Cut and Etch Your Own Designs with Our Laser Cutter is taking place at NYC Resistor on Sun, Feb 24. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
These classes fill up, reserve your spot now!
Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
Intro to Soldering Workshop: Make an LED Tile is taking place at NYC Resistor on Sun, Feb 17. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Soldering is one of the most important skills you’ll need for working with electronics. Come join us for an introductory through-hole soldering workshop. Soldering enables you to create sturdy connections between electrical components.
Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
After a heroic move-out effort by Lab members and volunteers, and a month of being a "virtual Lab" operating out of a storage locker, Loomio group, and pop-up event spaces (thanks, Bytes.co!) we're pleased to announce that Laboratory B once again has a space!
After considering several possibilities, our membership voted to move into a room on the second floor of 12-22 North Street in the Old North End. In addition to our new HQ space, where we'll be holding public hours, meetings, co-working sessions and small workshops, the lease also gives us access to a number of shared spaces we can use after business hours, including a dedicated electronics lab, a sizeable class/event space on the first floor, and basement storage.
Many things about the Lab will stay the same, but a sampling some of the changes the move offers that our members are excited about include:
We'll be spending the next few weeks moving in and setting up, and are planning to host a "Lab Warming Party" for our initial Thursday public hours on February 21 from 7-9pm. For more details, check the Facebook event, and, as always, keep an eye on our calendar for upcoming Lab B happenings!
The post Lab B Moves into New Digs at 12-22 North Street! appeared first on Laboratory B.
We’ll be hosting our second annual Yarn Swap / Destash Party on March 9th.
Whether you’re a new knitter in need of yarn, or a yarn hoarder looking to swap unused skeins, all are welcome. Knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers, if you do it with yarn we’d love to have you. Bring your stash to trade and share while enjoying good company and tea. We’ll pile all the yarn on the table and then it’s all free to a good home.
This event is open to the public and free of charge.
March 9th
1pm – 4pm
NYC Resistor
87 3rd Ave. in Brooklyn
PS: got partial skeins or leftovers that you want to rewind? We’ve got a swift & ball winder for you to use, too.
Good news for Starving Hacker tier members: you can now vote at PS1 member meetings for things like purchases, activities, or elections. On January 22nd, those with Full Member status approved the Vote for All Member Suffrage. All members can propose new votes.
If you’re ready to exercise your voting rights, there are upcoming opportunities at the meeting on Tuesday, January 29, 2019:
If you can’t make the meeting, you can vote by proxy in the email sent to members on 1/24. You can also simply “abstain” on your ballot. This allows us to reach quorum – which is the minimum number of people required for a vote to be decided – without you having to decide yes or no on the proposal.
If you have questions- there’s a Voting FAQ thread on the Google Groups.
Happy voting!
“Nottingham Hackspace, or Nottinghack, has starred in the background of numerous Computerphile videos, but what is a hack-space? We asked ‘Fire-pong’ and ‘Laser-cut Pipe Organ’ maker & Nottinghack Trustee Ian Dickinson for a tour.”
The Nottingham Hackspace AGM will be held on Thursday 24 January (TODAY!), starting at 7:30 pm. It will be in the Hackspace Classroom (down in 2.5).
It is extremely important that we reach quorate for this meeting.
Quorate is 130 members. If you cannot attend, please choose a proxy voter from this page: https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/2019-01-24_AGM_Proxy_Votes
It is absolutely vital for the survival of the space that members attend.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you or your proxy at the meeting.
Kind regards,
Nottingham Hackspace Trustees
A workshop with Martin Raynsford
With kind permission from the trustees and generous assistance from Ian Dickinson, I would love to come to Nottingham and put on a workshop making my Strandbeest walking robots as seen in this video.
The kit contains everything you need to build a wind powered strandbeest walker, with additional components to motorise the design and control it from your mobile device. The kit generally takes about 2 hours to assemble but if you’re already competent at soldering that will easily be less. The boards come pre programmed but I’m happy to stay after and help people set up their arduino environment if they want to play with the software.
The date is provisionally set for the 24th of February at 10am, the price will be £25. Booking is not essential but I need positive confirmation from a few attendees to ensure it actually happens. Contact MSRaynsford@gmail.com to book a space.
More information about the kit can be found here.
The kit itself includes a wemos D1 which uses the ESP8266 so it’s a great introduction to that wifi module. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the space so I look forward to seeing some of you again in February.
Martin
Intro to Arduino: Sensors and Input/Output is taking place at NYC Resistor on Sun, Jan 27. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Want to get started with physical computing?
Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
Laser Cutting: Cut and Etch Your Own Designs with Our Laser Cutter is taking place at NYC Resistor on Sat, Jan 26. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
These classes fill up, reserve your spot now!
Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
James Fowkes and Ian Dickinson are planning to re-run the popular Introduction to Arduino Workshop on Sat 2nd March 2019 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at Nottingham Hackspace.
This is a great way to get started with the Arduino and requires no previous knowledge of electronics or software. You will start by getting a LED to flash (the beginning of all great electronics projects), and progress to adding switch inputs, controlling a motor and reading analogue sensors.
Cost for the workshop is £25 with all money (less Eventbrite fees) going to the hackspace.
Arduino starter kits will be provided for use at the workshop. We will also have starter kits (£35) and Arduino Unos (£18) available for sale.
To book, please visit: http://hsnottsarduino19.eventbrite.co.uk
This workshop is limited to 15 places, but as this event often sells out, early booking is advised.
Feedback from a recent attendee: “Attended recent workshop, it really is very professionally run! The trainers inspirational and empathetic to slower learners, supporting material is well organised relevant to the workshop, reasonably paced. The logistics flawless all students had what we needed on a desk when the class started and at each section as we advanced through the projects, Congrats to everyone involved.”
Update: great event! A recording is available here.
