Lately at makerspace

We’ve had a few recent “Arduinos for Absolute Beginners” classes on, two at the makerspace and one at Hive – all have been successful and a lot of fun! I’ve found it particularly interesting to observe the different programming approaches taken by older vs younger students, and how well the different notification methods influenced people to bring USB cables and computers to the class :).

Last Saturday, we adapted and installed a fixture from the old location at King Edward Court in the Valley Workspace – the bare copper wires for hanging LEDs!

Next up is Learn To Solder night, tomorrow 18 May 7:30pm at the Dunedin Makerspace. Bring yourself (in warm clothes), and a gold coin koha or better your membership!

As usual, if you miss one of our events, either post on the mailing list or come to the next open workshop and we can often get you caught up.

Using solder stencils

I talked last week (April 18th) and gave a demo of using solder stencils to  make surface mount PCBs  and promised to post useful links.

I had my stencil made by Smart Prototyping ( http://smart-prototyping.com) – they offer stencils starting at $20 when boards are made (http://smart-prototyping.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=142)

Seeed (http://www.seeedstudio.com) also offer stencils for $70 (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/pcb-stencil-service-p-1391.html?cPath=185)

I ordered the stencil jig from AliExpress from: http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesaleproduct/wholesaleProductDetail.htm?productId=671199709&productSubject=NEW-stencil-printing-machine-24-30cm-Stencil-Printers-SMT-Stencil-Printers-manual-stencil-printer-with-solder – they come in a bunch of different sizes

I ordered my cheap reflow oven also on Aliexpress  from: http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=t962&CatId=0&catId=

Stencils can also me made on a stencil cutter (http://blog.makezine.com/2011/11/01/solder-stencils-via-electronic-craft-cutter/ – google around there are lots of articles)

Board meeting notes

Notes from the recent board meeting, which is open to all members. Discussing financials, running of the makerspace, and how to help the makerspace succeed.

Apologies for posting this so late, this is the first time I’ve had any free time to type it up. This is a direct transcription from my notebook, so it’s a bit jumbled.

 

Financials: Bank account getting low – epxect to be able to get more promised pledges + some members putting in more, to get us through to March.

Paul is doing high-school afternoon classes next year, in contact with local high-schools. This wil help put the word out about the Makerspace.

Corporate sponsorship? Tools and/or money, grants.

Need ~$7000 per year.

Looks like some members will need to put in more to keep bank ok, rather than solely rely on memberships. [Some board members put their hands up for this]

Why haven’t we heard from some pledges?

Things we haven’t done:

  • Incorporate
  • Become charity
  • Try to get grants. eg from DCC, EDV (Economic Development Unit)

Need to have board elections.
Add more board members. Board voted to add: Chris Edwards, Reece Arnott, Brian Paavo – based on existing involvement.

Start next year with general meeting and elections. Also have 1st year anniversary / official opening celebration (to build profile).

Need to make the workshop more welcoming, feel like a play room.

  • Unfinished projects visible
  • Posters
  • Photos
  • Etc

We should use the mailing list more.

Idea: How does it work? / Dismantle workshop. Fun, get to learn how something works, and gets parts and consumables to use for later projects.

Thursday nights: Open every night, but do talkws less often. More social – sit around coffee tables and talk. More projects / normal workshop.

Need bigger/better project screen.

Meeting notes: 16th January 2011

Casual get together/meeting. Discussion topics: group activities/competitions, Paul’s electronic membership badge project, internet connection, website, draft weekly schedule, equipment.

We had a casual get together/meeting on Sunday 16th January, at the makerspace.

General

Discussed group activities/makerspace competitions. Clothes line racing seems doable, fun, and had a lot of interest. Power tool drag races seems less doable and a little dangerous.

Paul has ordered the parts for the electronic membership badge project – cost is $20 each. They could potentially be included as part of a yearly membership.

No progress yet on getting an internet connection setup – waiting to hear back from WIC. As a temporary measure, we may be able to pickup a useable WiFi signal with a good antenna positioned by the window.

Getting a real website setup was also brought up – so I (Blair) volunteered to do that. This is the result, though I’m still working on it, and it could really do with more content. I’ll post my thoughts on it sometime soon.

Draft weekly schedule

We discussed starting up regular meetings/events. Current plan is to start soon with just a few select times during the week, so we’re not spread too thinly throughout the week. Here’s the draft weekly timetable we came up with:

Main scheduled open time: Saturday afternoons, 1pm onwards. This will be the main regular time the room will be open for anyone to come in and work on anything they want. Starting immediately! Saturday 22nd January.

Presentations/talks: Thursday evenings. General topic will alternate weekly: electronics/hardware/etc (organized by Paul), and software/programming/etc (organized by Blair). Probably starting sometime in March.

Remote workers coworking: Wednesday afternoons. A few of us work remotely (ie, work from home, far away from a company office or any co-workers), and want a time were we can come into the makerspace during the day to work on our day jobs, pretending we’re at an office. Starting once we have a reliable internet connection.

Equipment and things

People brought in some things for DSpace (either on loan, or donations) – computer equipment, electronics equipment, seating, toys/gadgets, 3D printer, etc. We ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to catalog anything, so we’ll do that next meeting.

Things the makerspace still needs to help get the room setup:

  • A couch (Rob thinks he can get one, but having two would be nice)
  • A coffee table
  • A fridge
  • Power cords and splitters (while one side of the room has many outlets, one of the work areas does not)
  • Curtains (hopefully that will help further reduce the echo in the room)

Next meeting

Next casual get together/meeting will be at: 1pm to 4pm Saturday 22nd January. It’ll held at the makerspace.

Meeting notes: 8th December, 2010

The initial meeting of the “Dunedin makerspace” unincorporated society was held on Dec 8th 2010 in the cellar of the Duke of Wellington – we adopted a set of rules and elected officers.

(Copied from the original Wiki page, for archival purposes.)

The initial meeting of the “Dunedin makerspace” unincorporated society was held on Dec 8th 2010 in the cellar of the Duke of Wellington – we adopted a set of rules and elected officers.

The rules, as adopted are here.

Minutes: Thanks to Luke Stewart.

Present: Michael Hamel, Alex King, Luke Stewart, Aldo Cortesi, Paul Campbell, Michael Foley, Rob Pearson, Luke Stewart, Chris Baxter, Blair McBride, Stuart Crawford, Thomi Richards.

Apologies: None

A draft set of rules where presented to the meeting.

That we adopt the rules as presented: Proposed by Paul, Seconded by Stuart. Motion was carried unanimously.

That the following are appointed as officers of the board: Paul is nominated by Stuart, seconded by Chris. Blair is nominated by Paul, seconded by Michael. Alex is nominated by Blair, seconded by Rob. Rob is nominated by Micheal, seconded by Alex. Aldo is nominated Paul, seconded by Blair. Carried by a unanimous vote.

It was agreed that: Rob is Treasurer, Paul is Chair, Blair is Secretary.

The membership fee was discussed and deferred.

Discussion of the board using the existing mailing list for business. Business of the board will be carried out in open.

Meeting adjourned.