More details to come….
USB Typewriter Lives!
Intro to EAGLE PCB Workshop + Guitar Effects Study Group
This coming Monday (March 1st), at our regularly scheduled Guitar Effects Study Group, we will be running an Introduction to EAGLE PCB workshop. This is the first half of a two-part series of workshops, with the second class focusing on printing and etching your own PCBs at home. The workshop will provide you with the knowledge necessary to create your own PCB designs in EAGLE that you could then use to make your own boards at home! The workshop will run from 8:00pm until around 10:00pm, depending on how in-depth we get. Be sure to bring your own computer (Mac/Linux/Windows) if you can, and as always, we accept payment in the form of snacks. We would appreciate a $5 donation for this workshop, but there will be a free option if you need it.
Also, we will be testing our new ticket system with this event, so please let us know if you have any issues registering. Please register for your class in our store.
Photos from Guitar Effects 101
Some sweet photos from Hive76’s Guitar Effects 101 Class class last month. Thanks for the photos, Brendan!
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Ignite Philly 5!
Have a short attention span? Like to get excited about things? Like to know what awesomeness is taking place right under your feet while enjoying a tasty local beer? Well, you’re in luck, because…
It’s that time again!
Ignite Philly will be making it’s fifth come around next week on Tuesday, March 2nd. Tickets are available for purchase at the low, low cost of $5, and I suggest you pick some up because these events fill up fast! (proceeds benefit an Ignite Philly alum, TBD)
From the Ignite Philly website…
“Ignite Philly is part of a worldwide network that entertains and educates people in short 5 minute bursts. Ignite Philly is the local group, and is our way to highlight great ideas coming to life here in Philadelphia.
Each presenter is on stage for a total of 5 minutes (20 slides, at 15 seconds each slide). These talks are a ’spark’ if you will, they are lightening fast and leave people with a new idea to mull over and talk about.”
So buy your tickets, and head on over to Johnny Brenda’s next Tuesday!
Doors open at 6PM and the speakers begin at 7.
Class Requests
Hive76 is gearing up to talk about classes over the next few days, and figure out exactly what we want to offer for classes. This post is an Open Thread to give us feedback on class ideas. (‘Open Thread’ means there isn’t much to say in the post, but we would like people to give us input in the comments.)
Classes we’ll probably do:
- Makerbot
- Python (easy and complex)
- Guitar Effects Pedals
- Basic Microcontrollers
- how to teach a class
Classes we’ll try to do (but could use some help):
- Blender 3D
- Basic server wrangling
- Fabrication with several fab machines
Do you have other class ideas for us? Do you want to teach a class here (for free, or for some extra scratch?) Leave us a comment, join the mailing list, or just email us your ideas.
Hackerspaces Video: Hive76
We were featured on Vimby.com… Andrew Watson did a great job shooting it. Here’s the video.
Edit: fixed embed code that Vimby borked. -eagleapex
Hackerspaces in Space
Workshop88 from Chicago sent us this awesome contest information…
Rules
- One team per hackerspace. Any size build team, but only 10 people for the launch and retrieval team.
- Payload must be under 4 pounds.
- Parts cost limit of $250.00. Must show receipts or have other proof of purchase.
- Payload must return with pictures taken from the flight.
- Only one official launch per team allowed. Notice of official launches must be given by 8 a.m., and a judge must be
- present for the launch to count.
- All local laws and ordinances must be followed throughout the entire competition.
- Balloon camera must take pictures of the curvature of the earth.
- The Event Board may judge any other conduct considered outside “the spirit” of the event and disqualify a team
- that does not adhere to it by majority vote.
- Scoring
- Retrieval Time Base: 50 points. 1 point off for every minute past 45 minutes.
- Weight of Payload 5 points added for every 1/2 pound under 4 lb.
- Cost of Setup Base: 50 points. 0.5 points off for every dollar over $150.
- Total Points Retrieval Time Score + Weight Score + Cost Score
Event Board & Judges
- Judges are members of each hackerspace, and will be submitted to the Event Board. They will ensure all rules are followed.
- One person from each hackerspace will be on the Event Board. The Event Board will oversee the event, judge each applicant, and declare winners.
Dates
- Competition starts immediately upon challenges going out.
- Teams will indicate acceptance of challenge by March 1, 2010 (either at workshop88.com/space, or the attached PDF form).
- Launches will be held between June 1, 2010 and August 31, 2010.
- Results of the official launch must be sent in by September 7, 2010.
- Winner will be announced on or before September 30, 2010.
Two Carbohydrates, an Alcohol, and an Acid Walk Into a Bar…
Making Bioplastic was just Boinged. What’s going on? Steph requested a bar story explanation, so here goes:
Two carbohydrates, an alcohol, and an acid walk into a bar. The carbohydrates are holding hands, but the acid wants none of it. She breaks them up with hot water in their face and a punch in the gut, then scrams. The skinny alcohol, seeing her chance, gets right between them before they can reconnect.
and there you have it — you’ve just created starch glass!
The starch is very very long chains of carbohydrate which normally crystallize to opaqueness. These can be broken (hydrolyzed) by strong acid, in this case white vinegar whose active ingredient is acetic acid. The heat really helps to get the molecules moving and so makes the acid work much faster than it would at room temperature. The heat can actually help water molecules to similarly break up the starch. The glycerol prevents the shortened starch molecules from just recrystallizing again after all the water and acid are boiled off. The glycerol gets physically entrapped between the starch molecules (intercalation). The broken-up starch chains can no longer organize into an opaque solid; they can no longer crystallize. This new highly disorganized, solid arrangement of moderately long molecules becomes translucent and is called a glass.
MakerBot Hotness Lives at Hive76
We love MakerBot, but we needed a better way to print larger objects (like parts for a Mendel). So I started experimenting in the lab at UPenn for how to get a heated platform up and working on 3D-PO.
The first design involved multiple layers of silicone fused together around a nichrome core. We told MakerBot about it, and they wanted more! Then Eberhard Rensch in Germany heard about it (go Internets!), and he went to town on a simplified software design. Awesome!
Of course the design is very simple, totally open (and transparent!). Hooray for Universities. So Mike and I bought a bunch of materials, refined the design a bit, and made a bunch more platforms. It was pretty risky but we trusted our gut and listened to all the awesome members right here at our favorite hackerspace. And we also made use of plenty of Hive resources to get the job done.
But we had gotten ahead of ourselves a bit… we don’t have the infrastructure to sell/invoice/ship/advertise this type of product. We could build that infrastructure, but we really love the core MakerBot community and don’t want to see market fragmentation. So we shipped them off to MakerBot to sell through their store. Check out this blog post and also the wiki page explaining how it works and how to use it.
It’s been an awesome experience: idea -> it works! -> invest in yourself -> Success!!
And about that Mendel… Fynflood’s assembling like gangbusters, check it out!!
What the heck is growing in your window??
We here at the Hive are (un?)fortunate enough to have two large windows that don’t seem to want to stay open (read: safety hazard). What are we supposed to do with stuff that doesn’t work the way it should? Use it for something else, of course!
We are looking to increase some of our greenery and reduce our grocery bills by growing food and herbs at the space. Now, with your pizza or burrito, you can enjoy a fresh picked geek salad!
Though the build specifics(?) still need to be hashed out, you can be sure to see some plants in our 5th story windows this spring.