All are encouraged to attend the candidate Q&A at PS1 on Tuesday, January 8, 8:15PM. Come for the pizza, stay for the democracy!
But if you can’t make it in person, we will be broadcasting it live in amazing 360° pano-vision. The easiest way to participate is to bookmark this page and click the video below to join in:
For a more immersive experience that includes chat, reaction emojis, and 360° panning, head over to the Facebook website. And don’t forget that you can participate directly in the candidate Q&A even if you are remote.
The live stream will be recorded and made available for viewing after the event.
Photo by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
CryptoParty returns to NYC Resistor on February 2nd, 2019 for a full day of learning about your digital defense in the age of mass surveillance from Fort Meade and Madison Ave. Stop by anytime between 3PM and 9PM and enjoy snacks and skills from a variety of online security practitioners and researchers. We’re hosting a full day mix of and hands-on-help with everything from vetting a good VPN to navigating Signal and more!
If you’ve never been to Resistor before, check our Participate page for more info, including the Code of Conduct. Hope to see you there! If you’ve never been to a CryptoParty before, please check out the CryptoParty Guiding Principles.
BONUS: If you happen to already use PGP, dust off that encryption key and come down for a key-signing ceremony to add some signatures to your public key. Gotta catch them all, etc etc. Time TBA.
When:
Saturday, February 2nd, 2019 3:00PM – 9:00PM.
Where:
NYC Resistor (between Bergen and Dean)
87 3rd Ave. Floor 4 (use this OSM link if you’re Richard Stallman)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
I just had my second visit to Revelation Space, a hackerspace in Den Haag, Netherlands, and this time — I took pictures. This place is seriously tidy and organized, and is full of slick automations. There’s so much inspiration I had to write it all down.
Label All the Things!
At some point Revspace hit upon the same realization that we did: it’s better to just bite the bullet and buy a full standardized set of sturdy shelving and compatible bins than to hack together a storage solution with whatever free and cheap bins you find floating around. It’s no fun trying to get parts out of drawer that won’t open because the plastic tower it’s in is so laden down with stuff that the drawer can’t open anymore.
And, omg, they label EVERYTHING. This is awesome, though, because I think a lot of newbie energy is wasted when people want to help clean up but don’t yet know where things go.
The policy at Revspace is that when you’re done you clean up 110% of your space. And seeing completely bare tables when I first arrived early in the day convinces me that they actually do it. And they have arranged things to facilitate it — of course with the great shelving and labeling, but also with cleaning supplies out front and easy to get to. They even have a washing machine for washing shop towels to cut down on paper towel use. (You can see the bins for clean and dirty rags on the shelf.)
I’m really taking inspiration from their soldering station storage solution, and I’m ready to go replace the falling-apart cardboard boxes that are holding our soldering irons at Resistor. They’ve gone the extra step and include everything you need — including desoldering tools, a roll of solder, helping hands, and even a silicone baking mat from Ikea to solder on so you don’t burn the table. And of course, each box is thoroughly labeled.
I should also mention, that box is sitting on their surface mount soldering station, which was spotless, of course (except for my coffee cup, oops).
Do people not use you space’s wiki? Do they also not know how to deal with common problems around the space? Here’s a way to kill two birds with one stone: post QR codes that take you right to relevant page in the wiki. The ones in the photo tell you what to do when the bins are full.
Chore Management
Speaking of taking out the trash, here is their solution for dealing with the random chores that need to get done in any space that no one wants to do, or that people feel they don’t get recognition when they do do them so why bother?
They have a simple sign-up sheet on the fridge. Folks can sign up ahead of time to do a chore, and when it’s done it gets signed-off on and they get paid with a deposit into their RevBank account (more on that in a bit). Here sweeping up or vaccuuming gets you 10 euros, taking out the trash 5 euros, and mopping 25 euros.
Hackerspace Banking
Banking in the Netherlands does correspond to Dutch stereotypes — which is a great thing. You can always split a check in a restaurant and they have some slick mobile apps to keep track of who paid for what during trips and outings that also provide ways for everyone to be reimbursed easily. So it’s no surprise to learn that a Dutch hackerspace has developed their own accounting and funds transfer system to help members pay and get paid. And that would be RevBank.
The public-facing part of RevBank is a terminal sitting right next to the fridge and the snacks, with a barcode scanner attached so you can scan your item, then scan or type your name, and you’re done. The source is here. It’s written in .. uhm, perl. Have fun with that.
I gave it a whirl while I was there, and was able to top up my account with a bank transfer (this statement makes sense in Europe — you can also do cash instead). And then I used it to pay for all my snacks that day. Worked great, quite efficient.
Everything is on MQTT and I Love It
Around the space they have several things under automation, including the sound system, door locks, laser log, a flipdot display (!), and they also have several sensors. I made a dashboard for Resistor with the dashboard modules in Node Red, but I like the look of their’s, which is in Grafana, so I’m looking forward to playing with that.
MQTT is a simple publish/subscribe protocol that makes it easy to get a scattered herd of wifi-enabled devices all talking to each other. It’s a delightfully simple protocol, I kind of love it, but it really deserves it’s own post, so check back for a future post on how we integrate it into our own automations at Resistor.
They’ve automated their door locks and have iButton key fobs. Of course there’s also code. They look really cool, but I don’t think we’ll be switching away from our Brooklyn-standard vertical deadbolt anytime soon.
Family Meals
And finally, they have a huge kitchen and they actually cook evening meals in it. There’s a “nomz” button that sounds an alert and updates the flipdot display in the main room when dinner is ready. And you know you’re still in a hackerspace because there’s a wall of maté in there.
So, if you get a chance, and you find yourself in the Hague, do go check out Revelation Space. They’re very welcoming, and they definitely have it together. Did I mention they label everything?
January Make-Along: Crochet 101 Makin’ Monsters! is taking place at NYC Resistor on Sun, Jan 20. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
This is not your typical craft class. Make-Along is a self-guided craft workshop where participants learn new skills, explore new materials, and make great things!
