7:30pm - 11:30pm

2/14 - 3/3 - Fawlty Towers - Carte Blanche Studios
8:00pm - 9:30pm

2/25 - Remarkable Milwaukee: Honoring Conrad Schmitt Studios and Gruenke Family - Historic Milwaukee Inc.
5:00pm - 8:30pm

 Worth Supporting

Optimist Theatre's Free Shakespeare in the Park Kickstarter

Introduction to Arduino Workshop on Saturday, 9 March

2013-02-07T11:52:35+00:00

Arduino Uno board. Photo from Nick Hubbard.

Nottingham Hackspace will be hosting an all-day Introduction to Arduino Workshop, run by James Fowkes and Ian Dickinson, on Saturday, 9th March.

The Arduino system is a microcontroller board and software designed for extreme ease-of-use and learning, and has been wildly successful all over the world – not just in electronics, but for all sorts of maker projects. If you want to learn how to incorporate electronic control into your projects, this is definitely the workshop for you.

This workshop will cover:

What an Arduino is, and how to program it
Components and tools
Basics of electronics (voltage, current, resistance, etc.)
Arduino input and outputs
Controlling high-power components
Analog output
And more!

Aimed for complete beginners, this workshop doesn’t require you to have written a single line of code, switched on a soldering iron or even own an Arduino to take part. All the electronics equipment, including Arduino boards, will be provided on the day, but you will need to bring a laptop to program the Arduino with. It would also help if you installed the Arduino software onto your laptop before the workshop.

This workshop will run from 11am to 4pm, and will cost £10, which includes use of all tools, boards and components, and free tea or coffee.

Arduino boards and kits will also be on sale for further exploration of this fantastic system.

To sign up to this workshop, please visit the EventBrite page.

ANTS! TREMBLE BEFORE YOUR NEW OVERLORDS!

2013-02-07T04:53:24+00:00

Ants’ new home gets blinged up. They can thank us later…

Jordan, Pete and I managed to finish the ant farm! It is now home to over 1000 red harvester ants. Unlike old ant farms that use dirt or sand, ours uses a gel that was originally developed by NASA for ant experiments in space. We are still looking into ways to make the gel ourselves, but in the mean time we found a website that manufactures the stuff, antgel.com. The gel contains all the food and water that the ants will need to survive. It even helps prevent them from developing infections. The ants should have everything they need to reach the end of their life cycle, which should be in about 6 months.

Right now, all the ants in our farm are workers, we don’t have a queen yet. We have been discussing ways in which we could obtain a queen. But it will probably be awhile before we decided to go through with it, since we would have to take extra precautions to ensure that a queen wouldn’t escape.

We are trying to get a camera up and running so we can make some time lapse videos of the ants as they work. In the meantime, stop by open house and check them out for yourself!

The ants are settling in and have begun making tunnels.

Our original plans. The actual farm size is 16.0″x26.9″x2.25″. We went with box dimensions that were in proportion to the golden ratio for ascetics.

Addressable LED Sphere

2013-02-06T16:37:37+00:00

Work in progress, myself and Matt whipped this beast up last night. Thanks for the awesome LED strips Michelle!

GaelHack 2013

2013-02-06T13:43:03+00:00

Some of you already know that members of the Irish Hackerspaces Community have been talking about running a Hacker / Maker Camp in Ireland, similar to other events like this such as EMF Camp last year in the UK.

GaelHack is to do just that! From 7th – 9th June 2013 hackers, geeks, scientists, engineers, artists, and crafters will meet in Mount Melleray Scout Center, near Cappoquin in Waterford. There they will hold workshops, talks, and be able to collaborate on projects to their hearts content, and hopefully well past their bed time.

At the moment early-bird tickets are just €80 and that includes camping/dorm accommodation, and basic food. What more would you want from a weekend? Well you can tell us, and join the mailing list to help in making GaelHack a great weekend.

Spread the good work on what we are trying to do. Website for the event is http://gaelhack.hackerspaces.ie

Knitting Circle’s Next Meeting – Sat February 9th @ 4pm

2013-02-06T12:07:40+00:00

The knitting circle will have its next meeting at the labs on Saturday, February 9th from 4 to 7pm. The knitting circle is open to knitters of all skill levels. It provides a social and collaborative workspace, and help is available for people just starting out. Meetings are held on the second Saturday of each [...]

Accepted to Maker Faire UK

2013-02-06T11:53:40+00:00

We are ecstatic to have been accepted to this year’s Maker Faire UK. The event takes place in Newcastle on Saturday / Sunday 27th/ 28th of April. This event back in 2011 got many of us in TOG interested in Maker Faires. It inspired us to go on and showcase our projects at two other Maker Faires, Dublin and New York. We are looking forward to our 3rd.

Is anyone else from Ireland a maker at this faire or going ? Leave us a comment.

Welding Workshop

2013-02-06T11:36:03+00:00

Want to learn how to weld? Come and join TOG on its second workshop

Each class will begin with a class with short lecture, Q&A, and handout.

Week 1: Wednesday 13/02/13 6.3pm to 9pm
The physics of welding
Health and safety
Basic welding theory
Welding Demonstration
Welding practical exercise (lay down some weld on flat plate steel)

Week 2: Saturday 16/02/13 1pm to 3pm break 5pm to 7pm
Re-iterate Safety
Lecture “Lap Joints”
Demonstration weld
Students Weld lap joints
Lecture “Butt Joints”
Demonstration weld
Students Weld butt joints

Week 3: Wednesday 20/02/13 6.30pm to 9pm
Re-iterate Safety
Lecture “Fillet Joint”
Demonstration weld
Students Weld lap joints

Cost:

Non Members €100
Members €80

3D Printer Meetup, Program Line-Up - 02/09/2013

2013-02-06T11:32:56+00:00

Freeside Atlanta and My Inventor Club will be teaming up on Saturday, February 9th to bring you a daylong hackathon in 3D Modeling, Design, Marketing, Theory and more. This is a free, educational meet and greet event which will be hosted in Freeside Atlanta and My Inventor Club's space.

This is the (draft) speaker line-up and schedule of events! Like so many of these things, this is subject to change. Watch this blog or follow us on Twitter for updates and other announcements.

Cost: Free
Location: Freeside Atlanta, 675 Metropolitan Parkway Suite 6066, Atlanta, GA 30310
Directions, Parking, and other Information
Date: February 9th, 2013
Time: 1200-1700 EST
Contact: pr@freesideatlanta.org or info@myinventorclub.com

Speakers Track 1100~1500 Eastern Time (UTC−05:00)

This will be a Google Hangout invitation on the day of the event.

Nicholas Giovinco, Moderator - Freeside Atlanta
Greetings and Introductions: Welcome to Freeside
Time/Length: 30 mins 1100-1130 (UTC−05:00)

Shane Mathews - My Inventor Club
Topic: Prototyping Management: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Expectations
Time/Length: 30 mins 1130-1200 (UTC−05:00)

Shane Matthews, product development guru and founder of My Inventor Club will talk about the professional use of 3d printers, the difference between hobby and professional grade 3D printers and how 3D printers, MakerBot Industries, have impacted the professional community. In addition Shane will have sample prints from some of these printers to show the difference between the prints as well as prototypes casted from 3D printed part. Come see first hand some of the differences in 3d printers, ask questions and learn.
http://myinventorclub.com

Colleen Jordan - @colleeniebikini
Topic: 3D Designer Wearables and More!
Time/Length: 15 mins 1200-1215 (UTC−05:00)
http://www.colleenjordan.com

Clint Rinehart
Topic: 3D Scanning with Open Source Software and Microsoft Kinect
Time/Length: 30 mins 1215-1245 (UTC−05:00)

3D scanning is a common practice among 3D printing enthusiasts. This technology is no longer a limited modality with research or corporate funding, but now a practically attainable practice with a VERY low cost of entry. This talk will feature the use of a Microsoft Kinect device with ReconstructME software.

