Phoenix DIY

Start your engines! The 11th Phoenix DIY meeting is tonight, May 21st, at 6:30 PM. Our presenters will be:

Mark Rehorst will present his Van de Graff generator

Matt Mets will talk about his experiences in brewing beer.

There will be great snacks and cool drinks, so come on out and enjoy the fun!

The fine details:
What: Phoenix DIY meeting #11
When: Thursday, May 21st at 6:30PM
Where: Casa de Coleman, Tempe AZ (map)
$$$: Free!

The quick directions: University and Mill, West 1/2mile to Mitchell, South a few blocks to 10th, and you’re there 707 W 10th.

Join us at the North Tempe Community Center (Sisso Room)

1555 N. Bridalwreath St. Tempe

7pm

for two lovely presentations by:

Suneth Attygalle - Bat Goggles

Wish you were bat? Want to Experience Echolocation? Want to try to “see” with your ears? These goggles allow you to experience what it is like to use auditory cues like a bat and is intended for children in a science center setting to learn about echolocation. The goal was to keep costs as low as possible, avoid making the form of the interaction to be generic or unrelated to its educational purpose and to ensure that the physical form of device embodies the subject matter. For a more thorough discussion of its design, please see the project webpage.

Bill Mar - Gumstix

Gumstix is an “open source” hardware company with a line of embedded boards the size of a stick of chewing gum (http://gumstix.com). The Gumstix engineers have Open Embedded on their hardware and I’ve been working with other hobbyists since late last year porting Windows CE and Micro Framework to the Gumstix board. I also setup a deal with Microsoft to offer hobbyist kits with full versions of Microsoft Visual Studio and Windows CE Platform Builder. I’ll be bringing several examples of Gumstix hardware in action, including the eInk prototype kit.

We had an evening of great presentations, question-asking, and prize-giving. Big thanks go out to Mark and Alex for such superb talks. Extra thanks go to Lisa and Conspire for hosting us, Bill for the projector, Instructables for the shirts/patches/stickers, Lawrence for the technicolor polyhedron, and everyone who brought chairs and snacks. What a great group effort!

Here are some links from Mark:
Spice Software:

http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/switchercad.jsp
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/LTspiceGettingStartedGuide.pdf

Sample Circuits (netlists):

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/Circuits.htm

Limitations of Spice:

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/SpiceTopics/Limitations.htm

More LTSpice stuff:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LTspice
http://home.mindspring.com/~eeweb/ltspicesubckts.pdf
http://www.freeda.org/doc/SPICE/spice.pdf
http://ltspice.linear.com/software/scad3.pdf

[photo by John Kittelsrud]

It got off to a rocky start, but meeting 5 was a good time. The open air filled our lungs, and visions of SketchUp danced in our heads. Thanks, everyone, for the opportunity to rant about stoves last night. Appropriate technology is something I am passionate about, and I really enjoyed sharing it with everyone. I encourage you all to check out the pdf of my aborted presentation and visit the links in there, and find a way to give something back to humanity and the world.

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” -Nelson Henderson

Thursday night is the February meeting for Phoenix DIY!! We’ll be meeting at 7:00 at Conspire, in Phoenix. Please bring
anything you’d like to share (food, drinks, ideas, etc). and a folding chair or two. ;)

Presenters:

Josh Campbell, earthen stoves (DIY old-tech)

Bill Mar, Google Sketchup (free 3-D modeling software) tutorial. Anyone interested in following along should bring a laptop and have the free software pre-installed so we can get rolling.

Conspire Gallery
901 N 5th St (on the NE corner of 5th St and Garfield)
Phoenix, AZ 85006 [map]

See you there!!

Last night’s soldering/555 timer workshop was a huge success! Almost everyone’s kits worked, and everyone left with a smile. Thaniks to Lisa and Conspire Phoenix for hosting us! Thanks to Matt Mets for ordering the parts, and Matt, Ryan Spicer, and everyone else who helped coach, brought tools/irons/ and snacks! Matt Mets has a nice photoset - Link.

Other photos on flickr are tagged with phoenixdiy, so if you have some, tag ‘em!

We have some kits left over, so if you’re interested, let us know. We may give some of them away at the next meeting. You can also download the instructional document we used last night - Link.

Thanks to Lisa Jacobs for the lovely writeup in Java Magazine! You can read the article online here: Link.

Since I’m unable to leave something half done, on Saturday morning I took the liberty of fixing and improving my prototype Magic Duct Tape Wallet from the December meeting. I had incorrectly installed the horizontal straps - they were too far apart - so I fixed them and added a couple pockets to each side, in a stylish red and black scheme! If anyone else feels like adding pockets to theirs, the final step of the Instructable tells you how.

What: Phoenix DIY meeting
When: Thursday, December 13th 2007, 7pm
Where: 209 E Baseline Rd Ste 201 in Tempe [map]
$$$: Free!

Thanks to Flashbang Studios for hosting us at their office!

The meeting is free and open to the public. Please bring snacks to share. There will be door prizes! Parking is free.

Featuring presentations from the lovely and talented:

Kathy Cano-Murillo: Crafty Business
http://craftychica.com/
Kathy will share with us some tips and tricks for marketing the things you make, online networking, and blogging for makers.

Matt Mets: Laser Harp
http://www.cibomahto.com/
The laser harp is an electronic harp-like instrument that is played by breaking beams of laser light, which are arranged vertically. A microcontroller monitors each beam on the other side of the instrument by measuring a light sensor, interprets the results and sends a corresponding MIDI message to the computer, which turns this into actual sound to play back. Matt will talk about how he built this laser harp, from idea to functional prototype.

Matt Mechtley: Magic Duct Tape Wallet Workshop
http://biphenyl.org/blog/
Matt will walk us through this instructable by EthanGibson to make an awesome magic wallet. Black and Red tape will be provided, but bring your own if you want a different color. We will also be short on scissors, so if you have a pair, bring ‘em.

See you there!

Mark your calendars, the third meeting of Phoenix DIY will be held on Thursday, December 13th at 7pm, on Baseline Road in Tempe. Check back soon for details.