Get your tickets on Eventbrite.
I used historical payment records to analyze member growth and member churn, the rates at which people join and leave the organization. The data set also allows analysis of how these rates differ by gender.
New members joined PS1 at a remarkably consistent rate on an absolute basis between 2015 and 2018. On average, 25 new members join per month: 20 men and 5 women. On a percentage basis, this represents a declining growth rate, despite the fact that PS1 dues continue to fall in real terms, and the space doubled in size and added new equipment during this period.
25 new members might seem like significant growth, but members leave at a similar rate. Net growth averages 1.0% per month. Net growth of female members was actually negative every month between July 2017 through March 2018.
Churn, the rate at which people leave PS1, has varied over time. For male members, the churn rate has dropped steadily from 9.6% per month to 5.0% per month. For female members, churn rate has been as high as 12.3% per month, and was 8.5% per month in early 2018.
Cohort analysis provides a behavioral lens on the data. In their first six months of membership, female members churn at an average rate of 11.5% per month, compared to an average rate of 7.5% for male members. 45.9% of women leave PS1 within six months. 33.7% of men leave PS1 within six months. Overall, 55.6% of new members leave within the first year.
The “age” of a member refers to the duration of their membership. For example, a “two-year-old” member joined two years ago. In growing organizations, average member age is often flat or even declining over time, as new members join and older members leave. At PS1, member age has climbed steadily, a reflection of moderate growth and churn that is concentrated in new members.
There are at least two ways to view the high churn rate among new members. The first is that this reflects a natural sorting process as people discover whether there is a good fit between their interests and what PS1 offers. Perhaps PS1 is like a gym membership for many: an aspirational purchase that they don’t end up using.
Alternatively, perhaps PS1 is failing its new members. Anecdotally, many have noted the difficulty of navigating PS1’s authorization processes, rules, and cultural practices. Some might find the hurdles too high to clear.
These explanations aren’t mutually exclusive, or exhaustive. Almost certainly they are both at least partly true. The gender disparity in growth and churn, however, suggests that the hurdles are higher for some groups than others.
Less ambiguous are the implications of a high churn rate for PS1’s finances. The space’s sole source of funding is member dues. A high churn rate makes growth difficult; adds additional administrative overhead and demand for authorizations; and raises the risk that the low net growth rate could tip negative with small changes in underlying trends.
See a more detailed analysis and discussion the methodology here.
Hello, everyone!
Here is an overview of what is incoming for the Art Area in 2019. I expect to have everything in place hopefully before the end of January to early February. Thank you to everyone that responded to the annual usage and needs survey.
Color printing! This has been a while in the making. Many t-shirt printing systems I have looked into had no actual third party reviews, usually are dedicated units of questionable functionality, lack any information on ink permanence and are super over-priced. The ‘direct to garment’ units look super shady. After looking at option after option for years, I am going with an easy solution. We have a mid-range Konica Minolta CMYK color laser printer coming. We will be able to affordably refill its toner thanks to member Latrice Dixon; she tipped me off to inkowl.com and their great deals. Transfer films for printing color will be available to use with a heat press. If you want to make MAD amount of t-shirts, Neenah Paper Techni heat press transfer paper films for laser printers films are as low as $31 for 50 films on Amazon. This brand has two types for light or dark color t-shirts. Members interested in zines and self publishing will be happy to know this unit accepts a pretty wide range of paper weights and finishes. Printing patterns and instructions will be easier. Manufacturers do not claim full-bleed (edge to edge) page printing in the specs that often as OS, software and users are all a factor: so I am not sure if we can manage full-bleed printing on this unit until we have time to check it out. Konica Minolta has an overall good reputation with the graphic design community for out-performing HP or Lexmark similarly priced printers.
The prior gravity feed system gets air bubbles and the flow is poor. Members got some use but it under-performed. This gravity feed system has been replaced with a refillable cartridge system for the Artisan 1430 printer. Dye sublimation works for transfer sheets to put images on synthetic fabrics, glass and metal projects. Make your auntie that cat pillow for 2019. =^-^=
Please wash paintbrushes you use with soap and water and heckin put them back. If you are using an oil-based media, please use a proper solvent and then wash brushes with soap and water. More brush soap has been ordered. Also, it is bad to leave brushes sitting bristles down in liquid; they warp. (I have a set of watercolor brushes that I have been consistently using for 28 years.) Brushes are not a single-use item. Do your part. Be kind to the brushes. A clean brush is a happy brush!
This is a smaller 9×12″ unit but may be easier and safer for members to use as you can keep the heat element away from your hands. If you think a clamshell heat press is kind of scary, this new one is kinder and gentler.
Heavy weight fitness center rubber mats are going under the Singer 20U industrial machine and the work bench that has the heat presses. Hopefully this will muffle any whomping and hammering sounds that carry through the floor to CNC below. Thanks to Ray Doeksen for advising me that this was happening.
Two new LED daylight tabletop task laps are coming and the overhead daylight light bulb tubes are getting replaced. LED lighting for the printmaking bench will replace the old halogen lamp.
You LOVE LOVE LOVE button making! You literally wore out the small button press; the plastic slider warped. This budget unit has been replaced with an all-steel pro model. We have a 1.25″ and 2.25″ button making presses and new pro circle cutters for each. IF you want to make insane amounts of buttons, I can refer you to sources to buy parts; Amazon also has vendors for button making parts.
Leather working tools are replaced. Please return any leather crafting hand tools when you are done using them and do not take them home. I have needed to replace every single item this year. Share the tools, please!
New and not frayed. Please do not remove these from the Art Area. If people need to plug in a piece of equipment at a particular table, I want them to easily be able to grab an extension cord or reach a power strip. Do not take them down to the other shops as they will get dirty.