Chris Caswell - [carrythewhat?]
Topic: Replications: a case study on the basic economics of Distributed Manufacturing of Free & Open Source Hardware.
Time/Length: 15 mins 1245-1300 (UTC−05:00)

For 18 months now, our desktop 3D printers have been producing commodity prints and sold on the market. With 3 printers now, we are approaching viability as a self-sustaining business. But we have shown there is this small repertoire of digital goods, capable of desktop replication, and valued by the market -- set only to expand as replication technology advances and the software catches up. Along with our experiences so far, I will share my thinking on free & open source hardware, distributed manufacturing, and an open economy.
http://carrythewhat.com

Jason Webb - Graduate student, creative technologist, OSHW engineer
Topic: DIY mold-making with 3D printing
Time/Length: 30 mins 1300-1330 (UTC−05:00)

Learn how to design and 3D-print your very own low-cost molds, which you can fill with Jell-O, chocolate, silicone, resin, wax and more!
http://jason-webb.info

Emmett Lalish - Engineer or an Artist?
Topic: Designing 3D-printed mechanisms
Time/Length: 30 mins 1330-1400 (UTC−05:00)

I'll give some pointers on using OpenSCAD to design complex, printable mechanisms. I avoid using support at all cost and in my book, the order of coolness for mechanisms goes: bolt together, snap together, preassembled. The beauty of 3D printers is that they make preassembled mechanisms possible for the first time, but designing them requires thinking about shapes in a whole new way.
http://www.thingiverse.com/emmett

Mark Ganter - The Solheim lab Open3DP
Topic: AM in the early morning hours...
Time/Length: 30 mins 1400-1430 (UTC−05:00)

The Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Washington is host to the Solheim Additive Manufacturing Laboratory. This lab hosts the Open3DP website. Open3DP's mission:to disseminate information and foster a community of people interested in an open sharing of 3D printing information. We hope that you find useful information on this site and that you will feel free to comment and share your expertise.
http://open3dp.me.washington.edu

Henry Thomas - “Wingcommander” WPThomas
Topic: General experiences getting my Replicator 2 to print reliably
Time/Length: 30 mins 1800-1830 (UTC−05:00)

Breakout Workshops 1500-1800 Eastern Time (UTC−05:00)

These courses will be held at both Freeside and My Inventor Club’s physical spaces.

Scanning with Microsoft Kinect
Instructor: Clint Rinehart
Location: Freeside Atlanta Worktable
Requirements: Self

A demonstration of Microsoft Kinect Scanning and Reconstruction with ReconstructME.

CAD, CAM, Print!!: Module 1
Instructor: Nicholas Giovinco
Location: Freeside Atlanta Classroom Zone
Requirements: Laptop and Creativity

This is part 1 of a two part workshop, centered on Computer Aided Design (CAD). In this, we will walk through a very simple design process in Google Sketchup of creating your very own Keychain. Choose a word or name and lets begin!

CAD, CAM, Print!!: Module 2
Instructor: Nicholas Giovinco
Location: Freeside Atlanta Classroom Zone
Requirements: Laptop and Creativity

This is part 2 of a two part workshop, centered on Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), where we work our brains around physical creation of our idea. In this, we will discuss the best methods for printing our designed keychain in a MakerBot Replicator 2.

zCorp 3D Printing via Cold Sintering
Instructors: Buddy Smith & Patch Trowell
Location: Freeside Atlanta Woodshop Zone
Requirements: Protective Eyewear is supplied and must be worn at all times

Additive manufacturing has many, MANY, applications and modalities. Hobbyist machines such as Makerbot and other Repraps utilize a derivative of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), but a lesser known modality is Sintering. The zCorp technologies found at My Inventor Club and Freeside Atlanta are capable of just such methods. In this workshop you will see and experience the basics of this technique applied.

Startup Your Prototyping Idea
Instructor: Shane Mathews
Location: My Inventor Club
Requirements: Interest in how to develop an idea

Discuss the first steps in taking an idea to a physical prototype, deciding on the best process to make a prototype including materials, fit, finish, number of evolutions, and other details of prototyping before moving to the next step.

CNC Milling Station #1
Instructor: Eldon
Location: Freeside Atlanta

CNC Milling Station #2
Instructor: Brian Cribbs
Location: Freeside Atlanta

Public Symposium on Privacy: Friday 8th February, NUIG, at 9.30am

2013-02-06T11:23:10+00:00

There is a Public Symposium on Privacy happening in NUIG this Friday at 9.30am that should be of interest to people. A few Labs members will be attending. Damien McCallig is one of the speakers and he gave a great talk in 091 Labs on the same topic last year! === “Privacy from Birth to [...]

Raspberry Pi Flavored Pd Patching Circle Sunday 2013-02-10

2013-02-06T04:14:41+00:00

On Sunday February 10th, starting at noon, we’re going to have a Pure Data patching circle, with particular interest in using Pd on the Raspberry Pi.

A 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.

This time, we will have some special guests, including Miller Puckette, creator of Pure Data, and UK Composer Julian Brooks, who will be demonstrating some of his work in Pd.

If you have any Pd or Raspberry Pi projects to show off, please contact Theron at theron.trowbridge@gmail.com.

The event is free. There is an Eventbrite page set up for RSVPs: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5026873514 – just so we know how many people are coming.

We will have copies of the Miller MUS 171 class available to copy (bring a USB stick or hard drive with at least 16 GB of space), as well as the Pd-Pi image to use Pure Data on the Raspberry Pi.

February Electric Car Club

2013-02-05T13:51:01+00:00

Did you know that we’ve got a number of members who have built electric cars? Ben Nelson even runs 300mph.org and has published DVDs and Instructables showing you how to build your own. (Sharing of knowledge is a top priority for our members!)

If you’re interested in electric cars, come on down to Milwaukee Makerspace at 1pm on Sunday, February 10th, 2013 for the first Milwaukee Electric Car Club Meeting at our new location. Got a Tesla, or a Volt, or some DIY/converted vehicle? Bring it! Just want to learn what these electric vehicles are all about? That’s cool too!

The Milwaukee Electric Car Club: Because gasoline is so 20th century.

BrownDogGadgets

2013-02-05T03:41:14+00:00

I first came across BrownDogGadgets on Etsy back in 2011, and was excited to see a kit-maker in Milwaukee. Somehow I never managed to connect with the man behind BrownDogGadgets until recently when we somehow became friends on Facebook, and I then realized that Joshua was the driving force behind BrownDogGadgets.

BrownDogGadgets makes a variety of fun electronics kits, many of which center around solar energy, and many of which fit in empty Altoid tins. (There’s also some Arduino-compatible kits which look pretty interesting.)

We’re glad to have Joshua as a new member of Milwaukee Makerspace and look forward to having someone with kit-making skills in the group.

Check out browndoggadgets.com for some awesome kit fun!

Upcoming Workshop: Etch your own PCB, Saturday, March 16th.

2013-02-05T01:58:30+00:00

Sign up now using EventBrite. Only space for 15 attendees! http://lvl1diypcb2013.eventbrite.com/ Chinese New Year got you down? Even though its easier than ever to have your own PCBs made in China, being able to roll your own is a valuable skill to have, from simple-but-large designs, to the annual 2 week hiatus in electronics manufacturing known [...]

