We decided to participate in the chipKIT design challenge. Our entry is a KeeLoq shield, and Key Fob. Design Files / Firmware / Libraries are available here on github.

If you would like to vote for us, go here. Our Entry Number is ck765.

Here’s the video entry for the shield.

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.

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.

Here’s what’s going on this week at openHack:

• More Raspberry Pi tutorials
• Working on the Telepresence Robot.
• Continuing work on the Battlebot
• Heater building (hey, it’s cold man!)
• Hex (the Robot) demo’s
• Hopefully there will be some quadcopters roaming around tonight too.
• Fun with barely legal electronic cigarettes!

Look for our sign out front and see you tonight!

Here’s what’s going on Wed. Feb 6th Baltimore Hackerspace:

1. Telepresence Robot – The basic design is down, wireless ipCam – check, steering mechanism – check, motors to power the wheels – check.
2. Installing ‘Occidentalis’ on Rasberry Pi’s and connecting them wirelessly to a network. Continuing through adafruit tutorials. – Didn’t get too far with that last week.
3. Jeff will be coding in python and C.
4. Continue building the Prusa 3d Printer.
5. Robot Building / Heater building – Miles is building a kick-but battle bot!
6. Much fun usually surfaces real time so we’ll see what else is happening.

6410 Landay Ave.
Baltimore MD. 21237

Look for our sign out front and see you there!

Here’s what’s going on tonight at Baltimore Hackerspace:

1. Guest Speaker Jim Jackson, HTML5 for .NET Developers
2. Continure building the Prusa 3d Printer.
3. Installing ‘Occidentalis’ on Rasberry Pi’s and connecting them wirelessly to a network. Continuing through adafruit tutorials.
4. A rebuild of a classic video gaming console.
5. Continue the design of our autonomous telepresence robot.

6410 Landay Ave.
Baltimore MD. 21237

Look for our sign out front and see you there!

Last week, Terry Kilby from Baltimore Drones stopped by Baltimore Hackerspace and he brought a couple of his Drones with him. I think it was the first time allot of us have seen Drones of this quality up close and they were just as exciting as I thought they would be. Both Drones were made to port a camera on the bottom of them and Terry said that he frequently contracts out the Drones for special camera work. Very cool!

To find out more about drones and how to get off the ground with them, The Baltimore Drones Meetup will be held at Baltimore Hackerspace, Saturday, February 9th at 1pm.

Here are some pics:

Here’s what’s going on tonight:

1. Raspberry Pi tutorials.
2. An electric cigarette project that you have to see for yourself.
3. Fun with Arduino’s and relays.
4. Assembling a Makerbot Prusa.
5. Wheel hubs and a vacuum table.
6. Hex will be getting some upgrades
7. Kicad layout/schematic entry.

Here’s what’s going on this Wednesday at openHack:

1. Face scanning  (Jeff)
2. Assembling a MakerGear Prusa (Jessica)
3. Printing motor mounts and playing with kinect (Miles).
4. Rummaging through some Rasberry Pi tutorials from adafruit.com (Eric).
5. Working on design for tank robot (Mark, Eric)
6. I’m sure someone will be printing something out on the CNC machine as well.
7. Optimize my Arduino Fireplace Fan. Thanks for the tips Jason!

Hope to see you!

*** UPDATE ** added some pics from open hack night

Last night was a good night for kart construction.  we got a tie rod stretched between the wheels.  it is just a bunch of allthread with some dethreaded sections on the end.  these dethreaded sections make it easier to adjust, since we can just chuck it up in a drill and spin the rod rapidly to get it on or off the car.  It works well enough to connect the two sides together, but needs some tweaking.  Tie rod ends are nuts welded to coupling nuts.

Also related to steering (and throttle, and brakes), someone at the space had the bright idea to cannibalize a razor electric scooter which had a throttle grip, a brake lever, its own self-contained ball-bearing mount, and a telescoping/folding mechanism.  This scooter was a dumpster find but can be found on craigslist for $50, and it also includes a battery, motor, motor controller, wheels, charger, etc which we didn’t use.  I think next year we may see more of these used for steering because when we want to change drivers or if we get in a frontal collision, the steering system just sort of folds away from the driver without actually becoming disconnected.  it’s perfect for us.

Perhaps most importantly, we got all our drive components finally.  we were able to weld the motor mount pods onto the frame and get the motors hooked up.  The pictures don’t show a whole lot, but that’s OK since the mounts need a bit of tweaking and reinforcing at this point anyway.

finally, we turned the original front bumper into a foot rest.  we ran a piece of metal up through it to make it more robust, then welded that piece of metal to the frame.

Here’s a test video.  Next up: iron out the kinks, and add power.

PPPRS test run 1 from Jeremy Ashinghurst on Vimeo.