A new electronic Brother CE8100 with automated button holes is here, replacing the prior Husqvarna machine. The Brother has many more stitch styles. There is also a pro bobbin winder for the Singer 20U that I just have to install. Also, on the white book shelf is a small tin box with these new plastic fabric clips to use instead of pokey pins. These are helpful for delicate fabrics you do not want to put holes in or thick fabrics like fleece that are not easily pinned. Less stabbing, more sewing!
Lemon disinfectant wipes, Simple Green and window cleaner are in stock; see the drawer under the black and white printer. There are dusting cloths. I also discovered and ordered a mega box of paper towels to help with spills and stuff that gets on tables. Please do not leave your projects laying around and do not stash your project materials in nooks around the space.
The old photography light tents tore and the frames broke, the tripod lamps wore out or broke when they tipped over. The new units are hard bodied boxes that collapse easily, so you do not have to be an origami master to put them away. The new light boxes fold out, snap into place, and have LED lighting built into the photo box itself. A 12″ and 20″ light box with sweeps are incoming. Heavy weight colored artist drawing papers make better background sweeps if you want a particular color. Document your projects for blogs or portfolios, get product images for online sales, or make weird 3D clay animations. The potential is huge.
Adobe Creative Cloud is on both PCs for you to use; both the Artastic PC and the one with the Wacon Cintiq HD22 pen tablet.
Partner with me for planning and the art area can fund needed materials. If there is money and enough interest, let’s get some classes running. I have ideas for zero cost / free classes for 2019 which will be easiest to run in the summer when school is out.
As always, touch base with me in open office hours or by email if there is anything I can help you with or if you feel there is a need that could be met. Please help by putting hand tools away in their labelled storage containers; which has been going very well so keep it up. If anything is broken or not working properly, please put a sign on that piece of equipment and email me right away.
All the best to everyone being creating and making stuff for 2019!
After several years in residence on the top floor of the Soda Plant on Pine Street, Laboratory B has officially left the building as of 1/1/2019. Many thanks to the members who put in lots of hours, leg, and back-work over the past month to prep to space for our move, and also great appreciation to the friends of the Lab who showed up on the 30th to help with the big move day!
The move has been a great opportunity to assess and discard a good deal of superfluous stuff, while our core materials are safely ensconced in a Champlain Housing Trust storage locker, ready to be deployed at our next space....
We’re already in talks with a few possible new sites for the Lab, but are being deliberate about the process so we can land on the best spot for our community’s needs. We’re in search of a space with a maximum all-inclusive cost of $700/month; it can have shared spaces, be a sublet arrangement, etc., but needs at least one room that Lab members will have exclusive access to. So, if you have a lead for the next venue for Burlington’s member-run and -governed hackerspace, please get in touch by shooting an email to info@laboratoryb.org!
In the meantime, Lab-sponsored events will be popping up in various locations around town, and we’ll be using the spare capacity derived from not having weekly public hours to do some internal work to position us for success in our 5th (!) location since the Lab was founded in 2009. If you want to keep in the loop, follow our shared calendar and Facebook page, where events and announcements will be posted, and we'll post to this blog when your new space is finalized.
Happy New Year, and we look forward to sharing the next iteration of Laboratory B with the Burlington community in the coming months!
The post Lab B Seeks New Space for 2019 and Beyond appeared first on Laboratory B.
[See further details on the wiki]
Message from the trustees
Dear Member,
Recently we have been discussing within the teams and membership that a number of large jobs have been on the list for a considerable amount of time. The Trustees along with the teams have decided that we have enough jobs now to run a “hack the space” weekend. The purpose of this would be shutting the space during this time where no members other than volunteers of this weekend will be permitted to use the space. This will cover both upstairs and downstairs, the following jobs are currently in the plan.
Replacement of studio floor
Redesigning the Large Project Storage Area
Reorganise comfy area including rewiring of speakers
Checklist of tools and PAT testing
Electrics within the workshop (replacing lights) etc
2.5 jobs TBC
The Trustees request that all teams please keep thinking on what else needs completing and a wiki page will be set up so members can see the job list, place their names against the jobs and the times they can volunteer their time.
Our proposed shutdown will be on 18:00 on Friday 8th February till 18:00 Sunday 10th February.
As you are aware the Trustees are also taking a break for Christmas so I remind members that it make take some time to get any questions answered during this time. I will be taking point on this project and making sure that we have enough people to do the jobs along with materials ordering and liaising with Teams to make sure everyone can have a great day and take part.
If you have any questions you can email the trustees or myself directly. [addresses in Google Group post]
I look forward to posting more information in the near future.
Regards,
James Adams On behalf of the Trustees
[See Google Groups post and details on the wiki]
And all through the hackerspace, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
No Craft Night on 12/24. Happy Holidays!
We have a full slate of candidates for the PS1 board this year, as well as a consequential upcoming vote on the new bylaws. Here is a timeline of election events as well as a details on the current set of nominations and candidate platforms.
Candidate Q&A
Tuesday, January 8, 8PM: Candidates are invited to attend the regularly scheduled member meeting and deliver a short presentation on why they are running and what they hope to accomplish as board members. The event will include a Q&A. We also broadcast the event live via Facebook.
Election day mixer
Tuesday, January 15, 6PM: come early on the official voting day for a catered mixer. In addition to food and drinks, we will be hosting an outside delegation from Korea who are interested in learning more about the U.S. maker community.
Vote
Tuesday, January 15, 8PM: the in-person vote will take place during the regularly scheduled member meeting. People will also be able to cast votes by proxy in advance.
These are the candidates as of December 19. This post will be updated over time, and you can also check out the election wiki page for the latest information.
I am running for Vice President because I am passionate about making and it’s ability to empower people and create community. I’ve collaborated with the Board on multiple projects this year including leading the design and implementation of Tormach authorization (launching in January 2019), assisting with designing and collating data from the first-ever PS1 Membership survey, being a part of the Planning Working Group, and assisting with documentation for Wild Apricot Member Management migration.
