Mark Haygood’s robot HEX made CNN
by superfro on May.09, 2013, under Baltimore, Media, Members
We are so proud of his accomplishment. If you haven’t read the article, click here. Way to go Mark!
Hammer Slammer — Our RedBull Creation 2013 Qualifier Entry
by superfro on May.05, 2013, under Contest, Hackathon, Humor, Red Bull Creation, Soup, Videos
Possibly a more in depth write-up later. For now, we are tired. Enjoy !
Robotfest 2013 success!
by superfro on Apr.30, 2013, under Baltimore, Events, Happenings, Soup
Thanks everyone who participated in the event. Our booth was a huge success. If you didn’t make it, here’s a pic flood of what you missed. To name a few thing’s you missed: Mark’s robot HEX, Eric’s telepresence robot, Jeff’s LaserShark/Laser Pong, The robot head game, the cornstarch monster, Paul’s chiptunes streamer/midi interface, Miles and his cardboard robots, an awesome vacuum tube amplifier and the larger part of our redbull creation project! See you next year!
Redbull creation, year 3
by superfro on Apr.09, 2013, under Contest, Hackathon, Red Bull Creation
So it’s that time again, time for Redbull Creation, 3rd year. I’ll make this short, just got the box, wanted to show some pics. Here’s what we got for the qualifier, our TurBull Encabulator. We’ll have updates on this later I’m sure. You may remember our entry last year, the telepresence zen garden, and our year 1 entry with crank’d and we went to the finals with that entry, where we built the chill-a-piller.
Lot’s of LED’s for the qualifier this year, maybe an accelerometer. Need more time to dive deep. Have fun with the pics.
Basic Electronics Class #2
by superfro on Apr.04, 2013, under Baltimore, Events, Happenings, Soup
You must register for this class on Meetup; Limited seating available.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
You will learn:
How to use a breadboard
What capacitors are
How to use capacitors for filtering power
How to use capacitors for basic debounce/timing circuits
Connect a 555 timer circuit for blinking an LED
This will require the purchase of a breadboard and some more expensive parts that last time (I’m thinking it will be about $15 — I may need to adjust this after I buy the parts). I will bulk-order and get everyone more parts that you need.
700pt breadboard (Like this: )
A few voltage regulators (LM317, 7805) in TO-220 packages
A few 555 timers (DIP-8)
A couple potentiometers (5k, 10k, linear taper)
More resistors (assortment)
Some capacitors (.1uF, 1uF, 10uF)
etc.
I’ll update this as I develop the slides.
You will need to bring:
1 power supply – can be a wall transformer that is between 9 and 15 VDC and greater than 200mA output. You should be able to salvage on of these from any number of places.
22ga Solid Core wire (for connecting to you breadboard)
Some kind of wire cutters. I got some of these the other day:
(Small version – will handle anything that can fit on a breadboard)
Some kind of wire strippers. I like these but any kind that can strip 22ga solid wire is fine.
The parts kit from the last class (need the resistors, LEDs, and multimeter from it) or you can buy a kit for $5 (we may not have more multimeters available if you wait too long)
Either $15 or all of the parts that I listed in the parts section above.
Wrestling with Filament on your 3D Printer?
by emooney on Mar.24, 2013, under How-Tos, Members, Projects, Videos
My Solidoodle 3 printer finally came in last week and I was able to pretty much plug it in and start printing. I immediately noticed that something needed to be done about the filament spool. With it being a new spool, the filament was just falling off at the slightest turn on the PVC holder which was really annoying because that meant I had to babysit it. So with a small filament holder I found on thingiverse and some old folders, I was able to come up with a solution that allows me to hit ‘print’ and then just walk away until my print is done.
Basic Electronics Class Update
by superfro on Mar.24, 2013, under Tutorials
Here are the slides from the class: BasicElectronics_1_20130320 . Note: We are preparing a follow up class that dives further into the subject. Please keep an eye out for the announcement.
Laser Cut Jewelry Box
by Squintz on Mar.22, 2013, under Projects
A few weeks ago one of our members (Mike) picked up the RedSaid X700 Laser Engraver from ebay. Ordering and shipping of the engraver turned out to be a lot of trouble and very expensive.
Mike spent a few days soldering wires to the laser tube, aligning the mirrors and doing a few test cuts on various materials we had laying around the shop. Then he turned the machine loose for the rest of us to play with.
I decided that I wanted to make a gift for my daughter so I used SolidWorks to draw a Jewelry Box and then exported the files as DXF 2D Drawings. These were then imported into LaserMate which is software that came with the laser engraver.
I designed the Jewelry Box to use 1/4″ Material. It turns out that the Birch wood and Acrylic from Home Depot says 1/4″ (5.2mm) but if you do the math a 1/4″ is not 5.2mm. So that material we had laying around the shop was not going to work for me.
Luckily, another member of ours had left over scraps of 1/4″ Baltic Birch which he purchases locally from Woodcraft. I attempted cutting this wood but even at 100% Power, 2mm/s speed, and 4 passes I was unable to cut consistently all the way through the wood. Also, this wood is rather expensive. So I decided to look for other materials which I thought would cut easier but was still 1/4″ thick.
I learned about a place called Total Plastics, Inc. located on Pulaski Highway through Terry Kilby. I stopped by their showroom and the nice man behind the counter gave me a piece of 1.4″ Cast Acrylic which was painted red on one side. I cut test patterns on this acrylic and I was surprised to find that was not cutting much better than the Baltic Birch. After roughly 10 hours of cutting pass after pass I was eventually able to make a Jewelry Box from the Acrylic.
I have come to the conclusion that the laser cutter needs some tweaking. It seems that the top left corner cuts okay but as you move down and to the right of the cutting area the laser is not as powerful. My guess is that it has to do with the alignment of the mirrors but I have not looked into the problem yet.
After many hours of work I present to you my Jewelry Box.
New Class: Beginners Electronics Part 1
by superfro on Mar.13, 2013, under Baltimore, Events, Happenings, Soup, Tutorials
Chris Cockrum will be hosting another class. This time is for beginning electronics.
There is limited seating available so Please register if you wish to attend. Wed, March 20th.
Part 1. Ohm’s law and Watt’s law
This class will teach the basics of voltage, current, and power. A lab will be included that will demonstrate how to calculate the proper value of resistor to connect LEDs to power.
Parts and equipment may be borrowed from the hackerspace or you can purchase a multimeter (http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-92020.html), a few LEDs, a few resistors, clip leads, and a 9V battery for $5. Alternatively, you can bring your own.
Basic Cryptography Course at Baltimore Hackerspace
by emooney on Feb.19, 2013, under Baltimore, Events, Happenings, Tutorials
Chris Cockrum of the Baltimore Hackerspace will be giving a course on Cryptography this Wednesday, February 20th at the Baltimore Hackerspace. He will be teaching the fundamentals of public and secret key cryptography including exercises on RSA, elliptic curve, and cryptanalysis using Sagemath (Python Based).
According to Meetup, the class is full but if you are interested in having another class, please let us know by leaving us a message on the meetup entry.
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