Quadrocopter factory

2013-02-04T11:42:29+00:00

This Sunday we got serious about putting it all together: building our own mini quadcopters.

Kenn gave some insights into the mathematics behind keeping an unstable system dynamically at rest. Same thing as balancing a broom on a fingertip, just that your head does not need to do a mathematical development over 27 pages to do the inverse of the 4D matrix.

No we didn’t do that either. So it was: the transform matrix is A, and to get our values, we need A^-1.
Math is cool, it proves stuff that you say is intuitively correct. Like that you need at least 4 propellers, that 2 have to run in reverse, and that those need to be on opposite sides of the same arm. Else A^-1 does not exist and your copter is impossible to fly. It’s like the division by zero in matrix. Did Neo do that in the movies?

The build was quite easy as we got several 3D printed parts in the kits Kenn provided.

These parts were printed on a refrigerator-sized 3D printer in an American university, but Guilluame thinks the Ultimaker can build the same parts.

The concept is built around the idea that weight is the biggest enemy to flight. The heavier the UAV, the more energy involved in a crash, and the higher the likelihood of breaking things. So the UAV always needs to be light as possible. Here, the arms are made of carbon fiber kite tubes, held together at a center brace. The brace does not need to be very strong, since the quadcopter only weighs ~150g, which means each arm is lifting ~38g. That’s about the weight of a chunk of baguette bread. Compare that to the tensile strength of the carbon fiber and see that the model is far stronger than it needs to be.

The middle plate is FRP, which rigidly links the carbon fiber tubes together, at the same time as providing stiffness and a handy platform for mounting equipment.

Build a cross, put the base plate on.

Strap motors on and solder the power ends together. Putting the motors on is easy: just some double-sided tape and zip ties. Remember, the goal here is to be crashable, so extra emphasis is paid to having easy to repair assemblies!

While putting motors on is easy, soldering the wiring harness never is. 4 motors have to connect to one battery, which has led to countless variation on the internet, but never one approach to rule them all. At the syn2cat, each hacker went his own way, making a wiring harness to fit the custom direction they’re going with their quads.

Place the battery. Nicolas Petit has a nice paper describing the advantages of placing the center of gravity higher instead of lower.

We use the STM32F3Discovery board, second from left. It’s big, but it’s an awesome value. For $10, each hacker gets a 3-axis magnetometer, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, and ARM Cortex M4 processor, with an integrated hardware debugger to boot. Hackers who want to upgrade to one of the smaller boards in the picture will be able to micronize, but at a cost of ~$100.

There is no mount, so it’s Styrofoam and rubber bands. This makes it easy to repair and rebuild.

Kenn also came up with a nice idea to raise funds for syn₂cat. Auctioning off bling bling stuff for the copters. There were LED strips, light fibres, better chargers, and an OSD display for putting your telemetry on a video stream.

We got a nice overview of the software by Vinz Kessler, one of Kenn’s fellow developers from Tau Labs. How to get the software, compile and start. And how to connect the controller board.

Now it only needs to get connected to the receiver, and mount propellers.

Then it should fly, if the software is OK. So flashing the autopilot onto the device.

At the end of the night, we had two quadcopters almost ready to fly. Ten more left to finish.

The first flight tests will be this week, and within a couple weeks everyone should have theirs flying. Keep watching this space for upcoming video of 12 sub-$200 quadcopters in flight.

Robot a Month for January: The Soft-Boiled Eggbot

2013-02-04T03:56:50+00:00

As midnight approached this New Year’s Eve– as champagne bubbled from uncorked necks and we all prepared for the coming year in various postures of revelry or bleak resignation– I grappled silently with the pivotal question of our time: “How awesome are robots?” The answer is of course that robots are completely awesome. That settled, I resolved to build one robot a month for the duration of 2013.

Much to the chagrin of Brooklyn’s legion of artisanal slow-cooking egg-boilers, January’s robot is a an automaton for preparing soft-boiled eggs for human consumption.

This was a junkbot, assembled from various scraps that have ended up in the space over the years. Expert junkspotters will note:

The heating element and thermistor from a trashed mini-espresso machine
One 250mL beaker of questionable provenance
Some off-brand extruded aluminum
Skate bearings
A haunted steel counterweight
Lots of lasercut acrylic and delrin
Some chunks of 4×4 sliced out of the loft supports from the original NYCR location
A couple of analog servos and a DC motor from the junk drawer
One half of a L298 from a driver board I designed in 2005
Some relays from sharesville
A button from a reflow oven
Random bolts, plywood, etc.

The whole shebang was controlled by a Teensy 2.0 and powered from a bench supply (except the heating element which was run off of 120VAC, which is why the lights keep dimming during the video).

All the code and CAD files are in my Github repo, as usual. Special thanks to Charles Pax for donating the boiler from his busted coffeemaker, Eric Skiff for providing the tunes for the video, Nick Farr for a last-minute game-changing special Club Mate delivery, and everyone at NYCR for indulging my little robot habit.

Kwartzlab Radio Episode 1

2013-02-04T02:03:46+00:00

Kwartzlab Radio is here!. Inspired by the recordings done by Robert “Gus” Gissing with other members of Kwartzlab which was called “The Heavy Lab”. Kwartzlab Radio will continue with our members and artists-in-residence talking about the things that they are interested in and working on. It’s a get to know us kind of show and I hope you will enjoy.

In the first episode Darcy Casselman and I talk about the formation, culture and history behind kwartzlab.

Kwartzlab Radio Episode 1

Kwartzlab Radio is here!. Inspired by the recordings done by Robert "Gus" Gissing with other members of Kwartzlab which was called "The Heavy Lab". Kwartzlab Radio will continue with our members and artists-in-residence talking about the things that they are interested in and working on. It's a get to know us kind of show and I hope you will enjoy. In the first episode Darcy Casselman and I talk about the formation, culture and history behind kwartzlab. Kwartzlab Radio Episode 1

UAV workshop

2013-02-02T09:03:40+00:00

Our American member Kenn has spent the last months fascinating everyone with his projects on unmanned autonomous vehicles, be they quadcopters or airplanes. So his offer to run a workshop on building your own little quadcopter was extremely well recieved. 12 hackers jumped at the chance and after a few trials and travails, hardware for 12 complete UAVs was finally delivered.

material to build 12 quadrocopters

Last week Sunday, we started hacking our remote controls. They needed to be changed from Mode 1 to Mode 2, flashed to the open-source Open9x firmware, and configured.

This Sunday, it was the tiny little brushless motor controllers turn to be hacked, flashing them with BLHeli in order to make them fit for the needed fast reactions. The flashed firmware can make the ESCs respond an order of a magnitude faster to input commands.

Precision is the word of the day, as good connections with tiny programming pads have to be made, over and over again. To make things even harder, the pads are hidden under heat shrink plastic. This has to be done a total of 60 times, as all the controllers needed to be flashed (4 for each quadcopter, plus some spares).

Poking at the pads with tiny sewing needles while the board is being flashed is a tricky job. Too little pressure and the connection won’t be good. Too much pressure and the needles can damage the pad. Gunstick came up with a simple contraption built out of legos.

Note that you need those little LEGO guys to supervise correct placement

Every hackerspace needs it’s box of LEGOs.

Below you see how needles are correctly placed and held in firmly by the levers.

This allowed for quick flashing and swapping of the boards. And of course the ubiquitous arduino was there to do the job.

After flashing, the controllers are soldered onto the motors. Half of them upside-down as we need half of them to run in reverse. We’re crossing our fingers on that one.

Never forget to tin the wire leads first. The connections need to be solid.

Meanwhile more flashing is going on.