My primary goals, if elected, would be: (1) to improve internal communications allowing for more seamless community engagement and a more graduated volunteer structure that reduces burnout and impromptu power consolidation. I think this would allow for more consistent maintenance and improvement of PS1 in a variety of ways including but not limited to cleanliness, courtesy, and enforcement of rules to improve fairness. (2) I want to focus on active listening that encourages input from more members, helping to facilitate increased communal collaboration and ownership of PS1. I’ve already started working toward many of these goals as mentioned above and I would be even more effective if elected in an official capacity to support the operation of PS1. I hope to see you at the Pre-Election Q&A Event on January 8th!
The majority of the work I do at PS:1 is to benefit the space, and id be happy to continue that as Vice President. I believe Jennie and Andrew have set a wonderful example for the positions and I hope to follow in their footsteps. I have also strived, since I became comfortable in the space, to be an ambassador for the space to new members and potential members, and I believe that that is an important goal for board members to have as well.
Brian has done a wonderful job recording our accounting processes, and I would like to continue in his footsteps with that, as well as finding external entities to manage as much of our treasury processes as possible in the hopes of easing the tension and danger involved in future Board turnover.
It’s been tough going but we’ve already made a lot of progress in fixing systems up and increasing reliability. I believe we’ve only had two major outages this year, and both of them did not have a particularly large or immediate impact. The Wild Apricot migration has been difficult, but we are nearly at the turning point and I believe we can finally and fully switch over before the end of the year. Keep an eye out for updates on this!
I have a decade in advertising agencies and broadcast production as a designer, producer, technical & art director for national brands, winning awards and shaping brand voices… and while I have healed from that, I am positive I can amplify what we do across mediums.
I use our space to create things both for myself and for my small business (Workshop-25), so I am there quite often. As Director-at-Large in 2019 I want to focus on improving cleanliness at PS1. I have a wide range of experience in committees and clubs; most recently I was the Membership Coordinator of my graduate school’s Professional Bridge Networking Program, and the Vice President and then President of my school’s STEM club before that. Like many of the members who answered our recent survey, I feel that the space is too dirty & disorganized and that this inhibits one of the primary missions of PS1: allowing people to create. I believe that by working together as a community to institute my “Culture of Cleanliness” initiative we will have a cleaner, better working PS1.
I would be honored to serve as Director-At-Large for the 2019 Board of Directors. This past year, I worked closely with several other members to develop the training & authorization process for the Tormach, and will continue serving as authorizer going forward. I am eager to contribute to maintaining and improving the amazing community and unique resources PS1 provides in whatever ways I can, but I feel my biggest contribution may come by way of education. In addition to working on the Tormach project, I have also served previously on the board of directors of an ACM SIGGRAPH chapter, including two years as president. As such, I have a lot of experience teaching technical content to students of all ages and skill levels. PS1 offers numerous learning opportunities to its members including authorizations, workshops, events, and social interactions with other makers. However, there are ways all of those things could be improved and, starting with this new year, I would like to focus on doing so. Thank you for your consideration.
I’ve been involved with PS1 from the beginning, not as a founder, but just around to help out now and then. I have seen PS1 grow from a struggle to survive to the fairly stable organization we have today.
I have served on the board before, speaking up when I was concerned, and (believe it or not) keeping quiet once my concern had been heard. I did not always vote for the winning position, but that’s OK PS1 did OK anyway.
As a Director-at-Large my ambition is to simply support the rest of the board as we keep PS1 running smoothly for another year.
As a member, I will keep running Python Office Hours every other Wednesday. I want the new by-laws in place asap. I want to get rid of the donation boxes scattered about, update the “Who to Call” page that is taped next to the front door, and I’ll take out the trash now and then.
In August, PS1 conducted its first-ever member survey to better find out who we are, how we use the space, and what improvements we would most like to see. 190 people responded. The results are available here.
Some highlights:
The full report contains a detailed breakdown of all the survey data, complete with pretty charts and fancy tables. Please read and discuss.
As you may be aware, we were unable to conduct the AGM in November as planned as unfortunately we had insufficient members represented either in person or by proxy to be quorate. Our constitution requires 20% of the membership to be represented at the AGM. As a result of this we need to re-run the meeting.
The date for the Nottingham Hackspace Annual General Meeting (AGM) re-run is Thursday, 24 January 2019. It will be held in the Hackspace Classroom (downstairs). Doors will open at 7.30pm and the meeting will begin promptly at 8:00pm.
If you’re a member of Nottingham Hackspace, you need to attend in person or allocate a proxy to represent you at the meeting. We have a number of special resolutions we need you to vote on.
If you can’t make the AGM in person, you can make a proxy vote, whereby another member will attend and submit vote(s) on your behalf. If you’d like to register as a proxy voter, or alternatively if you are able to attend and would like to volunteer as a proxy, please add your name to the wiki list at: https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/2019-01-24_AGM_Proxy_Votes
For the AGM to happen we need 130 members represented. This is the required quorum as per our constitution. As per section 1.129 of our Articles of Association, if we do not have a total of 130 members (present and proxy voters) then we will not be able to conduct any business and will have to rearrange the AGM for another time.
The agenda for the AGM will be as per the 23 November meeting and is available here: https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/2019-01-24_AGM_Agenda
Thank you for being a Hackspace member this past year, and we look forward to seeing you or your proxy at the meeting.
Kind regards,
Nottingham Hackspace Trustees
NERP (Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi) is PS1’s embedded programming interest group. At a special NERP on December 17, Kattni Rembor will be giving a workshop on Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express board running CircuitPython. This is a paid event.
That’s right — the next NERP is not free and open to the public! There’s a first time for everything! Registration details here.
Kattni Rembor is an embedded software developer, technical writer, and community leader with Adafruit Industries. She joined Adafruit as a member of the CircuitPython team, and has written the definitive Getting Started guide, the library designed to make CircuitPython simple to use on Adafruit’s premier learning board, as well as many project guides and tutorials. She has helped build the amazing, supportive online community around CircuitPython and a wide variety of other open source topics.
Find Kattni on Twitter or Discord.
CircuitPython is Python that runs on microcontrollers. It is designed for learning and if you are new to programming or electronics, CircuitPython can help you get started with both. All you need to do is plug in a microcontroller board and start writing code.
Participants will be given a Circuit Playground Express microcontroller board to use. This beginner-friendly workshop will introduce CircuitPython and cover the basics. Then we will get into working with code. There will be a series of examples that use the various sensors, lights and switches built into the Circuit Playground Express board. We will start simply, and we will build on the concepts learned, combining them as we go to eventually build a light-up, capacitive touch tone piano.
Doors open at 6:30pm. NERP is usually free and open to the public, although this event is paid and requires registration.
For those who are interested, there will be the opportunity to stay after the break for further exploration.
Requirements
We will be using Mu as our code editor. Mu is an editor that has the serial REPL and a plotter built in, and makes getting started with CircuitPython particularly easy.
Participants must bring a laptop (ideally running Windows 10, Mac OSX, or a recent version of x86 Linux) and a compatible USB Micro cable (e.g., USB-C to USB Micro if you have a newer Mac). Be sure that your USB Micro cable includes data transfer capabilities, and is not charge-only as it will not work if it is charge only.
PS1 will be holding annual board elections on January 15, 2019. Board elections affect everyone in the organization, whether you are a voting member or not, and you can participate in all sorts of ways: running for a seat, voting in the election, or simply asking candidates questions about the issues you care about.
If you are interested in shaping the future of the organization, please do consider running for a board seat. The only requirement is that you have to be a member in good standing for the six months leading up to the election. New members are absolutely eligible for the board and encouraged to run.
You might be used to thinking of board members as remote god-like beings who bestride the earth like a colossus. And that’s because we absolutely are. The point is that you too can be one of those god-like beings, doing all that bestriding.
If you are interested in learning more about what the board does, please attend a board meeting. We have board meetings on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 7pm, and they are always open to the public. Or reach out to a board member directly.
The board (presently) has eight positions:
You can learn more about what each position entails, and who the present board members are, here.
PS1 is hosting its first-ever holiday craft fair. Come by this Sunday, December 2 from 11:30 – 2pm to peruse a selection of handcrafted…crafts made by your talented peers. This will be a more interesting and unusual selection of holiday gifts than your standard fair, so please stop by.
Schurz High School, located just down the street from us on Addison & Milwaukee, is hoping to boost involvement in their FIRST Robotics Team (FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). And they need your help!
WHO? Experts who want to mentor amazing teens in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, coding, robotics
WHAT? FIRST was founded over 25 years ago by inventor Dean Kamen. First teaches skills to kids from age 6 to 18. Learn more here.
WHEN? Tuesdays from 3 – 6 pm (or any amount of time during that block you can commit).
WHY? Because children are the future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.
Show them all the beauty they possess inside. But really because you get to help design and keep a rad robot-bulldog t-shirt. Plus, robots.
Schurz is a neighborhood school with no entry requirements whose student body is 95% low-income youth. It is the site of Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire, where PS1 has a regular presence.
Interested? Contact Christina at CNSmakerfaire@gmail.com.
When PS1 got the Tormach 1100, our single biggest investment in a tool, we were determined to do it right. Not just the installation, but also creating an educational path that went far beyond a standard authorization.
PS1 has just launched its first two provisional authorization sessions. Students were selected who had already attained the prerequisite authorizations. To get authorized on the Tormach, you first need to get authorized on:
You should also be proficient in CAM before getting authorized on the Tormach.
Assuming you have all that stuff on lock, getting authorized on the Tormach is as easy as 1-2-3:
In addition to the authorization path, there are lot of ways to get more familiar with the Tormach and its amazing powers.
Fusion360 Meet-Ups: Andrew Camardella hosts biweekly Fusion360 meet-ups to spruce up your CAD & CAM skills. All skill levels welcome. Check the events page.
Tormach user Meet-Ups: Starting this winter, will be having public Tormach user group meetings to discuss tooling, projects, machine optimization and other related topics.
Tormach wiki page: Stay up to date with Tormach resources at PS1 on our wiki page.
Tormach Slack Group: Join our slack group #Tormach_User_Group at pumpingstationone.slack.org to talk with other PS1 Tormach users about all things Tormach.
This educational program was designed by Alisha Ciardi, along with:
The Danger Committee
Education Team
Current Authorizers
The post Wondering how to get authorized on the Tormach? Here’s how appeared first on Pumping Station: One.
I’m Mark, the new kitchen area host, and I’m trying to bring all the benefits of VR/AR/MR to disciplines across Pumping Station: One. Below’s an example of how I’m using it for food design.
You are welcome to come talk to me about incorporating experience-creation tools for food purposes during kitchen office hours Saturday 10am to 12pm, but I’m also interested in enabling you to use these for your own projects. Sundays from 12pm – 3pm we’ve been having “Let’s Make VR” upstairs in electronics. The current project is trying to capture our space in a demo that can be shared with the outside world using VR, helping members capture and display their projects in virtual spaces using photogrammetry and 3D scanning, and recording 360 training to be used in the app.
If you’re an area host and you’d like some training recorded, reach out to me to schedule a time. If you want to use our tools to recreate and capture experiences, see how your furniture is going to look in your living room before making it- or send it to a friend and let them check it out with AR tools, come to one of the above events and let’s talk about it. More members are getting familiar with the tools & we’ll be posting tutorials to Canvas soon.
The post Bringing VR/AR tools to PS1 appeared first on Pumping Station: One.