Yes, it’s using windows. Ye gads!

More views of the controller flasher.

Water, Water…

2013-02-01T16:39:38+00:00

We had to pause a bit last night when we saw some water in the space… Our old location at Chase was well known for the leaky roof and the occasional floods. It turns out the water was just from the electrician’s truck that was pulled into the space. Whew!

The Lenox building has been water-tight so far (knock on MDF!) and we’re feeling secure in the fact that everything that should stay dry will stay dry.

Kevin also demanded I take an “arty” photo of the water. Enjoy!

Science Hack Day Dublin

2013-02-01T11:19:10+00:00

Science Hack Day brings together designers, developers, scientists, and other geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking and building cool stuff.

This year’s Dublin event will take place on 2nd & 3rd March in DCU. A 36 hours hackathon lets people develop ideas into projects with the help of a wide range of people with lots of different skill sets. The event is free and sign up is open to all.

For full information and sign visit the Science Hack Day Dublin Website.

TOG is very pleased to be supporting this event for our second year. We hope to see you there.

Crash Cleanup!

2013-02-01T05:52:39+00:00

RSVP here!!

“Look at all of this cool stuff we’ve got!”

Hacking and teaching are messy business! Come support your friendly neighbourhood hackerspace, and help us get it back in working order! It’s a great time to come make friends, help out, and learn about the equipment and technology we have on hand.

RSVP here!!

All of our stuff is blowing Steve’s mind. He needs your help.

CNC Router Video!

2013-02-01T05:45:28+00:00

What a video on the crashspace blog?!?! BLASPHEMY

But look at the cool thing we made. Alex’s CNC Router is SWEET!!

Want to learn how to use it?? RSVP for our FREE WORKSHOP this Sunday!

Hydroponics Update

2013-01-31T21:27:51+00:00

Spinach about a week after nutrients added.

The spinach I was growing managed to complete most of its life cycle. Around a week after my last post I added the nutrient solution to the plants’ water, thats when they really started to take off. I had one hiccup during the test run where I didn’t properly sent the flow rate of one the IV bags and half the nutrient solution was lost. If I was a little less… well lazy that day… I would have replaced it , but I didn’t. So the IV bag ran out of nutrient solution and some of the plants died before they reached maturity. Luckily, the rest of the plants managed to reach their flowering stage. So overall, the IV bags were incredible useful. Thanks Jordan for the idea!

Seeing how classes are starting to pick up, I figure now is a good time to stop the experiment and take some time to look over my notes. But, I hope to have another prototype built by the end of next month. ( Btw, sorry for not being around open house lately to discuss hydroponics, I have a night class that meets at the same time this semester).

Speaking of which, a friend of mine who frequently stops by open house, Ian, has taken the plans of the hydroponic garden I built two years ago and built one of his own at home. Suffice to say, the plants have grown wild and are firmly in control of his bedroom. Given how successful his garden has been, he’s inspired me to dust of my old plans and think about building another, LARGER, set up for just for show (the hydro setup currently at Hive is mainly for experimentation). That’s all for now…

Spinach reaching maturity.

Grand Opening Open House and Party

2013-01-31T14:11:41+00:00

Saturday, February 16th

In just a couple weeks, we’ll be hosting our grand opening in our new space! After almost 2 months of build-out, moving and set-up, we’ll be up and fully operational again. And we’d like you to celebrate with us.

Open House: 11am till 5pm

During the day, we’ll be holding an open house, with tours, equipment demos and some small projects for you to make and build! I’ll have more details and a schedule closer to the event, so stay tuned.

Party: 7pm till late

In the evening, we’ll be partying like only Kwartzlab can. Whether you’re enjoying our kick-ass sound system in our fantastic new front space or chilling and socializing in our comfy new lounge upstairs, it’ll be a great time. We’ll have some hors d’ouevres and a cash bar and maybe even cookies baked in our new kitchen!

Best of all, we’ll have live music, featuring local bands Post Normal opening for Binary Forest. Here are a couple amazing tracks from Binary Forest:

Come join us at 33 Kent Ave. in Kitchener on February 16th for an awesome day of partying and making to celebrate the new Kwartzlab!

2600 and come see the new Lab!

2013-01-31T13:35:05+00:00

2600 this Friday from 5-8 at the Quarterstaff Game Lounge,(178 Main Street in Burlington Vermont) then come see the new lab space after the meeting. Get your geek on before football takes over!

We've moved house last week, but there are still plenty of things that need to be dusted and put away! Come check out the new expanded Laboratory B!

One Small Step: Open-Source Night

2013-01-30T11:41:51+00:00

Starting in February, Tog will be hosting a monthly open-source evening on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. These hands-on sessions aim to bring together experienced open-source contributors with people who would like to get started but aren’t sure where to start or would generally benefit from having someone to ask questions to. All types of contributions welcome: documentation, code, testing, graphics, translations…

We have confirmed participants with varied levels of experience in Gnome, OpenStack, Django. If you’re an experienced contributor interested in attending, feel free to drop me an email at julie (at) tog.ie and I’ll add your project(s) to the list. If you’re an aspiring contributor interested in attending, you can drop me a note too with the projects you’re planning on looking at during the evening.

If the project you’re interested in isn’t mentioned, please come anyway. We can figure out how a project works together. Likewise, people are welcome to come and work on their usual open-source stuff – just be open to the occasional question The more people, the merrier!

The first event will be held on Wednesday, February 20th, with Tog opening at 6:30pm and the first talk starting at 7pm.

Every month we will start with a couple of people speaking for 5-10 minutes, to introduce the project they are working on, what is the usual path for contributing and where they are currently looking for help. Then we will form groups and work on making a contribution for the rest of the evening.

Upcoming Class: CryptoParty

2013-01-29T22:16:41+00:00

Dallas Makerspace will be holding a CryptoParty on February 20th at 7pm, running until about 9pm.

CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce basic cryptography tools – such as the Tor anonymity network, public key encryption (PGP/GPG), and OTR (Off The Record messaging) – to the general public.

The topic of the CryptoParty being held on the 20th will be: “Encrypting emails with GPG”

The class will be about 2 hours long, and the instructor will stay as late as necessary to answer questions/assist with issues. First hour is an overview and general lecture, with the second hour as the technical segment/hands on.

Everyone is encouraged to bring their laptops.

Copies of software will be available on CD/USB drive if people are unable or unwilling to connect to the internet.

Light up the night at our Light Night workshop!

2013-01-28T22:05:03+00:00

Doc Little’s Stick Man LED costume. See the costume in action on Vimeo.

Play with LEDs, EL wire and lasers ahead of Nottingham’s popular Light Night on Thursday, 7th February.

Dr Matt Little will be on hand to discuss how to best use electronics and lighting to create one-of-a-kind art projects ideal for Light Night on Friday, 8th February.

As the MyNottingham website says:

Light Night transforms the city and truly brings it to life after dark with a blend of entertainment suitable for all ages. Many activities are unique to Light Night so don’t miss your chance to explore, experience and see the city in a new perspective. Whatever your tastes, there’s bound to be something to entertain you and your family. Light Night gives Nottingham a real buzz with lots happening indoors and outdoors and special offers in restaurants and other venues.

This group skillshare will be free to attend, with LEDs, EL wire and lasers available for sale on the night.

So if you ever wanted to learn how to light up the night, please attend!

Make Marvellous Machines on Tuesday, 12 February

2013-01-28T21:42:05+00:00

Want to learn to make unique and delightful machines?

Nottingham Hackspace will be hosting another night of Martin Raynsford’s Miraculous and Miniature Mechanical Marvels, on Tuesday, 12 February. In this workshop, you will create fantastic wood and metal creations to entertain and delight.

The three kits available on the night will be:

Hand-Cranked Marble Machine
Made from laser-cut wood, this miniature marble run is available on the night for £10, with all wooden parts, nuts, bolts and enough balls to fill the machine up as well as spares. See the machine in its cranktastic action!
Spiral Staircase Marble Machine
Made from laser-cut wood, this miniature marble run is available on the night for £10, with all wooden parts, nuts, bolts, and enough balls to fill the machine up as well as spares. See the machine in its spiralling action!
Useless Machine
The wonderful and ridiculous Useless Machine, available on the night for £15, with all laser-cut wooden parts, battery pack, and all mechanical parts. See the machine in all its tense action!

If you already own one of these kits, feel free to come along and learn how to build your own mechanical marvel!

The workshop will start at 7pm, and includes free tea or coffee and a tour of the Hackspace.

Leathercraft Workshop on Saturday, 23 February

2013-01-28T20:57:33+00:00

Learn how to make a leather wallet, gadget case, key fob or mouse mat in this informative all-day workshop run by Jake Howe on Saturday, 23 February.

Leather is an effective and strong material to work with, ideal for long-lasting and thoughtful gifts.

At the workshop, you can make:

Slim Leather Wallet
With a design that uses only a single piece, this slim wallet has a notes pocket, room for around 8 cards, and the option for priority cards.
Leather Gadget Case
A nicely formed case designed to fit your phone or similar-sized object perfectly. Involves making a wooden “dummy” version, then fitting wet leather around that dummy.
Leather Key Fob
A small and personalised key chain made by fitting wet leather around a small piece of wood or hardboard.
Leather Mouse Mat
Leather gets smoother the more you use it, making it an ideal surface for a mouse mat, and it’s made by fitting wet leather around hardboard for a one-of-a-kind mouse mat.

And if you don’t want to make something with leather, there is also the option for an oil cloth wallet, using brightly patterned waterproof oil cloth to create a unique and attractive slim wallet.

The workshop will run from 11am to 4pm, and will cost £10, which includes leather or oil cloth and a pinpoint punch awl, ideal for working with leather or thick cloth. The workshop will also have free tea or coffee and a tour of the Nottingham Hackspace.

Register for the workshop now!

A Clockwork…Room Divider

2013-01-28T19:03:32+00:00

Hopefully, we can use this as a backdrop for events like the Art Jamboree.

I’ve been toying with the idea of room dividers for a while now. I don’t exactly have use for one, but I think they look neat and it’s basically a blank canvas. Drawing inspiration from my Clockwork Boxes, I decided that a gear motif would best suit the makerspace, thus giving me a new use for the piece: as a backdrop at events we participate in such as Art Jamboree and the various Maker Faires.

There are 3 of us in this photo. Really.

The actual screens were cut out with a large-scale CNC router, while the frame was ripped from 2×4′s, with a dado groove down the center for the screen to slip into. Thanks, Jason H.!!

Assembly went well, although there were a few hiccups. The drill bit wasn’t long enough, so some minor splitting occurred at a couple of spots. The frame was slightly warped and so needed to be clamped and glued before being screwed together.

After allowing the paint to dry overnight, myself, Matt W., and Jason H. assembled this thing just prior to heading to the Art Jamboree at the Hilton in Milwaukee.

EDIT: I’ve just entered this into the Furniture Contest that Instructables is running. Click the link. Vote. Be thanked. :)

Pandora Buildout Update

2013-01-28T04:02:25+00:00

We’re pressing ahead with building out Pandora and twisting it to our sinister ends! Yay!

The front room is still busy and cluttered, but stuff is slowly starting to get put away.

The clean shop is starting to look like a real work zone! The laser cutter and soldering table is ready for setup, and venting has been routed. Also, carpet!

Here’s the heavy equipment room. Things are starting to find a home!

Heavy Lab, from the garage door. LOOK OUT COFFEE CUP, YOU’RE IN A SHIRT PRESS!

Upstairs is the clubhouse area. You’ll have to imagine the TV and couches, but they’re coming.

The kitchenette/cookie forge is coming along! There’ll be a fridge to the left, and flooring underneath.

The storage area is assembled, and has allowed us to get a lot of bins & boxes off the floor & sorted!

And finally, the most exciting room of all, the newly-expanded bathroom! Now with art!

Come on by and check it out for yourself next Tuesday night, because it’s changing day by day!

LEGOlamp

2013-01-28T01:20:57+00:00

This is the assembled LEGOlamp. It will be mounted as a ceiling fixture, with an internal bulb. To light it for this picture, I used a desklamp to project light into the tube.

One idea I tried after the previous post, was slicing the tube into 16 rings. The idea was to glue the bricks to the tube, with the bricks stacked vertically, then offset the rings after the bricks were attached. That approach failed. I was unable to cut the rings smoothly, resulting in large gaps between them. When stacked, they looked horrible.

In the end, a simple change of adhesive and application made the difference. First, I abandoned both hot glue and epoxy. I discovered gel super glue has sufficient open time to position the bricks, but also sets quickly enough that clamping and supporting the bricks was unnecessary. I addition, I realized the important joint is between the bricks. If the bricks are firmly cemented to each other, the connection to the tube can be a series of comparatively weak joins. Less glue on the end-face means less glue to smear, and less chance of accidentally gluing the template in place.

Many people have asked how I cut the LEGO bricks. Initially, I used a sharp chisel. That was tedious, as each brick had to be clamped. After that, I switched to a rotary-tool held in a fixture, with a standard abrasive cut-off disk. That worked well enough. Finally, I hit on chucking a Dremel-sized circular saw blade into a drill press. That provided a rock-solid platform. Better still, once the height was set it didn’t vary. Unlike the abrasive disk, the bricks weren’t heated by the saw blade. No molten plastic flying around. Using this method, the bricks required little-or-no touch-up work with a sharp knife.

SuperSized Ant Farm

2013-01-27T13:56:42+00:00

Hive is getting it’s own hive (ants). We are building a giant ant farm out of sheets of 3/8″ acrylic with silicone caulk between and some steel bolts for holding everything together (and for that classic steampunk look). Rich and Pete and I got the thing together and Brendan did the boss trapezoid cut on top.

First test for water-tightness revealed one minor flaw which will be fixed this week.

Water-testing in a clean trash can. Pete says: “It’s like it was made for the trash!!”

We’re going all-in.

Preparations for Party tonight

2013-01-26T18:00:29+00:00

Our Rob working hard in the kitchen befire tonights party.

See some of you at 9pm BYOB!

We’re Back!

2013-01-25T20:07:07+00:00

You’ve been waiting for it, we’ve been waiting for it… Milwaukee Makerspace can now officially re-open, and we’ll be holding our first official meeting of the year at 7pm on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013.

Come on down to 2555 South Lenox Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and see the new Milwaukee Makerspace. It’s bigger, better and 178% more makier!

See you Tuesday!

January Brewday

2013-01-25T16:46:45+00:00

All are welcome to come along to this first free brewday of 2013, on Sun 27 Jan from 10am till 4pm. We will demonstrate extract and all grain brewing, and welcome any questions and discussions on the day. This is also a nice social day out for the more experienced brewers. Please sign up so that we have an idea of numbers!

See you there!

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1357132614

Two noisy classes coming up in February

2013-01-24T22:37:45+00:00

Make music – or funny noises – with technology! On Saturday, February 16th, learn to make a soft and cuddly electronic synthesizer, and on Sunday the 17th, use the power of the LAZZZOR to make whistles and ocarinas!