Welding the tap to the shaft
Drilling the bore of the side
Using the slide hammer to remove the dowels
A quick raid of the metal stock found a small steel cylinder that had already been drilled through to around 6mm. However we needed a 12mm hole and this is where we hit another problem, the biggest drill bit we could locate was 10mm. Undeterred we embiggened the hole to 10mm on the 3-in-1 lathe. And then finally using a 12mm end mill the hole was taken to the correct diameter.
The removed dowel
Our slide hammer was now complete, so back to the Colchester it was. Tap end well inserted only a few hits were needed and the dowels were free. The bracket, shafts, and apron could then be removed
The slide hammer competed
Creation of the slide hammer was fairly straight forward and was made even easier with the two of us working together, Josh on the Welder, me on the 3-in-1 lathe. However, with a little more planning we might not have ended up needing to fabricate this tool. But it was a bit of fun to do and is a tool that will live with the Colchester in case we need to remove the shafts again which I hope we don’t.
This side hammer is awesome
The post Member Project: Slide Hammer appeared first on Swindon Makerspace.
Head on over to PS1 this Saturday, October 27, for Halloween good times from 6pm til midnight.
Will there be door prizes? Yes, there will be door prizes!
Will there be adult food and adult beverages? Yes, there will be plenty of both!
Will there be costume contests? Of course there will be costume contests!
Plus music! Games! 300 seconds of spooky!
Don’t have a costume? There will be supplies on hand so you can make your own costume!
Q: Can I bring a guest who is a non-member?
A: Yes! Yes! Yes! All are welcome to PS1’s Halloween spooktacular!
The post Halloween party this Saturday appeared first on Pumping Station: One.
Come join us in our Celebration!
We’re also doing a collaborative build with We The Builders this night. You can come help us assemble the 9 foot tall sculpture designed by George Hart. It’s made of 193 3D printed pieces that were crowd-sourced from all over the world, plus 416 wooden dowel rods. It was assembled and disassembled once before at a conference, but Baltimore is now its home, so let’s welcome it with a group build. The part starts at 7, and the build starts around 8:00.
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Baltimore Node
2106 N Lovegrove Street Baltimore, MD
4 Makers Attending
Hey makers, hackers, and friends! The Node turned 9 this past summer and we’re having a party! Come by our regular Open Hack on Thursday November 1st to help us celebrate. We’ll have some food, but feel free to bring a dish. We’re also doing a collaborative build with We The Builders this night. You can come help us assemble the 9 foot tall sculptu…
For up to date news and information on events, subscribe to our Facebook Page or Twitter Feed. You can also check out our events calendar below.
Ever wondered exactly what those black helicopters are up to? Thanks to a federal law called the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), you can find out!
At the FOIA party, we'll get together, brainstorm ideas, teach the basics, and discuss techniques for getting the information you're after. Bring your most burning government questions (local, state, or federal), and we'll make sure everyone leaves with at least one request under their belt.
The "Intro to FOIA" presentation by Brian Waters will start at 7:15 and run approximately 30 minutes, including Q&A.
Following the presentation, there will be a workshop session in which attendees will file their first FOIA requests, so, if you are interested in doing so, bring along a laptop!
The post 9/27, 7pm – FOIA Party at the Lab! appeared first on Laboratory B.
I have a Honda Grom and like any good motorcyclist I take pride in modifying my bike. This modification involves replacing the standard steel swingarm with a Tyga aluminium over braced item. This is a straight swap however I wasn’t happy with the new arm as it had like the OEM arm rubber bushing at the pivot instead of roller bearings that I would expect.
Bought replacement Swingarm
The problem here was that despite my best googlefu and the help of a local bearing suppliers I couldn’t locate a set of roller bearings at the correct size that being 12mm ID and 24mm OD by 42mm length. So having already removed the rubber bushing I decided the best solution here would be to turn some bronze bushing to size to remove the flex of the rubber bushes.
So I ordered some oilite bronze stock and headed to the 3-in-1 lathe. Checking my feeds and speeds I turned the rpms down on the lathe and set about turning the outside of the stock down to fit. With that set it was time to drill the internal diameter to 16mm to fit a pair of needle roller bearing internal sleeves.
Bronze stock on the 3-in-1 Lathe
And this is where I made a mistake. Drilling the centre out to 16mm resulted in the internal sleeve simply slipping through the hole. Turns out twist drills are not that accurate. So I started again, this time drilling to 15mm and then finishing off by hand with a 16 mm reamer. The sleeve now fitted perfectly.
Two attempts to drill
Next was to put the bush into the swing arm where by I found the next problem. While one hole was 24mm the other was around 23.5mm so was to big to fit. I solved this by putting the bush back into the lathe held by a live end in the tail stock and dead end in the chuck to enable me to hold the part while being able to work the length of the piece.
Retry on the diameter
Finally with both bushes the right diameter I used the Arbour press to insert them securly into the arm and then fitted the arm to the bike.
Bushes inserted into Swingarm
These were made in a few hours over the course of a couple of visits to the space. I could have completed this in one evening if I didn’t have to wait for my new reamer to arrive.
The post Member Project: Swingarm Bushing appeared first on Swindon Makerspace.
After a good run at Bok, Hive76 is moving! Starting next month, we’ll be located at 1821 E Hagert St. In the meantime, open house will continue as usual – assuming no more freak snowstorms, that is.
This time around, we have the opportunity to build out the entire space ourselves, and we’re taking full advantage of it. More details to come very soon, but here’s a sneak peek at what we’re working on:
Continue reading "Diversity in Games Workshops at PorterShed and Galway Technology Centre"
Thursday October 12th at 7:30 PM join us for an evening of learning and exploration! In this class students will be taken through the basic fundamentals of electricity all the way to creating circuits and experimenting. Every student will get a comprehensive kit of parts with designs for a variety of different circuits. The class is open to people of all skill levels with a suggested age of 16+. This is a ticketed event please see the ticketleap link below.