Soft Circuits 2: The SofTone! Saturday, February 16, 2013 from 2PM – 5PM
Learn to use conductive thread and fabric with an inexpensive microcontroller to turn a piece of cloth into a simple electronic synthesizer. No electronics, programming, or sewing experience is necessary – but I’m hoping some embroiderers will take this class and really make something beautiful! All materials are included. Here’s a video:

Click here to buy tickets for Soft Circuits 2 on EventBrite.

Laser Whistles: Sunday, February 17, 2013 from 2PM – 5PM
Just like our regular laser class, only more whistly. In this class, you’ll learn the principles of the computer-aided laser cutter, what materials are safe to cut, and how to create your designs in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Plus you’ll learn how whistles work, and design and fabricate your own! After you’ve taken this class, you’re qualified to use the laser cutter at a discounted rate at NYC Resistor’s open nights. All materials are included, but please bring a laptop with Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Here’s some of the whistles we made in a previous class:

laser whistles on flickr

Click here to buy tickets for Laser Whistles on EventBrite.

BWCBWASP – c-base transmediale programme

2013-01-24T13:33:30+00:00

BWCBWASP
Back When c-base Was A Space Station

c-base Official transmediale Vorspiel Event
27.01. – 03.02.2013

Su 27.01. 20:00 +KAOS “Il libro sui 10 anni di A/I”
Mo 28.01. 20:00 dorkbot.bln “People doing strange things with electricity.”
Tu 29.01. 18:30 Berlin Hack ‘n’ Tell “#18 – BWIWAB”
We 30.01. 20:00 dev community “free your android”
Th 31.01. 20:00 c-atre “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”
Fr 01.02. 20:00 c-atre “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”
Fr 01.02. 22:00 DigiLog “Abelton Live Showcase auf Naturschallwandlern”
Sa 02.02. 20:00 c-atre “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”
Su 03.02. 20:00 c-atre “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”

+KAOS “IL LIBRO SUI 10 ANNI DI A/I”
Su 27.01.2013 20:00 – english
* Book presentation

DORKBOT.BLN “PEOPLE DOING STRANGE THINGS WITH ELECTRICITY.”
Mo 28.01.2013 20:00 – english/deutsch
* Host: Mario Sixtus (Elektrischer Reporter, ZDF)
Presentations:
* Daniil Vasiliev “Dataj”
* Joanna Dauner
* Karl Heinz Jeron “Roboterhausmusikorchester”
* Moritz Simon Geist “MR 808″

BERLIN HACK ‘N’ TELL “#18 – BWIWAB”
Tu 29.01.2013 18:30 – english
Let’s meet to show off how the hacks of the future can look like. We hope to blow everybody away and hope the theme won’t take us “back when IE6 was a browser”.

DEV COMMUNITY “FREE YOUR ANDROID”
We 30.01.2013 20:00 – english/deutsch

C-ATRE “WHEN SYSADMINS RULED THE EARTH”
TH 31.01.2013 – So 03.02.2013 20:00 – deutsch
c-atre collectivdrama stage the postapocalyptic science fiction play “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” based on a short story by Cory Doctorow.
* please note: 31.01., 01.02. & 02.02. already booked out

DIGILOG “ABELTON LIVE SHOWCASE AUF NATURSCHALLWANDLERN”
Fr 01.02.2013 22:00
Performances:
DigiLog: Maya C. Sternel, Kazoo Schlagzeug + Live Electronic
Mareike Kroschel E-Harfe + Live Electronic
Steffen Günther, Carlos Michael, Kenny Klangharp, Klangauge + Live Electronic
Peter Hirsch Live Electronic
Soundsystem: Naturschallwandler® with B.M.C. Audio amplifiers

More info: www.c-base.org/transmediale/13/

NANOBOTS

2013-01-24T03:14:56+00:00

LVL1′s UofL Rocketeers build missiles for fun

2013-01-23T21:36:44+00:00

The first word that comes to mind is “missile” — but this 11′-4″ tall, 43-lb. sky vehicle isn’t used for military purposes. It’s a science experiment. And its designers prefer to use the term “rocket.” There’s a certain giddiness as the various members of the U of L Rocket Team show off their “baby.” The [...]

intro to Arduino: the modern duct tape

2013-01-23T05:02:43+00:00

Learn how to program Arduino on January 31st at 8p for $60

A laptop and Arduino is all you need to interface with the real world.

Bring the a laptop along with a little imagination.

We’ll provide an Arduino, Cables, BreadBoard, and Electronics components to get you started. The materials alone are a $50 dollar value ! Thanks to our SparkFun group discount we are able to pass the savings on to you.

We’ll dream what is possible and teach you how to get started into the world of microcontrollers.

What is this Arduino thing?
and why can I not find a phonetic spelling?

Arduino is a programming language. yes! we’ll be writing the code…

Arduino is a open hardware standard. yes! this part is important.

Arduino is a development kit. please download and install the latest Arduino IDE before class:
- http://arduino.cc

Arduino can DO things:
- Sequence LEDs
- Talk to your TV

Arduino can LISTEN too:
- Buttons
- Bananas
- anything on your laptop. yes. even the internet.
- farts? (srsly. go talk to @qtechknow)
- …

Bring your fresh ideas;)

RESERVE YOUR SPOT AT EVENTBRITE

To Boldly Go Where Many Spaces Have Gone Before!

2013-01-23T03:35:48+00:00

As of mid-January, the Milwaukee Makerspace is now a member of the Space Federation. The Space Federation is an organization that brings hackerspaces and makerspaces together to share resources and knowledge, while providing non-profit fiscal sponsorship for member spaces.

With the fiscal sponsorship provided by the Space Federation, we will be able to accept tax-deductible donations of equipment and funds from individuals and corporations. We have already been approached by several companies and individuals about helping out the space and the new setup will help us do more for the community in Milwaukee. More importantly, a non-profit structure has always felt right for the space. We collect dues so we can provide an awesome space for the makers in our community. All of our officers and members volunteer their time to make the Makerspace great and no one profits from the space directly – if you discount inspiration and collaboration, that is. The new structure formalizes one of our guiding principles in a way that will hopefully help us do more for our makers and Milwaukee itself.

The discussion to become a non-profit has been an active one throughout our history. Joining up with the Federation gives us experienced folks to work with and a bit less work on our side. We’re excited by the opportunities for the space and the community the Space Federation provides … and we’re in good company! Many of our favorite spaces around the midwest and the country are already members of the federation and we’re excited to start working a bit more closely with them. It’s also nice to work with more local folks – the Federation is based here in Milwaukee.

Things are still getting set up, but if you are interested in working with us in our new capacity, please get in touch with our board!

Build Out In-Progress Pictures

2013-01-23T01:39:58+00:00

We are super close to re-opening again. We can’t wait to see folks start using the new space. Members and Friends of the Space have been hard at work getting our new space ready for business again.

Even though we aren’t open yet, we’d like to share a couple shots of the space in progress. New Friend of the Space, Rodney, took a few excellent shots of the progress being made a few days ago. Thanks for helping out and thanks for the great shots, Rodney! We’ll have some more shots of things cleaned up a bit more shortly.

As much as we like photos, we are really anxious to open up our doors to Milwaukee again. Hopefully we’ll see you around the new space soon!

We haven’t found a home for all this stuff from Chase yet.

This is where our car area and the machine shop will be.

This is where the bulk of the machine shop will be.

Project Introduction

2013-01-23T00:57:18+00:00

It is time to leave an official note about my chosen Co-op project. First, my name is Eric, I am a Civil and Environmental Engineering student from Speed School. Immediately, the Hackerspace mainly appears to be electronically driven. A student of structural science may be intimidated, but I look to expand my knowledge. My project is to construct a [...]

Why I’m Registered to be an Organ Donor

2013-01-22T18:40:30+00:00

The critical shortage of organ donors in our healthcare system is the reason I’m registered to be an organ donor and motivates my research to develop suitable replacement technologies in the field of regenerative medicine. Video below! It was an honor and privilege to take part in TEDxYouth@SanDiego, which brought 400 San Diego high school students together to interact and think deeply about the future. It was incredible to speak with so many students who are truly the Architects of the Future.

From TEDxYouth@SanDiego:

Using simple yet illustrative analogies to help non-scientists understand his scientific discovery process, Biomedical Researcher Jordan Miller explains to his young audience how he developed vascular structures through 3-D printing. This exciting research is an important complement to advances medical researchers have made in 3-D printing bioidentical human tissue and organs in the lab. it’s a remarkable prospect for the future of organ transplantation.

Deriving inspiration from a cross section of bread and the sugar structure arcing over his dessert, Dr. Miller describes how he combined his background in regenerative medicine, a passion for the maker movement and reliance on worldwide open sourcing to develop viable 3-D printed vascular systems that he demonstrates actually transporting blood.

Jordan Miller, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral researcher in the Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Involved with the 3-D maker community since its infancy, Jordan uses a 3-D printer in his work in biomedical research and regenerative medicine and credits open-source collaboration and the maker movement as important contributors to the success of his research.

TIMESQUARE watch class

2013-01-22T02:03:55+00:00

Have you ever wanted to wear an Arduino on your wrist and tell the time with a giant LED matrix? Then you’ll love this three hour class at NYC Resistor that I’ll be teaching on February 9th. During the class you can learn how to solder through-hole components as we put together the Adafruit Timesquare DIY watch kit, and afterwards we will extend the watch firmware to add a new feature to the watch.

This class is a great introduction to soldering and some advanced embedded programming techniques. The coin-cell powered Timesquare watch isn’t exactly a normal Arduino and is very CPU limited, so techniques for limiting power consumption, waking up from deep sleep with interrupt handlers, low voltage brownout detection and some inline AVR assembly will be discussed. If you just want to learn to solder and have a very stylish wristwatch, you don’t have to stay for the walkthrough of the firmware.

Included in the class price for every student is a pre-programmed Adafruit Timesquare watch kit and an FTDI cable for re-programming it (a $49 value). You’ll need to bring your own laptop with the Arduino IDE installed to flash new firmware onto the device if you are staying for the advanced portion of the class.

Click here to buy tickets at eventbrite!

Dublin Mini Makerfaire: Call for Makers

2013-01-21T20:02:28+00:00

The Dublin Mini Makerfaire is back this year in the grounds of TCD on the July 27th. They have just open their call for makers. We plan on submitting again this year. For those who don’t remember last year we have some great projects from the diverse groups within TOG. Check out the sideshow after the break for some cool photos of the TOG stand.

[Show as slideshow]

Upcoming Linux and Python intro courses

2013-01-21T17:18:05+00:00

We in 091 Labs are kicking off our 2013 classes with a bang! Starting next week are a series of 4 introductory classes in both Linux and Python. Due to the many requests we’ve received over the last year, we’re going to try an experiment with these. Attendees are given the option of choosing one [...]

Python and Linux class reschedule

2013-01-21T17:13:17+00:00

A suitably admonished Padraic is talking to you today. I had several people contact me since posting late last week about our upcoming Python and Linux classes, members of 091 Labs and non-members alike. The members pointed out to me that I had not left much time between making the classes public and the actual [...]

Ich kann mich tracken, also bin ich.

2013-01-21T13:43:51+00:00

Am 24.1.2013 findet der 2.Quantified Self Show and Tell Berlin in der c-base statt.

Schaut mal ins Programm und meldet euch an.

Tama-Go ROM Format

2013-01-21T04:23:24+00:00

I’ve been continuing to work out the format of the Tama-Go figure ROM. Using the figure simulation circuit I set up in my last post, and a digital logic analyzer, I’ve determined the purpose of most of the data in the figure ROM.

No one say ‘cross talk’ and maybe it won’t happen

I started by looking at the game functionality. It turns out that the functionality is fairly simple, and a very limited amount of the game logic is controlled by data fetched from the figure. The majority of data is images. Near the beginning of the ROM is a pointer table which contains the locations of images used by games, shops, items and other figure functionality. The location of this table is in turn controlled by another pointer at the head of the ROM. The Tama-Go fetches images by first fetching an image pointer from the table, and then fetching the image.

When “GAME” is selected, the Tama-Go starts fetching the needed images from the figure as they are displayed. Interestingly, they are fetched exactly when they are show, and are fetched multiple times if they are displayed multiple times. This suggests that the Tama-Go does not store the images fetched from the figure, but writes them directly to the LCD.

Only two pieces of data appear to affect the logic behavior of the game. The first are the “commands” at addresses 0×18 and 0×19 (note I’m using a Mametchi figure, this might differ for other figures). These appear to control what game logic the Tama-Go executes when the specific game is selected. It turns out that if these are altered, the Tama-Go can not only jump into different games, but any screen on the Tamagotchi, such as the meal screen, going to the park or taking a bath. If the back button (C) is pressed on any of these screens, the Tama-Go jumps back to the screen it would normally go back to after the current screen, not the figure screen. This suggests that essentially the Tamagotchi acts as a large switch statement or jump table, with no memory of where it has previously jumped to.

I went through some of the possible command values, and found that many of them caused the Tamagotchi to freeze up and require a reset. This is likely because the commands do not exist, or the device is not in the right state for them to work correctly. It might be possible to exploit one of these invalid commands to dump the code of the Tamagotchi, although the lack of debugging information would make it difficult.

Of course, these commands can be used to ‘cheat’ at Tamagotchi. The video below shows this functionality used to ‘evolve’ the Tamagotchi (make it get older).

There is also a series of bytes that gets read at the very end of the game. This seems to be related to how many points the Tamagotchi is awarded for playing the game. The Tama-Go appears to read more data the higher the game score is, so my guess is it’s some sort of cumulative algorithm for calculating the points awarded from the game score. Randomly tampering with these values caused my Tamagotchi to be awarded an extremely large number of points (which was useful in testing item functionality), but I’m still not clear how the values translate to points exactly.

83009250 points has got to be enough for any Tamagotchi

Next, I looked at the shop functionality of the figure. This was also quite simple. The entire store functionality appears to be in the Tama-Go’s internal ROM, and it just fetched the images. The only interesting value was the item price, which can be altered in the ROM. This would probably be more useful had I not just given my Tamagotchi infinite points.

Lastly, I tried using an item, and this was quite interesting. The Tama-Go fetches one byte of non-image data from the figure, from inside the expected segment before using an item, and then fetches more than 200 bytes of non-image data from near the end of the ROM (not the segment, the entire ROM) while the item is being used. This is so bizzare, I tested it several times to make sure it was actually what was happening, and I’m confident that it is.

What I suspect is happening is that the first byte is a command similar to the game commands, jumping to code that relies on both image data and other data from the figure, which it then fetches. I’m not sure what this “other data” is. It could be the location of the images on the screen, it could be audio data (items make sounds) or it could be some type of metadata related to the behavior of the item (for example, whether it gives points, or the probability of behaving a certain way for items that don’t do the same thing every time). As for why this information is at such a strange location, my only guess is that its used by all three characters in the figure, so it can’t be a part of any of their segments. But this is wild speculation.