The format of the class will be a short lecture followed by a hands on workshop using the kit of parts. The kit of parts include a wide variety of resistors, LEDs, capacitors, integrated circuits, transistors, and diodes etc. Each of these components will be introduced in the lecture and have accompanying circuit designs showing how they work, please bring something to take notes.
For mobility accommodations please contact the organizers in advance of the event, thank you.
Attendees must purchase a ticket through our Ticketleap event page https://hive76.ticketleap.com/introelectronics/
Charles Affel has taught electronics workshops at Hive76 as part of DIY Music night.
You’re invited!
Please join us in celebrating our eighth year of being us! We’ve worked hard to bring our space together to create a supportive and collaborative environment in Baltimore city where people can hack, make, craft, and create art and tech projects. Come by the Node on Sunday, October 22nd, 2017 for our 8 year anniversary party!
Join us for games, food, music, and show and tell. Relax with friends, meet new ones, and talk about what you like to make. Have a project you’ve made in the last 8 years? Bring it by and set it up somewhere to show it to others!
Where at?
Baltimore Node
2106 N Lovegrove Street
Baltimore, MD. 21218
When?
12-5 PM Tabletop/Board games & Open house
3-5PM Laser cutting and 3D printing demo
2-5PM Show and Tell
6-7PM Metal casting demo
5-9PM Food! Music!
Food?
We’ll be firing up the grill in the late afternoon to have a cookout. We’ll probably light it with a flame thrower. We’re also running this as a potluck, so here’s your chance to show us what you’ve got! Cook something and bring it along, or pick up something.
Please add what you’re contributing to our google doc linked below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1993aE8Oqzmtdm6ldvFNbkSpump4xWGAIhfLA4z03ax0/
Music!
Did you know our landlord repairs player pianos? If we’re nice, he’ll probably turn one of them on for us to enjoy. There’s also some speakers in the space hooked to an aux cable/Chromecast.
RSVP!
Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here on Meetup. We’ve got a Facebook event up too. Bring a friend too if you’d like.
Who are we?
The Baltimore Node is a 501(c)(3) member-run nonprofit that organizes a space where people can hack, craft, and make interesting things in a supportive and collaborative environment. Membership dues are typically $50 per month and provide a member with 24/7 access to tools, the space, a key, a vote, and the ability to run workshops. Learn more at Baltimorenode.org
We look forward to seeing you there! After all, you only get to host an anniversary party once a year.
Thanks,
Todd Blatt
by benbradley (noreply@blogger.com) at February 17, 2017 11:41 AM
Each year with winter comes the Chaos Computer Congress in Hamburg.
2016 edition : 27-30 dec. Survival guide for this 33rd edition :
” Works for me”
Like no other, the year 2016 pointed out how well „works for me“ works for us.
It does not. Mutual hate, envy, insensibility and exclusion have driven us apart.
Feeling isolated and threatened, we turn further against each other, take less care of each other and worry even more about ourselves. And yet, we are never alone: Excessive surveillance is now politically normalized, if not for all then at least for those who are different, intractable, foreign.
Let’s break this vicious circle.
Let’s get together and live our utopia.
Let’s strive for something that works for all of us.
And let’s fight those, who will not let us!
Welcome to the party!
Avec chaque hiver vient le Chaos Computer Congress, cette année du 27 au 30 décembre.
Bien plus que les autres, l’année 2016 a montré combien « works for me » marche pour nous.
Ca ne marche pas : haine mutuelle, envie, insensibilité et exclusion nous ont déchiré. Les sensations d’Isolement et de menaces nous oppose, nous faisant prendre moins soin de chacun et nous préoccupant plus de nous meme.
Et nous ne sommes toujours pas seuls : la surveillance excessive de tous est maintenant politiquement normalisée, ou au moins des différents, etrangers ou rebelles.
Cassons ce cercle vicieux.
Rassemblons nous et vivons notre utopie.
Battons nous pour quelque chose qui fonctionne pour chacun de nous.
Et combattons celui qui ne nous laisse pas faire !
Our newest member Raul got his hands on a stack of about 40 picture frames that were being junked. On a general note Freeside tends to discourage large piles of objects randomly appearing as it tends to collect in corners. Raul got permission from our projects team with a time limit of a few weeks. In this case unnecessary, as the membership more or less attacked the pile of boxes and rapidly rendered them into things.
Unfortunately starting off all the frames looked something like this:
Not terribly useful. We don't even have any idea who these guys are. After a few passes through the planer, however, we get something like this:
A perfectly good picture frame useful for stuff. First idea was to push a couple of these through a the laser cutter. Concept good, aim.... Aim was a little off. Also we had just rebuilt the laser computer and electronics so there were a couple of kinks to work out in CamBam's post processor:
Instead of getting distracted by that rabbit hole of troubleshooting, though, Nathan, in a process pioneered at Freeside by Mr. Ferguson, took a few frames and burnt some Lichtenberg figures. The actual process is pretty straightforward. Soak some wood in saltwater, hook a microwave oven transformer to the wall up backward, and poke the scary ends into the wood. There's some insulation and other safety jazz that I'll leave to: Google.
The raw frames come out a little (a lot) sooty and salty and need cleaned up:
Sanding and staining, or painting, plus a layer of polyurethane gives these:
Before the rest of the membership got ahold of those picture frames, Raul had intended on making a stool. We actually had a broken branded stool lying around to use for parts. The next day he was working on putting the stool together. After some disassembly, sanding, nails and whatnot:
A wild stool appears!
by Scott McGraw (noreply@blogger.com) at December 16, 2016 03:30 AM
It was fun.
Conferences torrents are here.
Consumers can watch them on youtube or https://www.pseshsf.org/fr/archives-et-videos/
by Michelle Sleeper (noreply@blogger.com) at March 01, 2016 08:49 AM
by Michelle Sleeper (noreply@blogger.com) at December 07, 2015 09:10 AM