A complete list of memory addresses I’ve identified is below:

Address Range (inclusive)	Comment
0×000001-0×000003	Test command (detects if figure is properly attached)
0×000011-0×000013	Another test command, detects the ‘segment’ controlled by the jumper
0×000013	Unknown, possibly version
0×000014	Figure ID
0×000015-0×000017	Unknown
0×000018-0×000019	Game commands
0×000020-000022	Pointer to background pointer (offset of 40 is added)
0×000050-0×000052	Walking sprite 1 pointer
0×000053-0×000055	Walking sprite 2 pointer
0×000056-0×000058	Happy sprite 1 pointer
0×000059-0x00005B	Side smile sprite pointer
0x00005c-0x00005f	Jumping for joy sprite pointer
0×000068-0x00006a	Jumping sprite pointer
0x00006e-0×000070	Side walk sprite 1 pointer
0×000071-0×000073	Side walk sprite 2 pointer
0x00008c-0x00008f	Startled sprite image pointer
0x00009e-0x0000a0	After travel background pointer
0x0000a4-0x0000a6	Travel image 1 pointer
0x0000a7-0x0000a9	Travel image 2 pointer
0x0000aa-0x0000ac	Ready image pointer
0x0000ad-0x0000af	Go image pointer
0x0000b6-0x0000b8	Hip hop game name pointer
0x0000b9-0x0000bb	Speed runner game name pointer
0x0000BC-0x0000C7	Store front pointers
0x0000CE-0x0000D0	Background image pointer
0x0000d1-0x0000d3	Background image open pointer
0x0000D4-0x000000eb	Hip hop image pointers
0x0000F5-0x00011d	Speed runner image pointers
0×000119-0x00011b	Pointer to large Speed Runner image
0x00011f-0×000127	Read as loading images for item (maybe logic)
0×000148-0×000170	Item prices (note probably a broader range)
0x0001a1-0x0001d4	Read at the end of Hip Hop game, appear to be related to scoring, but I’m not sure how. Appears to read farther the better you do. Corrupting them corrupts score display
0x00021d-0x00024c	Read at the end of speed runner
0x0002a2-0x0002db	Pointers to shop item images
0×000620- 0×000629	Pointers to fun box images
0x0011bf	Fun box beginning
0×001251-0x0012B6	Walking sprite 1 image
0x0012B7-0x00131C	Walking sprite 2 image
0x001A49-0x001AAE	Startled sprite image
0x00131d-0×001382	Happy sprite 1 image
0×001383-0x0013e8	Side smile sprite image
0x0013e9-0x00144e	Jumping for joy sprite image
0×001581-0x0015e6	Jumping sprite image
0x00164d-0x0016b6	Side walk sprite 1 image
0x0016b3-0x00171c	Side walk sprite 2 image
0x001cad-0x001e24	After travel background pointer
0x001f99-0x00210e	Travel image 1
0x00210f-0×002284	Travel image 2
0×002285-0x0023fa	Ready image
0x0023fb-0×002571	Go image
0x00285d-0x0028fa	Hip hop game name image
0x0028fb-0×002998	Speed runner game name image
0×002999-0x002b2d	Store front images
0x002BAA-0x002C14	Background image
0x002C15-0x002C7F	Background image open
0x002c80-0x002cf8	Hip hop images
0x002f6f-0x002fd3	Large speed runner image
0x002d8f-0x002fd5	Speed runner images
0×003058-0×003634	Item images
0×009052-0x0090bc	Fun box images
0×0022499-0x00226e5	Read while playing with fun box, not image data

And a list of game codes I’ve tried so far:

Code	Description
FF	A game with squares
FE	Coin game
FD	Dropping game (cradles)
FcC	“Sorry Nothing” screen
FB	Away screen (and egg hatching)
FA	Park
F0	Remodelling store
F9	Odd , piano, then aliens, then IR
F8	Ready screen, can escape
F7	Ready screen, no escape
F6	Park with Violetchi
F5	Long jump game (with everything!)
F4	Shoot the bug
F2/F3	Also pair of games
F1	Ready screen, can escape
EF	Crying, returns to game choice screen
EE	Contrast screen
ED	Sound screen
EC	Pause Tamagotchi
EB	Tamagotchi runs away
EA	Evolve!
E9	Bath
E8	Figure “See you next time” screen
E7	Figure “Welcome” screen
E6	Reset screen
E5	Book (friends, memory screen)
E4	IR screen
E3	Tama says no
E2	Discipline screen
E1	Game shop item figure screen
E0	Tama comes back in door
DF	Bath
DE	Meal / snack
DD	Stats
DC	Clock
DD	main screen
DA	escape free egg (hatched, so restart)
D9	reset, not lock (can change details)
D8	stuck (must reset)
D7/D6/D5	frozen
99	screen reverse
98	bottom icons light up (and stuck)
97	frozen

Earth is the Hackerspaces Planet

Intro to Arduino with Justin Corwin

88nine Lazzored!

Time Lapse Bot on Watch

Game evening

LVL1 Hosting Louisville’s Code for America Hackathon!

Engineers Week: Night of Ideas

Talks

Title: Technology and Inequality

Title: “You Spin Me Right Round” - The Future of Biomedical Diagnostics

Title: A Bridge Too Far or Very Close ?

Our First Make-Along: Felting!

ILUG AGM & Talks

Talks

Bucketworks Community Newsletter: When Short February's Done

Catch the full newsletter here

Top Stories

Bucketworks February Events

Community Events

Worth Supporting

Introduction to Arduino Workshop on Saturday, 9 March

ANTS! TREMBLE BEFORE YOUR NEW OVERLORDS!

Addressable LED Sphere

GaelHack 2013

Knitting Circle’s Next Meeting – Sat February 9th @ 4pm

Accepted to Maker Faire UK

Welding Workshop

3D Printer Meetup, Program Line-Up - 02/09/2013

Speakers Track 1100~1500 Eastern Time (UTC−05:00)

Breakout Workshops 1500-1800 Eastern Time (UTC−05:00)

Public Symposium on Privacy: Friday 8th February, NUIG, at 9.30am

Raspberry Pi Flavored Pd Patching Circle Sunday 2013-02-10

February Electric Car Club

BrownDogGadgets

Upcoming Workshop: Etch your own PCB, Saturday, March 16th.

Quadrocopter factory

Robot a Month for January: The Soft-Boiled Eggbot

Kwartzlab Radio Episode 1

UAV workshop

Water, Water…

Science Hack Day Dublin

Crash Cleanup!

CNC Router Video!

Hydroponics Update

Grand Opening Open House and Party

Saturday, February 16th

Open House: 11am till 5pm

Party: 7pm till late

2600 and come see the new Lab!

One Small Step: Open-Source Night

Upcoming Class: CryptoParty

Light up the night at our Light Night workshop!

Make Marvellous Machines on Tuesday, 12 February

Leathercraft Workshop on Saturday, 23 February

A Clockwork…Room Divider

Pandora Buildout Update

LEGOlamp

SuperSized Ant Farm

Preparations for Party tonight

We’re Back!

January Brewday

Two noisy classes coming up in February

BWCBWASP – c-base transmediale programme

NANOBOTS

LVL1′s UofL Rocketeers build missiles for fun

intro to Arduino: the modern duct tape

To Boldly Go Where Many Spaces Have Gone Before!

Build Out In-Progress Pictures

Project Introduction

Why I’m Registered to be an Organ Donor

TIMESQUARE watch class

Dublin Mini Makerfaire: Call for Makers

Upcoming Linux and Python intro courses

Python and Linux class reschedule

Ich kann mich tracken, also bin ich.

Tama-Go ROM Format

 Worth Supporting